Showing results by narrator "Peter Kenny" in All Categories

Everyone knows who you find in bookshops: people who want to buy books. But, as Shaun Bythell reveals, that's really only half the story. Join Shaun as he introduces us to seven bookshop characters, from the Person Who Doesn't Know What They Want (But Thinks It Might Have a Blue Cover) to the harried Parents Secretly After Free Childcare and all the way over to the erotica section, where we'll meet The Person Who Is Up to No Good.

South Africa, 1884. A young and naive English doctor by the name of William Abbey witnesses the lynching of a local boy by white colonists. He's guilt-struck but too cowardly to stand up against this horrific act. And as the child dies, his mother curses William. William begins to understand when what the curse means when the shadow of the dead boy starts following him across the world. It never stops, never rests. It can cross oceans and mountains. And if it catches him, the person he loves most in the world will die....

The first two books in the Singularity's Children series: Denial and Disruption. Subversive, fast-paced action. A provocative excursion into a near-future civilization struggling to survive the maelstrom of post-human forces its technology is unleashing.

A mysterious toymaker who lives as a recluse in an old mansion, surrounded by the magical beings he has created...a sickly wife locked away in a hidden room...an enigma involving strange lights that shine out from the small island on which an old, disused lighthouse stands...a shadowy creature that hides deep in the woods...These are the elements of a mystery will bind 14-year-old Irene to Ismael during one magical summer spent in Blue Bay when her mother takes a job as a housekeeper for the enigmatic toymaker, Lazarus Jann.

'Why?: Scientific Answers to Fundamental Questions'; sets out to provide simple answers to the most fundamental questions about the world. Asking why is the sky blue? Why is water wet? Why do we need sleep? Why are there 24 hours in a day? Why is light faster than sound?, this book gets to grips with concepts that appear so basic and every day, yet we struggle to find an answer for.

With Erryn having sacrificed herself to save those lost in the disaster of the Emerald Caverns, it falls to an of-age Peter to take action when new reincarnates are born. Unfortunately, without control of the System or the Law, there is little he can do to halt the contingencies Erryn left behind, leaving him to search desperately for a solution. Alas, desperation can easily lead to mistakes. Meanwhile, Cluma's coming of age leads to the resumption of delving activities, this time as a party of two.

With the mana-sucking rifts inscrutable to System skills, those Erryn tasked with watching over the world in her absence seek help from the one person in the world able to utilize magic without System interference: Peter's younger brother. It doesn't take long for Peter to link the anomalies with Earth, giving him his first clue to the cause of his reincarnation. Knowing the anomalies pose not only a threat but also an opportunity to both worlds, he's left wondering how much information is safe to share. Or worse, how much he can share given the interference of the Law.

Having escaped the Aether with Dora and Gaelin, Jelly is relieved, and eager to return to Orria and reunite with his beloved princess. However, that is easier said than done, and after drifting for several days across the ocean on an iceberg, Jelly and his friends find themselves in Distant Qwan, an exotic land of ancient magic and tradition.

Jellik and his friends have traveled Erafore and beyond, training and preparing for the final confrontation against the World Rebellion. But are the three Chosen Ones able to unite a divided world against the existential threat? And can they make it to the site of the final battle before the Void cult condemns everyone they know and love to nothingness?

Charlie meets everyone - but only once. You might meet him in a hospital, in a war zone, or at the scene of traffic accident. Then again, you might meet him at the North Pole - Charlie gets everywhere. Sometimes he is sent as a courtesy, sometimes as a warning. Either way, this is going to be the most important meeting of your life. The End of the Day is the stunning new story from Richard and Judy Book Club author Claire North: the voice behind the word-of-mouth best-seller The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August.

AD 58. Rome is in turmoil once more. Emperor Nero has surrounded himself with sycophants, and together they rampage by night through the city. Meanwhile, Nero's extravagance has reached new heights. The Emperor's spending is becoming profligate at the same time as the demands of keeping the provinces subdued have become increasingly unaffordable. Could Nero withdraw from Britannia, and at what price for the Empire?

