Showing results by narrator "Paul Metcalfe" in All Categories

This is a bedtime, fun time, "anytime" story about 26 friends, numbers, adjectives, colors, alphabets, and activities. Each of us is that one shiny, red apple, and all we need to do is to inspire the person next to us.

In "The Prussian Officer", there is an anti-militarism theme, unpopular as the nation drew near to war, and an examination of latent homosexuality as the officer in the story struggles with his feelings for his orderly. The young soldier is driven beyond his breaking point, but finds a kind of redemption in his final return to natural surroundings and, symbolically, he finds equality in death with his tormentor as they are put side by side in the mortuary.

"The Rocking Horse Winner" is one of Lawrence's more popular short stories with its mixture of the supernatural and its moral lesson of the corrupting nature of the love of money. But it has nothing new to say on the subject, and without the central core of Lawrence's passion for what he is writing, it seems somewhat trite.

A Fragment of Stained Glass was written by D H Lawrence in 1911. Lawrence relates a story, supposedly from the Middle Ages, which tells of the possible triumph of love and the human spirit over the forces of religion, superstition, and social injustice.

Goose Fair was written by D H Lawrence in 1910. Lawrence sets his story against the backdrop of the industrial troubles caused by the Franco-Prussian war of 1870. A young woman is torn between her need for a lover and her contempt for what she perceives to be his dishonesty in the burning down of a mill. Is all love a compromise between the ideal and the reality of life?

The Woman Who Rode Away is a dark, troubling story set in the wilderness of South America. What makes this story compelling is that the woman is at the end of her personal tether and the Indians are at the end of their cultural one. They seek one another out for terrible but perhaps predictable uses. Each of them looks to the other for "salvation" in a way that expresses the desperation and futility of their situation.

The Man Who Loved Islands is a haunting story of a man who tries to control his life by making his world ever smaller by moving to increasingly smaller islands. Each one proves to be beyond his ability to control either other people or his sexual desire, and finally the last island conquers him. The story can even be seen as a metaphor of man's inexorable march to death, when we are all finally alone.

In this story, Lawrence returns to the scenes of his young manhood with farming scenes and the life he experienced when courting Jessie Chambers at Haggs Farm in Nottinghamshire. Two brothers find love in two different women, both out of the ordinary for farm lads - one a German nanny, the other the wife of a tramp who begs food from the farmers. Both men are redeemed from their rivalry for each other and their suppressed sexuality by the first experiences of love on the same night.

"A Prelude" was written by D.H. Lawrence in 1907. It was the first of his 67 short stories, all of which will be published individually in audio format by the Blackthorn Press. The story is set on a Nottinghamshire farm and tells the tale of two lovers, almost separated by class and money but brought together by passion and love.

It’s mid-September 1942. A German U-boat, U-156, sinks a converted British ocean liner, HMT Laconia, with just two torpedoes. The captain of the sub is horrified to discover that the troop transport he has just sunk was carrying 1,800 Italian POWs, along with British and Polish passengers and crew. Why the sub captain chooses to launch an operation to rescue his surviving Italian allies is perfectly understandable. But why he also chooses to rescue the British and Polish survivors is truly a mystery.

That’s what I’ve been telling myself, but if I’m honest, I’m afraid I miscalculated my ability to withstand pain. After stumbling across a secret so dangerous my enemies would break universal laws to keep it, I formed a plan that would ensure the safety and freedom of my loved ones. But now I’m staring evil in the face, and I don’t think I’ll make it to the next sun's rise. When my savior arrived in the form of a hunky daydream, I thought I must have died. Maybe we aren't exactly fated mate material. But now I’m suffering a different kind of pain.

Esra Weaver, exo-geologist, is hired for the Kerberos-90 Mining expedition, but when she awakens in her Emergency Egress Pod on a tropical, uninhabited planet, she realizes her life has taken a drastic turn for the worse.

The Princess of Edinburgh has been kidnapped, and peace talks in Northern Ireland are in danger of falling apart. Princess Jennifer's fate attracts the attention of several international organizations, including the IRA, MI6, and the CIA. While Jennifer finds herself the mistreated prize in an age-old war, no one can expect what happens when the Irish assassin, only known as the Golden Terror, takes an interest in her. With the future of a nation hanging in the balance, the two cross paths and enter a deadly race against time, and some of the most dangerous men in the world.

Esra Weaver, exo-geologist, is hired for the Kerberos-90 Mining expedition, but when she awakens in her Emergency Egress Pod on a tropical, uninhabited planet, she realizes her life has taken a drastic turn for the disastrous. "Predator Planet" tries to kill her at every turn. When danger and death converge on her, her hunter becomes her savior, and when her feelings for him evolve, she realizes she must battle not only Predator Planet but also her past to make room in her heart for an unexpected but passionate future.

This is the hilarious follow-up to Going Around the Bend on the QE2 where Nick now runs away to America to escape his proctologist. He is welcomed by the American people and delighted to find that they love his accent. As always, the outspoken Nick runs into many situations, some of which would seem to be unbelievable, but they are true: He meets a number of Hollywood stars and has a flaming row with one of them, is interrogated by the FBI, lives with a top model, has a fight with a mobster, and sadly witnesses the Americans' reaction to 9/11!

"In Love" handles a serious subject in a light, almost comic way. A couple are engaged but have no sexual feelings for each other. The tensions, as they try to do what is expected of them, explode until a compromise is reached. But will the marriage last?

Lawrence uses the story of a storm and the deaths it causes to revive the feelings for (if not an actual belief in) the old gods, in this case Mercury whose shrine is ignored by the tourists but who takes his revenge.

"None of That" concerns itself with the nature of desire. The man in the story is no more than an animal with base instincts but is attractive to women. The woman looks for something deeper with imagination, but in the end is brought down by the more instinctive man. Lawrence again seems to be saying that a woman cannot exist beyond the control of a man, however crude, and can only bring unhappiness on herself if she tries to live on her own terms.

Two Blue Birds tells the tale of the classic triangle of the man, the wife and the secretary, who struggle to work out what their relationships are with each other. Neither of the women seem to want the man sexually but the secretary offers devotion while the parasitic wife has more insight into the man and his work. All the relationships seem unhealthy, all three seem to want something different but are incapable of expressing what they desire.

"The Man Who Was Through With the World" picks up the same themes as in Lawrence's short story "The Man Who Loved Islands". He asks if we can ever withdraw from the world, no matter how much it disgusts us. The ironic part of this fragment is that the hermit vainly seeks to think holy thoughts while all around him is the natural world which could provide his life with meaning. The fragment is unfinished, leaving the listener to wonder if the hero would return to the world, if the world would come to him, or if nature would take its course and let him die in his hut.