Showing results by narrator "Simon Slater" in All Categories

Playing with Fire is the 14th novel in Peter Robinson's Inspector Banks series, following on from The Summer That Never Was. In the early hours of a cold January morning, two narrow boats catch fire on the dead-end stretch of the Eastvale canal. When signs of accelerant are found at the scene, DCI Banks and DI Annie Cabbot are summoned. But by the time they arrive, only the smouldering wreckage is left, and human remains have been found on both boats.

Climate change is the defining issue of our time - we know, beyond reasonable doubt, what that science now tells us. Just as climate change is accelerating, so too must we - summoning up a greater sense of urgency, courage and shared endeavour than humankind has ever seen before. The Age of Climate Change is an age of superlatives, but Porritt is optimistic. He believes we have time to do what needs to be done, but only if we move now - and move together.

It's 1.15 a.m. Connie Bowskill should be asleep. Instead, she's logging on to a property website in search of a particular house: 11 Bentley Grove, Cambridge. She knows it's for sale; she saw the estate agent's board in the front garden less than six hours ago. Soon Connie is clicking on the 'Virtual Tour' button, keen to see the inside of 11 Bentley Grove and put her mind at rest once and for all. But she finds herself looking at a scene from a nightmare.

In the form of several journeys, beginning in January 2019, Neil Ansell returns for solitary walks to the New Forest in Hampshire, close to where he was born. With beautiful sightings and observations of birds, trees, butterflies, insects and landscape, this is also a reflective memoir on childhood, on the history of one of the most ancient and important natural habitats in the United Kingdom and on the Gypsies who lived there for centuries - and were subsequently expelled to neighbouring cities.

The gruesome double-murder at an Eastvale property developer’s luxury home should be an open and shut case for Superintendent Alan Banks and his team of detectives. There’s a clear link to the notoriously vicious Albanian mafia, men who left the country suspiciously soon after the murder. When Banks and his team find a cache of spy-cam videos hidden in the house, the investigation pivots to another violent crime that could cast the murders in an entirely different light.

In November 1980, student Nick Hartley returns from a lecture to find his house full of police officers. As he discovers that his ex-girlfriend has been found murdered in a nearby park, and her new boyfriend is missing, he realizes two things in quick succession: He is undoubtedly a suspect as he has no convincing alibi, and he has his own suspicions as to what might have happened....

WITH PASSION AND DARING, THEY SEIZED THE PROMISE OF A NEW LAND... The seventh book in the dramatic and intriguing story about the colonisation of Australia: a country built on blood, passion, and dreams. The upheavels in the new colony are frequent and radical. A governor has recently been fired, a rebel government has been forced to retreat, and a new governor has arrived in Australia. Will this mean redemption for the freed prisoners in the exile colony? The country needs its loyal fighters — and Jenny Hawley and her family certainly belong there in spite of their past.

Whether treating dogs, cows or sheep, Yorkshire vet Julian Norton has come to recognise and appreciate the very particular ways in which healthy and happy animals express their well-being and contentment. Lambs will skip and gambol, cows will ruminate placidly and the gentle sounds and soft curious facial expression of alpacas or llamas are enough to lift the spirits and warm the coldest of hearts. Here in All Creatures, Julian tells the stories of each of the eight species he has the good fortune to care for every day.

The eleventh book in the dramatic and intriguing story about the colonisation of Australia: a country made of blood, passion, and dreams. Against overwhelming odds they fought to tame a savage land, now they must fight to keep it. For three tumultuous generations they had struggled to harness an alien wilderness, to lay the bold foundation for their dreams. But now, just as a radiant future beckons, they are menaced by distant powers hungry to seize what they have so bitterly won.

Four men once close to Jack Dodds, a London butcher, meet to carry out his peculiar last wish: to have his ashes scattered into the sea at Margate. For reasons best known to herself, Jack’s widow, Amy, declines to join them. On the surface a simple tale of an increasingly bizarre day’s outing, this Booker Prize-winning, internationally acclaimed novel is a resonant and classic exploration of the complexity and courage of ordinary lives.

