Showing results by narrator "Sam" in All Categories

Brought to you by Penguin. The new laugh-out-loud series from bestselling duo Sam Copeland and Jenny Pearson. Something bad is happening at Little Strangehaven Primary. What are the peculiar SHIVERS that keep striking the school, bringing Strangeness in their wake - from uncontrollable ballroom...

On 14 February 1989, Valentine's Day, Salman Rushdie was telephoned by a BBC journalist and told that he had been "sentenced to death" by the Ayatollah Khomeini. For the first time he heard the word fatwa. His crime? To have written a novel called The Satanic Verses, which was accused of being "against Islam, the Prophet and the Quran". So begins the extraordinary story of how a writer was forced underground, moving from house to house, with the constant presence of an armed police protection team.

Spring 1924. Scotland. The ancient halls of Clan McFee’s castle echo with the whispers of history—and now, the stirrings of ambition and rivalry. The old Laird has passed away, leaving no will, no children, and no clear heir.

The Legionnaire swings the MG-muzzle. The smoke eats its way into the officers’ stomachs. They drop to the snow-covered ground, coloring it red. Bestial shrieks sound from the woods as a wave of fur clad soldiers storm out. They are near the Finish-Russian frontline. The machine guns snarl till the magazines are emptied. Old Man’s platoon, with Tiny the giant and Porta in the lead, fights a rough battle behind Russian lines.

Ursula K. Le Guin was one of the most revered and influential writers of the 20th century. Her Earthsea books have sold millions of copies and been translated into numerous languages, while her trailblazing novel The Left Hand of Darkness was a landmark in feminist science fiction and ranks among the greatest SF novels of all time. This BBC collection brings together the magical radio retellings of both these seminal classics.

Despite living on Earth for almost 30 years, Simon Armstrong knows he is not of our world. Still, with his interplanetary mission almost over, he’ll soon be saying goodbye to a life he’s struggled to navigate and the humans he doesn’t much like. The only creature he’ll likely miss will be Merle, the antisocial cat he shares his home with.

In 1975, at the height of Indira Gandhi’s “Emergency”, V. S. Naipaul returned to India, the country his ancestors had left 100 years earlier. Out of that journey he produced this concise masterpiece: a vibrant, defiantly unsentimental portrait of a society traumatized by centuries of foreign conquest and immured in a mythic vision of its past.

Derby Day at Epsom Downs and a multitude of people crowd to watch the races: dukes and dustmen, bishops and beggars, privileged ladies and prostitutes. The gamut of Victorian society, though, is also a hotbed for crime and crooks of all kinds. With the country a-flutter in the run-up to this national occasion, events reach fever pitch when a disembodied head is discovered on a passenger train at Crewe; the first in a murky course of events that takes in murder, fraud and race-fixing.

A suspicious accident, a dead man's gun and a lost tomb. Strange events disturb the peace of Lanscombe Park, the magnificent country seat of Lord Godolphin Sinclair....

On a dark, brooding evening on the Isle of Wight, Agnes Raybould and her companion find themselves an empty first-class compartment on the train. But before long a middle-aged man, clearly in high spirits after dining at his club, joins them, and begins a conversation. His name is Edwin Blanchard – and within moments of the train leaving the station, Agnes and her accomplice strangle him.

A man shot through the heart with an arrow - the victim a rich outsider who has moved into Ashton Hall in the village of Ashton Steeple...which is Lennox's own village, and everyone is watching as he and Swift try to hunt down the killer. Persi, Lennox's new wife, is keen to help, so is the whole household, including Tommy the boot boy and Greggs the ever stalwart butler. But the killer is clever, and devious and is always a step ahead, and it will take all of Swift's dogged detective work and Lennox's erratic intelligence, to track the murderer down.

Set in the mid-twentieth century and told with beauty and tenderness, Robert Seethaler's A Whole Life is a story of man's relationship with an ancient landscape, of the value of solitude, of the arrival of the modern world, and above all, of the moments, great and small, that make us who we are. Andreas Egger knows every path and peak of his mountain valley, the source of his sustenance, his livelihood, his home.

Brought to you by Penguin. Celebrate the legacy of The Empire Strikes Back with this exciting reimagining of the timeless film featuring new perspectives from forty acclaimed authors. On May 21, 1980, Star Wars became a true saga with the release of The Empire Strikes Back. In honor of the...

In this brutally honest, darkly funny, and deeply human memoir, paramedic Trevor Wain takes you through one full year on the job. Each day brings a new call, a new patient, and a fresh reminder that truth is always stranger than fiction. From tragic to ridiculous — cardiac arrests, collapses in supermarkets, patients who need help but don’t want it, and even the odd child with their finger stuck somewhere it definitely shouldn’t be — Trevor captures the raw, unfiltered reality of ambulance life.

One February evening in northern England, a young woman is shot in the head and left in a coma. Eight months later she dies, thus becoming a welcome excuse to dispatch the odious Inspector Dover as far as possible from London. It soon appears that Isobel Slatcher could have been smothered in her hospital bed with a pillow. Now Dover may have two murderers to catch: one who pulled the trigger, the other the last visitor she had in her short lifetime. If, that is, the town’s warring Catholics and Protestants will only stop distracting him. 

Bloomsbury presents The Worst Class in the World Gets Worse by Joanna Nadin, read by Sam Newton. ‘Deliciously silly, with hilarious catchphrases… a great cheer-up book’ The Guardian ‘HILARIOUS! Proper laughs!’ Pamela Butchart ______________________________ A laugh-out-loud young...

An unmissable paraquel to the internationally bestselling Skulduggery Pleasant series, The Skulduggery Pleasant Grimoire is at once a thrilling recap of the books so far, a reference guide to characters, and a treasure-trove of bonus content. As the Skulduggery Pleasant series nears its end...

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to chuck it all in and do something completely different? One night over a few too many beers, Sam Manicom decided to ride a motorcycle the length of Africa. A mad idea? Or a world of opportunity opening up? There was just one obstacle; Sam didn’t know how to ride a motorcycle, and if he was going to make it through the Sahara before the months of intense summer heat hit, he had just 3 months to learn and get across Europe to Egypt. Into Africa is a story that takes you exploring an incredible continent.

Brought to you by Penguin. When siblings Ava and Luke discover a mysterious notebook in their dad’s attic they are instantly intrigued. And, as they read through letters, diary entries, newspaper cuttings and notarised secret recordings, they realise that a decades-old, still unsolved, murder...

There's a damsel in distress and accusations of attempted murder flying around, but it's not in the comfortable confines of the English countryside; it's in the very distant city of Damascus. Lennox must go and investigate, although he's not too keen on exotic locations, and his old retainer Greggs is distinctly averse to the very idea. Nevertheless, ex-Chief Inspector Swift persuades them, and they reach the ancient city to discover a movie crew, a spy, and a couple of mysterious ladies.