Radio Plays XXXV
  
  


Alpha by Mike Walker
******Mike Walker's play, which won the Sony Award for Best Radio Drama, 
is about a computer so all-knowing that it appears to have an independent 
life of its own. It is, thus, an abomination for those who believe in a Supreme Creator...




The Parasite by Arthur C Clarke
******A chilling tale about a man who starts having dreams 
of a monstrous creature from the future.





The Internet Wants a Chat by Thomas Crowe
******Strange goings on in the world wide web in a tragic-comic play about 
what would happen if the internet became conscious.

When the virtual world gets a mind of its own, there are those in the real world 
who are not happy. Control of the internet is at stake and I.T. experts are forced 
to contain - and eradicate - a bloke called Binge, who wakes up in the 
virtual world, and just wants to get a life…..





Independence Day UK 1.2 by Roland Emmerich & Dean Devlin 
Independence Day UK 2.2 
****** It's the Battle of Britain all over again, but this time our enemies 
aren't just unstoppable. They're inhuman.



Christmas Eve by Nikolai Gogol
******A crisp winter's night. Snow abounds. A cold traveller
enters the inn. As he warms up, the three Ivans start
their tale of a witch & the devil ...



The Hex by Gregory Evans
******based on M.R.James "Casting the Runes", An excellent tale of suspense. 
The scene on the train is superbly done. 



The Darkened Schoolroom by T.D.Webster
******A ghost story.




Hallows End by Bill Murphy 
******a whodunnit with supernatural overtones, following a Dublin entrepreneur 
Dermot McPhail who misguidedly buys a Gothic mansion on the wild coast 
of west Cork, only to discover that an ancient curse is attached to it. 




Secret Window, Secret Garden 1.3 by Stephen King
Secret Window, Secret Garden 2.3
Secret Window, Secret Garden 3.3
******Successful author Morton Rainey is accosted one morning by a stranger, 
John Shooter, who accuses him of plagiarism. 



The Woman At The Window by John McKenna
******In a large house on the corner of the village square in Ballitore in the county of Kildare, 
south-west of Dublin, the sound of an old woman pacing restlessly through the rooms and 
years of her life resounds. She ruminates over the loss of her first love and how the obsession 
she had for this young man led to the loss of another darling. She wonders if things could 
have been different and if she will ever be united with her loved ones again. This woman is 
Mary Shackleton-Leadbeater, the daughter of the Master of Ballitore School. She was born 
in 1758 within the only planned and permanent Quaker settlement in Ireland. Mary became 
the first postmistress in the village and corresponded with many notable figures of the time, 
including Edmund Burke, a former pupil of the school, Maria Edgeworth and George Crabbe. 
She campaigned against slavery and is said to have embodied the essence of Quaker values; 
being humble, unselfish and opposed to violence.



Scrooge Blues by Nicholas McInerny
******The first of two sequels to Charles Dickens' famous Christmas
story, in which we visit Scrooge one year after his transformation.
He has become the most generous man in London and he's
preparing to host a party for his old friends the ghosts of Christmas
Past, Present and Future. But what has happened to his
business? And what is the document Bob Cratchit is trying to
persuade the old man to sign?

Not So Tiny Tim by Nicholas McInerny
******In the second of two sequels to Dickens' A Christmas Carol, we
return to the firm of Scrooge and Marley fifteen years after the
events of the book. Tiny Tim has grown up and become the
ruthless manager of the company, and is poised to become the
most powerful businessman in London. Until he receives the first
of three disturbing visitors.


The Ghost Train by Arnold Ridley
******Written in 1923 by Arnold Ridley, the play was first performed 
at the Eltinge Theater. Ridley was inspired to write it after becoming 
stranded overnight at Mangotsfield railway station in Bristol, a now 
disused station on the Midland Railway main line. It took him only 
a week to complete, but it played to packed houses at St Martin's 
Theatre for two years and became a staple of the British theatre 
for many years to come.
The plot revolves around a party of passengers who find themselves 
stranded in the waiting room of an isolated station. The station master 
tries to get them to leave citing the local legend of a ghost train that 
dooms all who see it to death. It is revealed later in the plot that the 
train is in fact smuggling arms and the story has been concocted to 
frighten away strangers. The play was very unusual for its time in using 
elaborate special-effects to simulate a train running through the station, 
such as garden-rollers running over wooden laths, thunder sheets, etc.



