Showing results by narrator "Lloyd Matthew Davies" in All Categories

In March 2008, the public learned the news that Prince Harry had been fighting with British troops in Afghanistan. This amazing book gives the definitive inside story of Prince Harry's brave service and reveals, amongst other breathtaking stories, how the third in line to the throne was operating only 500 yards from enemy positions, calling in air strikes and carrying out surveillance of Taliban fighters in Helmand province.

When Aiden agrees to run the Mad Mucker - a 12-mile muddy slog over an obstacle course - he’s expecting it to be a bit of a laugh. The training will be tough, but Aiden could use the motivation to regain some fitness.

A queen of punk before her time. A duo on the brink of stardom. A night that will define their story for ever. Opal is a fiercely independent young woman pushing against the grain in her style and attitude, a Black punk artist before her time. Despite her unconventional looks, Opal believes she can be a star. So when the aspiring British singer/songwriter Neville Charles discovers her one night, she takes him up on his offer to make rock music together.

Spain, 1639. When Len de Montemayor’s family is killed, she thinks her life is over until an aristocratic family rescues her. Len finds a soul mate in their son, Piers, and as they grow up together, their friendship becomes a love so intense that it comes with a promise: it will last forever. But with the outbreak of civil war, a dutiful Piers knows his fate is with the Royal Navy, leaving Len waving from the shore as he sails toward an uncertain future.

First published in the Forum in 1889, In the Year 2889 was published in France the next year. A humorous and insightful look into a future society, the novella is now believed to be chiefly if not entirely the work of Jules Verne's son, Michel Verne, albeit continuing the work of Jules Verne by echoing many of his much-visited themes and ideas.

The climactic concluding novel in the spellbinding magical contemporary fantasy Aetherial Tales trilogy. A painting, depicting haunting scenes of a ruined palace and a scarlet-haired goddess in front of a fiery city, arrives unheralded in an art gallery with a cryptic note saying, “The world needs to see this.” The painting begins to change the lives of the woman who is the gallery's curator and that of an ancient man of the fey Aetherial folk who has mysteriously risen from the depths of the ocean.

Once a renowned tournament fighter known as the "Lion of Kent", William Raven joined the Templars in the Holy Land to escape his past and the political machinations of his enemies. Called to protect travelling pilgrims bound for Jerusalem, William comes face to face with Guy de Metz, his lover from the past. But Guy is no longer the foppish young noble William knew.

When Andrew - a second-hand-book dealer - comes across a pile of photographs from police archives, he decides to exhibit them. But then the gallery is raided the day before the opening, and the photos seized with surprising violence. It soon becomes clear that someone, somewhere, wants to keep the images hidden. Who? Why? And who - in a world where kidnap, subterfuge and even murder are the norm, and where no one is safe or above suspicion - can Andrew turn to for help?

A bewildering feature of so much contemporary political violence is its stunning impersonality. Every major city center becomes a potential shooting gallery; and every metro system a potential bomb alley. Victims just happen, as the saying goes, to "be in the wrong place at the wrong time". We accept this contemporary reality - at least to some degree. But we rarely ask: where has it come from historically? Killing Strangers examines how such violence became "unchained" from interpersonal relationships.

An abandoned church in a village set in time-the ideal setting for murder. Detective Inspector Tremayne and his sergeant, Clare Yarwood, are hard pushed to solve the crime and to stay alive.

One of Jules Verne's final books, The Master of the World, which was released in 1904, is a science fiction classic. The novel was written as Verne's health was deteriorating. The Master of the World is a "dark novel," full of dread and anxiety about the emergence of totalitarianism and tyrants, embodied by the novel's antagonist, Robur.

A flawed heist of forty gold bars from a security van late at night. One of the perpetrators is killed by his brother as they argue over what they have stolen. Eighteen years later, the murderer, released after serving his sentence for his brother's murder, waits in a church for a man purporting to be the brother he killed. The threads stretch back a long way, and now more people are dying in the search for the missing gold bars.

For Lee "Kix" Thompson, life is about having fun - even when times are tough. Growing Out of It is the tale of one "nutty boy" not really growing out of it at all. From getting up to no good as a teenager to his many musical (mis)adventures in the 1970s, Lee's memoir of his formative years captures his enduring love for his north London stomping ground, where he first met the other members of Madness.

Michael Irvine is 33 years old, drives a 12-year-old car, and lives with his parents. His job bores him, and his love is unrequited. Very few people pay attention to Michael, and that suits him fine. Then one day, he finds himself the winner of the largest lottery in the history of Europe: €190,000,000. Under the weight of his newfound wealth and fame, Michael's life spirals out of control until he is forced to make a decision.

The second-quickest way to get yourself killed when dealing with Coldi people of the planet Asto is to look a superior in the eye. The Coldi people possess an instinct that demands the formation of hierarchical networks in which every person has a prescribed place. These networks provide stability. They also place one person at the top. Ezhya Palayi is that person. After having been released by his previous employers, Cory Wilson not only depends on Ezhya Palayi for his income, but he has developed an unusually friendly relationship with this man whom people on Earth would call an absolute dictator, but whose reign is benign.

The elven city of Elvorium has become corrupted to the core by politics. With his father dead and The Royal Schism at his back, Prince Hairem becomes the king of the elven world on Sevrigel. Young and daring, Hairem is determined to undo the council's power, but quickly finds his loyal council members brutally murdered by an assassin loosed within the city.

In this ambitious novel, Phillips creates a dazzling kaleidoscope of historical fiction, one that illuminates the dark legacy of Europe’s obsession with race and blood. At the center of The Nature of Blood is a young woman, a Nazi death camp survivor, devastated by the loss of everyone she loves. Her story is interwoven with a cast of characters from both the present and past: her uncle Stephan, Othello the Moorish general, three Jews in 15th century Venice, and an Ethiopian Jew struggling for acceptance in contemporary Israel.

DCI Adam Bishop has never seen anything like it. Five murder victims – all with numbers written above. And the spray-painted daubs reveal a horrific truth: the killer is counting down. When Dr Romilly Cole learns of the murders, they trigger memories of a traumatic past she has tried hard to forget. But getting involved with the case is a bad idea. She and Bishop have history – and working together could never end well. Adam and Romilly soon realise the truth lies in a decades-old case, and only Romilly holds the key.

Cory Wilson is woken in the middle of the night with a summons to appear in the president of Nations of Earth's office. An aid worker in Djibouti has discovered a shipment of alien guns. As ambassador to gamra, the extraterrestrial organization which controls the Exchange, the FTL wormhole network, Cory has often been critical of Earth's handling of extraterrestrial problems. This is his moment to shine, to apply his knowledge about alien customs, to, in the words of the president, "get those idiots out of there".

Companies that are thriving, not just surviving, are much more than a set of ruthlessly efficient and mechanistic processes. They are a social system operated by people for people. The quality of relationships, both inside and outside the organization, is a far more important driver of sustainable success or failure than the quality of its control systems. The head is important, but it is the heart that matters most.