Carl Craig Favorite List

Joining John and Andy this week are Natasha McEnroe, the Keeper of Medicine at the Science Museum in London, and novelist Lissa Evans, Backlisted's old friend and the show's Original Guest, both of whom are Betty MacDonald superfans. The Plague and I (1948) is the author's unflinching and hilarious memoir of the nine months she spent as a patient at a TB sanatorium in the Pacific North West of America. We discuss this book and the eventful life of its million-selling author (The Egg and I, Anybody Can Do Anything, Onions in the Stew), are exposed to a selection of TB-related public information films and music, and there is even a 'communicable disease in literature' quiz. Also in this episode Andy is grabbed by Mr Bowling Buys a Newspaper (1943) by Donald Henderson, reputedly Raymond Chandler's favourite crime novel; while John has been enjoying Olivette Otele's recently published history African Europeans, which traces a long African European heritage via the lives of individuals both ordinary and extraordinary.

Timings: (may differ due to variable advert length)
08:16 - Mr Bowling Buys a Newspaper by Donald Henderson
15:49 - African Europeans by Olivette Otele
20:37 - The Plague And I by Betty Macdonald

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The Plague and I by Betty MacDonald

Arrow through the Axes concludes the "Odyssey of a Slave" trilogy that began with the Red Maple–nominated Torn from Troy, retelling Homer's Odyssey. The slave Alexi, now free of his Greek captors, infiltrates the Greek strongholds of the Bronze Age in search of his sister. In so doing he participates in the stories of Orestes, son of Agamemnon, as he seeks revenge for his father's murder, and of Telemachus, son of Odysseus, who lands on Ithaca, the home island of Odysseus, just in time to witness the arrival of a mysterious stranger. As Alexi comes to understand the damage that the Trojan War has visited upon its victors, both he and the reader are forced to confront an unpleasant truth, while Alexi must decide where his allegiance really lies. Re-casting the Odyssey as a YA adventure, this trilogy brings ancient mythology to life in a way that traditional retellings cannot. We see what life would have been like for Bronze-Age warriors as Bowman interweaves adventure, ritual and historical detail into a realistic and compelling narrative. Readers who have experienced pop mythology, and now want to dive deeper, will find Arrow through the Axes especially satisfying, but all readers will enjoy this powerful excursion into the classic mythology that shaped western culture

Arrow Through the Axes

Arrow Through the Axes, by Patrick Bowman, read by Gerard Doyle

An old guitar idea I finally turned into a full song.  Vocals and lyrics by CP Roscoe Martin.  You can find him on Bandlab.  Song and all instrumentation by me.

What's in the Bag

Indespicable

Ambient track to sit back and dream with.  Trying to evoke that feeling of travelling, exploring and seeing the world.

Going Walkabout

I wrote this for a local Videographer quite a few years ago.  A nice, gentle waltz with a cello solo.

Hopeful Nostalgia

I created this in 2019 for a friends art presentation.  It's a little ambient, a little classical and (to quote Eric B and Rakim) a journey into sound.

The Story - 2019

A song about power and privilege.

Written, performed, produced by Kar Stanton
Mixed by Joe Rodwell
Mastered by Nick Lewis
Bass, trumpet and guitar solo at the end played by Joe Rodwell

Lyrics:
If you play with fire
You're gonna get burnt

You make it so easy
how can you blame me?
For taking what's laid out right here before me
I just give them what they want
I just give them what they want
If you're coming after me
you better watch out

I am taking action
I'm the captain
And I will do whatever it takes to defend the nation
I am taking action
I'm the statesman
And I will do whatever it takes to make it right
To save our way of life

If you play with fire
You're gonna get burnt
If you play with power
You're gonna get hurt

I was born to this
I was born to this
I was born to this
I accept nothing less

Born To This

The space-craze sweeps through Linbury Court School and the corridors reverberate with ''voom-voom'' noises as rockets, piloted by "Butch Breakaway" Jennings and his "bald-headed scientist," Darbishire, take off for the moon. As Mr. Carter prophesies, the craze wears off, but not before Jennings has stuck his head into trouble; nor before he and Darbishire have helped General Merridew, that peppery but most distinguished of Old Boys, to recapture some of the wilder moments of his lost boyhood.

