Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/603430 to listen full audiobooks. Title: Sandringham: The Story of a Royal Home Series: Part of Royal House of Windsor Author: Helen Cathcart Narrator: Lorna Bennett Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 7 hours 59 minutes Release date: February 28, 2023 Genres: History & Culture Publisher's Summary: Sandringham, the much-loved Norfolk retreat of Queen Elizabeth II, has been the private home of four generations of monarchs since 1862, when Queen Victoria and Prince Albert bought the country estate for their eldest son Albert Edward, Prince of Wales. Written with warmth and wit, Helen Cathcart charts a hundred years of royal domestic history at Sandringham, from earliest days through to celebrated visitor attraction. As well as being the scene of private family life, this stately abode has played host to magnificent balls and glittering parties as well as witnessing more dramatic events, including the 1891 fire, the death of the heir presumptive to the British throne in 1892, and the first Christmas Day Message broadcast live by King George V in 1932. Drawing on a wealth of sources, including architect's papers, building reports, royal letters, and journals, Cathcart paints a vivid picture of life at Sandringham through the ages, of evolving architecture and changing decor, the comedy and drama of each new reign. A blend of narrative history and family chronicle, Sandringham commemorates the centenary of one of the best-known private country houses in the world.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/617993 to listen full audiobooks. Title: Empress of the Nile: The Daredevil Archaeologist Who Saved Egypt's Ancient Temples from Destruction Author: Lynne Olson Narrator: Lisa Flanagan Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 13 hours 42 minutes Release date: February 28, 2023 Ratings: Ratings of Book: 4.6 of Total 5 Ratings of Narrator: 5 of Total 1 Genres: History & Culture Publisher's Summary: New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice • The remarkable story of the intrepid French archaeologist who led the international effort to save ancient Egyptian temples from the floodwaters of the Aswan Dam, by the New York Times bestselling author of Madame Fourcade’s Secret War “A female version of the Indiana Jones story . . . [Christiane Desroches-Noblecourt] was a daredevil whose real-life antics put Hollywood fiction to shame.”—The Guardian In the 1960s, the world’s attention was focused on a nail-biting race against time: the international campaign to save a dozen ancient Egyptian temples from drowning in the floodwaters of the gigantic new Aswan High Dam. But the coverage of this unprecedented rescue effort completely overlooked the daring French archaeologist who made it all happen. Without the intervention of Christiane Desroches-Noblecourt, the temples—including the Temple of Dendur, now at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art—would currently be at the bottom of a vast reservoir. It was an unimaginably complex project that required the fragile sandstone temples to be dismantled and rebuilt on higher ground. Willful and determined, Desroches-Noblecourt refused to be cowed by anyone or anything. As a member of the French Resistance in World War II she survived imprisonment by the Nazis; in her fight to save the temples she defied two of the most daunting leaders of the postwar world, Egypt’s President Abdel Nasser and France’s President Charles de Gaulle. As she told one reporter, “You don’t get anywhere without a fight, you know.” Desroches-Noblecourt also received help from a surprising source. Jacqueline Kennedy, America’s new First Lady, persuaded her husband to help fund the rescue effort. After a century and a half of Western plunder of Egypt’s ancient monuments, Desroches-Noblecourt helped instead to preserve a crucial part of that cultural heritage.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/616432 to listen full audiobooks. Title: Life in the Balance: A Doctor’s Stories of Intensive Care Author: Jim Down Narrator: Jim Down Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 8 hours 7 minutes Release date: February 23, 2023 Ratings: Ratings of Book: 1 of Total 1 Genres: History & Culture Publisher's Summary: Brought to you by Penguin. 