Jim Meskimen

  • Read by: Jim Meskimen

    Duration: 20 hrs 32 mins

    In early 1955, Colonel Tom Parker (the manager of the number-one country music star of the day) heard that an unknown teenager from Memphis had just drawn a crowd of more than 800 people to a Texas schoolhouse and headed south to investigate. Within a matter of days, Parker was sending out telegrams and letters to promoters and booking agents: 'We have a new boy that is absolutely going to be one of the biggest things in the business in a very short time. His name is ELVIS PRESLEY.'

    The close personal bond between Elvis and the Colonel is something that has never been fully portrayed before. It was a relationship founded on mutual admiration and support. From the outset, the Colonel defended Elvis fiercely and indefatigably against RCA executives, Elvis' own booking agents and movie moguls. But in their final years together, the story grew darker, as the Colonel found himself unable to protect Elvis from himself - or to control growing problems of his own.

    Featuring troves of previously unpublished correspondence from the Colonel's own archives, The Colonel and the King provides a groundbreaking dual portrait of the relationship between the iconic artist and his legendary manager.

    Biography - Art Music & Literature
  • Read by: Jim Meskimen

    Duration: 10 hrs 2 mins

    Bob Comet is a retired librarian in Portland, Oregon. One morning he encounters a confused elderly woman lost in a market and returns her to the senior center that is her home.

    Hoping to fill the void he's known since retiring, he begins volunteering at the center. Here, as a community of strange peers gathers around Bob, and following a happenstance brush with a painful complication from his past, the events of his life and the details of his character are revealed.

    Behind Bob Comet's straight man facade is the story of an unhappy child's runaway adventure during the last days of the Second World War, of true love won and stolen away, of the purpose and pride found in the librarian's vocation, and the pleasures of a life lived to the side of the masses.

    Contemporary Fiction
  • Read by: Jim Meskimen

    Duration: 9 hrs 45 mins

    When American fighter jets were being downed at an unprecedented rate during the Vietnam War, the U S Navy turned to a young naval aviator called Dan Pedersen. The programme he set up was called the US Navy Fighter Weapons School. It was known simply as TOPGUN. The hand-picked team of instructors - the Original Eight - were the best of the best. This is the thrilling story of how TOPGUN saw America reclaim the skies, by the man who created it.

    Biography - General
  • Read by: Jim Meskimen

    Duration: 18 hrs 20 mins

    Joe Sharkey knows he is passed his prime. Now in his sixties, the younger surfers around the breaks on the north shore of Oahu still revere him as the once-legendary 'Shark', but his sponsors have moved on, and Joe wonders what new future awaits him on the horizon. Uninterrupted quality time with the ocean, he hopes.

    Life has other plans. When he accidentally hits and kills a man near Waimea while drunk-driving, he fears he will never rebound. Under the direction of his stubbornly loyal girlfriend Olive, he throws himself into uncovering his victim's story. But what they find in Max Mulgrave is entirely unexpected: a shared history - and refuge in the sea. Set on the stunning Hawaiian coast, Theroux captures the glory and nostalgia of looking back at a rich and adventurous past, whilst learning to ride out life's next unexpected wave.

    Contemporary Fiction
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