Showing results by narrator "Matt Bates" in All Categories

Thought-provoking and eye-opening, Blood and Silk is an accessible, personal look at modern Southeast Asia, written by one of the region's most experienced outside observers. This is a first-hand account of what it's like to sit at the table with deadly Thai Muslim insurgents, mediate between warring clans in the Southern Philippines and console the victims of political violence in Indonesia - all in an effort to negotiate peace and understand the reasons behind endemic violence.

In more than 40 stories from the glory days of rock’n’roll, featuring Lou Reed, Elton John, Sting and The Clash, Allan Jones remembers a world that once was – one of dark excess and excitement, outrageous deeds and extraordinary talent, featuring legends at both the beginnings and ends of their careers.

Long-listed for the Man Booker Prize. David Carter cannot help but wish for more: that his wife, Eleanor, would be the sparkling girl he once found so irresistible; that his job as a museum curator could live up to the promise it once held; that his daughter's arrival could have brought him closer to Eleanor. But a few careless words spoken by his mother's friend have left David restless with the knowledge that his whole life has been constructed around a lie.

The Thomas Hardy Collection: Six Novels is a collection of Thomas Hardy most well-renowned works, read by an esteemed cast of narrators. The titles included in this collection are: Far From the Madding Crowd, Tess of the D'Urbevilles, The Return of the Native, Jude the Obscure, The Woodlanders, The Mayor of Casterbridge. This audiobook is fully indexed. Once downloaded, each book and chapter will be listed so you can easily navigate to the individual section.

When Queen Victoria died in 1901 it was the end of an era. Britain's dominance stretched across seven continents and its ruling classes were wealthier than ever before. Many later remembered the decade or so that followed as the long afternoon of an empire where the sun never set. Yet the Edwardians themselves were acutely aware that the country was in a state of flux; the seismic change that they felt would transform modern Britain forever. In Little Englanders, Alwyn Turner reconsiders the Edwardian era as a time of profound social change.

Matt Beckford's sole ambition is to turn forty with his life sorted. With a Porsche on the drive and a high-flying job, it looks like things are perfect. But when Matt's wife unexpectedly calls time on their marriage, a chain of events is set in motion that very quickly sees him facing forty broke, homeless and completely alone. But all is not lost because Matt has a plan…

We share the triumphs and tragedies of a group of elite soldier trailblazers as they commit daring raids behind enemy lines in 1944, manage an against-the-odds escape to victory and then seek post-war retribution for the terrible murder of their captured comrades. SAS Band of Brothers is replete with action, peppered with great characters and features two of the most daring escapes of WWII. It ends with the hunted becoming the hunters - a group of men intent on seeking out the Nazis responsible for their brethren's deaths, on an ultra-deniable SAS mission to avenge a war crime.

Nick Duerden has spent many years interviewing the most famous musicians on the planet. Without exception, they are at their most interesting when they've peaked, and when they are on their way down. In many ways, this is when these former idols are at their most heroic, too, because they reveal themselves not only to be humane and sensitive, but also still driven to create, to fulfil their lingering dreams, to refuse to live quietly.

The first of a major Feist acquisition, returning to his best-loved series. Freedom at any price? Hartraft's Marauders, a crack band of kingdom raiders, are a special unit designed to infiltrate and fight behind enemy lines. They are currently heading for a frontier garrison after a disastrous encounter with the Tsurani. Meanwhile, a Tsurani patrol is sent to support an assault on the same garrison.

Allan Jones launched Uncut magazine in 1997 and for 15 years wrote a popular monthly column called Stop Me If You've Heard This One Before, based on his experiences as a music journalist in the 70s and 80s. By turns hilarious, cautionary, poignant and powerful, the Stop Me...stories collected here include encounters with some of rock's most iconic stars, including David Bowie, Lou Reed, Leonard Cohen, Van Morrison, Neil Young, Elvis Costello, The Sex Pistols, The Clash, The Smiths, R.E.M. and Pearl Jam.

