Sleepbound Nights

Sleepbound Nights · Ian & Alex

Original bedtime stories for grown-ups: cosy serial fiction, written and narrated by us, slow enough to fall asleep to. Quiet villages and kitchen tables: a toast maker on a Sunday, a bookshop cat who won't settle, a family farm in 1953, a garden almanac kept through the year. Low stakes on purpose: the worst thing that happens is a burnt pan. Most episodes run a whole evening (four hours or so), so you can put it on, settle in, and not be woken by the end of it. Every series has its own writer: Eliza Hartley writes The Toast Maker, Margery Cole writes Green Hollow, Cecily Ash keeps the Elderwick Almanac. More of it, ad-free, with new members-only episodes every week: → Join on Patreon (part one is free on a selection of our series, always): https://www.patreon.com/c/SleepBound Just me and Ian and the writers. Recorded gently, for sleep.

  1. Jul 29

    Elderwick Almanac — High Summer: The Evening Entry

    The Elderwick Almanac: High Summer — A Cosy Story By Cecily Ash Tonight's reading is free — and part one is free on a selection of our series, always. Over 500 more, and every new one first, are on Sleepbound Premium.→ patreon.com/c/SleepBoundOur other two shows, if tonight's isn't quite what you were after:→ Sleepbound — classic literature read slowly enough to fall asleep to: Apple Podcasts→ Sleepbound Soundscapes — ambient sleep music, no narration: Apple Podcasts Cecily Ash has kept the walled garden at Elderwick most of her life, and writes its almanac by lamplight at each day's end. Tonight we follow her in from the garden — lamp first, then the stove, then the green ledger with its ribbon at the summer pages. Moss the cat has claimed the sacks, one white ear turned toward the door, while outside the brick walls hold the day's warmth long into the dark. This one is a quiet, unhurried sit by lamplight: shallots drying on the frames, the first codlins gone into a pie, swifts screaming round the chimneys at dusk. Then out into the blue evening for the watering, can by can from the sun-warmed tank, while Ned's whistling fades up the lane. It's less a story than an evening you're allowed to borrow — one cultivated place, turning gently through its longest days. Perfect company for drifting off. Thanks for keeping this open for all of us. Sweet dreams.— Ian & Alex Includes mentions of: Food, Animals, Weather, Beverages.

    Elderwick Almanac — High Summer: The Evening Entry
  2. Apr 26

    Downton Abbey: The Thirties – Episode 1: A July Morning

    Downton Abbey: The Thirties — Episode 1 By Hugo Ashcombe Tonight's reading is free — and part one is free on a selection of our series, always. Over 500 more, and every new one first, are on Sleepbound Premium.→ patreon.com/c/SleepBoundOur other two shows, if tonight's isn't quite what you were after:→ Sleepbound — classic literature read slowly enough to fall asleep to: Apple Podcasts→ Sleepbound Soundscapes — ambient sleep music, no narration: Apple Podcasts Habits are the refuge of the unimaginative, Mary. I have always preferred rituals — they require better shoes. Welcome to Episode 1 of Downton Abbey: The Thirties — an original fan fiction continuation, written and produced independently. Not affiliated with the official Downton Abbey franchise. It is July 1930, three weeks since Robert and Cora retreated to the Dower House, and Mary wakes to a quieter Downton — and a solicitor's letter she is not quite ready to open. She and Tom work through troubled estate accounts, confronting dairy prices that are quietly devastating the tenantry, while word arrives that the neighbouring Broughton Park has sold to an unknown London buyer. At the Dower House, Robert invents reasons to visit his old home; Cora quietly dispatches £2,400 to rescue her brother Harold from an old scandal; and Anna, visibly pregnant and due in August, settles into the garden while Bates reads childcare books in terrified silence. This episode is yours to download and keep — one of the perks of supporting on Patreon. And if you love Downton, our sister channel Sleepbound carries an original prequel series set in the earlier years of the Abbey. Content Timing 00:00 – Welcome and settling in 0:39 – High Summer 40:56 – Soft music to drift away Support the show: Patreon Watch on YouTube: Sleepbound Nights Full audiobook library: sleepbound.net Includes mentions of: Food, Beverages, Animals, History, Mention of Loss, Weather.

