Showing results by narrator "Thomas Judd" in All Categories

The story of a fascinating man who connected the great politicians, artists and thinkers at the height of British global power and influence. A famed aesthete and patron, Philip Sassoon's world was one of luxury and classic English elegance with oriental flair. He gathered a social set that would provide inspiration for Brideshead Revisited.

An unknown thief steals an important naval treaty from the office of a government clerk. Who stole it and how did they do it? Will the treaty ever be recovered? This sounds like a case for England's most brilliant sleuth!

To be alive is to be in perpetual change: growing, healing, learning, aging. In Shapeshifters, award-winning writer and doctor Gavin Francis considers the transformations in mind and body that continue across the arc of human life. Some of these changes we have little choice about. We can't avoid puberty, the menopause, or our hair turning grey. Others may be welcome milestones along our path - a much-wanted pregnancy, a cancer cured, or a long-awaited transition to another gender.

Karin Müller of the German Democratic Republic's People's Police is called to a factory in the east of the country. A man has been murdered - bound and trapped as a fire burned nearby, slowly suffocating him. Could his murderer simply be someone with a grudge against the factory's nationalisation, as Müller's Stasi colleagues insist? Why too is her deputy Werner Tilsner behaving so strangely? As more victims surface, it becomes clear that there is a cold-blooded killer out there taking their revenge.

Under the burning sun, Micah escapes the city he has always called home. His father dead, his mentor slain, his workshop burned to the ground, all he has left are his two closest friends: fellow runaway slave, the fierce Shilah; and Cam, the last good noble. They are hunted by the oppressors they dared to challenge. For though they are alone, they are not empty-handed. Micah wields a machine that will alter their fiery land forever: an invention of his own making that can create Cold. In a world where rivers boil in their beds and the sky glows red, this changes everything.

It's difficult to find love in a profession like Ambroise's - even his father despises what he does.... And while Manelle, a home-help for the elderly in the same small French town, adores her days spent with her eccentric clients, she too often ends her evenings alone. So when an unusual request from Manelle's favourite client - 82-year-old retired chef gourmand Samuel - brings the two of them together for an unlikely road trip to Switzerland, along with Ambroise's cake-loving grandmother, it might just be time for the rest of their lives to begin....

Europe is facing a wave of migration unmatched since the end of World War II - and no one has reported on this crisis in more depth or breadth than the Guardian's migration correspondent, Patrick Kingsley. Throughout 2015 Kingsley travelled to 17 countries along the migrant trail, meeting hundreds of refugees making epic odysseys across deserts, seas and mountains to reach the holy grail of Europe. This is Kingsley's unparalleled account of who these voyagers are.

Jason Cowley, editor-in-chief of the New Statesman, examines contemporary England through a handful of the key news stories from recent times to reveal what they tell us about the state of the nation and to answer the question Who Are We Now? Spanning the years since the election of Tony Blair’s New Labour government to the aftermath of the Covid pandemic, the book investigates how England has changed and how those changes have affected us.

Phineas G. Nanson, a disenchanted graduate student, decides to immerse himself in the messiness of ‘real life’ by writing a biography of a great biographer. But a ‘whole life’ is hard to find. Everywhere he looks he finds fragments and gaps. Phineas’ mind tracks the journeys of his subjects from the deserts of Africa to the maelstroms of the Arctic. Along the way he meets others building wholes from bits and pieces - taxonomists, ecologists, even travel agents - and begins to puzzle out his future. But who will guide him from the labyrinth and back into his own life?

Twelve-year-old Jones is an orphan, training as an apprentice hunter alongside his mentor, Maitland, tackling ogres, trolls and all manner of creatures that live in the Badlands. When an ogre hunt goes wrong and Maitland is killed, Jones finally has a chance to find out where he came from. But the truth he uncovers isn’t what he’s expecting, and it seems that if Jones is going to make his dream come true he’ll have to defeat a creature not even Maitland had dared take on, and he won’t be able to do it alone....

A space-obsessed child conjures up a vortex in his mother's airing cupboard. A musician finds her friendship with a flock of birds opens up unexpected possibilities. A rat catcher, summoned to a decaying royal palace, is plunged into a battle for the throne of a ruined kingdom. Two newlyweds find themselves inhibited by the arrival in their lives of an outsized and watchful stuffed bear.

He's going to a place he's never been before: home. Moon Two is a space station that orbits approximately 250 miles above Earth. It travels 17,500 miles an hour, making one full orbit every 90 minutes. It's also the only home that 15-year-old Leo and two other teens have ever known. Born and raised on Moon Two, Leo and the twins, Orion and Libra, are finally old enough and strong enough to endure the dangerous trip to Earth.

Boy 23 isn't in My Place any more. He can't see The Screen, he can't hear The Voice. Boy 23 is alone. One dark night, Boy 23 is thrown in the back of the van and driven out of My Place - the only home he has ever known. He is abandoned in a forest with a rucksack containing the bare essentials for survival. Before the van drives away, a voice tells him he must run as far as he can. His life depends on it. Boy 23 has never known another human.

An underground passage leads from the Dell nursery to Saint Patricia’s asylum. Only the children enter, leaving their minders behind. On the other side are their parents - some of the most dangerous psychopaths in the country. Jan has just started working at the nursery. He is a loner with many secrets and one goal. He must get inside the asylum.... What is his connection with one of the inmates, a famous singer? What really happened when a boy in his care went missing nine years ago?

Prepare to discover a fascinating country; a land buffeted for centuries by power-struggles and revolts, lorded over by Turks, carved up by its neighbours, and subsumed into the Soviet Union. Yet also a land of proud and resilient people, of crawfish hunters and bagpipe makers, shepherds and gypsies, in which daily life goes on.

Mary Poppins takes Jane and Michael on a topsy-turvy day. A boy watches over a beautiful swan. These classic stories are wonderful to share and enjoy with your child at any time of the year.

London, 1939. As war is declared once more, a shadow falls over Britain. The staff at the luxurious Buckingham hotel must do all that they can to keep their important guests happy, but behind the scenes, they are scared. Away from the glitz and the glamour of the ballroom, they must face this new reality. With a new hotel manager at the helm, no one knows what the future holds. But as fashionable society retreats from London and staff depart to sign up for service, one thing is certain: life at the Buckingham will never be the same again.

Eight hundred years ago, the Jadans angered the Crier. In punishment, the Crier took their Cold away, condemning them to a life of enslavement in a world bathed in heat. Or so the tale goes. During the day, as the Sun blazes over his head, Micah leads the life of any Jadan slave, running errands through the city of Paphos at the mercy of the petty Nobles and ruthless taskmasters.

There's a hurricane smashing, trashing, bashing through our house. CRASH! BANG! WALLOP! The doors are slamming, chairs are falling, cushions are flying, feet running, voices shouting, STOP! STOP! STOP! STOP! The hurricane is Wills. Chris's 13 year old brother. He has A.D.D. - Attention Deficit Disorder. Chris says it stands for Acts Dumb and Daft. It's not easy being eleven and having a brother who causes so much chaos around the house.

Cityboy is back! The best-selling author of Cityboy returns with an explosive, edge-of-the-seat thriller of City corruption, devious scams, and monstrously bad behaviour.

Steve Jones, our Cityboy hero, wants to get out of the City. But he needs a big pay day. And like the expert chancer he is, he sees an opportunity. Hacking into his boss’s computer, he finds something that chills him to the bone. But when his recklessness leads to murder and he becomes the prime suspect, it’s time to go on the run.