Deep Night - 01 - Someone Just for Me  
Deep Night - 02 - Birth 
Deep Night - 03 - The Intercom
Deep Night - 04 - Pig and Pepper 
Deep Night - 05 - Man Radio
Deep Night - 06 - Ice Screams 
Deep Night - 07 - Bonehouse  
******The return of spine tingling radio. Deep Night is an anthology of thrillers with a twist of the fantastic. 
In a twilight zone where reason abandons us to deep-seated fears, Deep Night breathes life into our darkest 
imaginings of what lurks in the shadows and the deepest recesses of our minds and hearts. 
"Someone Just for Me" by Michael O'Brien. Julie Stewart (Cold Squad) plays a lawyer who gets a call from 
someone she had long forgotten about, a childhood acquaintance with a history of psychological disturbances. 
Sharon needs to talk to Maureen about an episode from their past, a cruel prank turned sinister, that has had 
very disturbing results for her. 
Prepare to be unnerved tonight, as Deep Night presents "Birth". Award-winning science fiction writer Robert J. Sawyer 
and filmmaker Michael Lennick team up to tell an extraordinary tale of two births: one the first human on Mars, the other 
a collection of tiny robots that achieve consciousness, with life-threatening consequences.



The Pattern of Painful Adventures by Stephen Wakelam
******Business is going well, but the playwright urgently needs a collaborator for his latest play. 
His daughter is getting married. His brother has a sick child and is in need of a job. It is 1607 
and Shakespeare's life is at a turning point.







The Greek Who Stole Christmas 1.3 by Anthony Horowitz
The Greek Who Stole Christmas 2.3
The Greek Who Stole Christmas 3.3
*******'....International pop star Minerva is visiting London to turn on the Christmas Lights, 
but she receives a mysterious death threat. London's worst private detectives 
are accidently hired to protect her...'
Once again, Tim Diamond and his younger brother Nick are flat broke. So when they're hired 
to investigate an anonymous death threat made to world-famous pop singer and movie 
actress Minerva, they jump at the chance. However, the Greek celebrity seems to have 
plenty of enemies - so the question is, which one actually wants her dead? Meanwhile, 
Tim needs to resist Minerva's amorous advances and focus in the matter in hand... 



The Inn 1.7 by Guy de Maupassant
The Inn 2.7 
The Inn 3.7 
The Inn 4.7 
The Inn 5.7 
The Inn 6.7 
The Inn 7.7 
******"A haunting, wintry, snow-bound tale of loneliness and dark
imaginings, as a young mountain guide finds himself in sole
charge of a remote Alpine hotel. It begins with the first stirrings of
a love affair; it ends in mystery and mayhem …"




The Stones of Muncaster Cathedral by Robert Westall
******Not long after he takes on the job of restoring the southwest tower 
of Muncaster Cathedral, steeplejack Joe Clarke senses -- in the very 
stonework itself -- a sinister force that seems to emanate from one 
particularly foul-looking gargoyle. Joe's suspicions are confirmed 
when his young son, Kevin, sleepwalks to the tower, spouts archaic 
Latin and, with much tooth-baring, fights all efforts to remove him. 
Though Joe eventually succeeds in rescuing his "lad," the entity in 
the tower finds easier prey in another little boy, discovered dead, having 
either fallen or jumped from the spire. With the help of a curmudgeonly 
detective-sergeant and the trendy but essentially good Reverend Morris, 
Joe searches through the cathedral's history for the knowledge that will 
enable him to destroy the bloodthirsty gargoyle's power. The tower's secret 
is indeed a whopper, fittingly capping the unrelenting suspense that precedes its revelation.




A View to a Haunt by Peter Redgrove
******haunted psychotherapists in Cornwall.


The Weir by Conor McPherson.
******Spooky, funny, and disturbing by turns - set in Ireland. Considered a modern classic.
It won the Lawrence Olivier BBC Award as the Best New Play of 1997–98.  In addition, McPherson 
won the Critics' Circle Award as the most promising playwright in 1998 as a direct result of the success 
of The Weir. The play has received lofty praise, such as "beautifully devious,"  "gentle, soft-spoken, delicately 
crafted work,"  and "this is my play of the decade...a modern masterpiece."


The Owl Service by Alan Garner
******Mysterious events in a house turn frightening in Alan Garner's reworking of the Welsh Blodeuwedd myth.



