Showing results by narrator "Mark Elstob" in All Categories

In January 2020, leading epidemiologist Professor Mark Woolhouse learned of a new virus taking hold in China. He immediately foresaw a hard road ahead for the entire world, and emailed the Chief Medical Officer of Scotland warning that the UK should urgently begin preparations. A few days later he received a polite reply stating only that everything was under control.

There have been literally hundreds of books about T. E. Lawrence, best known as Lawrence of Arabia, but never a work quite like Legion. Legion tells the astonishing life story of an man who was far more than a war hero; for Lawrence was also an archaeologist, a linguist and translator, a historian and classicist, a marine engineer, an airman and one of the great English writers of the 20th century. He was also an enigma, even at times to himself, tormented by guilt and shame, by his masochism, self-loathing and his fear of his own sexuality.

Following the end of the Second World War, between 1945 and 1949, British forces occupied the northern part of what would become West Germany. Here, Daniel Cowling presents a political and military history of this occupation, but also explores the experiences of the thousands of British men and women who were tasked with building a democracy out of the ruins of Hitler's Germany. Don't Let's Be Beastly to the Germans offers telling insights into Britain's experience of the Second World War and the Cold War, and sheds light on the development of Britain's relationship with Europe since 1945.

In 1967, retired army major and self-made millionaire Paddy Roy Bates proclaimed himself ruler of the Principality of Sealand on a World War II Maunsell Sea Fort in the North Sea, off the East Anglian Coast - and began the peculiar story of the world’s most stubborn micronation. Having fought off attacks from the British government and armed mercenaries for half a century - and thwarted an attempted coup that saw the Prince Regent taken hostage - the self-proclaimed independent nation still stands.

In the seventh and eighth centuries AD, armies inspired by the new religion of Islam burst out of Arabia to subjugate the Levant, southwest Asia, North Africa and the Iberian peninsula. These Arab conquests followed immediately after the Prophet Mohammed's death in 632. By this time, against all the odds, he had managed to unite the feuding tribes of Arabia at the point of his sword. The Muslim conquests lasted until 750, by which time several generations of marauding Arab armies had carved out an Islamic empire which, in size and population, rivalled that of Rome at its zenith.

In 1679, Samuel Pepys is Secretary to the Admiralty, in charge of the navy, and at the right hand of King Charles. But also in 1679, England is awash with suspicion and fear. In this maelstrom of distrust, Pepys finds himself at the heart of a conspiracy, charged with treason and facing a...

After decades of peace and prosperity, the international order put in place after World War II is rapidly coming to an end. Disastrous foreign wars, global recession, the meteoric rise of China and India and the COVID pandemic have undermined the power of the West's international institutions and unleashed the forces of nationalism and protectionism. In this lucid and groundbreaking analysis, one of Britain's most experienced senior diplomats highlights the key dilemmas Britain faces.

'Lucid and entertaining. With barely an equation in sight, Numbercrunch makes a passionate case for how just a little bit more numeracy could help us all' - Tom Whipple, The Times 'The perfect introduction to the power of mathematics - fluent, friendly and practical' - Tim Harford, bestselling...

A little over a century ago, a young Albert Einstein presented his general theory of relativity to the world and utterly transformed our understanding of the universe. His theory changed the way we think about space and time, revealed how our universe has been expanding from a hot, dense state called the big bang and predicted black holes. Where the Universe Came From is a 13.8 billiion-year journey through the cosmos.

In the twelfth-century, Pisa was a thriving metropolis, a powerhouse of global trade, and a city that stood at the centre of Mediaeval Europe. But Pisa had a problem. It was running out of coins. In the face of financial crisis, it was here that the foundations of modern banking were born. In Money and Promises, the distinguished financier, entrepreneur and historian Paolo Zannoni examines the fascinating, complex relationship between states and banks.

British Redcoats torch the White House and 6,000 American sailors languish in the world’s largest prisoner-of-war camp, Dartmoor. A myriad of races and backgrounds, with some prisoners as young as 13. Known as the ‘hated cage’, Dartmoor wasn’t a place you’d expect to be full of life and invention. Yet prisoners taught each other foreign languages and science, put on plays and staged boxing matches. In daring efforts to escape they lived every prison-break cliché—how to hide the tunnel entrances, what to do with the earth.

A major international bestseller. The little-known true story of a Nazi plot to kill Winston Churchill, President Franklin Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin at the height of World War II, and how it was averted. In 1943 only three men stood in Hitler's way; Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin. As the war...

Famed for his effortless blend of satire and realism, Gogol is often considered the Godfather of Russian literature. At turns witty and whimsical, dark and ominous, his stories thrived on vibrant language, absurdist techniques as well as elements of the grotesque – the result of which is utterly unique. In this carefully curated collection, discover the unfortunate power of social status in 'The Overcoat', the doomed obsession with class in 'The Nose', the darkly comic opera, 'A May Night', and much more.

The Victorians invented the idea of the future. They saw it as an undiscovered country, one ripe for exploration and colonization. And to get us there, they created a new way of ordering and transforming nature, built on grand designs and the mass-mobilization of the resources of the British Empire.

You may not know his name. Aubrey was a modest man, a gentleman-scholar who cared far more for the preservation of history than for his own legacy. But he was a passionate collector, an early archaeologist and the inventor of modern biography. With all the wit, charm and originality that characterises her subject, Ruth Scurr has seamlessly stitched together John Aubrey's own words to tell his life story and a captivating history of 17th-century England unlike any other.

In 146 BC, Greece yielded to the military might of the Roman Republic; sixty years later, when Athens and other Greek city-states rebelled against Rome, the general Lucius Cornelius Sulla destroyed the city of Socrates and Plato, laying waste to the famous Academy where Aristotle had studied. However, the traditions of Greek cultural life would continue to flourish during the centuries of Roman rule that followed, in the lives and work of a distinguished array of philosophers, doctors, scientists, geographers, travellers and theologians.

Cambridge philosophy student Rickie Elliot—an orphan, lame in one foot—wants to be a writer. He exists in the intense university environment, influenced by relationships with other students both intellectual and sporty, and faces a growing involvement with the beautiful Agnes Pembroke. But he finds himself ill prepared for the reality of life and work in the outside world, further complicated by the unexpected appearance of a half-brother. His life moves toward compromise shaped by marriage and a teaching post. Where will this ultimately lead?

Malcolm has held on to a secret for more than fifty years: a letter his sister Sophy gave him just before she died. He had promised to give it to the young doctor she met one night during the Liverpool Blitz: a night that altered the course of her life. But the letter was never delivered. Now, after so many years of uncertainty, Malcolm has decided to share Sophy's secret with her daughter Agnes.

One crew takes the long route, sleeping for 1,000 years, in secret, on a ship called The Human Frontier. The other crew set off hundreds of years later, at hyper speed. When the sleepers wake as they approach the planet, the hyper-speed crew have been living there for 300 years already - and they have no clue the ‘sleepers’ are about to arrive.

Stephen takes the listener from his earliest school days when it became clear he was academically bright, especially in math, attending prep school, winning a scholarship to major public school Uppingham where he won math prizes and, aged 16, passed 3 S (scholarship) levels. By then he had decided to be a bookie. He attended an interview for Cambridge University only because it was on his bicycle route to Newmarket races!