Showing results by narrator "Clive Mantle" in All Categories

Arriving at harvest-time in a sleepy rural village on the outskirts of Wells, the Palmer family are making a fresh start. At first, this smaller, slower world seems to offer few distractions, but even before winter has arrived, the open fields, cobbled streets, and steamy coffee shops begin to yield opportunities - especially for Jim with his eye for easy money and a pretty face.

It will take someone from Special Branch to look into it, someone capable of speaking the relevant languages. Only one man fits the bill - Seymour, an officer from an East End immigrant background. Capable, hardworking, but ... not entirely British.

Abridged edition. At the outbreak of the Second World War, a mismatched group of passengers flee across the Atlantic to escape Britain and – thousands of feet in the air – find themselves facing grave danger. Night Over Water is a masterful historical thriller from Ken Follett. The Eve of...

On 6 June, 1944, Britain woke up to a profound silence. Overnight, 160,000 Allied troops had vanished and an eerie emptiness settled over the country. The majority of those men would never return. This is the story of that extraordinary 24 hours. Using a wealth of first-person testimonies, renowned historian Max Arthur recounts a remarkable new oral history of D-Day, beginning with the two years leading up to the silent day that saw the UK transformed by the arrival of thousands of American and Canadian troops.

Barcelona in 1912 is a city still recovering from the dramatic incidents of the so-called 'Tragic Week' when Catalan conscripts bound for the unpopular war in Spanish Morocco had rebelled at the city's dockside against the royalist forces. In the fighting many were killed and afterwards even more were thrown into prison. Including an Englishman, who was later found dead in his cell.

Published in time for Remembrance Day 2008, the 90th anniversary of the end of the First World War, We Will Remember Them commemorates the veterans who are no longer among us. With an introduction by Henry Allingham, 110, only survivor of the Battle of the Somme and Britain's oldest living man, Max Arthur's new book expands the circle of contributors by interviewing the families of First World War veterans.

Hugh Laurie, Rory Bremner and Morwenna Banks star in this six-part comedy series that sends up both politics and traditional sitcom conventions 1993, and the party of the loony right and centre sweeps to power, changing the face of politics forever and drastically disrupting the very normal...

Dr Jason Love is a middle-aged medical practitioner content with his life in rural Somerset, where he has relocated after the Second World War. However, the promise of a rare sports car tempts him into a seemingly insignificant rendezvous for MI6 that will change his quiet country life forever. Reluctant hero of a series of international best sellers by James Leasor, Dr Love’s first outing sees him thrust into a thrilling world of secrets, spies and intrigue.

Miggea – a world on the very edge of reality. The cusp between this universe and the next. And the venue for the grand finals of the competition to win the fabled Arrow of Law. The Doctor and Amy have joined the Terraphiles – a group obsessed with Earth’s history, and dedicated to...

In 1828, the beautiful Rosina Wheeler married one of Victorian England’s most successful and prolific writers, Edward Bulwer-Lytton. What followed shocked and entertained the public for over thirty years. After their marriage broke down, Rosina refused to be silenced. She pursued her husband with a single-minded and very public crusade to prove she was in the right. She even interrupted her husband’s election campaign to denounce him to the assembled voters. Edward responded by threatening to have her committed to a lunatic asylum.

Athens, 1912, and the country is on the brink of war. The new Greek Prime minister Venizelos, tired of the Ottoman overlords, has a dream - which he refers to as his 'Great Idea'. The idea is to form a new nation, uniting all the Greek people scattered around the Mediterranean. Not such a great idea in the view of other countries, among them Britain, who believes in letting sleeping dogs lie. Not to mention cats. Such as the one recently poisoned in Salonica which belonged to the exiled former Sultan.

As a boy, Simon Garfield started collecting "errors" - rare stamps flawed by printing faults and absent colours. As an adult his childhood obsession became a full-blown mid-life crisis. This amusing but painfully revealing account of a passion he was once only able to admit to people he could really trust traces his fascination for these tiny print slip-ups from the simple pleasures of boyhood to an attempt to create order out of chaos and finally the gradual decline and break-up of his marriage.

Britain's history is a sweeping saga of blood, death, love, sex and betrayal, peopled by a cast of extraordinary characters. Yet, when it comes down to it, there are only around 150 key things we really need to know that have shaped the story of these islands. Whether it's the Battle of Hastings or Henry VIII, the English Civil War or the Blitz, Remember, Remember, is a history of Britain in bite-sized chunks, containing all the important dates, people and events - but without the boring bits.

A racy romp for young readers involving spies, helicopters, and a dramatic dash across a border.

Malta, 1913, and hot air balloons hover over the Grand Harbour. But one of them falls from the sky, the balloonist dying later from his injuries. He is not the only one to die unexpectedly at the Naval Hopspital, however, as a letter to the Times points out. Special Investigator Seymour of the Foreign Office is sent out from London to uncover the truth. Malta is still a British protectorate; indeed, with its red post boxes, English beer, and English language, it seems like an exotic "Little Britain". But as the rumblings of war reach the small island, many of the old Maltese families are becoming divided in their loyalties.

Iggy is an Urk. The Urks are a warlike race with bushy beards and hairy legs – especially some of the women. Urks like boulder-rolling and chasing lizards. They also like the Feast of Urks. This is when Urk boys must pass the Testing to become warriors.But Iggy isn’t quite like other Urks. He likes inventing things. Which is why he has been neglecting his axe-wielding practice. So it is unfortunate for him that the Testing involves killing a large snake – using an axe....

Tim can’t speak much French. Grk can speak even less. But they have to learn fast when they take the train to France and track down the evil Colonel Zinfandel.In the sixth of their thrilling adventures, Tim and Grk chase Colonel Zinfandel from the top of the Eiffel Tower to the bottom of the River Seine, and finally discover the true meaning of revenge.

When Tim discovers a man badly hurt on a beach, his sun-kissed relaxing holiday in the Seychelles takes on a more dangerous twist. He and Grk are the only ones, it seems, who want to know what happened. They find themselves speeding towards a well-guarded private island, and single-handedly foiling a dastardly plot threatening the local endangered giant tortoises.

Race to the Pole tells of several expeditions into the unknown. It looks at Scott, the old fashioned hero whose lack of preparation led to tragedy, and at Shackleton, who refused to sacrifice his men to the cause.

When Iggy finds a girl lost in the jungle, he instantly knows she is from the Henna tribe. The Henna tribe all have fiery red hair and like to cover themselves in mud. Iggy decides to escort her on the long, scary journey back to the Cloud Mountains where she lives. But when he gets there, the welcome is not exactly what he imagined. Luckily he has an excellent and cunning plan! Err... The third fantastic 'Iggy the Urk' story from bestselling author Alan MacDonald.