"Director: Malcolm Hossick"

• Hardy | DVD | (10/03/1999) from £17.47   |  Saving you £7.51 (51.86%)   |  RRP £21.99

  Hardy was born near Dorchester in Dorset. His father was a stonemason. He was educated at local schools and trained as an architect. He went to London to further his career. He wrote his first novel when he was thirty-one and went on to have huge success. In later years he gave up novel writing for poetry. The DVD covers his life and background.

• Mozart | DVD | (01/01/1998) from £14.95   |  Saving you £8.04 (35.00%)   |  RRP £22.99

  The Mozart biography in the Famous Composers series is an original Academy Media production directed by Malcolm Hossick.

• Bangkok, The Divine City | DVD | (07/04/2000) from £28.09   |  Saving you £-5.10 (N/A%)   |  RRP £22.99

  A documentary history of the city of Bangkok from it's foundation at the end of the 18th century up to the last quarter of the twentieth. The film was shot in 1973 when Thailand was on the cusp of it's astounding development into the vibrant and astonishingly modern city it now is with skyscrapers and expressways on every hand. By showing glimpses of a time long gone the film is itself now a piece of history. With the founding of Bangkok came the founding of the remarkable Chakri dynasty of absolute kings who have led the country so ably through the complexities of the last two centuries; the film outlines some of their major contributions up to those of the present king. Still today the place of the now constitutional monarchy is kernel as the country struggles to establish its fragile democracy and the film goes some way to explain this. It also brings out the lives of ordinary people and some of the many distinctive elements of the Bangkok world. Malcolm Hossick has had a long association with Thailand; he taught the children of the present king and married a Thai and to this day counts many Thais among his closest friends and sees Thailand as his second home. He learned the craft of Film making in the BBC and this was one of his first efforts to bring a knowledge of Thailand to the outside world.

• Ghosts | DVD | (02/09/2007) from £13.33   |  Saving you £11.66 (87.47%)   |  RRP £24.99

  From the studios of Academy Media, Elysium Films' production of Ibsen's classic 'Ghosts' is the first in the Classic Plays series. A 'beautifully nuanced' version, true to Ibsen's original script.

• Brontes | DVD | (21/01/2005) from £14.25   |  Saving you £7.74 (54.32%)   |  RRP £21.99

  The BRONTE SISTERS biography in the 'Famous Authors' series is an original Academy Media production, directed by Malcolm Hossick. The 30-minute program is followed by an 'Overview', listing the authors' works and suggesting 'essence of Brontes' reading.

• Kafka | DVD | (15/06/1999) from £13.33   |  Saving you £8.66 (39.40%)   |  RRP £21.99

  Franz Kafka was born in Prague, still under the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He was well educated and from an early age he determined to become a writer. He worked in an insurance company and in his ample free time wrote a number of remarkable novels and short stories. His heroes are all struggling to find themselves against a background of the totalitarian state or tribe or religion, and his name has become synonymous with the idea of modern man and his struggle to maintain his individuality. The video traces his life and is followed by a brief overview of his works.

• Ibsen | DVD | (16/09/2007) from £14.35   |  Saving you £7.64 (53.24%)   |  RRP £21.99

  Henrik Ibsen was born in the small coastal town of Skien in Norway. His family were Middle class burghers. He worked as an apprentice to an apothecary before going to Oslo to study. He began writing plays which found little favour in Norway. He lived and wrote for about 30 years in Italy and Germany and became recognised worldwide as the greatest dramatist of his age and the Father of modern drama. The video traces his life and is followed by a brief overview of his works.

• Steinbeck | DVD | (25/10/2002) from £26.65   |  Saving you £-4.66 (N/A%)   |  RRP £21.99

  The JOHN STEINBECK biography in the 'Famous Authors' series is an original Academy Media production, directed by Malcolm Hossick. The 30-minute program is followed by an 'Overview', listing the author's works and suggesting 'essence of Steinbeck' reading.

• Wagner | DVD | (12/07/1998) from £28.09   |  Saving you £-5.10 (N/A%)   |  RRP £22.99

  Wagner was born in Leipzig into the family of a government official. However his father died and his mother remarried. His stepfather was an actor in the theatre at Dresden, giving Wagner an exceptionally vivid experience of the theatre which was to be the basis of his great series of music dramas. He had immense natural musical gifts and a huge ego which carried his massive operatic projects through, including the building of his own theatre at Bayreuth in Bavaria. The DVD traces his life and the development of his work and ends with an overview of his compositions.

