Raffles: the Amateur Cracksman (Unabridged)

Written by E. W. Hornung

Narrated by Gabriel Woolf

Why should I work when I could steal?' demands A. J. Raffles, a dashing man-about-town by day and a cat burglar by night. Raffles' position as a champion cricket player and prominent member of society provides the perfect cover for his daring burglaries. In these short stories, narrated by Bunny Manders, Raffles' nervous but admiring accomplice, the gentleman thief matches wits with professional criminals, crafty diamond merchants, and other worthy adversaries, including irksome Inspector Mackenzie of Scotland Yard.

• Language: English
• Publisher: RNIB
• Release date: Jan 1, 2000

E. W. Hornung

Ernest William Hornung (1866 –1921) was a prolific English poet and novelist, famed for his A. J. Raffles series of novels about a gentleman thief in late 19th century London. Hornung spent most of his life in England and France, but in 1883 he traveled to Australia where he lived for three years, his experiences there shaping many of his novels and short stories. On returning to England he worked as a journalist, and also published many of his poems and short stories in newspapers and magazines. A few years after his return, he married Constance Aimée Doyle, sister of his friend Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, with whom he had a son. During WWI he followed the troops in French trenches and later gave a detailed account of his encounters in Notes of a Camp-Follower on the Western Front. Ernest Hornung died in 1921.