Showing results by narrator "Matt Addis" in All Categories

In Spring Rain, writer and gardener, Marc Hamer, now in his 60s, shares his path to contentment from difficult beginnings. Through the prism of family gardens, he reflects on how we reconcile our childhoods with where we end up as adults. Growing up in a violent home, as a young boy, Hamer found solace and safety in his small back garden. In particular, in its shed, where he stumbled across an incomplete set of old encylopaedias. These books, and observing the plants and insects in his private kingdom, began his lifelong love of learning and openness to the world.

In this book, Douglas Harding, author of On Having No Head, takes a fresh look at death and points to that which is before and beyond death - our true self.

Flash crashes. Speed dating. Instant messaging. From the devices we carry to the lives we lead, everything is getting faster, faster. But where did this great acceleration come from? And where will it lead? In this vitally important new audiobook, Robert Colvile explains how the cult of disruption in Silicon Valley, the ceaseless advance of technology and our own fundamental appetite for novelty and convenience have combined to speed up every aspect of daily life.

Paris, a misty night a few days before Christmas: a young woman is saved from the waters of the Seine. She is naked, doesn't remember her name or how she ended up in the river, but is still alive. The mysterious woman is taken to the hospital - and then disappears in thin air. DNA testing reveals her to be celebrated concert pianist Milena Bergman - but that cannot be: Milena died in a plane crash more than a year before. 

On a remote farm, an elderly woman takes a fall outside and, unable to move, is consumed overnight by two of her pigs. The victim was the renowned and reclusive photographer Sophie Bertilak - and the first photo she ever took remains her most infamous: a missing girl who was never seen again. Most strangely, inside the house, all the photos have been removed from their frames..

Anyone who has ever wondered why they never seem to be able to stick to their diet, who marvels at how little work some of their colleagues get away with doing, who despairs at the antisocial behaviour of their teenagers, who can't understand how lovecheats can handle multiple extramarital affairs, who struggles to resist the lure of the comfy sofa and the giant bag of crisps, who struggles to control their mood when morons cut them up on the M4 or who makes themselves thoroughly bitter by endlessly comparing themselves to others - well, this book is for you.

Published to mark the 30th anniversary of the financial revolution known as 'Big Bang', Crash Bang Wallop will tell the gripping story of how the changes introduced in the 1980s in the City of London transformed our world. Attitudes to money and the way we measure value and status were...

Bloomsbury presents Forecast by Joe Shute, read by Matt Addis. Join Joe Shute as he travels across Britain tracing the history of our seasons and discovering how they are changing. We talk about them. We plan our lives around them. The changing seasons are part of us all. But what happens when...

The year is 1665, and London is under siege: fear and paranoia haunt the city's streets, infection begins to spread like wildfire and people do all they can to avoid the horrific disease thrust upon their homes. Written in a candid, first-person narrative – thought to be inspired by Defoe's own uncle, who lived in London's East End at the time of the plague – the novel reports the grim realities of the epidemic in unflinching detail.

When the former crusader knight Geoffrey Mappestone is ordered by King Henry to deliver a series of mysterious letters to the restless western reaches of Wales, he agrees only reluctantly. His conviction that the simple mission hides something more sinister is strengthened when the letters’ scribe is murdered before the journey begins. Then one of Geoffrey’s travelling companions is killed, and he knows he must uncover the secret behind the letters before more victims are claimed...

In August 1943, Sergeant Craddock leads his battle-weary platoon down Via Garibaldi in Catania, Sicily. Struck by the oppressive heat and the alien new surroundings, the men soon settle into this lull in their combat experience. The next few weeks take on a dreamlike quality as newfound relationships flourish and the war itself - let alone homelife in Britain - recedes into the distance. Against this backdrop, the second book of Alexander Baron's War Trilogy meditates upon friendship, loyalty and love.

Kenning Hall was more than a country home, it was the family's sanctuary away from the frenetic pace of London, until that day. What happened that day was so horrifying, so devastating, that the place was left to ruin, until now. A decade later, 32-year-old Rupert Harrison, the only surviving heir to the Harrison publishing dynasty, has ordered Kenning Hall restored to its former glory. It's time to go back.

Adelais is on the run. And the kingdom of Galmandie has never been more dangerous. In every town square, people whisper of a girl who brought down lightning on her enemies. The king has placed a huge price on Adelais’s head and sent troops to hunt her down.

In many corners of the world these days the climate of hostility hangs over any overt Christian faith commitment. Any kind of Christian commitment is now assumed to imply intolerance and often prompts reactions that range from a low-grade hostility and exclusion in the West to the vicious and...

Bombs detonate in a busy souk, causing massive devastation. An explosion rips apart a mosque, killing and injuring those inside. But this isn't the Middle East - this is Cardiff.... In a city where tensions are already running high, DC Will MacReady and his colleagues begin the desperate hunt for the attacker. If they knew the 'why', then surely they can find the 'who'. But that isn't so easy, and time is fast running out....

For Shai, lost and drifting, a visit to her hometown in India’s Northeast offers the possibility of new ways of living. For Evelyn, a Cambridge student, scientific inspiration guides her to the forests of the lower Himalayas and a world she has only read about. For Johann, a German writer, travelling through Italy inspires him to develop groundbreaking ideas that will cement his place in history. And for a young Swede, an unwavering curiosity for earth’s natural wonders takes him on an expedition that will forever alter the way we understand the world around us.

The job sounded simple enough. Rid the village of an ogre and rescue the girl. In return, the local lord would overlook that ugly business in the church. It was nothing he hadn’t dealt with before. That was before he heard the howls coming from the Bog of Móin Alúin. Before he crossed paths with the headless rider. Before he woke to find the witch’s crooked fingers on his face. Now, Berengar must unravel the labyrinth of secrets and lies surrounding the village before a deadly curse claims his life, all while a darker evil looms in the shadows....

Sebastian has long been haunted by the disappearance of his father, Jack Messenger: celebrated travel writer, potential spy and murder victim, his absent presence and equivocal past continue to cast inescapable shadows over his son, who must also contend with his ageing mother's fragmented memory and his own dereliction of a partner. So who is the stranger that buttonholes Sebastian at an academic conference on the Welsh coast, and reveals lies and transgressions neither outgrown nor comprehended? How does he know Sebastian, and what are his connections to Jack Messenger?

Spanning the Sicilian countryside to the brothels of Ostend, and the final book in Alexander Baron's War Trilogy, The Human Kind is a series of pithy vignettes reflective of the author's own wartime experiences. From the interminable days of training in Britain to brutal combat across north-west Europe, the book depicts many of the men, women - and, in some cases, children - affected by the widespread reach of the Second World War.

When Sir Geoffrey’s unpopular brother, Henry, is murdered, he unwillingly inherits Goodrich Castle in the Welsh Marches. Immediately, his sister pushes him towards a marriage that will provide an heir and stability for the family. But when Geoffrey survives attempts on his own life, he wonders whether they are linked to Henry’s death, to his potential brides, or even to the rumoured murder of the Duchess of Normandy, as a Welsh revolt against the English looms.