Mark Twain

When Huckleberry Finn flees from his brutal father, he meets up with an old friend, the slave Jim, who is also running away. Together they travel by raft down the Mississippi, experiencing amazing adventures, and learning of the strange ways of people in the deep south.

Impish, young Tom Sawyer is a hero to his friends and a torment to his relations. Wherever there is mischief or adventure, Tom is at the heart of it. During one hot summer, Tom witnesses a murder, runs away to be a pirate, foils a devilish plot and discovers a box of gold. But can he escape his nemesis, the villainous Injun Joe?

Mark Twain (real name Samuel Langhorne Clemens), was one of the foremost writers and humorists to come out of the United States. Hailed by William Faulkner as 'the father of American literature', he is renowned worldwide for his classic novels The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. This wide-ranging collection comprises dramatisations and readings of a host of his much-loved stories, from well-known works to less familiar gems.

The adaptations include Tony Award-winning Bryony Lavery's rhythmic reworking of The Million Pound Bank Note; The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, dramatised by award-winning playwright Marcy Kahan; and The Diary of Adam and Eve, Twain's affectionate satire about the battle of the sexes. They are performed by full casts including Trevor White, Mark Caven, Christopher Jacot, Inika Leigh Wright and Tom Goodman-Hill.

Among the readings are an abridged version of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, in which Ed Bishop brings Tom's escapades to colourful life; the little-known yarn The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County (read by Jon Glover) telling the tall tale of an inveterate gambler and a talented amphibian; and The Prince and the Pauper (read by Jason Isaacs), an abridgement of Twain's historical fantasy about two identical boys born on the same day - one rich, the other poor. And in Mark Twain Stories, Frasier star Kelsey Grammer reads five of the great author's finest short stories.
Also included is Kaleidoscope Feature: The Further Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, charting the troubled 100-year history of Twain's controversial novel, which has gone from being banned to being beloved - and back again.

NB: Contains language that listeners may find offensive

Set in 1547, this is the story of two young boys who are identical in appearance: Tom Canty, a pauper and Edward VI, son of Henry VIII of England. The two boys meet, and for a joke decide to switch clothes. The repercussions of this illustrate England’s unfair justice system at the time.