• Shakespeare | DVD | (27/11/1998) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

  The WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE biography in the 'Famous Authors' series is an original Academy Media production, directed by Malcolm Hossick. The 30-minute program is followed by an 'Overview', listing the author's works and suggesting 'essence of Shakespeare' reading.

• Sibelius | DVD | (16/09/2007) from £14.75   |  Saving you £5.24 (26.20%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Jean Sibelius was born into a middle class family in a small country town in Finland. He was encouraged in developing his musical talent but he was fifteen before it began to really interest him. At first he wanted to be a violinist but soon turned to composing. By his early twenties he had already mastered his craft and he went on to produce a wonderful and very individual range of orchestral music, leaving him as one of the giants of early twentieth century music.

• Ravel | DVD | (07/04/2002) from £14.75   |  Saving you £8.24 (35.80%)   |  RRP £22.99

  Ravel was born in the little seaside town of Ciboure in French Basque country near the Spanish border. His mother had also been born in Ciboure but his father was a Swiss engineer and a naturalized French citizen. Ravel lived most of his life in Paris, following his music studies there and becoming one of the greatest of French composers and in spite of his relatively small output, one of the most influential composers of the 20th century. The DVD traces his life and his musical development and ends with an overview of his works.

• Yeats | DVD | (29/08/2004) from £14.05   |  Saving you £3.94 (21.90%)   |  RRP £17.99

  The W.B.YEATS biography in the 'Famous Authors' series is an original Academy Media production, directed by Malcolm Hossick. The 30-minute program is followed by an 'Overview', listing the author's works and suggesting 'essence of Yeats' reading.

• Keats | DVD | (07/04/2001) from £26.65   |  Saving you £-4.66 (N/A%)   |  RRP £21.99

  The John Keats biography in the Famous Authors series is an original Academy Media production directed by Malcolm Hossick.

• Brahms | DVD | (27/11/2006) from £14.34   |  Saving you £8.65 (37.60%)   |  RRP £22.99

  The Brahms biography in the Famous Composers series is an original Academy Media production directed by Malcolm Hossick.

• Richard Strauss | DVD | (10/03/2006) from £14.75   |  Saving you £8.24 (35.80%)   |  RRP £22.99

  Strauss was born in Munich into a very musical family. He showed talent for composition at an early age and had his first symphony performed when he was only seventeen. He began conducting in various opera houses around Germany and was soon astounding the world with his wonderful music. He began with compositions for orchestra but became one of the leading composers of opera in the first half of the twentieth century, pioneering subtleties of orchestration with an advanced harmonic style. The DVD traces his career and ends with an overview of his works.

• Fitzgerald | DVD | (20/07/2007) from £14.05   |  Saving you £7.94 (36.10%)   |  RRP £21.99

  The F. SCOTT FITZGERALD biography in the 'Famous Authors' series is an original Academy Media production, directed by Malcolm Hossick. The 30-minute program is followed by an 'Overview', listing the author's works and suggesting 'essence of Fitzgerald' reading.

• Goethe | DVD | (19/10/2005) from £14.25   |  Saving you £7.74 (54.32%)   |  RRP £21.99

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was born in Frankfurt on Main, Germany, into a well-to-do family. He made some attempts to become a lawyer but eventually began writing poetry and novels. He was immediately successful. He joined the court of the Duke of Weimar and from there became accepted as the greatest writer of his age. The DVD covers his life and background and ends with an overview of his work.

• Hugo | DVD | (20/07/2006) from £10.55   |  Saving you £11.44 (52.00%)   |  RRP £21.99

  The Victor Hugo biography in the Famous Authors series is an original Academy Media production directed by Malcolm Hossick.

• Faulkner | DVD | (27/11/2002) from £13.71   |  Saving you £8.28 (37.70%)   |  RRP £21.99

  The WILLIAM FAULKNER biography in the 'Famous Authors' series is an original Academy Media production, directed by Malcolm Hossick. The 30-minute program is followed by an 'Overview', listing the author's works and suggesting 'essence of Faulkner' reading.