'If Jim Down is as good a doctor as he is a writer, I'd definitely want him treating me' - John O'Farrell, author and scriptwriter A frank and unflinching account of intensive care medicine In these stories, Dr Jim Down brings us to the very heart of the intensive care unit - the section of the hospital where the sickest patients are brought to be cared for until their condition improves. With honesty, humility and a streak of dark humour, Dr Down describes the quietly heroic work of doctors and nurses on the ICU, a place which sits at the cutting edge of medical technology and where a split-second decision can make the difference between life and death. From headline-grabbing cases like that of Alexander Litvinenko, poisoned by Russian agents and admitted to Down's ward, to the appalling aftermath of a train crash, Life in the Balance offers an inside glimpse of intensive care medicine, its immense challenges, deleterious effects on doctors' mental health and enormous rewards. Its profundity will make you reconsider the fragility of life and reframe your understanding of what it means to care. ©2023 Jim Down (P)2023 Penguin Audio

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/617702 to listen full audiobooks. Title: Life in Her Hands: The Inspiring Story of a Pioneering Female Surgeon Author: Averil Mansfield Narrator: Averil Mansfield Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 9 hours 55 minutes Release date: February 23, 2023 Genres: History & Culture Publisher's Summary: Brought to you by Penguin. 'A great read. I am honoured to have worked with such a legend' David Nott 'A role model for women' Independent 'A wonderful read' Julian Fellowes 'Remarkable' Lauren Laverne 'Charming' Guardian We were occasionally expected to travel by ambulance to a serious case and would always have a kit of tools and drugs ready for emergency calls. On one occasion, we were responding to a man who had fallen into the hold of a grain ship and broken his leg. I was expected to go down a pole into the ship to administer analgaesia before he could be rescued. The 'audience' of shipworkers delighted in telling me that there were rats the size of dogs down in the grain. The other problem was that this was the era of the mini skirt, and you can imagine what that meant. Following the incident, I instituted the purchase of some 'Casualty Officers Emergency Dungarees' as an addition to the kit. Averil Mansfield established herself as a pioneer in every sense of the word when she qualified as a surgeon in the early 1970s. At the time just two per cent of her colleagues were female, and she was often met with surprise, bordering on disbelief and amusement, when telling people what she did. But time and again, Averil proved herself more than capable of the role which had been her greatest dream since the age of eight. After a formidable operating career in Liverpool and London, during which she made many enduring friendships, she went on to became the UK's first ever female professor of surgery. Life in Her Hands is the remarkable story of a truly trailblazing woman. Averil's account shines light on a medical and societal world that has changed beyond measure, but which - as she shows through her experiences - still has a long way to go for the women finding their place within it. ©2023 Averil Mansfield (P)2023 Penguin Audio

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/595311 to listen full audiobooks. Title: Wanderlust: An Eccentric Explorer, an Epic Journey, a Lost Age Author: Reid Mitenbuler Narrator: Peter Noble Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 19 hours 14 minutes Release date: February 21, 2023 Genres: History & Culture Publisher's Summary: The mesmerizing, larger-than-life tale of an eccentric adventurer who traversed some of the greatest frontiers of the twentieth century, from uncharted Arctic wastelands to the underground resistance networks of World War II. Deep in the Arctic wilderness, Peter Freuchen awoke to find himself buried alive under the snow. During a sudden blizzard the night before, he had taken shelter underneath his dogsled and become trapped there while he slept. Now, as feeling drained from his body, he managed to claw a hole through the ice only to find himself in even greater danger: his beard, wet with condensation from his struggling breath, had frozen to his sled runners and lashed his head in place, exposing it to icy winds that needed only a few minutes to kill him… But if Freuchen could escape that, he could escape anything. Freuchen’s life seemed ripped from the pages of an adventure novel—and provided fodder for many books of his own. A wildly eccentric Dane with an out-of-nowhere sense of humor, his insatiable curiosity drove him from the twilight years of Arctic exploration to the Golden Age of Hollywood, and from the burgeoning field of climate research to the Danish underground during World War II. He conducted jaw-dropping expeditions, survived a Nazi prison camp, and overcame a devastating injury that robbed him of his foot and very nearly his life. Through it all, he was guided not only by restlessness but also by ideals that were remarkably ahead of his time, championing Indigenous communities, environmental stewardship, and starting conversations that continue today.  