According To Jennings by Anthony Buckeridge (Sample).  Read by Simon Vance

TheSkyIsEverywhere - Demo

Jennings Again! by Anthony Buckeridge.   Narrated by Simon Vance

In this audiobook - When Linbury goes green, Jennings and Darbishire offer to do their bit for the environment and are given the task of distributing leaflets. Unfortunately, Darbishires shoelace refuses to stay tied and, using his initiative, Jennings removes the rubber band holding the leaflets together and performs an emergency shoelace repair. All seems fine, until a gust of wind hurls the leaflets over Marina Gardens. The residents are none too pleased, and its poor Mr Wilkins whos going to get the blame - addle-pated eyewash!

Jennings Again! - 10 min Sample

Leeland Chocolates - Commercial Voice Over

WHERE HOPE PREVAILS - Demo

Book by Patrick Bowman, narrated by Gerard Doyle.
Two-and-a half millennia after it was created, Homer's Odyssey remains one of humanity's most memorable adventure stories. In this re-creation of Homer's classic as a young adult novel, we see the aftermath of the Trojan War through the eyes of Alexi, a fifteen-year-old Trojan boy. Orphaned by the war and enslaved by Odysseus himself, Alexi has a very different view of the conquering heroes of legend. Despite a simmering anger towards his captors, Alexi gradually develops a grudging respect for them. As the Greeks fight off the angry Cicones, weather a storm that pushes them far beyond charted waters, and nearly succumb to the blandishments of the bewitching Lotus-eaters, he realizes that they are not the demons they were said to be, but people like himself.

AUDIOFILE REVIEW:
Some narrators have an intangible star quality. Their voices say, "Listen to me! I have a wonderful story to tell." Gerard Doyle is such a narrator. His facility for accents and characterizations and his ability to set time and place by just the slightest vocal nuance make it almost impossible not to listen to him. The morning after the Greek invasion of Troy via the Trojan horse, 15-year-old Alexi is enslaved by Odysseus and brought aboard his ship. With a slave's vision of the legendary heroes, Alexi tells of the ship's foundering, of coming ashore to the land of the Lotus-Eaters, and of meeting the monstrous Cyclops, who likes the taste of Greeks. A delightfully original introduction to Homer's ODYSSEY, read by a master craftsman. S.J.H. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2013, Portland, Maine [Published: JUNE 2013] 

Torn From Troy, by Patrick Boman, read by Gerard Doyle

The second volume in the "Odyssey of a Slave" trilogy continues the retelling of Homer's epic, The Odyssey. Alexi, a young Trojan boy captured by Odysseus after the fall of Troy, is forced to accompany the hated Greeks on their sea journey home to Ithaca. Cursed by the Sea God retells many of The Odyssey's most iconic adventures, including the encounter with the keeper of the winds, the descent into Hades, the fateful visit to the cannibal Laestrygonians, encounters with Circe the sorceress and the songs of the Sirens, as well as the deadly passage between the monster Scylla and the whirlpool Charybdis. Having earned the respect of his captors, Alexi loses it all though mischance and is given away to the most brutal soldier on the ship. It will take all of Alexi's skill and determination just to stay alive. The first volume in the trilogy, Torn from Troy, was nominated for the 2012 OLA Red Maple Award and given an Earphone Award from Audiofile Magazine. Here's their review of "Cursed by the Sea God":

The listener knows immediately that Lopex (Odysseus) is in charge of the ship PELAGIOS and its crew. His innate ability to lead reverberates from the booming voice of narrator Gerard Doyle as he commands the men of Ithaca on their journey home. The story is told from the perspective of a captured Trojan boy, Alexi, whose healing abilities make him a valuable slave. Danger and wonder await the crew as they encounter powerful characters, such as the lisping King Aeolus, who casually commands the winds, and sweetly enticing-sounding Circe, who can lull even the strongest of men into a false sense of security. The disdainful tone of the ship's second-in-command, Yuri, is unmistakable as he mercilessly taunts Alexi. This second in Bowman's mythological series will entrance both boys and girls. M.F.T. © AudioFile 2013, Portland, Maine [Published: NOVEMBER 2013]

Cursed by the Sea God, by Patrick Bowman, read by Gerard Doyle

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According To Jennings by Anthony Buckeridge (Sample). Read by Simon Vance

Post Hypnotic Press Inc.

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