Thinking of Leaving Your Husband 1.4 by Charlotte Cory - Find-the-perfect-partner
Thinking of Leaving Your Husband 2.4 - Lobster Thermidor
Thinking of Leaving Your Husband 3.4 - The Flying Dutchman
Thinking of Leaving Your Husband 4.4 - A Mathematical Improbability
******about a middle-aged divorcee's attempts to find herself a new romantic interest by joining an internet dating site



Reaching for the Sky by Dave Dixon 
******The year is 1956 - the time of the Suez Crisis. In a small East Anglia town, two 14-year-old boys 
build model aeroplanes and dream of flying with the RAF, but a tragedy is about to unfold. 


Women of the Dust by Ruth Carter
******"On a dusty Delhi construction site, an itinerant, all-female workforce are gathered. 
They hail from Rajasthan, where yet again the rains have failed, there is nothing to harvest, 
and their stomachs are empty. The Jamadar (middle man) has brought them here to work 
for a fat cat building luxury flats for India’s super rich.

Asha waits to give birth to her first child - her time is near, but there is no money.  Lali, a child 
bride wedded at four, awaits life with a husband she cannot recollect. Nisha and Mohini, the 
privileged Bose sisters, run a rural development programme - they no longer see eye to eye 
and wonder which way to turn.

Commissioned by Oxfam to mark their 50th anniversary, Women of the Dust, a bold portrayal 
of migrant Indian life, went on to perform in Delhi and Mumbai, marking Tamasha’s first international tour."


Taptoe Through The Telephones by John Fletcher
******Science fiction play - radio transmissions are being interfered with, and it's thought that a big computer 
might have been infiltrated by enemy agents. An amateur computer boffin - is called in to sort it out



The Good Doctor by Mike Walker
******The doings of Dr. Harold Shipman, the General Practitioner,
who was tried and found guilty of fifteen counts of murder.

An enquiry found sufficient evidence for two hundred more
cases, and good cause to believe that he'd murdered four
hundred or more.
 Harod Shipman January 14, 1946 - January 13, 2004



Kangaroo by D H Lawrence
******With Leo McKern as Kangaroo
Kangaroo is an account of a visit to New South Wales by an English writer named 
Richard Lovat Somers, and his German wife Harriet, in the early 1920s. This appears 
to be semi-autobiographical, based on a three-month visit to Australia 
by Lawrence and his wife Frieda, in 1922.
"Kangaroo" is the fictional nickname of one of Lawrence's characters, 
Benjamin Cooley, a prominent ex-soldier and lawyer, who is also the leader 
of a secretive, fascist paramilitary  organisation, the "Diggers Club". 
Cooley fascinates Somers, but he maintains his distance from the movement itself. 



The Flowers of the Forest by Donald Campbell
******A tribute about the Battle of Flodden [1513]



Dear Octopus by Dodie Smith
******Set in 1938 four generations arrive to celebrate a golden wedding anniversary, 
the Family - that dear octopus from whose tentacles we never quite escape, 
nor really wish to.



Axe Murderer by Nicholas Rowe
******Peter Sallis as Lionel




The Birds by Daphne du Maurier
******Farm worker and war veteran Nat Hocken notices an unusual number 
of birds behaving strangely along the Peninsula where his family lives, 
but attributes it to the coming winter. That night, he hears tapping at his 
bedroom window. When he opens it, he is assaulted by a frightened bird. 
Some time passes, and the tapping resumes. As Nat opens the window again, 
a number of birds strike him and disappear. He then hears screams from his 
children's room and rushes to them, only to find a swarm of small birds flying 
around the room. Nat fights them off with a blanket until dawn, when they fly 
away, leaving about fifty dead on the floor. He reassures his wife 
that the birds were restless because of the sudden change in weather.

The next day Nat tells his fellow workers about the night's events, but they give it little 
importance. As he goes to the beach to dispose of the dead birds' carcasses, he notices 
what appear to be dark clouds over the sea. These 'clouds' are actually tens of thousands 
of seagulls waiting for the tide to rise.



The Indian in the Cupboard by Lynne Reid Banks
******Eleven year old Omri isn't very impressed with the rubbish birthday present 
from his friend Patrick, a plastic Native American Indian figure. But he's delighted 
with the old bathroom cupboard given him by his elder brothers Adiel and Gillon. 
That night Omri puts the Indian in the cupboard for safe keeping, and locks the door. 
In the morning he's woken by noises from inside the cupboard - and opening the door, 
finds the Indian has come to life, and his name is Little Bull. Which is all very exciting, 
but now he has to find a way of looking after a real human being who, although he is only 
3 inches tall, needs to be fed, and wants a horse, and a wife. And when Patrick finds out, 
it becomes very difficult indeed.




