Showing results by narrator "Meera Syal" in All Categories

Saleem Sinai is born on the stroke of midnight on 14th-15th August 1947, at the exact moment that India and Pakistan become separate, independent nations. From that moment on, his fate is mysteriously handcuffed to the history of his country. But Saleem's story starts almost 30 years earlier, when his grandfather, Dr Aadam Aziz, falls in love with a woman concealed behind a perforated sheet.

Join the Eleventh Doctor on journeys in time and space in the stories 'The Runaway Train' by Oli Smith, 'The Ring of Steel' by Stephen Cole, 'The Jade Pyramid' by Martin Day, 'The Hounds of Artemis' by James Goss, 'The Gemini Contagion' by Jason Arnopp, 'Eye of the Jungle' by Darren Jones, 'Blackout' by Oli Smith, 'The Art of Death' by James Goss, 'Darkstar Academy' by Mark Morris, 'Day of the Cockroach' by Steve Lyons and many more.

West Midlands copper Jackie Hartwell has one of the toughest jobs in CID: comforting and supporting grieving relatives in the aftermath of a serious crime. But there's much more to what she does than providing tea and sympathy. Part social worker, part savvy investigator, she needs to be able to win the trust of families, while simultaneously keeping a watchful eye on their behaviour and reactions. Because often, the suspect she's searching for isn't far from home....

Nikki lives in cosmopolitan West London, where she tends bar at the local pub. The daughter of Indian immigrants, she's spent most of her 20-odd years distancing herself from the traditional Sikh community of her childhood, preferring a more independent (that is, Western) life. When her father's death leaves the family financially strapped, Nikki, a law school dropout, impulsively takes a job teaching a "creative writing" course at the community center in the beating heart of London's close-knit Punjabi community.

This definitive performance of Our Mutual Friend - Dickens' final completed novel - features expert narration by Meera Syal and an exclusive introduction. Full of both satire and social analysis, Our Mutual Friend looks at what could happen in Victorian England when a fortune passes to a working-class couple.

When Nikki takes a creative writing job at her local temple, with visions of emancipating the women of the community she left behind as a self-important teenager, she's shocked to discover a group of barely literate women who have no interest in her ideals. Yet to her surprise, the white dupatta of the widow hides more than just their modesty....

Christmas is the perfect time to curl up with a good story, and this cracking collection brings you 30 wonderfully diverse tales inspired by this most special of seasons. From Santa Claus, gift-giving and family gatherings, to an unexpected encounter in a snowstorm and an alternative take on the Nativity, they're sure to get you in the festive mood.

Nazneen is a teenager forced into an arranged marriage with an older man and misery seems to stretch ahead for her. Fearfully leaving the sultry oppression of her Bangladeshi village, Nazneen finds herself cloistered in a small flat in a high-rise block in the East End of London. Because she speaks no English, she is obliged to depend totally on her husband. But it becomes apparent that, of the two, she is the real survivor.…

"You want more time Mr Brown, of course you do. We all want more time. Let me make you an offer...." Andrew Brown never has enough time. No time to call his sister, or to prepare for that important presentation at the bank where he works. The train’s late, the lift jams. If only he’d had just a little more time. And time is the business of Mr Symington and Mr Blenkinsop. They’ll lend him some - at a very reasonable rate of interest. Detecting a problem, the Doctor, Amy and Rory go undercover at the bank.

When Kenny (Stephen Tompkinson) gives up his life in the geography classroom to join a struggling a capella group with a beautician, a dentist and a boxer, he doesn't realise he'll soon be in the best band on the wedding circuit—and fronting the potential future of rock 'n' roll. Between trying to manage the band's failing love lives and their battling ambitions, Kenny finds that chaos greets them wherever they go. Arguments about who gets to sing the lead? Check. Rowing about recording contracts? Check. Selling out for a TV talent show? Check.

In The Unquenchable Thirst of Dracula, one of seven 'unmade movies' available on audio, it is 1934, and young Englishwoman Penny is travelling by train across India in search of her missing sister. En route, she meets sibling artistes Prem and Lakshmi, who have been hired by a Maharajah and his wife, the Rani, to entertain their aristocratic European guest. But evil lurks in the hidden caverns beneath the ancient palace, where the acolytes of a fiendish blood cult await their next human sacrifice.... 

