Showing results by narrator "Simon Slater" in All Categories

During a blistering summer, drought has depleted Thornfield Reservoir, uncovering the remains of a small village called Hobb's End - hidden from view for over 40 years. For a curious young boy, this resurfaced hamlet is a magical playground...until he unearths a human skeleton. Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks is given the impossible task of identifying the victim - a woman who lived in a place that no longer exists, whose former residents are scattered to the winds.

The seventeenth book in the dramatic and intriguing story about the colonisation of Australia: a country made of blood, passion, and dreams. Destinies intertwine and brutal battles ensue to secure a brighter future. During the 1860s, Australian settlers, among them Lady Kitty Broome and Adam Vincent, venture out on new, exciting adventures which will lead to a war between cultures, friends and lovers, as they fight for the future of their world.

The twenty-third book in the dramatic and intriguing story about the colonisation of Australia: a country made of blood, passion, and dreams. A new century has dawned as Australia forms their country. New hopes characterise the lives of the young Australians. Some had to the Outback in search of gold and glory. Others find their fulfilment in politics and seize power in the newly-formed country. Some are even moving north to conquer new lands.

The eleventh book in the dramatic and intriguing story about the colonisation of Australia: a country made of blood, passion, and dreams. Against overwhelming odds they fought to tame a savage land, now they must fight to keep it. For three tumultuous generations they had struggled to harness an alien wilderness, to lay the bold foundation for their dreams. But now, just as a radiant future beckons, they are menaced by distant powers hungry to seize what they have so bitterly won.

The fourteenth book in the dramatic and intriguing story about the colonisation of Australia: a country made of blood, passion, and dreams. Against overwhelming odds they fought to tame a savage land, now they must fight to keep it. Dora Lucas, Francis De Lancey, the Yates brothers and Luke Murphy meet in the goldfields near Bathurst. All with different motives, but all drawn to the opportunities of the gold rush. Meanwhile, in Ballarat, trouble is brewing amongst the miners. Will they find riches and reach their goals or will the chaotic tide of the gold rush lead to unexpected places.

When traces of a radioactive material are found with a body in Key West/Florida, multiple federal agencies suddenly descend on the scene. This is not just an isolated murder; a domestic terrorist group is ready to bring the US government to its knees. The threat hits close to home for ISB Agent Joe Dempsey when he discovers a personal connection to the group.

Light in the Darkness examines how mankind has always looked to the skies, mapping the journey from millennia ago when we turned our gaze to the heavens, to modern astrophysics. Heino Falcke and Jorg Romer entertainingly and compellingly chart the breakthrough research of Falcke's team, an unprecedented global community of international colleagues developing a telescope complex enough to look directly into a black hole - a hole where light vanishes, and time stops.

The sixteenth book in the dramatic and intriguing story about the colonisation of Australia: a country made of blood, passion, and dreams. Michael knows that he cannot outrun his past, yet it is the longing for freedom that keeps him alive. Australia... For some, a land of opportunity where bravery and honour rule the once savaged wilderness, for others, a brutal prison where even the best of men are driven to commit some of the cruellest acts in the name of freedom. Michael Wexford is aware that his past follows him wherever he goes, yet Kitty and Patrick Cadogan are determined to clear his name, no matter the cost.

The twenty-second book in the dramatic and intriguing story about the colonisation of Australia: a country made of blood, passion, and dreams. Australia is back to fighting with the British against the Boers in South Africa. Sloan Shannon are amongst those fighting against the Boers. He is wounded and captured, but finds himself saved by a Boar nurse. Suddenly, he must flee with her to her people – those people that he thought was his enemies.

If your children were forced to testify against you, what terrible secrets would they reveal? Moscow 1945. As Stalin and his courtiers celebrate victory over Hitler, shots ring out. On a nearby bridge, a teenage boy and girl lie dead. But this is no ordinary tragedy and these are no ordinary teenagers, but the children of Russia’s most important leaders who attend the most exclusive school in Moscow. Is it murder? A suicide pact? Or a conspiracy against the state?