LA Theater Works - Blue Orange 1.2 by Joe Penhall
LA Theater Works - Blue Orange 2.2
******About one percent of Americans are living with schizophrenia, 
according to the National Institutes of Mental Health. There is no known 
cure for schizophrenia, and its treatment can be frustratingly complex. 
Our story this week, Blue/Orange by Joe Penhall, concerns a young man 
named Christopher, who is about to be discharged from psychiatric 
supervision in a London hospital. But his clinicians disagree about 
the seriousness of his condition, and his release becomes complicated 
by issues of race, class, and the definition of sanity itself.

Blue/Orange stars Matt Lescher as Bruce, Daniel Davis as Robert, 
and Teagle F. Bougere as Christopher






LA Theater Works - Odd Couple 1.2 by Neil Simon
LA Theater Works - Odd Couple 1.2
******Oscar Madison is a single man whose best friend Felix Ungar has recently 
separated from his wife. But when Oscar lends Felix a helping hand, their 
friendship comes under hilarious strain.

The Odd Couple stars Nathan Lane as Oscar and David Paymer as Felix, 
with Dan Castellaneta, Yeardley Smith, Stanley de Santis, Steven Hack, 
Jamie Hanes, and Linda Purl.



Pure Dead Brilliant 1.2 by Debi Gliori
Pure Dead Brilliant 2.2
******As they say in Glasgow, you'd have to be a right numpty not to rejoice 
at a third book in Debi Gliori's delicious Pure Dead comedy adventures. 
Things are in a turmoil, as usual, at StregaSchloss, the ancestral castle 
of the Strega-Borgias in Argyll: Titus and his sister Pandora are at odds 
because their grandfather, Don Chimera di Carne Borgia, known as il 
grande parmigiano, or "the big cheese," is about to make Titus the sole heir 
of the family fortune; Signora Strega-Borgia has invited her flaky classmates 
at the Institute of Advanced Witchcraft to spend a week at the castle practicing 
their spells; Ffup, one of the house dragons, is sulking about her diaper-changing 
responsibilities as a teenage single mom; and grouchy Marie Bain, possibly the worst 
cook in the British Isles, has created an accidental specialty of kippers in raisin and rat pee sauce.



And So Say All of Us by Dan Rebellato, Linda McLean and Duncan Macmillan
******DIY and politics. A new comedy about the complexity and absurdity of modern life, 
from three award winning writers. A couple start dismantling their house; next door 
a pregnant woman refuses to give birth. Around them, the political process grinds 
to a halt on polling day when no-one votes. Fran and Eddy decide they need a change, 
so they rip out their kitchen, then start taking their house apart. Next door, Neil and Clare 
are waiting for the arrival of their first baby. And waiting. Then Clare reveals that she isn't 
ready to give birth yet. Fran wants the walls taken down. As these small domestic worlds shift, 
the bigger picture is changing too. On polling day, nobody turns up to vote. In a record breaking 
election, the government is left in power by default and the political process in disarray. What happens 
when Fran and Eddy take the windows and doors out? Does Clare ever have her baby? And who will 
stand as Prime Minister for the newly formed cross-party Unity Party? A fierce, funny play about 
making up your mind.





Cider with Rosie 1.2 by Laurie Lee
Cider with Rosie 2.2
******The England of this text is one of silence, of hard work and necessary patience, 
of white roads, rutted by hooves and cartwheels, and innocent of oil and petrol. 
It is the rich, sensuous world of childhood and youth in a remote Cotswold village, 
a world that has mostly vanished. 






The Diaries of Adam and Eve by Mark Twain 
******A superb satire on the battle of the sexes. Martin Glynn did the dramatisation, and it gave 
a very clear picture of how Twain pictured life for the first man and woman as they tried to come 
to terms with it and with each other. 





The Chosen by Gerry Knight
******The Vault Computer has decided it's time for an awakening.
Who will the Vault Computer choose and why?
Will the chosen be able to solve the worlds crisis?




You Are Not Alone In The House by Frederick Bradnum
******'Poor Charlotte, by yourself alone in the house, nobody to love you, nobody to care... 
They are trying to get in...they will force an entry and nobody will stop them because nobody 
cares to stop them, because nobody understands.'


RTE Sunday Playhouse - Democratic Decision by Maeve Binchy 
******


Thirty Minute Theatre - Tremor by John Tarrant
******A tremor uncovers a deep mysterious hole.