Nothing escaped the eye of the satirical eye of Britain's phenomenally successful all-Asian sketch show that was Goodness Gracious Me. The complete BBC Radio series 1-3 fore-ran the award-winning BBC TV series that ran in the late 1990s, and features the same cast. Prepare for your heart to pound in the Indian recreation of Brief Encounter, sing along to the profound words of wisdom with Fifty Ways to Leave your Mother, and enjoy pop classics such as Hindi People and Punjabi Girl.

England, today. Between the housing estate and the motorway lies an ancient wood. The motorway bends to avoid it. Last week, teenager Laura Brown went missing. Tonight, Vicky Caine will miss her bus and take a shortcut through the wood. And she will disappear too. England, 1917. Between the village and the main road lies an ancient wood. The old Roman road bends to avoid it. Tonight Emily Bostock and a man called Rory Williams will go to the woods.

In this International Women’s Day Audible Sessions Special, seven influential women discuss literature and gender equality and the importance of diversity in storytelling and reveal the women who inspire them. Featuring June Sarpong, Lily Cole, Meera Syal, Pearl Mackie, Prue Leith, Sam Baker and Eleanor Tomlinson. As part of this Audible Sessions Special, Audible made a donation to the Malala Fund, a charity championing the education of girls across the globe.

Curmudgeonly author Ed Reardon is back - the author, pipe smoker, consummate fare dodger and master of the abusive email attempts to survive in a world where the media seems to be run by idiots and lying charlatans. In these six episodes, Ed and Elgar return to London (from their failed jaunt living in a shepherd's hut in the country) destitute and on the lookout for a new roof over their respective heads, where he bumps into Geoff Daytona - a rich, successful entrepreneur and motivational speaker Ed was at school with....

Shyama, a 48-year-old London divorcée, already has an unruly teenage daughter, but that doesn't stop her and her younger lover, Toby, from wanting a child together. Their relationship may look like a cliché, but despite the news from her doctor that she no longer has any viable eggs, Shyama's not ready to give up on their dream of having a baby. So they decide to find an Indian surrogate to carry their child, which is how they meet Mala, a young woman trapped in an oppressive marriage in a small Indian town.

Nine-year-old Meena can't wait to grow up and break free from her parents. But, as the daughter of the only Punjabi family in the mining village of Tollington, her struggle for independence is different from most. Meena wants fish fingers and chips, not chapati and dhal; she wants an English Christmas, not the usual interminable Punjabi festivities. But more than anything, she wants to roam the backyards of working-class Tollington with feisty Anita Rutter and her gang.

In Letters of Note: Cats, Shaun Usher collects together the most engaging missives that celebrate, eulogise, rail against and analyse the idiosyncratic ways of our feline companions. A star-studded cast of readers brings the letters to life, with contributions from Sanjeev Bhaskar, Louise Brealey, Simon Callow, Benedict Cumberbatch, Adrian Edmondson, Stephen Fry, Neil Gaiman, Danny Huston, Toby Jones, Ferdinand Kingsley, Helen McCrory, Natascha McElhone, Stephen Mangan, Miriam Margolyes, Clarke Peters, Juliet Stevenson, Mark Strong and Meera Syal.

Colin Salmon and Stephen Fry star in this brand new adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s classic Sherlock Holmes adventure, The Hound of the Baskervilles, reinterpreted as a dark folk horror by best-selling authors George Mann and Cavan Scott. An ancient curse has awoken on Dartmoor, the members of the Baskerville family hunted by a spectral hound of Hell. With Sherlock Holmes busy in London, Doctor John Watson is sent to protect the new lord of the manor as fear and superstition run wild in the ancient countryside.

In Letters of Note: Art, Shaun Usher celebrates extraordinary correspondence about art, from missives on the agony of being overlooked, the ecstasy of producing work that excites, to surprising sources of inspiration and rousing manifestos. A star-studded cast of readers brings the letters to life, with contributions from Sanjeev Bhaskar, Louise Brealey, Simon Callow, Crystal Clarke, Benedict Cumberbatch, Stephen Fry, Neil Gaiman, Toby Jones, Ferdinand Kingsley, Jude Law, Helen McCrory, Stephen Mangan, Clarke Peters, Juliet Stevenson, Mark Strong and Meera Syal.