    Downton Abbey: The Thirties – Episode 1: A July Morning
  3. Apr 12

    Howl's Moving Castle – Episode 1: The Walking Cottage

    Howl's Moving Castle — Episode 1 By Diana Wynne Jones Tonight's reading is free — and part one is free on a selection of our series, always. Over 500 more, and every new one first, are on Sleepbound Premium.→ patreon.com/c/SleepBoundOur other two shows, if tonight's isn't quite what you were after:→ Sleepbound — classic literature read slowly enough to fall asleep to: Apple Podcasts→ Sleepbound Soundscapes — ambient sleep music, no narration: Apple Podcasts Sophie was beginning to think the castle was sulking. Welcome back to Sleepbound Nights — and welcome to the beginning of something new. This is Howl's Moving Castle: The Series, a fan fiction continuation set in Diana Wynne Jones's beloved Ingary, narrated by Jamie in the warm, unhurried storytelling voice that suits long winter evenings by the fire. If you're new to the series, we strongly recommend starting with the two fan fiction novels that set the stage — The Winter King (listen here) and The Witches' Halloween Masquerade (listen here) — before settling into tonight's episode. In Episode 1, life in the Moving Castle is wonderfully, chaotically ordinary: Howl's hair is perfect, Calcifer is grumbling about pipes with opinions, and Morgan is setting things on fire at the breakfast table. Then a stone cottage walks itself across two valleys and parks outside the front door — bringing with it one sharp, exhausted bookkeeper named Tamsin Bell, and nothing particularly ordinary after that. Thank you for supporting this channel. Your generosity is what makes these stories possible. Content Timing 00:00 – Welcome and settling in 0:07 – The House That Walked 40:25 – Soft music to drift away New episodes every week on Sleepbound Nights. Full catalogue at sleepbound.net. Support the channel on Patreon. Includes mentions of: Mention of Loss, Beverages, Animals.

    Howl's Moving Castle – Episode 1: The Walking Cottage
  4. Jan 14

    The Platform Kettle

    The Platform Kettle — A Sleep Story By Evelyn Marroway Tonight's reading is free — and part one is free on a selection of our series, always. Over 500 more, and every new one first, are on Sleepbound Premium.→ patreon.com/c/SleepBoundOur other two shows, if tonight's isn't quite what you were after:→ Sleepbound — classic literature read slowly enough to fall asleep to: Apple Podcasts→ Sleepbound Soundscapes — ambient sleep music, no narration: Apple Podcasts We're thrilled to feature Evelyn Marroway — a writer whose career began crafting audio stories for late-night listeners. Tonight we're stepping onto a quiet, rain-washed platform in Wales for something a little special — a standalone short story, written entirely for the Sleepbound Nights community. The Platform Kettle follows Mair, a retired railway signalwoman who arrives at a deserted Welsh junction to find the waiting room closed, the train delayed, and — inexplicably — a warm copper kettle waiting beneath a platform bench. What begins as a quiet study in patience slowly gathers into something more: a small group of strangers sharing a bench, a tin of saffron buns, and the particular kind of kindness that only arrives when people have nowhere else to be. Over about forty minutes, Marroway draws something luminous from the most ordinary of settings — a story that feels, by the end, like being handed a cup of tea by someone who was always expecting you. There was always a kettle somewhere. Always someone who knew where to find hot water when you needed it. Settle in, let the platform rain carry you somewhere soft, and let this one find you exactly where you need to be. Thank you for being part of the Sleepbound Nights community — your support is what brings stories like this to life. Find more on our website, browse the full library on YouTube, or share the Patreon page with anyone who needs a quiet place to land. Includes mentions of: Mention of Loss, Food, Beverages, Weather, Animals, Light Peril, Travel.

    The Platform Kettle

About

Original bedtime stories for grown-ups: cosy serial fiction, written and narrated by us, slow enough to fall asleep to. Quiet villages and kitchen tables: a toast maker on a Sunday, a bookshop cat who won't settle, a family farm in 1953, a garden almanac kept through the year. Low stakes on purpose: the worst thing that happens is a burnt pan. Most episodes run a whole evening (four hours or so), so you can put it on, settle in, and not be woken by the end of it. Every series has its own writer: Eliza Hartley writes The Toast Maker, Margery Cole writes Green Hollow, Cecily Ash keeps the Elderwick Almanac. More of it, ad-free, with new members-only episodes every week: → Join on Patreon (part one is free on a selection of our series, always): https://www.patreon.com/c/SleepBound Just me and Ian and the writers. Recorded gently, for sleep.