Meticulously researched and grippingly written, Wanderlust is an unforgettable tale of daring and discovery, an inspiring portrait of restlessness and grit, and a powerful meditation on our relationship to the planet and our fellow human beings. Reid Mitenbuler’s exquisite book restores a heroic giant of the last century back into public view. Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/590657 to listen full audiobooks. Title: Metamorphosis: A Life in Pieces Author: Robert Douglas-Fairhurst Narrator: Peter Caulfield Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 7 hours 7 minutes Release date: February 16, 2023 Genres: History & Culture Publisher's Summary: Brought to you by Penguin. 'We all have trapdoors in our lives. Sometimes we jump off just in time: we defuse an argument with a joke; we swerve to prevent a traffic accident. But sometimes we are unlucky enough to be on the trapdoor when the lever is pulled. My own trapdoor was hidden in the consulting room of an Oxford neurologist.' When the trapdoor opened for Robert Douglas-Fairhurst, he plummeted into a world of MRI scans, a disobedient body and the crushing unpredictability of a multiple sclerosis diagnosis. But, like Alice tumbling into Wonderland, his fall did something else. It took him deep into his own mind: his hopes, his fears, his loves and losses... and the books that would sustain, inform and nourish him as his life began to transform in ways he could never have imagined. From Kafka to Barbellion, this is a literary map of the journey from the kingdom of the well to the land of the sick, and forwards into a hopeful future. It's an ode to great writing, to storytelling, to science and to the power of the imagination. And, above all, it's a darkly comic and moving reflection on what it means to be human in a world where nothing is certain. © Robert Douglas-Fairhurst 2023 (P) Penguin Audio 2023

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/592441 to listen full audiobooks. Title: Lives of the Wives: Five Literary Marriages Author: Carmela Ciuraru Narrator: Erin Bennett Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 11 hours 54 minutes Release date: February 7, 2023 Ratings: Ratings of Book: 5 of Total 2 Genres: History & Culture Publisher's Summary: ''The five marriages that Carmela Ciuraru explores in Lives of the Wives provide such delightfully gossipy pleasure that we have to remind ourselves that these were real people whose often stormy relationships must surely have been less fun to experience than they are for us to read about.''—Francine Prose, author of The Vixen A witty, provocative look inside the tumultuous marriages of five writers, illuminating the creative process as well as the role of money, power, and fame in these complex and fascinating relationships. ''With an ego the size of a small nation, the literary lion is powerful on the page, but a helpless kitten in daily life—dependent on his wife to fold an umbrella, answer the phone, or lick a stamp.'' The history of wives is largely one of silence, resilience, and forbearance. Toss in celebrity, male privilege, ruthless ambition, narcissism, misogyny, infidelity, alcoholism, and a mood disorder or two, and it's easy to understand why the marriages of so many famous writers have been stormy, short-lived, and mutually destructive. ''It's been my experience,'' as the critic and novelist Elizabeth Hardwick once wrote, ''that nobody holds a man's brutality to his wife against him.'' Literary wives are a unique breed, requiring a particular kind of fortitude. Author Carmela Ciuraru shares the stories of five literary marriages, exposing the misery behind closed doors. The legendary British theatre critic Kenneth Tynan encouraged his American wife, Elaine Dundy, to write, then watched in a jealous rage as she became a bestselling author and critical success. In the early years of their marriage, Roald Dahl enjoyed basking in the glow of his glamorous movie star wife, Patricia Neal, until he detested her for being the breadwinner, and being more famous than he was. Elizabeth Jane Howard had to divorce Kingsley Amis to escape his suffocating needs and devote herself to her own writing. (''I really couldn't write very much when I was married to him,'' she once recalled, ''because I had a very large household to keep up and Kingsley wasn't one to boil an egg, if you know what I mean.'') Surprisingly, the most traditional partnership in Lives of the Wives is a lesbian couple, Una Troubridge and Radclyffe Hall, both of whom were socially and