RTE Sunday Playhouse - The Colleen And The Cowboy by Thomas Kilroy
******Filming 'The Quiet Man' with John Ford


RTE Sunday Playhouse - Hello There by Jennifer Johnston
******


An Unsuitable Attachment 01.10 by Barbara Pym
An Unsuitable Attachment 02.10
An Unsuitable Attachment 03.10
An Unsuitable Attachment 04.10
An Unsuitable Attachment 05.10
An Unsuitable Attachment 06.10
An Unsuitable Attachment 07.10
An Unsuitable Attachment 08.10
An Unsuitable Attachment 09.10
An Unsuitable Attachment 010.10
******Dramatisation by Jennie Howarth of Barbara Pym's story of love 
in unfashionable north London in 1960




No Charge for Extra Service
 by Rhys Adrian


******A couple meeting through an agency evaluate life past and present.






Evelyn 
by Rhys Adrian


*******The struggles of a man in the thick of an extra-marital affair.


RTE Sunday Playhouse - The Silver Side of the Mirror by Joe O Donnell
******A distressed Dubliner uses a strip-tease booth to confess a terrible crime...






Huis Clos by Jean-Paul Sartre
******Huis clos was the first of Sartre's plays to have 
a London production, as In Camera, at the Arts Theatre, 
in July 1946,and is the source of perhaps Sartre's most 
famous quotation, "Hell is other people." 

The action of the play takes place in a single room. It is a 
room decorated in a particular style (second empire) and in 
which the only things to be found are a bronze statue, a table 
on which lies a bell and an ordinary paper knife and 
three sofas (wine red, blue and livid green in colour).

The play begins with the Valet leading a man named Joseph Garcin 
into the room that the audience soon realizes is in hell.  The room 
has no windows, no mirrors, and only one door. Eventually Garcin 
is joined by Inès Serrano, and then another woman, Estelle Rigault. 
After their entry, the Valet leaves and the door is closed and locked. 
All expect to be tortured, but no torturer arrives. Instead, they realize 
they are there to torture each other, which they do effectively, by 
probing each other's sins, desires, and unpleasant memories...............................

The Cast:

Garcin.....................Alec Guiness
Valet......................Donald Pleasance
Estelle....................Betty Ann Davies
Inez.......................Beatrix Lehmann



RTE Sunday Playhouse - The Bronte Play by Frank Dunne
******A theatre workshop rehearsing a play about the Brontes turns controversial.



RIP Boy by Neil McKay
******Ten years ago Zahid Mubarek was beaten to death by his cellmate, 
teenager Robert Stewart in Feltham Young Offenders Institution. 
In Neil McKay's new factual drama, prison offer John acts as our narrator, 
leading us through an overloaded prison system to reveal how a known 
racist with psycophathic tendencies ended up sharing a cell with a quiet 
Asian lad serving only 90 days for petty theft.

Stewart's manipulative actions get him moved round the country from one 
YOI to another as his behaviour becomes increasingly violent and erratic, 
from tattooing RIP onto his forehead, to inciting the murder of a fellow inmate 
during a cookery class. He eventually ends up in the huge, overcrowded nightmare 
that is Feltham, where cells designed for one hold two, and boys are banged up 
for twenty-three hours out of twenty-four. Astonishingly, Stewart's long record 
of violence and racist behaviour fails to reach Swallow wing, where the only spare 
bed is in Zahid Mubarek's cell.

It is now ten years since Zahid's death and many of the recommendations of the public 
inquiry have still not been fully implemented. Prisons remain overcrowded and overstretched. 
Violence is rife. More than 70% of prisoners suffer two or more mental health disorders. 
As prison officer John in the play observes: "But it's all out of sight so we keep it out of mind. 
It shouldn't be, for the sake of everyone. Zahid could have been your son or mine. Remember 
him. Remember his name. Zahid Mubarek."



Alexander - 1.6 by David Wade - The King's Son  
Alexander - 2.6 - I am Also Alexander  
Alexander - 3.6 - Preparation of the Sacrifice  
Alexander - 4.6 - The Road to Gordium  
Alexander - 5.6 - The Hunt of the God King
Alexander - 6.6 - Great Son of Ammon
******The story of Alexander the Great, with a distinguished cast list of 
Barry Foster, Simon Ward and Brian Cox




An English Tragedy by Ronald Harwood
******May 1945: victory in Europe, and a Labour landslide. English traitor 
John Amery is arrested in Italy and brought back to London for trial. 
If convicted, he faces the death penalty. But his father is a senior politician; 
surely the Establishment will look after its own...

