Showing results by narrator "Derek Perkins" in All Categories

After 1660, English governments aimed to convert scattered overseas dominions into a coordinated territorial power base. Stuart monarchs encouraged schemes for expansion in America, Africa, and Asia, tightened control over existing territories, and endorsed systems of slave labor. But English power was precarious, and colonial designs were subject to regular defeats and failed experimentation. Recovering from recent Civil Wars at home, England was shaken by unrest and upheaval through the later seventeenth century.

Young and filled with idealistic fervor, Arturo packs his blade and travels to the fabled City of Swords in the hopes of joining the dashing Bravadori. Yet upon arriving, he discovers these masked vigilantes have more in common with brutal thugs than noble monster slayers. Disillusioned and mocked, he stubbornly refuses to give up his dreams. When an impending bandit attack threatens untold depravities upon a distant village, and no others will heed the call for help, Arturo joins forces with a worthless outcast and a walking legend to attempt the impossible.

The best-selling book Real Estate: The Sustainable Investment offers advice and stories to make the learning curve a bit less steep and measurably safer - with proven strategies for reaching long-term investment goals by including small income property in your asset allocation. Sustainable investing for sustainable living and a more secure financial future.

Tehran, Iran 1979: Simmering religious tensions explode and the Shah is forced to flee Iran. A British helicopter company—secretly owned by the Noble House of Hong Kong—with a fleet of helicopters registered in Iran faces bankruptcy if their copters are claimed or destroyed by the uprising. The pilots need to escape, but they’ve built lives in Iran, some even have families. Finnish pilot Erikki Yokkonen has married Azadeh, an Iranian woman of noble birth, whose family is caught up in the political situation exploding around them.

In 1900 the global average life expectancy at birth was 31 years. By 2000 it was 66. Yet, alongside unprecedented improvements in longevity and material well-being, the 20th century also saw the rise of fascism and communism and a second world war followed by a cold war. This book tells the story of the battles between economic systems that defined the last century and created today's world. The 19th century was a period of rapid economic growth, but it also brought great inequality.

By land and water shall it go home, and lie hidden in the floating stone until by fire it shall be raised again. Arthur has raised the sword and claimed his birthright as High King of Briton, determined to unite the many tiny kingdoms that make up his country. Now he sits upon his throne at Camelot with Merlin by his side, his most trusted adviser. But Merlin is growing old, and his sight is dimming. He knows that Mordred, child of Arthur's unknowing union with his half-sister Morgause, will be Arthur's downfall.

In the 1970s, a small group of leading psychiatrists met behind closed doors and literally rewrote the book on their profession. Revising and greatly expanding the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM for short), they turned what had been a thin, spiral-bound handbook into a hefty tome. Almost overnight the number of diagnoses exploded. The result was a windfall for the pharmaceutical industry and a massive conflict of interest for psychiatry at large.

Auguste Dupin is one of the few persons in Paris who can identify the rare Cthulhu Encryption inscribed in the flesh of a dying madwoman. The Comte de Saint-Germain has a second cryptogram that's a partner to the one Dupin now owns, and believes it to be the key to a fabulous treasure hoard buried by the pirate Levasseur. Harassed by shoggoths and tracked by Saint-Germain, Dupin must find the key to the complex puzzle. Can the might of Cthulhu be held at bay? And will any answer that Dupin finds enable him and his friends to escape with their lives?

She’s become a Banshee, screaming for vengeance...The last thing Katriona remembers about her life is her violent death. Now, in order to rest, she must avenge her family, which means eliminating the last of the corrupt MacKay Lairds. But her Banshee scream doesn't kill him, and the more she tries, the harder it becomes to resist the wicked temptation he poses. Join the MacKay Banshees as they each find a love that will be worth defying the forces of evil and risking their souls to save our world.

In a move that would forever alter the map of the Middle East, Israel captured the West Bank, Golan Heights, Gaza Strip, and Sinai Peninsula in 1967's brief but pivotal Six Day War. Cursed Victory is the first complete history of the war's troubled aftermath—a military occupation of the Palestinian territories that is now well into its fifth decade. The audiobook provides a gripping and unvarnished chronicle of how what Israel promised would be an "enlightened occupation" quickly turned sour and the anguished diplomatic attempts to bring it to an end.

