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PERCEVAL The Story of the Grail

PERCEVAL The Story of the Grail

By Chrétien de Troyes
Read by Mike Rogers
16 hours 40 minutes

Chrétien de Troyes’ Perceval is the most important single Arthurian romance. It contains the very first mention of the mysterious grail, later to become the Holy Grail and the focal point of the spiritual quest of the knights of Arthur’s court. Chrétien left the poem unfinished, but the extraordinary and intriguing theme of the Grail was too good to leave, and other poets continued and eventually completed it. Continue Reading →

PIERS PLOWMAN Vision of a People’s Christ

AUDIOBOOK OF THE WEEK – THE TIMES

Review by Christina Hardyment

PIERS PLOWMAN Vision of a People’s Christ
By William Langland – Modern Verse Rendering by William Burrell

This is a catchy retelling of the medieval alliterative poem, stuffed with memorable lines

To my shame, all I could muster before listening to this sensational treatment of the famous medieval alliterative poem Piers Plowman was its first line: “In a summer season/ When soft was the sun” and its description of “a fair field/ full of folk” who gathered “on a May morning/ On Malvern hills”. Mike Rogers, whose career spans Coronation Street, Emmerdale and the English Shakespeare Company, transforms it into a foot-tapping rap that Stormzy, given his sympathy for its Christian message, could enjoy setting to music. Terse and sardonic on fraudsters “going to bed in gluttony/ rising from bed in ribaldry”, the poem is sympathetic to the poor “who cannot jangle in the courts” and those with “Kind Wit and Conscience” who strive to do right. After the marriage of Lady Meed (a satire on Edward III’s notoriously avaricious mistress Alice Perrers) to Falsehood, it alternates social evils with causes for hope, and ends with the harrowing of hell, “Love luting on a long note” and a very informative afterword.

Ukemi wisely uses the catchy retelling, stuffed with memorable lines, which Alfred Burrell made in 1912 for Dent’s Everyman Library. It was a text ideally suited to a publishing initiative that spread great literature among the people in natty little shilling pocket volumes.

Piers Plowman by William Langland, read by Mike Rogers, Ukemi, 4hr 42 min; £12.99

PIERS PLOWMAN Vision of a People’s Christ

PIERS PLOWMAN Vision of a People’s Christ

By William Langland – Modern Verse Rendering by William Burrell

Read by Mike Rogers
4 hours 42 minutes

Probably written in the latter half of the 14th century in the South-West-Midlands dialect, Piers Plowman is a remarkable example of allegorical, alliterative verse that conveyed, for the first time ever, the authentic voice, spirit and character of the ordinary people of England. Very little is known about William Langland, the presumed author, but it is very much a product of the medieval mind combining Christian belief with dramatic poetry in a drama of identity. Continue Reading →

THE HISTORY OF THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

THE HISTORY OF THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

By Thucydides
Read by Mike Rogers
22 hours 36 minutes

The rivalry between two of the dominant city states of Ancient Greece, Athens and Sparta, erupted into a war lasting nearly 30 years and was to have a dramatic effect on the balance of power in the area. Between 431 and 404 BCE, the two cities battled it out on land and sea, aided by their alliances with neighbouring states: Athens’ Delian League vigorously opposed Sparta’s Peloponnesian League in a conflict which effectively involved the whole region. Continue Reading →

Mike Rogers

Mike Rogers

Mike Rogers has recorded numerous audiobooks ranging from Michael Morpurgo and Josephine Cox to thrillers and historical novels. This broad background enabled him to bring an immediacy to Thucyides’ The History of the Peloponnesian War, though it was his first recording of a Greek classic. A regular performer and director with the English Shakespeare Company, he has been involved in many Shakespeare productions. His TV work has included Coronation Street, Emmerdale, Peak Practice and The Somme.