The play charts the weeks leading up to the execution, following John's arrest 
in Italy and trial in London. Like a real-life Sebastian Flyte, he clutches his teddy 
bear, lies, boasts and jokes as the day of execution draws inexorably nearer. 
Meanwhile his distraught parents try everything in their power to save him.

John Amery was the Harrow educated son of Churchill's Secretary of State for India, 
Leo Amery. His brother Julian was later to become a prominent Conservative MP. 
A troubled man, who had been expelled from Public School and bankrupted as a 
young entrepreneur, John became a passionate fascist. He broadcast pro-Nazi 
propaganda during World War 2 and ran a programme recruiting British POWs 
to fight for Germany on the Eastern Front. Unlike his brother Julian, John was 
a wild boy - bisexual, hedonistic and unstable. Why?

Ronald Harwood's work as a screen writer includes The Pianist, which won him 
an Oscar for Best Screenplay and his films The Dresser and The Diving Bell 
and The Butterfly also won Oscar nominations.



Old Punks Rule by Joe O'Byrne
RTÉ Radio Drama celebrates the Bealtaine Festival 2010 with a play for radio, Old Punks Rule, 
written and directed by Joe O’Byrne and starring one of Ireland’s finest actors, John Kavanagh. 
Gerry McKenna is invited to the 40th birthday party of his rich son, Ed, and cannot stand the way 
he is treated – he might as well just be the invisible man for all the attention he gets. He tries to flee 
to the room of his niece, Emma, but she is too busy listening to her punk music. But it gives Gerry an 
idea, and very soon his transformation into an Old Punk is complete. This pushes him into conflict with 
his son, who cannot bear that he is making a holy show of the family, and he threatens to have him locked 
away in a mental home if Gerry persists in his punk lifestyle.



RTE Sunday Playhouse - First of the Day by Andy Hines
******


RTE Sunday Playhouse - Seventeen Trees by Jennifer Johnston
******Vanessa Redgrave performs a monologue. 




The Folly by Martyn Read
******Sir Morton Makepeace's characters disrupt his play 
and threaten his new Folly. 
Martyn Read's 1770 comedy with Freddie Jones.




The Little White Bird by JM Barrie
******Short children's story telling of adventures in Kensington Gardens.




Summer of the Aliens by Louis Nowra



Seven Minutes to Midnight by Lucy Catherine.
******In 1980 Janet is nine and has been left by her mother in a rural commune which is falling apart at the seams.
Twenty years later, after an unexpected meeting with her mother, Janet remembers four tumultuous weeks in her 
childhood which began with Ronald Reagan's election and finished with an 'end of the world' party to mark 
the death of John Lennon.



Oswald in Russia by Graham White
******Set in the 1950's and the Russia of the Cold War, this revealing drama-doc deals with 
a strange episode in the life of Lee Harvey Oswald as a young man, before his assassination of President Kennedy.

It centres on the trip that Oswald took from the United States to Moscow at the age of 19 in the late 1950s. 
And from there his meeting with a sympathetic young female tour-guide, and eventual 'defection'.

Told through the perspectives of a patchwork of characters whose paths he crossed, 'Oswald In Russia' 
is the tragi-comic portrait of a young man's slide from confident idealism into confused disillusionment 
as he struggles through a new world which is both suspicious of and fascinated by him, and turns out 
to be considerably less perfect than he'd hoped.

Oswald arrives in Russia determined to be a force in history, and to be recognised by both the nation he's 
left and the one in which he's arrived as a significant figure. A turbulent childhood and a difficult, bullied 
time in the US military has turned him against the country he grew up in. To Anna, the young Intourist 
guide he first meets as he claims asylum he is an intriguing but strange personality, exotic and impulsive. 
She is surprised by his reckless behaviour, and his insistence on breaking away from her tours of stodgy 
revolutionary landmarks and model farms. She is scared to get to close to him as he struggles to find the 
truth of his new setting, and risks her own position and freedom to help him settle and try to become a 
'true Russian'. She turns to Henry Granton, a shadowy US businessman living in Moscow to help. This only 
confirms Oswald of his hatred of the US.



The Warwickshire Scandal by Alison Sutcliffe
******The marriage in 1866 of Harriett Moncrieffe to Sir Charles Mordaunt of Walton Hall, 
Warwickshire, was beset with problems from the start.
Her involvement with the Prince Of Wales and several members of his set, as well as the 
dubious parentage of her child, led to one of the most celebrated divorce cases of the 19th Century.