politically conservative and unapologetic snobs. As this erudite and entertaining work shows, each marriage is a unique story, filled with struggles and triumphs and the negotiation of power. The Italian novelists Elsa Morante and Alberto Moravia were never sexually compatible, and it was Morante who often behaved abusively toward her cool, detached husband, even as he unwaveringly admired his wife's talents and championed her work. Theirs was an unhappy union, yet it fueled them creatively and enabled both to become two of Italy's most important postwar writers. These are stories of vulnerability, loneliness, infidelity, envy, sorrow, abandonment, heartbreak, and forgiveness. Above all, Lives of the Wives honors the women who have played the role of muses, agents, editors, proofreaders, housekeepers, gatekeepers, amaneunses, confidantes, and cheerleaders to literary trailblazers throughout history. In revisiting the lives of famous writers, it is time in our #MeToo era to highlight the achievements of their wives—and the price these women paid for recognition and freedom.  Lives of the Wives is an insightful, humorous, and poignant exploration of the intersection of life and art and creativity and love. Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/602223 to listen full audiobooks. Title: Finding Hildasay: How one man walked the UK's coastline and found hope and happiness Author: Christian Lewis Narrator: Christian Lewis Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 9 hours 5 minutes Release date: February 2, 2023 Ratings: Ratings of Book: 4.4 of Total 5 Ratings of Narrator: 5 of Total 3 Genres: History & Culture Publisher's Summary: In his darkest depression, one idea brought Christian Lewis out of the depths - and into a new life. Finding Hildasay, read by the author, is a brutal and beautiful true story of depression, survival, walking, and the meaning of home. ‘Now I was finally out of the force of the wind, my body began to warm – the part where the real pain sets in. I’d felt it plenty of times before on this journey, but this time it was different. As I began to regain feeling in my fingers and toes, it burned so strongly that I just sat in tears of pain.’ Ex-paratrooper Christian Lewis had hit rock bottom, suffering with depression so severe he would shut himself in his bedroom for weeks. Then while surfing – his only respite – he cast his eyes along the coastline and realized it was the only place he really wanted to be. Making an impulsive decision to set himself a challenge – walk the entire coastline of the UK – Chris gave himself a few days to rustle up a tent and walking boots, then left for good with just a tenner in his pocket and two days’ worth of food. Little did he know at the time just how long it would take to cross the finish line – and the encounters that lay ahead that would turn his life around. Five years later, Chris has navigated the West Coast, Northern Ireland, the hard-rock cliffs of Scotland and the perimeters of the Scottish Islands . He spent three months on an uninhabited island called Hildasay, where there was no fresh water or food. It was there, the most barren his route had become, that the more pride and respect he found within himself – and the more remarkable his journey became. Happiness and hope was just around the corner.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/593117 to listen full audiobooks. Title: Ready for Absolutely Nothing: A Memoir Author: Susannah Constantine Narrator: Susannah Constantine Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 10 hours 5 minutes Release date: January 31, 2023 Ratings: Ratings of Book: 2 of Total 1 Genres: History & Culture Publisher's Summary: This darkly funny, confessional memoir from the star of What Not to Wear tells all: from her posh upbringing and the dishy details of her career in fashion to her journey as a recovering alcoholic. The fact that Susannah Constantine made her name as a 'style guru' as part of “Trinny and Susannah” from What Not to Wear is the least interesting thing about her. Susannah grew up amongst the great and good of British aristocracy and (unwittingly) trained to be a society bride. Fittingly, Barbara Cartland was her touchstone for romance: she wanted to be the underdog heroine who ended up marrying a prince. Instead she dated Princess Margaret’s son for several years and traveled in royal circles, including on the island of Mustique, where Princess Margaret–and Hachette author Anne Glenconner–owned homes and had holidays. When that marriage proposal never showed up, she dated Imran Khan –then a gorgeous playboy/cricket player and now the Prime Minister of Pakistan, before meeting her husband. Hers is a tale full to the brim