**WINNER OF THE MCC / CRICKET SOCIETY BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARDWINNER OF THE HEARTACHES' CRICKET BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARDLONGLISTED FOR THE WILLIAM HILL SPORTS BOOK THE YEAR AWARDAn England cricket tour is a unique phenomenon, with its own pressures, challenges and remarkable highlights. It presents its participants - shorn of the usual support networks they enjoy at home - with a prolonged test of skill, physical stamina and mental resilience. Now Simon Wilde, author of t...

Ian Botham arrived on the international scene just in time to ride sport's first big financial wave and exploit the Thatcherite mantra of go-out-and-get-what-you-want. He certainly needed the cash, having been regularly short since leaving state school in Yeovil at 15. In an era short on glamour and personalities, Botham brought an irresistible cocktail of talent, energy and swagger. With the stench of economic failure still in the air, he made the country feel good about itself again. He ...

Bloomsbury presents Chasing Jessop by Simon Wilde, read by David Thorpe'A forensic tour de force' VIC MARCS'Engrossing ... Illuminating detective work into the astonishing statistics of English cricket's most enduring record' ANDY ZALTZMAN'A fascinating and definitive account of one of cricket's most fabled innings' JOHN ETHERIDGEA compelling new look at the untold story behind one of Englis...

**WINNER OF THE MCC / CRICKET SOCIETY BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARDWINNER OF THE HEARTACHES' CRICKET BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARDLONGLISTED FOR THE WILLIAM HILL SPORTS BOOK THE YEAR AWARDAn England cricket tour is a unique phenomenon, with its own pressures, challenges and remarkable highlights. It presents its participants - shorn of the usual support networks they enjoy at home - with a prolonged test of skill, physical stamina and mental resilience. Now Simon Wilde, author of t...

Wherever he has gone, there seem to have been fallings out. Pietersen left South Africa to take his chance in England, he moved counties twice, and soon after becoming England captain was caught up in a dispute that led to both him and the England coach losing their jobs. In the summer of 2012, there was a row over texts sent to the opposition, and he was left out of the side, only to be 're-integrated' into the team a few months later. Finally, when England's Ashes campaign fell apart, KP...

Dorian Gray, a handsome and narcissistic young man, lives thoughtlessly for his own pleasure—an attitude encouraged by the company he keeps. One day, after having his portrait painted, Dorian makes a frivolous Faustian wish: that he should always remain as young and beautiful as he is in that painting, while the portrait grows old in his stead.The wish comes true, and Dorian soon finds that none of his wicked actions have visible consequences. Realizing that he will appear fresh an...

The Picture of Dorian Gray is a novel which shocks us still. The sensibilities of its original Victorian readership may have blanched at the exoticism and barely disguised eroticism which drip from Wilde’s prose, but for us today who barely look twice at such things, we find something much more horrific at the heart of the book.Narration and music performed by Simon Hester.

Oscar Wilde brings his enormous gifts for astute social observation and sparkling prose to The Picture of Dorian Gray, his dreamlike story of a young man who sells his soul for eternal youth and beauty. This dandy, who remains forever unchanged—petulant, hedonistic, vain, and amoral—while a painting of him ages and grows increasingly hideous with the years, has been horrifying and enchanting readers for more than 100 years.Taking the reader in and out of London drawing roo...

The four tales gathered here reveal Oscar Wilde’s gift for blending wit, irony, and moral reflection within the form of the short story.Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime is a darkly comic exploration of fate and free will, where polite society collides with the absurd.The Canterville Ghost playfully turns the traditional ghost story on its head, offering satire as sharp as it is humorous.In The Sphinx Without a Secret

A stunning new reading of Oscar Wilde's De Profundis (adapted by Frank McGuinness, from the stage production directed by Mark Rosenblatt) and The Ballad of Reading Gaol, performed by one of Britain's greatest actorsOne of the most famous and successful writers of his day, Oscar Wilde was celebrated as much for his flamboyant personality and his prodigious wit as for his provocative essays, touching fairy stories and satirical plays. But in May of 1895, shortly afte...

Golden Voice narrator Simon Jones perfectly narrates these sweet, tender fairy stories about princes, giants, nightingales, and roses.The collection begins with the timeless story of The Happy Prince, a young nobleman who in life sought only pleasure but in death, as a gold-encrusted statue, provides help to those in need.Currently starring in the HBO t.v. series The Gilded Age, Simon Jones’ film and theater credits run to multiple pages from Monty Python’s The Meaning of L...

When the Otis family—brash, modern Americans—move into the ancient and supposedly haunted Canterville Chase, they’re met not with terror, but with sarcasm, oil, and detergent. Poor Sir Simon, the resident ghost, has frightened generations of Cantervilles into madness and despair, but now finds himself humiliated and ignored by skeptical newcomers who care more about removing bloodstains than respecting the supernatural.Witty, satirical, and surprisingly moving, The Canterville ...