Veteran cavalry commander Marcus Flavius Victor sets out with his regiment to make what may be his final tour of the forts along Hadrian's Wall. Through a combination of military prowess, brutality and bribery, Marcus has spent 20 years keeping the savage Picts at bay. Feared by his enemies and hated by his superiors, his strength of will is the only thing that has held the disgruntled, poorly paid garrisons of the Wall in place as the failing Roman Empire's grip on Britannia weakened.

When an Antarctic research expedition goes wrong, the consequences are far-reaching—for the men involved and for their families back home. Robert 'Doc' Wright, a veteran of Antarctic field work, holds the clues to what happened, but he is no longer able to communicate them. While Anna, his wife, navigates the sharp contours of her new life as a carer, Robert is forced to learn a whole new way to be in the world.

Midwinter in the early years of this century. A teenage girl on holiday has gone missing in the hills at the heart of England. The villagers are called up to join the search, fanning out across the moors as the police set up roadblocks and a crowd of news reporters descends on their usually quiet home. Meanwhile, there is work that must still be done: cows milked, fences repaired, stone cut, pints poured, beds made, sermons written, a pantomime rehearsed. The search for the missing girl goes on, but so does everyday life. As it must.

In the wake of the dissolution of the Soviet empire in 1989, many believed that we had arrived at the ‘End of History’—that the global dominance of liberal democracy had been secured forever. Now, however, with Russia rattling its sabre on the borders of Europe and China rising to challenge the post-1945 world order, the liberal West faces major threats. These threats are not only external. Especially in the Anglosphere, the ‘decolonisation’ movement corrodes the West’s self-confidence by retelling the history of European and American colonial dominance.

The Dark Net is not a separate realm but one that stretches from popular social media sites to the most secretive corners of the deep web. It is a world that is rarely out of the news but one that is little understood - and almost never explored. In The Dark Net, Jamie Bartlett presents a revelatory portrait of the internet's strangest subcultures: of trolls, drug dealers, hackers and political extremists.

The modern era saw the emergence of individuals who had command over a terrifying array of instruments of control, persuasion and death. Whole societies were re-shaped and wars fought, often with a merciless contempt for the most basic norms. At the summit of these societies were leaders whose personalities had somehow given them the ability to do whatever they wished. Ian Kershaw's new book is a compelling, lucid and challenging attempt to understand these rulers.

The Last Kingdom is one of the most successful historical fiction series of our time, telling the epic story of the birth of England, and introducing one of the greatest ever fictional heroes: the iconic Uhtred of Bebbanburg. Saxon-born, Norse-raised, warrior and rebel. The final Last Kingdom book was published in 2020, but for the author the story felt unfinished: there were some Uhtred tales he still wanted to tell, and over the course of writing the books he'd become fascinated by some elements of the Anglo-Saxon world that it wasn't possible to fully explore in the novels.

The First World War saw the birth of an extraordinary fighting machine that has held an enduring fascination for over a century: the tank. In TANK MEN, ex-soldier and military historian Robert Kershaw brings to life the grime, the grease and the fury of a tank battle through the voices of ordinary men and women who lived and fought in those fearsome machines. Drawing on vivid personal testimony from the crucial battles of the First and Second World Wars, this is military history at its very best.

On a street in a town in the North of England, ordinary people are going through the motions of their everyday existence - street cricket, barbecues, painting windows.... A young man is in love with a neighbour who does not even know his name. An old couple make their way up to the nearby bus stop. But then a terrible event shatters the quiet of the early summer evening. That this remarkable and horrific event is only poignant to those who saw it means that those who witness it will be altered forever.

The second novel of a major Feist acquisition, returning to his best-loved series. Written with Joel Rosenberg. The second Riftwar collaboration, Murder in LaMut, written by masters of fantasy Raymond E. Feist and Joel Rosenburg. The heavy action was supposedly at Crydee these days, which meant that the one place they could be sure the three of them were not going was Crydee.