Showing results by narrator "John Telfer" in All Categories

At the age of sixty, and having lived with Parkinson’s disease for over ten years, Guy Deacon CBE set out on one last adventure: to drive solo from his home in the UK 18,000 miles and through twenty-five countries to Cape Town on the southern tip of Africa. This incredible journey, across Europe and down the full length of Africa, took the former British Army officer over twelve months. Along the way, he broke down five times, underwent one emergency evacuation, and took 3,650 prescription pills.

A Swedish freighter is on a special mission to locate and survey a number of wrecks after the First World War. The first on their list was torpedoed exactly one year to the day, and this proves to be no coincidence when the commander is suddenly tormented by an impossible Morse code transmission from beyond the grave.

Ancient Egypt wasn't all pyramids, sphinxes and gold sarcophagi. For your average Egyptian, life was tough, and work was hard, conducted under the burning gaze of the sun god Ra. During the course of a day in the ancient city of Thebes (modern-day Luxor), Egypt's religious capital, we meet 24 Egyptians from all strata of society - from the king to the bread-maker, the priestess to the fisherman, the soldier to the midwife - and get to know what the real Egypt was like by spending an hour in their company.

Two more adventures for the Saint based on episodes from the TV series starring Roger Moore: in 'The Art Collectors' the Saint comes across a collection of Old Masters that have been hidden for many years, but then the art collector herself goes missing.... And in 'The Persistent Patriots', the Saint comes to the aid of the prime minister of Nagawiland when he becomes the target for blackmail and assassination.

Harry Pershore knocks down a wall to create a secret garden, despite warnings from his friend who has spotted that the patch of land has been walled off for a reason and is actually an altar of sacrifice. Pershore ignores his friend’s advice and it’s not long before strange things start happening in the garden.

From the local to the global level, religion is more than ever an important and hotly debated part of modern life in the twenty-first century. From silver rings to ringtones and from clubs to headscarves, we often find the cultural role and discussion of religion in unexpected ways.

On 6th June 1944, HMS Belfast supported troops in action on the beaches of Normandy in the campaign to liberate Europe from Nazi Germany. This audiobook recounts this extraordinary story, focusing on the dramatic events of 6th June but setting the context of the ship's history in the Arctic Convoy Service and Battle of North Cape. It describes the build-up to D-Day as seen and experienced by Belfast's people and explains her role in the longer Battle for Normandy.

September 1920. A young bride is discovered dead at a country house on her wedding day. Has she fallen victim to the deadly Withington curse, which strikes down any woman who marries into the family? Forensic Pathologist Dr Bernard Spilsbury doesn't believe in such superstitions, and suspects a more earthly reason for Theodora Tupper's death. But as he and his trusty assistant Violet investigate, they soon discover that there are indeed ghosts at Withington Hall. And they, too, have a story to tell.

This year's London Marathon is my last chance to win the final place on the Olympic team. The months of rehabilitation after my injury will feel worth it to cross that line. But I wasn't expecting the man who's been making my life a living hell to be there. Last I knew, my stalker was behind bars, but he says he's going to be at the race watching. I have 26 miles to figure out whether it's him, and what he wants, or I could lose more than just the race.

The first volume of Parade's End introduces the central characters: Christopher Tietjens, a brilliant, unconventional mathematician; his dazzling but unfaithful wife Sylvia; and the young Suffragette Valentine Wannop. It starts with the cataclysmic meeting of Tietjens and Valentine: a weekend whose violence prefigures the coming war.

Six new tales of crime presented by Dr Watson from the documents of Sherlock Holmes, which follow on from The Secret Cases of Sherlock Holmes. What were Holmes's views on Dr Crippen? What happened when Oscar Wilde visited Baker Street to seek advice? How did Holmes reveal a loving husband to be one of the most dangerous psychopaths of modern times? And just what horrors await Holmes in the darkened slums of Waterloo Road?

Voices from the Blue tells the story of the hundred years of service of female police officers within the Metropolitan Police through the voices of the women who fought their way towards equality and won the respect of both their colleagues and the public. The authors have interviewed hundreds of former and serving policewomen and with the co-operation of the Metropolitan Police and the Women's Police Association now have access to the files and stories of thousands of former officers who served over the past hundred years.

The youngest soldier who fought in the Great War is believed to have been just 12 years old. Many thousands of other boys are known to have faked eye tests, inflated their small chests and stood on tiptoes to bluff their way into a war of unforeseen horror. How and why so many under-aged boys were able to get to the battlefields is a complex mystery of World War I, and until Richard van Emden's classic account, largely unexplored.

It's 1999, and aspiring poet Saul Judd is living quietly in Bath with his wife, Elise, and son, Thomas. But when he wins a competition he never intended to enter, he is drawn into a web of dark forces and mysterious events.

Birds are a joy and solace in troubled times, as well as a reminder of past experiences and a symbol of hope for the future. For centuries, they were also seen as a source of food, feathers, and even fuel, and being so numerous many were persecuted as pests. When There Were Birds is a social history of Britain that charts the complex connections between people and birds, set against a background of change. No other group of animals has had such a complex relationship with humankind.

An adventure ideally suited to Indiana Jones, ‘The Treasure of the Tombs’ sees three WW1 veterans return to a remote cave to recover hidden gold, but the tomb is cursed.

Hampton Court has been an arc of monarchy, revolution, religious fundamentalism, sexual scandals, and military coups. In this rich and vivid history, Gareth Russell moves through the rooms and the decades, each time focusing on a different person who called Hampton Court their home. Fascinating and engaging, The Palace is as atmospheric as it is gossipy and through the many sovereigns and servants that lived and worked in its halls reveals the personal tragedy and political importance of this extraordinary place.

Keen to escape London to work on their respective music scores and novel, two cousins stumble across a rural holiday let that is well below their budget. But it soon proves too good to be true when something on the top landing starts spooking them and their staff.

A unique and anecdote-filled history of desertion. There have been many books written about valour in battle. This is not one of them. On the contrary, On the Run deals entirely with those men and women who, over thousands of years, have departed with alacrity and for multifarious reasons from life in the armed forces. For as long as there have been wars there have been those who have fled, sometimes precipitously, from the cannon's roar.

In Elizabethan England, the Queen’s chief spymaster, Francis Walsingham, and his team of agents must maintain the highest levels of vigilance to ward off Catholic plots and the ever-present threat of invasion. One agent in particular - a young Cambridge undergraduate of humble origins, controversial beliefs and literary genius who goes by the name of Kit Marlowe - is relentless in his pursuit of intelligence for the Crown. When he is killed outside an inn in Deptford, his mysterious death becomes the subject of rumours and suspicion that are never satisfactorily resolved.