Bill Homewood

The Four Just Men (1905) is a political thriller by Edgar Wallace. The book that launched Wallace's career as one of England's leading popular fiction writers, The Four Just Men was released in conjunction with a newspaper competition allowing readers to guess the truth behind the unsolved mystery at the end of the novel. Like many of Wallace's stories and novels, The Four Just Men was adapted into a silent film in 1921 before being made into a popular...

An alarming exposé of the new challenges to literary freedom in the age of social media—when anyone with an identity and an internet connection can be a censor. In the past decade and a half, there is no doubt that American literature, especially children's and YA literature, has become more inclusive—an important gain for social justice and minority representation. However, the movement for more diverse and sensitive books has also resulted...

When Squire Allworthy returns from London to discover a sleeping baby of unknown parentage in his bed, Tom Jones makes its rollicking start toward a picaresque journey across eighteenth-century England. Its foundling hero, having grown to young manhood and developed a passion for the girl next door, finds himself banished from the squire's country estate by the contrivance of a romantic rival. Lusty, good-hearted Tom is thus compelled to seek his...

The Council of Justice' is the second book in the 'Four Just Men' universe, which follows a group of wealthy vigilantes doling out justice. In this entry the vigilante group must face down the Red Hundred, a Bolshevik terrorist cell intent on wreaking havoc in London. However the Councils plans are thrown off the rails when one of their members is arrested by the very people they are fighting to protect. It is a roaring short packed with action, from...

Idylls of the King (1859-1885) is a cycle of narrative poems by British poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson. Written while Tennyson was serving as Poet Laureate, Idylls of the King reworks the medieval Arthurian legend in blank verse and with an elegiac tone. Based on Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur and the early British Mabinogion manuscripts, Tennyson's work connects an ancient tradition to the reign and ideals of Queen Victoria. "The Coming of Arthur"...

In the town of Surat, in India, was a coffee-house where many travelers and foreigners from all parts of the world met and conversed. One day a learned Persian theologian visited this coffee-house. He was a man who had spent his life studying the nature of the Deity, and reading and writing books upon the subject. He had thought, read, and written so much about God, that eventually he lost his wits became quite confused, and ceased even to believe...

Here are 35 of the greatest poems in the French language, carefully selected and read in French by Bill Homewood, the bilingual English classical actor who has spent half his life in France. To help those English speakers with just a little French to appreciate the glories of these poems, he provides his own clear English translations. The poems range from the earliest medieval and renaissance masterpieces-François Villon, Joachim de Bellay, Pierre...

Zorro Rides Again is the third novella featuring Zorro, the Robin Hood of Old California. Reina de los Angeles is being terrorized by a masked swordsman who marks the faces of his victims with Zorro's trademark Z. But is this the real Zorro? The Governor of California offers a reward for the capture of Don Diego Vega (who is known to have previously been Zorro) dead or alive, while an army - led by the ruthless Captain Rocha - is in hot pursuit of...

Once again, the intrepid Zorro fights for justice! In the fourth of Naxos AudioBooks' Zorro titles, our hero's assistance is sought when the devious Pedro Morelos threatens the fortune of a wealthy heir, Vicente Canchola. Morelos hatches a plot to kidnap the Governor of California and extort profitable trade concessions from him. Zorro overhears this, but will he be able to foil their evil scheme, and stop the Canchola estate from falling into the...

Of all the legends of Western civilisation, perhaps the glorious adventures of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table are the best known. The Quest for the Holy Grail, and the undying illicit love between Sir Launcelot and Queen Guenever, have provided inspiration for storytellers and poets down the ages, and sparked so many films and books of our own time. 15th-century knight Sir Thomas Malory penned the book with relish, packing his story...