Shryke is running for his life. But how do you escape an enemy who can follow you everywhere and everywhen? Shryke knows you can't, yet still he runs. There are horrors buried deep in his memory that have been locked away from him by some secret magic. All he knows is that he is the Quantum Assassin, and he stands alone against the end of everything - the lone warrior in a war he can’t hope to win.

We meet our unnamed narrator in Paris in the 20s, where he finds himself an expat after the Russian Revolution. At a friend's request he meets the beautiful, clever socialite Lyolya, also a recent exile from Russia. What begins as casual friendship quickly turns into fascination and obsession, as Lyolya gives mixed signals and pursues other men. Our narrator, emerging from a depression, is soon overwhelmed by the very idea of her, which begins to contour all of his observations, thoughts, and feelings.

As any reader of murder mysteries can tell you, poison is one of the most enduring—and popular—weapons of choice for a scheming murderer. It can be slipped into a drink, smeared onto the tip of an arrow or the handle of a door, even filtered through the air we breathe. But how exactly do these poisons work to break our bodies down and what can we learn from the damage they inflict? In a fascinating blend of popular science, medical history, and narrative crime nonfiction, Dr Neil Bradbury explores this most morbidly captivating method of murder from a cellular level.

The fate of the world depends on his power... Malcolm de Moray is King of the Picts, a druid, and the Earth's last hope to stop the Apocalypse. To find his missing Grimoire and hunt down the evil threatening his family, he must venture into the Calledonian woods. The woman waiting for him will influence the future of humanity, but for which side? Join the de Moray Druids as they each find a love that will be worth defying the forces of evil and risking their souls to save our world.

A startling and vivid account of World War I, Secret Warriors uncovers how wartime code breaking, aeronautics, and scientific research laid the foundation for many of the innovations of the 20th century.

After the fall of Ringwall, Pentamuria lies in ruins. The magic of the elements is fading away and the realm of fire begins a merciless conquest. In this situation, it is up to Nill, the last Archmage and possible Changer, to sort out the mess and stop Sergor-Don. But the king of the fire realm is not the only threat. A new, incredibly powerful magician who calls himself the "Pillar of Light", along with his followers, demands dominion over Pentamuria and forces Nill to decide whether to fight not only for his own life but for the fate of the whole world.

Nine-year-old Laddy Merridew, sent to live with his grandmother for reasons he does not understand, stumbles off the bus in a small Welsh town where he begins an unlikely friendship with old Ianto Passchendaele Jenkins, the town beggar-storyteller. Through Ianto, Laddy learns of the collapse decades earlier of a coal mine called Kindly Light - a disaster whose legacy has echoed through generations, shaping lives in unexpected ways. And while Ianto spins the lively stories of so many men and women in this town, it's his own history in Kindly Light that is the story he can't tell.

She thought she was safe...Charged with keeping a Druid relic secret, Kenna de Moray is cloistered in a convent far from home. When an invading Viking Berserker saves her from the lash of a whip, he doesn’t realize that he’s about to unleash the full force of her passionate fire on the world, or that he’s drawn her enemies to their doorstep. With the Druid King far away, they’ll have to fight a powerful evil on their own.

Five years ago, Rosa walked to the pier in the dead of night, looked into the swirling water and jumped. She was a brilliant young Cambridge student who had just lost her father. Her death was tragic, but not unexpected. But is that what really happened? Her death was ruled a suicide. But Rosa’s boyfriend, Jar, still can’t let go. He sees Rosa everywhere - a face on the train, a figure on the cliff. He is obsessed with proving that she is still alive. And then he gets an email. “Find me, Jar. Find me, before they do....”

In his acclaimed columns in the London Times and Prospect, A. C. Grayling often responds to provocative questions posed by editors and readers. These questions serve as the basis for the essays in Thinking of Answers, among them searching examinations of the following: Are human beings especially prone to self-deception? If beauty existed only in the eye of the beholder, would that make it an unimportant quality? Are human rights political? And more.