The Great Houses of Paris-headed by Fallen angels and magicians-have coexisted in fragile peace. When a powerful explosion razes House Harrier, old alliances are torn apart, and a race begins to fill the power void. Thuan, the beleaguered dragon head of House Hawthorn, finds a war on his doorstep. Aurore, once cast out by Harrier and almost beaten to death, seeks power to protect her family-and must venture back to her former home. And, in the ruins of House Harrier, Emmanuelle desperately tries to piece together her fragmented memories of the explosion.

When prominent citizens vanish, Guardsman Keelan Rea is charged with bringing the victims home. His gift of truthreading made him the nation’s top investigator, but this search will test even his limits. The hunt gets personal when the woman he loves is taken.

Rome, AD 67. Vespasian is tasked with the impossible: should he quell the revolt in Judaea, as the emperor Nero has instructed? If his conquest succeeds, he risks becoming the sole object of the emperor's jealousy. If he fails, then his punishment will be severe. But Nero has committed suicide. Sabinus, Vespasian's brother, is caught between the warring factions of Aulus Vitellius, a cruel opportunist, and the noble Marcus Salvius Otho, who finds himself severely outnumbered.

It's February 29, 2020, and Nova Negrahnu cannot wait to start playing Solarversia, a year-long game based in a virtual world that's modeled on the real-world solar system. Given three lives, three vehicles, and told to master the Science of Solarversia to stand a chance of winning, players compete against 100 million people for the £10m grand prize and a place in the history books.

Once again, internationally acclaimed, New York Times best-selling author Carlos Ruiz Zafón creates a rich, labyrinthine tale of love, literature, passion, and revenge, set in a dark, gothic Barcelona, in which the heroes of The Shadow of the Wind and The Angel's Game must contend with a nemesis that threatens to destroy them.

Written by a retired British soldier, Trouble at Zero Hour is a breathless and vivid story, dramatising three of the key Allied operations that turned the tide of the Second World War. 6 June, 1944, somewhere over the Normandy coastline: Robbie Stokes sits in a glider, his Bren resting on the floor between his outstretched legs. The nose lowers and the glider descends rapidly: 10 minutes of stomach-churning twists and turns until suddenly the call goes up to 'brace'. The belly makes contact with the ground and the first Allied troops tumble out into occupied Europe.

In the fading days of summer 2011, self-taught astrophysicist Petra has calculated that the atmosphere will collapse in a few weeks’ time—on September 21, at approximately 9:20 p.m.—ending the world as we know it. But the distraught Petra will not have to carry the burden of this terrible news alone for long. Fate intervenes, bringing her into the orbit of a pair of unlikely companions: Johan, a man whose intellectual prowess is remarkably overshadowed by his culinary skills, and Agnes, a seventy-five-year-old widow who has made a fortune posing as a young influencer on social media.

The Bookshop in Wigtown is a bookworm's idyll—with thousands of books across nearly a mile of shelves, a real log fire, and Captain, the bookshop cat. You'd think after twenty years, owner Shaun Bythell would be used to the customers by now. Don't get him wrong—there are some good ones among the antiquarian porn-hunters, die-hard Arthurians, people who confuse bookshops for libraries and the toddlers just looking for a nice cosy corner in which to wee. He's sure there are. There must be some good ones, right?

Rome, AD 63. Vespasian has been ordered to a far-flung empire in Africa to free 200 Roman citizens who have been enslaved by a desert kingdom. But when Vespasian reaches the city, he discovers tensions spilling over into bloody chaos. Battling thirst and exhaustion, Vespasian must help the Romans escape, their only route to survival a desperate race across a barren desert with a hoard of heavily armed rebels at their backs. Meanwhile, back in Rome, Rome's elite fear for their lives as Emperor Nero's extravagance goes unchecked.