Showing results by narrator "Philip Franks" in All Categories

1600: A new century dawns. War with Spain has dragged on for 15 years, the conflict in Ireland for six. Unease stalks England in the dying years of Elizabeth I’s reign, and Elizabethan intelligencer Martin Marbeck is bored. Then a message from his spymaster, Sir Robert Cecil, arrives: the existence of a spy has been discovered, code-named Morera, and Marbeck must uncover the true identity of this traitor quickly, before rumours of the young King Philip III forming a new Armada prove themselves to be true.

BOHEMIA, 1741: on the northern banks of the Vltava River, an extraordinary event is taking place. Inside a private chapel, a high-born Hungarian lady is being laid to rest. But not before her heart is removed from her body, and she is buried beneath a layer of heavy stones - lest she rise again to prey upon her victims…VENICE, PRESENT DAY: in the world’s most beautiful city, something unspeakable is happening. An unnamed tomb has been opened revealing a female skeleton and a diary dating back hundreds of years.

From the number one best-selling author of The Ashes of London and The Fire Court, this is the fourth instalment in the acclaimed Lydmouth series. The Korean war rumbles in the background throughout this novel as a reporter is found murdered at the Bathurst Arms, squatters are evicted from a military camp and there are new developments in the three-year-old hunt for a missing teenager. And in spite of all that's going on, Jill Francis, a local journalist, and DI Richard Thornhill find they can no longer resist their feelings for each other.

Constable Nick has come to know and love the host of characters who live and work on the beautiful North Yorkshire Moors. The amiable constable handles every encounter with his characteristic humour and professionalism, whether he's investigating a plot to scare away a troublesome suitor or helping a neighbour return his late wife's ashes to her beloved moors. Not to mention the insurance agent with a rather unusual policy on Edgar Dawson’s dog, Arthur. It covers him for stealing clothes from washing lines and getting lady dogs pregnant!

Miss Mackenzie by Trollope was the runner-up in Radio 4's 'Neglected Classics' vote. Margaret Mackenzie is a single woman in her mid-thirties who receives a large inheritance when her brother dies. She must then deal with what comes with the fortune, including several suitors, who may, or, may not, simply be after her money.

August 1914: In the sweltering heat, the fate of Europe hangs in the balance. Germany is hurling her forces into a carefully planned invasion of Belgium and France. Bound by an 1839 treaty to protect Belgium from any invader, Britain came to its defence. With the British Expeditionary Force numbering just 120,000 men, and dwarfed by the vast manpower of Germany, Kaiser Wilhelm II remains unfazed by this ‘contemptible little army'. But the BEF was, man for man, the best trained army in Europe.

Robert Nobel, the school pariah, triumphs over his own fears and the school bully in this extraordinary tale of self-empowerment, legend and death. Robert is a boy who can do anything - or so old Edith Sorrel at the nursing home tells him. Robert doesn't think so, knowing as he does that he is the school geek. But something compels him to do what Edith asks - to visit old Chance House, where a boy once fell to his death from the top floor flat, to confront his fears and find some answers.

Book One in the best-selling 'Uncle Albert' science/adventure series. Famous scientist Uncle Albert and his niece Gedanken enter the dangerous and unknown world of a thought bubble. Their mission: to unlock the deep mysteries of time and space... In this action-packed adventure story, discover why you can't break the ultimate speed barrier and find out how to become older than your mother, how to put on weight without getting fat, and how to live forever without even knowing it.

Avid antiques collector Pierre-Francois Chaumont unearths the find of a lifetime at a Paris auction house: an 18th-century portrait of a gentleman who looks just like him. Researching into the painting's history, he has the chance to abandon his tedious existence and walk into a brand new life.

In these 17 essays (and one short story) the 2011 Man Booker Prize winner examines British, French, and American writers who have meant most to him, as well as the cross-currents and overlappings of their different cultures. From the deceptiveness of Penelope Fitzgerald to the directness of Hemingway, from Kipling's view of France to the French view of Kipling, from the many translations of Madame Bovary to the fabulations of Ford Madox Ford, from the National Treasure status of George Orwell to the despair of Michel Houellebecq, Julian Barnes considers what fiction is.

The Royal British Legion was founded in 1921. It is now the country’s leading charity providing financial, social and emotional support to those who have served or who are currently serving in the British Armed Forces and their dependants. The RBL is behind the annual Poppy Appeal, the highest...

These 25 new stories mark Graham Swift's return to the short form after seven acclaimed novels and confirm him as a master storyteller. They unite into a richly peopled vision of a country that is both a crucible of history and a maze of contemporary confusions.

Telling the Story shows how leaders affect our understanding of what is possible and desirable through the stories they tell. It opens a door into the world of narrative leadership: what stories are and how they work, when to tell a story and how to tell one well, and how the language and metaphors we use influence our actions and change how we think about the world.

In 1964, a young artist sat sketching former prime minister Winston Churchill. The Sunday Times refused to print the resulting drawing of this frail, aged figure - so far from the public image of the man - it was too truthful. In Long Drawn Out Trip, Gerald tells his life story for the first time. With captivating, often thrilling stories, he takes us back to his wartime childhood and the terrible curse of asthma, through his days as an advertising draughtsman, to his field reporting in Vietnam and the giddy highs of rock 'n' roll. 

The Psychology of Conflict is a timely new contribution on the unique benefits of applying philosophy and psychology to mediating between people in conflict. Following his previous book with Dr. Freddie Strasser - Mediation: A Psychological Insight into Conflict Resolution - Paul Randolph here examines the application of existential philosophy to the psychology of conflict, particularly as seen in mediation.

Author, bookseller, spy-breaker, killer. Enter the world of Russell Stickles. Not since George Harvey Bone in Hangover Square has there ever been a singular protagonist as compelling. As sickly. As sick. From the creator of Dead Funny: Horror Stories by Comedians comes a stunning novel that re-invents the tale of the empty man.

Jack und Cliff freuen sich: Sie dürfen mit Onkel Curtis auf der Asturia nach Florida fahren. Doch gleich zu Beginn der Reise häufen sich die seltsamen Vorgänge: Cliffs Koffer lässt mit seinem Schlüssel nicht öffnen, ihre Kabine wird durchwühlt und sie verfolgen einen verdächtigen Lauscher.

What if the villain of your childhood turned out to be someone really rather extraordinary? A disgraced politician, Sir James Hastings is living out his retirement in a secluded Surrey village. He is unmoved by his centenarian mother's death - a woman he emotionally buried upon her abandonment. Raised by his father, a charismatic war-hero turned racing driver, the young James, torn between self-blame and longing, eventually dismissed her.

In the mid-20th century the relationship between America and Britain had a chequered past. Theirs was a history of protection and oppression, of rebellion and ultimately war. But then the shared crisis of the Second World War brought Britain and America closer than ever before or since and saw an unprecedented level of military cooperation. How was such a radical shift possible?

Sherlock Holmes ein Mörder? Das kann nicht sein! Davon ist Dr. Watson überzeugt und auch Inspektor Lestrade vollstreckt seinen Haftbefehl nur mit äußerstem Widerstreben. Hinter Gittern zwar in seiner Ermittlungs- aber nicht Denkfähigkeit beeinträchtigt, will der Meisterdetektiv nicht nur seine Unschuld beweisen, sondern auch herausfinden, was wirklich hinter dieser mysteriösen Geschichte steckt.