David Rintoul

Raskolnikov, a destitute and desperate former student, wanders through the slums of St Petersburg and commits a random murder without remorse or regret. He imagines himself to be a great man, a Napoleon: acting for a higher purpose beyond conventional...

The story of Victor Frankenstein, a Swiss scientist, starts and ends in the frozen wastes of the Arctic. There, he tells Robert Walton, his English rescuer, about his obsessive quest to create life and its disastrous results. He has attempted to make...

Joseph Conrad’s searing tale of one of the strangest and most memorable journeys ever takenQuite simply the scariest book ever written, this is a searing tale of one of the strangest and most memorable journeys ever undertaken – to the heart of a...

‘Were it not for shadows there would be no beauty.’ In Praise of Shadows is an eloquent tribute to the austere beauty of traditional Japanese aesthetics. Through architecture, ceramics, theatre, food, women and even toilets, Tanizaki explains the...

Written in 1819 but set in 12th-century England, Ivanhoe is a tale of love struggling to survive against a violent backdrop of politics and war. Wilfred of Ivanhoe was thrown out of his father’s home when he fell in love with his father Cedric’s ward,...

When the naive David Balfour sets out on his quest for a long-lost relative, a terrifying chain of events is set in motion. He is plunged into a world of infamy and violence from which there seems no escape, until, that is, he meets the enigmatic and...

Book #3 in Agatha Christie's Poirot series.First there was the mystery of the film star and the diamond; then came the “suicide” that was murder; the mystery of the absurdly cheap flat; a suspicious death in a locked gun room; a million-dollar bond...

Acclaimed actors David Rintoul and Vivien Heilbron and eminent musicians Mhairi Lawson and Adrian Chandler present not only Burns' greatest hits, but also a selection of his lesser-known, yet fascinating works. Together these provide a comprehensive...

If you walk down London’s Piccadilly, you come across an elegant Georgian building set back from the constant stream of traffic. This is The Albany, an imposing warren of “bachelor” apartments which has been home to a string of celebrities for over...

Written in 1791 as a response to Edmund Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France, Thomas Paine’s Rights of Man is a seminal work on human freedom and equality. Using the French Revolution and its ideals as an example, he demonstrates his belief...

Northumberland. There, he finds himself caught up in a vicious plot to bankrupt his father which has startling consequences. At the centre of the action are three very different figures ? Francis's treacherous cousin Rashleigh Osbaldistone, who...

King Arthur loved Christmas and New Year - it was an excellent excuse for feasting, exchanging gifts and a time for general good fellowship among the knights at Camelot. And he wouldn't stop feasting until some marvellous adventure had befallen either...

Neil Munro's captivating tales of Para Handy, captain of the "Vital Spark", the "smertest" steamboat ever to sail the River Clyde.Whatever happened to the shaggy dog story? Very few, if any seem to be published these days. Maybe our lives are all too...

Jonathan Oldbuck, the antiquary of the title, has a passion for the past – and delights in trying to convey it. He meets the mysteriously taciturn young Lovel and the two strike up a friendship, bonding over Roman ruins. When Lovel falls for Isabella,...

A leading industrialist of the 19th and 20th centuries, Andrew Carnegie was one of America’s most successful and generous businessmen. The Autobiography tells of his rise to power, from humble beginnings in Scotland to controlling the biggest steel...

William Topaz McGonagall is widely renowned as one of the world's worst-ever published poets. Yet his discordant muse is hugely popular all over the world - no less a figure than Spike Milligan was obsessed with him. But how do we account for this...

Book #5 in Agatha Christie's Poirot series.An unexpected visitor comes into Hercule Poirot's bedroom and collapses on the floor. The only clue as to what he wants is his repeating Poirot's name and address and writing the number 4, many times. When...

Dostoevsky's last and greatest novel, The Brothers Karamazov is both a brilliantly told crime story and a passionate philosophical debate. The dissolute landowner Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov is murdered; his sons - the atheist intellectual Ivan, the...

Told by servant Ephraim Mackellar, The Master of Ballantrae is set at the time of the Jacobite rebellion of 1745 and portrays the Durie family. James abandons his ancestral home to support the Jacobites while his younger brother, Henry, loyal to the...

Book #4 in Agatha Christie's Poirot series.Proclaimed by the Crime Writers’ Association as ‘the finest example of the genre ever penned’, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd contains one of the most celebrated twists in crime fiction and is consistently voted...

Book #2 in Agatha Christie's Poirot series.When Hercule Poirot and his associate Arthur Hastings arrive in the French village of Merlinville-sur-Mer to meet their client Paul Renauld, they learn from the police that he has been found that morning...

Book #1 in Agatha Christie's Poirot series.A refugee of the Great War, Poirot has settled in England near Styles Court, the country estate of his wealthy benefactor, the elderly Emily Inglethorp. When Emily is poisoned and the authorities are baffled,...

Book #6 in Agatha Christie's Poirot series.When the luxurious Blue Train arrives at Nice, a guard attempts to wake serene Ruth Kettering from her slumbers. But she will never wake again, for a heavy blow has killed her.The prime suspect is Ruth's...

This audiobook includes unabridged recordings of Agatha Christie's first 5 Hercule Poirot novels, and the first collection of short stories featuring the famous detective, all read by the award-winning David Rintoul.The novels included here, with...