Showing results by narrator "Richard Burnip" in All Categories

Vienna 1770: Baron Wolfgang von Kempelen unveils an amazing invention, The Mechanical Turk, an unbeatable chess playing automaton. Hailed as the greatest innovation of the century, the chess machine is really a brilliant illusion, secretly operated from inside by the Italian dwarf Tibor. But when a beautiful and seductive countess dies mysteriously in the presence of the automaton, the machine and its inventor become the target of espionage, persecution, and intrigue.

In April 1915 Dorothea Crewdson, a newly trained Red Cross nurse, and her best friend, Christie, received instructions to leave for Le Treport in Northern France. Filled with excitement at the prospect of her first paid job, Dorothea began writing a diary. 'Who knows how long we shall really be out here? Seems a good chance from all reports of the campaigns being ended before winter, but all is uncertain.'

John Harper is in hiding in a remote hut on a tropical island. As he lies awake at night, listening to the rain on the roof, he believes his life may be in danger. But he is less afraid of what is going to happen than of what he's already done. In a local town, he meets Rita, a woman with her own tragic history. They begin an affair, but can they offer each other redemption? Or do the ghosts of the past always catch up with us in the end?

The Forrester Detective Agency is going from strength to strength: they’ve expanded their office space and even hired a new office manager – a qualified and astute woman named Carol. What starts as a simple burglary case soon turns into something darker. The victim of said burglary soon turns up dead, after making threats to the local yobs she believed to have been responsible. But it soon becomes clear that there’s more at play here, and Matt – alongside sister Hermia, partner Steve, and life partner Karen – will have to put all his skills to the test, even if it puts them all in danger.

In 1995, 12-year-old Sidney Parsons was savagely murdered by two boys his own age. No reason was ever given for this terrible crime, and the 'Demonic Duo' who killed him were imprisoned until their release in 2002, when they were given new identities and lifetime anonymity. Online journalist Scott King investigates the lead-up and aftermath of the killing, uncovering dark and fanciful stories of demonic possession, and encountering a village torn apart by this unspeakable act.

Fast bowler, six-hitter, popular hero, one of the lads, king of the jungle - Andrew Flintoff is all of those things. In Second Innings, his searingly honest yet uplifting autobiography, Flintoff reveals unseen, surprising sides to his career and personality. The restless need to push and challenge himself that led him to take up professional boxing. The complex and troubled relationship with discipline, alcohol and authority during his exhilarating cricket career.

It's 1953. Britain and her empire are diminished. Nazi Germany controls Europe and a vast African territory. There has been no Holocaust. Instead the Jews have been exiled to Madagaskar, a tropical ghetto ruled by the SS. Returning home after a disastrous mission to Africa, ex-mercenary Burton Cole finds his lover has disappeared. Desperate to discover her, he is drawn into a conspiracy that will lead him back to the Dark Continent.

He's saved the world twice. Now the dangerous but charismatic Ack-Ack Macaque finds himself leading a dimension-hopping band of angry monkeys, facing an invading horde of implacable killer androids, and confronting the one challenge for which he was never prepared: impending fatherhood! Meanwhile, former journalist Victoria Valois finds herself facing old enemies as she fights to save the electronic ghost of her dead husband, and Merovech, king of the United Kingdoms of Great Britain and France, receives a troubling message from the dead sands of Mars....

Winter in Vienna, 1902: a serial killer embarks upon a bizarre campaign of murder. In this second volume of the Liebermann Papers, Liebermann struggles with his own demons, Against a backdrop of mystery and terror.

The iconic ridge of the Black Cuillin on the Isle of Skye is the UK’s most challenging mountain range. Over 11 kilometres long and above 3,000 feet in places, the ridge contains 11 Munros and 16 other summits. In The Black Ridge, Simon Ingram offers a powerful distillation of the atmosphere, history and experience of the ridge: Britain’s ultimate mountain range.

The life and times of Don Revie - one of the most complex and controversial men ever to grace the game of football. Whenever the greatest managers the game has ever produced are mentioned, names like Busby, Shankly, Paisley and Ferguson trip off the tongue. Despite dominating the game in the late 1960s and '70s, there is clearly one name missing: Don Revie, the former Leeds United and England manager.

The Solutions Focus is the definitive guide to this revolutionary yet practical alternative to conventional wisdom. It demonstrates how the unique SIMPLE method of working sidesteps the search for the causes of trouble and heads directly for the solution. Today national solutions focus associations around the world from Sweden to Australia, base their training on the methods explained here.

Identifying the meaning of life and where we are heading preoccupies all of us at some stage or another. Who better to help us articulate this sense of direction than the most articulate people among us? Writers and thinkers, Ben Hutchinson suggests in this sparkling new book, help us reflect on purpose.

Leah, a young woman who has found herself 'ambitioned' out of London, is now aimlessly adrift in Paris. Tired of odd jobs in cafés and teaching English to unresponsive social media influencers, her heart skips a beat when she spots an advert for a writer seeking an assistant. Michael was once the bright young star of the London literary scene, now a washed-up author with writer's block. He doesn't place much hope in the advert, but after meeting Leah is filled with an inspiration he hasn't felt in years.

Every autumn, John Pentecost returns to the farm where he grew up to help gather the sheep down from the moors for the winter. Very little changes in the Endlands, but this year, his grandfather - the Gaffer - has died and John's new wife, Katherine, is accompanying him for the first time. Each year, the Gaffer would redraw the boundary lines of the village, with pen and paper, but also through the remembrance of tales and timeless communal rituals, which keep the sheep safe from the Devil.

May, 1964. At a youth festival in East Berlin, an unlikely young couple fall in love. In the bright spring days, anything seems possible for them - it is only many years later, after her death, that Kaspar discovers the price his wife paid to get to him in West Berlin. Shattered by grief, Kaspar sets off to uncover Birgit's secrets in the East. His search leads him to a rural community of neo-Nazis, and to a young girl who accepts him as her grandfather. Their worlds could not be more different - but he is determined to fight for her.

Autumn, 1917. London is not the city that Dr. John Watson and Sherlock Holmes once bestrode like giants. Terror has come from the sky, and Londoners are scurrying underground in fear. Then a twin tragedy strikes Watson. An old friend, Staff Nurse Jennings, is on a boat-ambulance torpedoed in the Channel with no survivors. And his concert-going companion, Sir Gilbert Hardy, is kidnapped.

Manchester, England 1965. Little Kathy Openshaw is waiting in the car, with only her toy doll for company, while her mother Connie visits close friends Myra and Ian. But when Connie returns to the car, Kathy has vanished. Instantly, she thinks of the news reports of the children who have gone missing from the area. Parents everywhere are worried sick. Connie is struck with terror: What kind of mother leaves their child alone, when a kidnapper is on the loose? Listen to this pulse-pounding, heart-wrenching, and unforgettable story.

Dr. John Watson is back home, fresh from his time in the trenches of Flanders Fields. The horrors of war weigh heavy on his mind, and now his task is to help rehabilitate soldiers suffering from the crippling effects of shell-shock.

The year is 1917, and Dr. John Watson is held in a notorious POW camp deep in enemy Germany, there as medical officer for the British prisoners. With the Allied blockade, food is perilously short in the camp, and when a new prisoner is murdered, all assume the poor chap was killed for his Red Cross parcel. Watson, though, isn't so sure.