with extraordinary anecdotes. From lavatory dramas with Princess Margaret, to behind-the-scenes power struggles between Margaret Thatcher and the Queen at Balmoral and eye-opening sex-club etiquette with pop royalty–her social landscape has been nothing if not varied. Many of these stories are hilarious and snarky, some are painful, but all of them are honest, gossipy, and show that, in her words, she was “brought up to be ready for absolutely nothing.” In sharing a peek behind the curtain, Constantine does not hold back and many bold names appear in these pages from Elton John, Princess Diana, The Queen, Mick Jagger, Jerry Hall, Andy Warhol, and our own Anne Glenconner and her husband Colin Tenant. But appearances are deceptive and beneath the balls and glamour, life has had a darker side: her mother's bipolar disorder, her father's inability to cope and her own subsequent alcoholism. Somehow, she had to forge her own life, away from the expectations of others. Which she did and does.   READY FOR ABSOLUTELY NOTHING is for fans of The Crown, royal followers, readers of LADY IN WAITING, What Not To Wear fans and anyone who likes a gossipy memoir with bold faced names and a drop dead sense of humor. The fact that Susannah Constantine made her name as a 'style guru' as part of “Trinny and Susannah” from What Not to Wear is the least interesting thing about her. Susannah grew up amongst the great and good of British aristocracy and (unwittingly) trained to be a society bride. Fittingly, Barbara Cartland was her touchstone for romance: she wanted to be the underdog heroine who ended up marrying a prince. Instead she dated Princess Margaret’s son for several years and traveled in royal circles, including on the island of Mustique, where Princess Margaret–and Hachette author Anne Glenconner–owned homes and had holidays. When that marriage proposal never showed up, she dated Imran Khan –then a gorgeous playboy/cricket player and now the Prime Minister of Pakistan, before meeting her husband. Hers is a tale full to the brim with extraordinary anecdotes. From lavatory dramas with Princess Margaret, to behind-the-scenes power struggles between Margaret Thatcher and the Queen at Balmoral and eye-opening sex-club etiquette with pop royalty–her social landscape has been nothing if not varied. Many of these stories are hilarious and snarky, some are painful, but all of them are honest, gossipy, and show that, in her words, she was “brought up to be ready for absolutely nothing.” In sharing a peek behind the curtain, Constantine does not hold back and many bold names appear in these pages from Elton John, Princess Diana, The Queen, Mick Jagger, Jerry Hall, Andy Warhol, and our own Anne Glenconner and her husband Colin Tenant. But appearances are deceptive and beneath the balls and glamour, life has had a darker side: her mother's bipolar disorder, her father's inability to cope and her own subsequent alcoholism. Somehow, she had to forge her own life, away from the expectations of others. Which she did and does.   READY FOR ABSOLUTELY NOTHING is for fans of The Crown, royal followers, readers of LADY IN WAITING, What Not To Wear fans and anyone who likes a gossipy memoir with bold faced names and a drop dead sense of humor.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/603428 to listen full audiobooks. Title: Lord Snowdon Series: Part of Royal House of Windsor Author: Helen Cathcart Narrator: Lorna Bennett Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 9 hours 21 minutes Release date: January 31, 2023 Genres: History & Culture Publisher's Summary: Antony Armstrong-Jones, photographer, designer and film-maker, gained worldwide attention when he married Queen Elizabeth II's younger sister, Princess Margaret in 1960-the first non-aristocrat to marry into the Royal Family for 400 years. How did a 'commoner' come to marry a princess, a woman whom he had long admired from afar? In fact, 'Tony' descended from Welsh gentry, the son of a barrister and a society hostess. His family shared a long-established link with the Mountbatten arm of the Royal Family. In this engaging biography Helen Cathcart traces the first four decades of Lord Snowdon's life, from the child of divorce and schoolboy victim of polio, to successful photographer of the rich and famous and dutiful member of the Royal Family. Cathcart draws on close personal family sources to reveal the man behind the camera, the Old Etonian whose sense of timing and inquisitive interest in people made him one of the most original of British photographers. Cathcart also tells the definitive story of Lord Snowdon's romance with Princess Margaret and their early married life together as one of Britain's most glamorous couples.