Irish American

Tales from Shakespeare was written by Charles Lamb (1775-1834) and his sister Mary Lamb (1764-1847) in 1807 as a prose adaptation for children. Mary wrote most of the comedies, about 14 of the 20. One Voice Recordings presents for your entertainment stage and voice actor David Ian Davies portraying all the characters in this charming retelling of Much Ado About Nothing.

When Benjamin Bunny grew up, he married his Cousin Flopsy. They had a large family, and they were very improvident and cheerful. I do not remember the separate names of their children; they were generally called the Flopsy Bunnies.

Once upon a time there were three little kittens, and their names were Mittens, Tom Kitten, and Moppet. They had dear little fur coats of their own; and they tumbled about the doorstep and played in the dust. But one day their mother - Mrs. Tabitha Twitchit - expected friends to tea; so she fetched the kittens indoors, to wash and dress them, before the fine company arrived.

Charles and Mary Lamb took what most agree is a romance and the story of a king's jealousy, anger, mistaken sense of betrayal by his wife and the consequences of his retaliation upon his friends and family, and successfully transformed it into a children's version which ends happily when he learns how wrong he has been about almost everything.

In the time of swords and periwigs and full-skirted coats with flowered lappets - when gentlemen wore ruffles and gold laced waistcoats of paduasoy and taffeta - there lived a tailor in Gloucester. He sat in the window of a little shop in Westgate Street, cross legged on a table, from morning till dark. All day long while the light lasted he sewed and snippeted, piecing out his satin and pompadour and lutestring; stuffs had strange names and were very expensive in the days of the tailor of Gloucester.

Once upon a time there was a frog called Mr. Jeremy Fisher; he lived in a little damp house amongst the buttercups at the edge of a pond. The water was all slippy-sloppy in the larder and in the back passage. But Mr. Jeremy liked getting his feet wet; nobody ever scolded him, and he never caught a cold!

Six Gaelic tales of wonder and adventure, read in an authentic brogue by actor Des Keogh, transport wee listeners to a magic world of leprechauns and giants.

Once upon a time there was a very beautiful doll's-house; it was red brick with white windows, and it had real muslin curtains and a front door and a chimney. One morning Lucinda and Jane had gone out for a drive in the doll's perambulator. There was no one in the nursery, and it was very quiet. Presently there was a little scuffling, scratching noise in a corner near the fire-place, where there was a hole under the skirting-board.

Once upon a time there was a pussycat called Ribby, who invited a little dog called Duchess to tea.