The tenth book in the dramatic and intriguing story about the colonisation of Australia: a country built on blood, passion, and dreams. Not only Englishmen come to the new country of Australia. A young American, the only survivor of a shipwreck, has also ended up there. She stands alone in this new and completely foreign world. Another American, who served in the British army against Bonaparte, has arrived as well — voluntarily. In this melting pot, everyone must establish a life for themselves. The obstacles are many, but the future is still bright.

IN THE MIDST OF BLOODSHED AND REBELLION A NEW GENERATION STRUGGLED TO BE BORN... The fifth book in the dramatic and intriguing story about the colonisation of Australia: a country built on blood, passion, and dreams. In the British colony of Australia, the obstacles are challenging and never-ending. The new governor, Bligh — better known for his command on the Bounty and the mutiny against him — has already gained a relentless enemy: The New South Wales Corps, also known as The Rum Corps due to their profitable side business.

The sixth book in the dramatic and intriguing story about the colonisation of Australia: a country built on blood, passion, and dreams. Twenty thousand kilometres and four months of sailing are what stands between England and the colony of Australia. In his struggles to bring order in the colony, and to protect its settlers from abuse of power, and injustice, Governor Bligh is up against some powerful enemies and mischievous schemers. Three strong-minded governors have failed to complete the task before him... And England seems to have had enough of the war against France.

THEY FLED AN OLD WORLD RAVAGED BY WAR AND HEARTBREAK TO SEIZE THEIR HEARTS' DESIRES IN THE NEW... The ninth book in the dramatic and intriguing story about the colonisation of Australia: a country built on blood, passion, and dreams. Justin Broome, the son of two of the most legendary prisoners in New South Wales, learns that skill and courage do not stand a chance against prejudice. Bitterness and disappointment are mixed with the wear and tear of his everyday life; all the while shiploads of miserable prisoners and free settlers continue to arrive from a war-weary England.

In Rise Like Lions, Booker Prize winning writer Ben Okri has compiled a collection of poems that celebrate the many voices of politics, from polemics and rallying cries to lyrics and meditations. Many of these poems have resonated with readers over lifetimes and through generations, from William Blake to Marvin Gaye. In exploring the impact political poems have on ideas, vision, protest, change and truth, Okri demonstrates how the need for this strand of poetry is as great as it has ever been, and its inspiration just as powerful. 

When traces of a radioactive material are found with a body in Key West/Florida, multiple federal agencies suddenly descend on the scene. This is not just an isolated murder; a domestic terrorist group is ready to bring the US government to its knees. The threat hits close to home for ISB Agent Joe Dempsey when he discovers a personal connection to the group.

The nineteenth book in the dramatic and intriguing story about the colonisation of Australia: a country made of blood, passion, and dreams. Jon Fisher and Harry Ryan take part in a bloody war between the British and the Zulu in South Africa. Jon Fisher faces war in South Africa. The Zulus have proven themselves a surprisingly powerful enemy to the British Army. After losing his men during battle, Jon Fisher decides to go home to Australia. Harry Ryan has arranged passage for them on a merchant ship. And there starts their travels across the ocean to get back home.

Receiving letters by post or via e-mail has always been important to me. Even now I feel slightly disappointed if the postman passes the door without anything for me, even though I know the chances are it will be a bill, a parking fine, a bank statement or a catalogue offering me clothing or garden furniture. The same applies when my inbox is empty save for someone offering a deal on a used car or urging me to change my energy provider.

The eighteenth book in the dramatic and intriguing story about the colonisation of Australia: a country made of blood, passion, and dreams. Despite resistance from the native Maoris and Hauhaus, the settlers find themselves in a war between cultures. The settlers try to claim the bold frontier of New Zealand, but face opposition from two native tribes. The journey will be dangerous, and the consequences bloody. It is a matter of perishment or prevalence. Loyalty will be tested, love will fade, men will fall, but neither of the parties will back down without a fight.

An extraordinary reimagining of the life of one of the greatest screen comedians the world has ever known: a man who knew both adoration and humiliation; who loved and was loved in turn; who betrayed and was betrayed; who never sought to cause pain to others yet left a trail of affairs and broken marriages in his wake...and whose life was ultimately defined by one relationship of such tenderness and devotion that only death could sever it: his partnership with the man he knew as Babe. he is Stan Laurel. But he did not really exist. Stan Laurel was a fiction.