Showing results by narrator "Mark Meadows" in All Categories

From the moment she first enchanted the world as a youthful princess, Queen Elizabeth II found a unique place in American hearts—and she also played an unprecedented role in forging transatlantic ties. Over her seventy-year reign, she developed extraordinary and varied personal bonds with thirteen U.S. presidents—Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, both Bush Sr. and Jr., Clinton, Obama, Trump, and Biden—that other diplomats and leaders could only dream of.

Exploding the tired stereotypes of autism, Daniel Tammet - an autistic savant himself - reaches across the divides of age, gender, sexuality and nationality to draw out the inner worlds of his subjects. Portraying a range of experiences as richly diverse as the spectrum itself, this illuminating, life-affirming work of narrative nonfiction celebrates the power and beauty of the neurodivergent mind, and the daring freedom with which these people have built their lives.

A short story from the British Library Crime Classic collection Final Acts. The cast and crew of a play quickly find themselves under suspicion when their lead actor is discovered dead in his dressing room between acts, with his face made-up a horrifying picture.

Doc Martin’s idea of a perfect Christmas Day is to remain steadfastly alone and catch up with back issues of T The Lancet. However, Portwenn is fighting off the cold and frost with a period of determined revelry before it heads into its deep winter sleep, and his patients are even more exasperating than usual. It will take all of Doc Martin's willpower to fend off the attentions of the Christmas spirit…

A timely and important book that urges greater responsibility in the face of growing inequality. Inequality in Britain is growing. Does this matter? Should we be bothered that the rich give proportionately much less than the poor? And that only a small minority of the very wealthy are giving generously? Ninety per cent of NHS trusts are restricting routine operations. Youth unemployment is at record levels.

Shaun is finally free of responsibilities to anyone but himself; single, with two grown up daughters, he is just embarking on a new life in a new country when he gets a call to say his father is dying. His mother has Parkinson's Dementia and is in a care home. Shaun faces a stark choice: should he give up his new-found freedom, or turn his back on the woman he'd fought so hard to protect, not least from his own father? Shaun's mother had loved and cared for her son all her life. Could he now do the same for her?

Brimming with wisdom and humour, David Kynaston’s diaries written over one football season offer up his most personal take on social history to date. David Kynaston was seven and a half years old when he attended his first Aldershot match in the early months of 1959. So began a deep attachment to the game and a lifelong loyalty to an obscure, small-town football club. Though as he sits down to write his diaries almost 60 years on, he reflects that life might have been simpler if his father had never taken him to that first match at the Rec....

The last thing psychotherapist Harry Hope expects on his walk home one evening is to be knifed. At first, he thinks it’s a random event. But as the police investigate further, seemingly unrelated attacks, Harry is shocked to discover that every victim is linked to him - and that his name is on a death list. Why? Teaming up with his old friends DI Theo McCannon and DS Libby Harding, Harry is forced to delve into the dark and twisted world of a cold and calculating killer.

Harry, Lucas and Guy were best friends when they were kids. But then they made a terrible mistake and their friendship shattered, forcing them to cut all ties. Years later, a man’s head is discovered in the woods, skinned and with the tongue cut out. The police call on Harry, a psychologist, to help with the case, and when it turns out the victim is his childhood friend Guy, old skeletons begin to surface. Then one of Harry’s clients goes missing. Forced into a desperate hunt to save the boy, Harry finds himself closing in on a shocking secret.

Every captain would love Brearley's degree in people, as well as a hardhitting all-rounder like Botham. But theirs was a barely recognisable game from the one we play on often dishevelled grounds up and down the country with ragtag teams of ageing, deluded or hungover friends and acquaintances. Now, Charlie Campbell offers us a New Testament to Brearley’s Old Testament, as he guides us through the realities of captaining an amateur team.

According to the rule books, a marathon is 26.2 gruelling yet exhilarating miles. Millions of people run marathons around the world. Many more millions dream of doing it. But novice or veteran runners, marathons require training and plenty of it. Certified marathon coach David Levine and dedicated marathoner Paula Petrella know how to get anyone in shape for the race and share the entire procedure in clear, jargon-free language. The Complete Idiot's Guide to Marathon Training includes practical advice that addresses the needs of men and women of all ages.

A wonderfully written and entertaining book which places Britain under the microscope and asks who we are today and how we’ve changed as a nation. In 1841 there were 734 female midwives working in Britain, along with nine artificial eye makers, 20 peg makers, six stamp makers and one bee dealer. Fast forward nearly two centuries and there are over 31,000 midwives working in the UK and not an eye maker in sight!

Home to mythical kingdoms, wars and expeditions and strange and magical beasts, the Himalayas have always loomed tall in our imagination. Overrun at different times by Buddhism, Taoism, shamanism, Islam and Christianity, they are a grand central station of the world's religions. They are also a plant hunter's paradise, a climber's challenge and a traveller's dream.

'A man's eye is accommodative, like his heart.' Samuel Browne's wife has left him suddenly after just three years of marriage. She invites him to 'go live a better life without me'. He must start again, and alone. And so it is that Sam finds himself deep in the English countryside in a cold but characterful old house, remote and encircled by hills, in the employment and company of an older, wiser man, a man as fond of mystery as he is of enlightenment.

The debut novel from the BAFTA Award-winning writer of TV's Cold Feet. 'Trust wasn't something you could have in degrees; it was all or nothing...' Greg and Amanda are happy. They've been together thirteen years and have two young daughters. They're very much in love. Dan and Sarah aren't so fortunate. Their marriage is going through the motions, and they're just staying together for the sake of their son.

Nico, Ketty, Ed and Dylan are in danger: their existence has become known to members of the criminal underworld, and they must stay hidden away in a secluded training camp in Spain, where their identities are being kept secret. Life in camp is hard enough, but then things take a turn for the worse. Ed is blackmailed into using his mind-reading powers – and in doing so he threatens to endanger the whole Medusa Project....

Theo gives his bodyguard the slip once too often. Rachel receives a weird text from her father. So begins a highly dangerous search to unravel unanswered questions about their past. Linked by the firebombing of a research clinic, Theo and Rachel fear they are targets of an extremist group, who will stop at nothing to silence them. Awaiting them are startling discoveries about their identities which will affect their future in life-altering ways.

Eugenio Bortuzzi has been named Prefect for Vigàta, a regional representative from the Italian government tasked to oversee the town. But the rowdy and unruly Sicilians don't care much for this rather pompous mainlander nor the mediocre opera he's hell-bent on producing in their new municipal theatre. The Brewer of Preston, it's called, and the Vigàtese are revving up to wreak havoc on the performance's opening night....

Shocking, funny and unflinchingly honest, Emergency Admissions gives us a fascinating glimpse into the extraordinary world of ambulance driving from the man behind the wheel.

Kit Wharton has been an ambulance driver for a dozen years. This book is his report from the frontline of that work: 999 calls that hurtle him to critical moments in other peoples' lives. Nothing in this job is normal; every job is different. From the bizarre to the terrifying and tragic, Wharton takes his audience through his strange work.

When Tsar Alexander II decided to drag Russia into the industrial age, he began by inviting Welsh businessman John Hughes to build an ironworks. A charismatic visionary, John persuades influential people to invest in his venture while concealing his greatest secret: he couldn't even write his own name. John recruited adventurers prepared to sacrifice everything to ensure the success of Hughesovka (Donetsk, Ukraine).