Showing results by narrator "Mark Elstob" in All Categories

Victory Shackleford has been married to Hollywood heartthrob Noah Westbrook for nearly two years, and despite all media predictions of doom, she has never been so happy. Of course, her best friend Kit's relocation to Scotland did come as a bit of a blow, but being married to an A list actor has its perks, and ease of travel is definitely one of them.

Korea: War Without End examines the stand-off between East and West in Korea that ultimately defined the second half of the 20th century. It provides a critical analysis of the lack of preparation by the West for war; the results of the North Korean invasion in June 1950; the counter-stroke by MacArthur in September and then the strategic overreach which led to communist China’s involvement on the North Korean side, and the rapid escalation to consideration of the use of nuclear weapons.

London, 1798. Late one night, a junior naval officer at the Admiralty intercepts a coded despatch, marked with blood: Napoleon Bonaparte is about to launch the largest invasion fleet in history. Target: unknown.

Waiter by day, man about Paris by night; the young and good looking Felix Krull has created for himself a personality to charm and deceive the world of wealth. When the Marquis de Venosta makes him a proposal that he can't refuse, the young Felix finds himself on the pathway that will elevate him into the world of riches.

As bodies continue to fall and the past bleeds into the present, Dr Alan Twist must confront a killer no one can see and a crime that defies logic. Three young ladies are thrown into raging waters, seemingly pushed by an invisible hand. Six years later, when a famous actor is flung from his...

Following the end of the Second World War, between 1945 and 1949, British forces occupied the northern part of what would become West Germany. Here, Daniel Cowling presents a political and military history of this occupation, but also explores the experiences of the thousands of British men and women who were tasked with building a democracy out of the ruins of Hitler's Germany. Don't Let's Be Beastly to the Germans offers telling insights into Britain's experience of the Second World War and the Cold War, and sheds light on the development of Britain's relationship with Europe since 1945.

The Victorians invented the idea of the future. They saw it as an undiscovered country, one ripe for exploration and colonization. And to get us there, they created a new way of ordering and transforming nature, built on grand designs and the mass-mobilization of the resources of the British Empire.

In this third volume of Thomas Mann’s monumental retelling of the biblical story, Joseph in Egypt follows Joseph after he is sold by his jealous brothers to Ishmaelite traders. They bring him to Egypt, where he’s eventually purchased by Potiphar. Joseph's intelligence, charisma, and integrity soon earn him Potiphar’s trust, and he rises to become the overseer of Potiphar’s household.

Charles Dickens: The Travel Collection contains all of Charles Dickens' major published travelogues. Journeying through Italy, America, France, and London, we get a glimpse into nineteenth century European and American culture, as well as a deeper insight into Dickens and his life. Also included here are 12 stories from Sketches by Boz which detail London life during Dickens' life, showcasing his uncanny ability to capture the best and worst of life, and giving us an unparalleled insight into mid-century London.

The second volume of David Hume's classic survey of English history covers nearly 300 years (1200-1485) from the long reign of Henry III to the dramatic end of Richard III on Bosworth Field—he was the last Plantagenet, and the last king of England to die in battle. In telling this all-action tale, Hume delves deeply into contemporary records and presents a considered, even sympathetic view, showing that many factors, not just personalities, resulted in dramatic consequences for the nation.

Kit Davies has been dating the gorgeous Captain Jason Buchannan for six months. Six whole months of being wheeled out as his significant other at various Naval functions. While she's not convinced she has the makings of a future Officer's wife, things have been pretty good, and at least she hasn't caused a diplomatic incident—yet. Then one memorable evening, Jason drops a bombshell. His father's health is failing and he wants to retire from the Royal Navy, and relocate to his crumbling ancestral home in the wilds of Scotland. And he wants Kit to go with him.

A Journey Through the Universe is a grand tour of the most amazing celestial objects and how they fit together to build the cosmos. There's a whole universe out there.... Imagine you had a spacecraft capable of travelling through interstellar space. You climb in, blast into orbit, fly out of the solar system and keep going. Where do you end up, and what do you see along the way? The answer is: mostly nothing. Space is astonishingly, mind-blowingly empty.

As mid-winter temperatures grip the cathedral city of Ely, a man is found frozen to death in his high-rise flat. The police may think that Declan McIlroy killed himself, but journalist Philip Dryden is not convinced, and he begins digging for the truth. All too soon, there's another frozen corpse to consider–that of Declan's best friend. And suddenly a routine suicide gives way to a chilling trail of cruelty and betrayal stretching back thirty years, towards a mystery from Dryden's own childhood.

A practical handbook examining how established businesses can use their unique advantages to fight back and win in a digital arena too often dominated by tech start-ups, disruptors and unicorns. The big tech companies (Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft) have had an enormous impact on our everyday lives. A new wave of start-ups in the tech sector has dominated the press and swallowed up huge amounts of investment. But what about those established companies in the traditional parts of the world’s economies, from energy, industrial and consumer goods to travel and health?

Machines That Think explores how artificial intelligence helps us understand human intelligence, machines that compose music and write stories - and asks if AI is really a threat. Sometime in the future, the intelligence of machines will exceed that of human brain power. So are we on the edge of an AI-pocalypse, with superintelligent devices superseding humanity, as predicted by Stephen Hawking? Or will this herald a kind of utopia, with machines doing a far better job at complex tasks than us?

British Redcoats torch the White House and 6,000 American sailors languish in the world’s largest prisoner-of-war camp, Dartmoor. A myriad of races and backgrounds, with some prisoners as young as 13. Known as the ‘hated cage’, Dartmoor wasn’t a place you’d expect to be full of life and invention. Yet prisoners taught each other foreign languages and science, put on plays and staged boxing matches. In daring efforts to escape they lived every prison-break cliché—how to hide the tunnel entrances, what to do with the earth.

Mr Pooter is a man of modest ambitions, content with his ordinary life. Yet he always seems to be troubled by disagreeable tradesmen, impertinent young office clerks and wayward friends, not to mention his devil-may-care son Lupin with his unsuitable choice of bride. In the bumbling, absurd, yet endearing figure of Pooter, the Grossmiths created an immortal comic character and a superb satire on the snobberies of middle-class suburbia.

Marx and Engels were right when they observed in the Communist Manifesto that free markets had in a short time created greater prosperity and more technological innovation than all previous generations combined. A century and a half later, all the evidence shows that capitalism has lifted millions and millions from hunger and poverty. Today's story about global capitalism, shared by right-wing and left-wing populists, but also by large sections of the political and economic establishment, does not deny that prosperity has been created, but it says it ended up in far too few hands.

In 1967, retired army major and self-made millionaire Paddy Roy Bates proclaimed himself ruler of the Principality of Sealand on a World War II Maunsell Sea Fort in the North Sea, off the East Anglian Coast - and began the peculiar story of the world’s most stubborn micronation. Having fought off attacks from the British government and armed mercenaries for half a century - and thwarted an attempted coup that saw the Prince Regent taken hostage - the self-proclaimed independent nation still stands.

After decades of peace and prosperity, the international order put in place after World War II is rapidly coming to an end. Disastrous foreign wars, global recession, the meteoric rise of China and India and the COVID pandemic have undermined the power of the West's international institutions and unleashed the forces of nationalism and protectionism. In this lucid and groundbreaking analysis, one of Britain's most experienced senior diplomats highlights the key dilemmas Britain faces.