Showing results by narrator "Callum" in All Categories

England's most famous date, 1066: At the monastery of De'Ath's Dingle, during a completely pointless theological debate, there is a mysterious death. Routine business for the average investigative medieval monk. Unfortunately, this isn’t a tale of average monks. Anyone who would put the idiot Brother Simon in charge of a murder investigation is either one chant short of a plainsong or is up to something. When Brother Hermitage, innocent in every way, including bystanding, is lined up for execution, he begins to wonder if something might be going on.

A dashing Regency romance from the legendary Georgette Heyer, founder of the genre. Captain John Staple's exploits against Napoleon's armies in the Iberian Peninsula have earned him the nickname 'Crazy Jack' amongst his comrades in the Dragoon Guards - but once the Battle of Waterloo brings the curtain down once and for all on the Napoleonic Wars, the boisterous, adventure-loving captain finds life in peacetime intolerably dull.

The Honourable Christopher Fancot, on leave from the diplomatic service in the summer of 1817, is startled to find his entrancing but incorrigibly extravagant mother on the brink of financial and social ruin - and more than alarmed to find that his twin, Evelyn, has disappeared without trace. Christopher - Kit - is forced into an outrageous masquerade by the tangled affairs of his wayward family: his rigid uncle, Lord Brumby; the surprisingly wily Sir Bonamy Ripple; the formidable old Lady Stavely and Evelyn's betrothed, Cressy.

Oregon, summer 1983. A series of mysterious deaths shakes the coastal town of Harmony Bay from its peaceful sleep. Shortly after the death of his wife, Sheriff Cody is called upon to investigate numerous murders which all exhibit strange puncture wounds. Cody and his team expect the murders are committed by a serial killer, but it soon becomes clear something more sinister lurks behind this idyllic town, which becomes his worst nightmare.

Malcolm George Galbraith is a large, somewhat clumsy Scotsman. He’s being forced to leave the woman he loves behind and needs to explain why. So he leaves her a note on the kitchen table Malcolm decides to start from the beginning and tell the whole story of his long life, something he’s never dared do before. Because Malcolm isn’t what he seems. As it gathers pace, Malcolm’s story combines tragedy, comedy, mystery, a touch of leprosy, several murders, a massacre, a ritual sacrifice, an insane tyrant, two great romances, a landslide, a fire, and a talking fish.

Brought to you by Puffin. A heartwarming story about family, friendship and finding your inner fire. Between bullies at school and changes at home, Charlie Challinor finds life a bit scary. And when he's made guardian of a furry fox cub called Cadno, things get a whole lot scarier. Because Cadno...

Humanity can make short work of the oceans' creatures. In 1741, hungry explorers discovered herds of Steller's sea cow in the Bering Strait, and in less than thirty years, the amiable beast had been harpooned into extinction. It's a classic story, but a key fact is often omitted. Bering Island was the last redoubt of a species that had been decimated by hunting and habitat loss years before the explorers set sail.

Set entirely on a London bus travelling from Hoxton to Highbury and taking place over just 36 minutes, the events of The 392 unfold through a cast of charismatic characters coming from very different worlds. On the 392 are all the familiar faces you might expect to see on any bus ride through inner-city London in the grip of gentrification; delinquent school kids, the high-flyers, the weird, the wonderful and the homeless. These Londoners share two things: a bus journey and a threat. A threat which is ready to blow apart everything they know.

Renowned novelist and poet Thomas Hardy is best known for his fatalistic, often tragic novels set in the 'realistic dream-country' of Wessex, in south and south-west England. Drawing on his own life, he created some of the most memorable characters and stories in Victorian literature—many of which are included here. In five dramas taken from Radio 4's 'Hardy's Women' season, we meet a few of Thomas Hardy's most compelling female protagonists.

Brought to you by Penguin. All legends start somewhere . . . After defeating the evil Grendilock and saving Cadno, the last firefox, Charlie Challinor is looking forward to a well-earned rest. But when a familiar face appears from the realm of Fargone, Charlie's family is once again swept up...

It's been said that, after 9/11, the 2008 financial crash and the COVID-19 pandemic, we're a more fearful society than ever before. Yet fear, and the panic it produces, have long been driving forces - perhaps the driving force - of world history: fear of God, of famine, war, disease, poverty, and other people. In Fear: An Alternative History of the World, Robert Peckham considers the impact of fear in history, as both a coercive tool of power and as a catalyst for social change.

Brought to you by Puffin. The third magical adventure in the Last Firefox series. When out-of-control weather brings danger to his home town, Charlie Challinor suspects that more than climate change might be to blame. Heading back to Fargone with Cadno the firefox, Lippy and Roo, Charlie...

Bluegrass band Moorland Grass is on the verge of turning pro and hitting the music world like a cymbal crash. But the death of their fiddler, Dylan Ingram, has thrown a sour note into the band's future as well as thrown the lads' working relationships off-key. Now, one year after the murder, former police detective Michael McLaren is asked to investigate. As McLaren pokes into the case, he hears about sharp words and flat expectations, and gets an earful of anger—some coming from the band members, some from Dylan's family.

Unlock the door to executive success with "Boardroom Blueprint," the essential guide for ambitious professionals aiming to fast-track their way to the boardroom. This transformative book by Callum Laing is your secret weapon to leapfrogging decades in your career, promising advancement of 20 years in just 60 days. "Boardroom Blueprint" distills Laing's extensive experience into a straightforward five-component methodology, challenging conventional career advancement methods.

Joe's world is turned upside down when he discovers a shattered compass among the brambles where the Crystal Palace once stood and travels through time back to 1888.

Ten Temporal Destinations That Exist Where the Past Whispers in the Present is a journey through places where time seems to fold in on itself—where echoes of long-forgotten empires, revolutions, tragedies, and triumphs still cling to stone, soil, and air. These are not your typical travel spots, nor are they frozen in time like museum displays. They are living, breathing locations where history feels vividly alive—where the boundary between “then” and “now” shimmers like heat on an ancient road.

When Sir Reginald Sinclair, one of Britain's greatest actors, is found dead at his country estate along with his housekeeper and the local vicar, the pressure is on Detective Inspector Malcolm Goode and his team to solve the case quickly. But with very few clues and no obvious suspects, the investigation just seems to uncover the many secrets hidden away by the Sinclair family. With every new line of inquiry leading to another dead end and no motive to be found, finding a solution seems impossible.

'I would be most unhappy to think that any part of this memoir should be cut on grounds of 'decency', for those bits are essential....' So begins the lively true story of aristocrat and travel writer Roderic Fenwick Owen. Born in 1921, Fenwick Owen had an extraordinary life, which careered between some of the biggest moments in history and took him to the ends of the earth, meeting (and even living with) some of the 20th century's most well-known people along the way, including Eisenhower, Jackson Pollock, Christopher Lee and Sean Connery.

Winnie the Pooh, Christopher Robin, and all their friends have been delighting children, and grown-up children, for a long, long time, since about last Friday! He may be a Bear of Very Little Brain, but he certainly has A Lot of Pluck and a Big Heart.

Forbidden from pursuing her calling, Shadow Holmes, the great-granddaughter of Mycroft Holmes, Sherlock’s older—and smarter—brother, works for her father selling real estate in Miami. To compound matters, Shadow has no idea her father is the director of The Bee, a clandestine British spy agency, until she and her parents are poisoned by the bewitching—and decidedly evil— Professor Jane Moriarty.