Showing results by narrator "Simon Prebble" in All Categories

The ceremony itself is just two words: "I do". But lots more has been written about the anticipation, the event, and the aftermath, and The Voices of Marriage gathers the best poems ever written on this most extraordinary moment, at once the most private and the most public, in a person's life. From Shakespeare to our own day, here are poets whose lines sparkle with wit, or hush with mystery.

Dirk Snigby is just your average ad man that happens to be working for the Prince of Darkness. Lucifer is tired of the overcrowding and wants a better pitch for heaven to relieve his work load. In this short story Dirk sets out to write a Zagat style guide to the afterlife.

In the fall of 1941, Anglo-American journalist John Russell is still living in Berlin, tied to the increasingly alien city by his love for two Berliners: his 14-year-old son, Paul, and his longtime girlfriend, Effi. Forced to work for both German and American intelligence, he's searching for a way out of Germany. Can he escape and take Effi with him?

It is 1857, and Reverend Geoffrey Wilson has departed England to prove the literal truth of the Bible. The expedition heads towards Tasmania, where he is convinced he will find the real Garden of Eden. But the other passengers have their own agendas. Dr Potter is developing a sinister thesis, and the ship is crewed by smugglers of contraband brandy and tobacco. As the English passengers near Peevay's land, their bizarre notions become painfully at odds with reality.

Lucien (Lucy) Minor is the resident odd duck in the bucolic hamlet of Bury. Friendless and loveless, he is a compulsive liar and a weakling. When Lucy accepts employment assisting the majordomo of the remote, foreboding castle of the Baron Von Aux , he meets thieves, madmen, aristocrats, and a puppy. Thus begins a tale of polite theft, bitter heartbreak, domestic mystery and cold-blooded murder....

One of the most daunting ghost stories to ever be written, Henry James' The Turn of the Screw follows the transformation of Miles (age 10) and Flora (age eight) from well-behaved children to deceitful liars. When a governess comes to their country estate to look after the children, she and Flora are separately visited by a ghost; however Flora denies the experience and Miles claims to never have been visited by one, even when evidence supports an evil plot between the children and the ghosts.

Only five still guard the borders between the worlds. Only five hold back what waits on the other side. Once the Oversight, the secret society that polices the lines between the mundane and the magic, counted hundreds of brave souls among its members. Now their number can be tallied on a single hand. When a drunkard brings a screaming girl to the Oversight's London headquarters, it seems their hopes for a new recruit will be fulfilled - but the girl is a trap, her appearance a puzzle the five remaining guardians must solve or lose each other, and their society, for good.

E.E. King delivers a collection of short stories that are original, funny, and always thought provoking. From a hilarious tale of an animal activist who can't get anything right to a man tasked with writing a guidebook for heaven. These tales will delight you.

In the months before 9/11, former army officer Anthony Taverner is leading a quiet life in the English countryside. But his recruitment for a dangerous mission to Afghanistan by MI6 shatters his fragile peace and plunges him into the kaleidoscopic world of spying. Under the expert guidance of an old-school hero and veteran of the elite British Special Air Service, Taverner prepares to enter Taliban-controlled Afghanistan to destroy a cache of the CIA's precious Stinger missiles....

In January 532, mobs rule Constantinople, capital of the Roman Empire. Against a murderous backdrop lit by raging fires, John, chamberlain to Emperor Justinian, must find those seeking to use the Nika riots to dethrone the emperor.

The Feathernail and Other Gifts (or The Adventures of Emily Finfeather), is a tale of altruism and magic for mature children and immature adults. Emily Finfeather is an orphan who lives with her angry and silent grandmother in a dark, windy, old house. On a field trip to the zoo, Emily is locked inside the aviary by evil classmates. What she discovers there will change the shape of reality forever.

Captain Rafe Carstairs is the final hope for thwarting the evil traitor known only as the Black Cobra. Bold and determined, Rafe is a roguish charmer possessing inner steel. He races to complete his assignment against impossible odds - the mission made suddenly more perilous by the proud English rose, Loretta Michelmarch, he must now protect from villainous hordes.

Mr Phillips wakes on the morning of July 31st in his modest, nearly mortgage-free home, in the bed he has contentedly shared with his wife of 30 years - though to be honest, at night he lies beside her and dreams of other women. He's ready to face another ordinary day. Except that for Mr Phillips, it is not an ordinary day, for on July 28th, he was summarily sacked. Nonetheless, he rises at his usual hour and prepares himself as he has done his entire working life for the office he no longer has.

They're battle-hardened, sinfully wealthy, completely unstoppable - and all male: four officers of the Crown, aided by Bastion Club members and Cynsters alike, fighting against a deadly foe known only as the Black Cobra. After an officer gives his life to protect vital evidence, his four closest friends race to England to finish his mission.... Colonel Derek Delborough feels nothing but relief when his ship finally docks in Southampton. But Del is still in danger - which makes the appearance of Miss Deliah Duncannon an unwelcome intrusion.

Logan Monteith's mission got off to a shaky start. Wounded in battle, he jumped from his ship rather than risk losing the evidence that would bring down a traitor. As he recuperates in a tiny village, he finds his respect for the villagers grows - as does his fascination with his rescuer, Linnet Trevission. Unwilling to risk putting the village in greater danger by remaining, but unable to travel on his own, Logan reluctantly accepts Linnet's offer of help.

It’s the day before Mike Frame’s 50th birthday, and his quiet, provincial life is suddenly falling apart. But perhaps it doesn’t matter because it’s not his life in the first place. He has a past that his partner, Miranda, and stepdaughter, Sam, know nothing about. Now Mike is seeing ghosts - a dead ex-lover, and an old friend who wants to reminisce. Mike can no longer ignore the contradiction between who he is and who he once was.

Gareth Hamilton is stunned when he recognises Emily Ensworth on his ship. The veil she wears is not enough to disguise her from him - or from the man hired to kill her. Whisking Emily to safety, Gareth realises that the Black Cobra is on to them. In order to protect her, Gareth must reveal to Emily the dangerous plot in which she is now intimately involved. Emily Ensworth is no wilting flower. She knew the packet the dying soldier thrust upon her held vital information, and she has every intention of seeing it into safe hands.

English magicians were once the wonder of the known world, with fairy servants at their beck and call; they could command winds, mountains, and woods. But by the early 1800s they have long since lost the ability to perform magic. They can only write long, dull papers about it, while fairy servants are nothing but a fading memory.