In Rise Like Lions, Booker Prize winning writer Ben Okri has compiled a collection of poems that celebrate the many voices of politics, from polemics and rallying cries to lyrics and meditations. Many of these poems have resonated with readers over lifetimes and through generations, from William Blake to Marvin Gaye. In exploring the impact political poems have on ideas, vision, protest, change and truth, Okri demonstrates how the need for this strand of poetry is as great as it has ever been, and its inspiration just as powerful.

The twentieth book in the dramatic and intriguing story about the colonisation of Australia: a country made of blood, passion, and dreams. Jon Fisher and Harry Ryan return to Australia. At their return, Jon Fisher learns of the problem that his family are facing with the conflict of the wealthy squatters and the so-called 'selectors'. The threat of war and internal fighting looms over the family as we near the turn of the century.

The twenty-first book in the dramatic and intriguing story about the colonisation of Australia: a country made of blood, passion, and dreams. The fires of nationalism are being kindled across the continent – especially in the hearts of the young. The children of The Seafarers and The Mariners are growing up in a young country only just coming to nationhood. Some cry for unity while others raise the spectre of race hatred and violence. It is hard to see how these young Australians could ever realise their dream of one free and mighty land.

The fifteenth book in the dramatic and intriguing story about the colonisation of Australia: a country made of blood, passion, and dreams. After being accused of high treason, Michael Wexford seeks revenge upon those who took everything from him. It is 19th century Australia: Irishman Michael Wexford is unravelling his existence in the penal colonies after defying the justice system. Considered a criminal beyond reform or redemption, Michael plots his revenge. Meanwhile, siblings Kitty and Patrick Cadogan venture out to the Norfolk Island in search of their brother, praying that he is not the miscreant everyone makes him out to be.

For Michael Parkinson it was never really in doubt that he would spend his life in sport. His father, a fearsome fast bowler himself, indoctrinated young Michael from an early age into the Yorkshire cricket tradition and supporting Barnsley FC. All he ever wanted was to play cricket for Yorkshire and England. My Sporting Life is Sir Michael's love letter to sport, to the heroes and legends of his Yorkshire youth, to the characters of the international games he watched and wrote about, and to the very idea of sport itself.

An extraordinary reimagining of the life of one of the greatest screen comedians the world has ever known: a man who knew both adoration and humiliation; who loved and was loved in turn; who betrayed and was betrayed; who never sought to cause pain to others yet left a trail of affairs and broken marriages in his wake...and whose life was ultimately defined by one relationship of such tenderness and devotion that only death could sever it: his partnership with the man he knew as Babe. he is Stan Laurel. But he did not really exist. Stan Laurel was a fiction.

Set in Northfield, an understaffed military psychiatric hospital immediately before the NHS is founded, Walking Wounded is the story of a doctor and his patient: David Reece, a young journalist-to-be whose wartime experiences in Burma have come back to haunt him violently; and Daniel Carter, one of the senior psychiatrists, a man who is fighting his own battles as well as those of his patients.

Receiving letters by post or via e-mail has always been important to me. Even now I feel slightly disappointed if the postman passes the door without anything for me, even though I know the chances are it will be a bill, a parking fine, a bank statement or a catalogue offering me clothing or garden furniture. The same applies when my inbox is empty save for someone offering a deal on a used car or urging me to change my energy provider.

In 1849, Hull is a city forgotten and abandoned, in the grip of a cholera outbreak that sees its poorest citizens cut down by the cartload. Into this world of flame and grief comes Mesach Stone, a former soldier lost upon his way. He's been hired as bodyguard by a Canadian academic hunting for the bones of the apostle Simon the Zealot, rumoured to lie somewhere in Lincolnshire. Stone can't see why ancient bones are of interest in a world full of them...but then a woman he briefly loved is killed.

Krakow, 1585. Summoned by the King of Poland to help save his dying niece, Edward Kelley and his master, alchemist and scholar Dr John Dee, discover a dark secret at the heart of The Countess Bathory’s malady. But perhaps the cure will prove more terrifying than the alternative...England, 2013Jackdaw Hammond lives in the shadows, a practitioner and purveyor of occult materials. But when she learns of a young woman found dead on a train, her body covered in arcane symbols, there’s no escaping the attention of police consultant Felix Guichard.