Showing results by narrator "Paul Metcalfe" in All Categories

"Odour of Chrysanthemums" was written by D H Lawrence in 1911. Lawrence is at his best in this story, taken from the scenes of his childhood and based on characters he knew intimately. He reworked the story in the play The Widowing of Mrs. Holroyd, but in this short-story version, Lawrence sees the tragic episode through the eyes of the wife. The theme of a loveless marriage redeemed by death is one that Lawrence was to come back to in other stories.

A Modern Lover was written by D H Lawrence in 1909. A young man returns home to his first love to declare his feelings for her but the moment is lost when the girl will not give herself sexually. This theme was to be explored fully in Lawrence’s novel, Sons and Lovers.

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?

This is the true story of how the author cured a nervous breakdown by taking a world cruise on the Queen Elizabeth ll. It is also a peep into the luxury lifestyle of the very rich from the somewhat sardonic viewpoint of someone who is not quite sane. We visit 40 countries, and each one is treated to the author’s observations, which are almost always humorous and from the viewpoint of someone whose fragile mental state causes him to throw all caution to the wind. The book, though, is more about his life aboard the QE2.

The Old Adam is a story set in lodgings in Croydon, and the incident may again be autobiographical, but the story examines for the first time in Lawrence’s writing the different and conflicting loves between men and women.

A Fly in the Ointment was written by D.H. Lawrence in 1908. It was the fourth of his 67 short stories, all of which will be published individually in audiobook format by the Blackthorn Press. The story is set in lodgings in Croydon. The incident may be autobiographical, but the story is full of yearning for the life and loves he left behind in Nottinghamshire.

Lawrence is at his best in this story, taken from the scenes of his childhood and based on characters he knew intimately. The main themes of the story are the class system that dominated society at the time and the pressures put on the young lovers who have to overcome it, and the position of women in society who have nothing to offer but their bodies. For the sake of security and position, one daughter makes a loveless marriage whilst the other daughter gives all that up for love.

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.

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.

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.

A Lesson on a Tortoise is set at a local school and shows how Lawrence was ground down by the tiresomeness of teaching and longed to be free.

This audiobook explores Nick Bostrom's idea that a computer could theoretically create self-conscious programs within its own hardware, with parallels to the “Blind Watchmaker” idea, where amaurotic processes produce an opened eye-consciousness that can ruminate about its origins.

Lessford's Rabbits was written by D.H. Lawrence in 1908. It was the second of his 67 short stories, all of which will be published individually in audio format by the Blackthorn Press. The story is set in a local school and gives an insight into the poverty and spirit of working-class children, as well as a glimpse of Lawrence's time as a teacher.

"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.

What are the capacities of children of different ages? How can they be recognized? And critically, what kinds of environments nourish optimal development of each capacity? These are questions that every parent, teacher, and child-oriented professional yearns to answer. They wish to recognize the child’s capabilities and respond to them to ensure optimal well-being. Is this possible? Yes! When we ask the right questions, the door opens. Remarkably, the door opens to an intuitively satisfying appreciation of children that requires no extensive training to understand and act upon it.

In this short book, you’ll learn to begin your real estate investment journey on the right foot and destroy the excuses that are holding you back. Having experienced investing in good times, as well as recessions, Andy shares five powerful secrets that will give you an edge and set you apart from other investors (some of whom lack common sense).

If you want to know how to own more than one buy-to-let property with just one capital pot, you would be well advised to take stock of what is presented in this book before getting in too deep. You will find out what you really should know about BRRRR before it is too late, when you have already made simple but serious mistakes.

This book is about my experiences in schools (and now academies which were formerly schools but run differently), as well as different teachers I have worked with, and how this all impacts the pupils we teach. It is an honest account revealing what it is like to be an aspirational teacher, and the difficulties we really find in this profession, with unprofessionalism often rife, senior leaders not in control and pupil behaviour varying from excellent to dangerous and often a challenge to manage. All of this in schools that parents hold in high esteem.

This audiobook is for those who want to learn from someone with 15 years of experience in property investment, understand how tenants can impact on your daily life, be prepared to deal with those who wish to profit from you as an investor, and be informed about the little-publicised negatives of property investment. It is also suitable for those who just want to know what it is really like to be a property investor in the UK, investing in buy-to-let properties. In this audiobook, I focus on the practicalities of property investment.