Showing results by narrator "Simon Slater" in All Categories

Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks has reached a turning point. With his wife now living with another man in London and his career in the doldrums thanks to Chief Constable Riddle, it is time to ring the changes. Perhaps a move to the National Crime Squad? Perhaps a second chance with Sandra? But then late one night he is summoned to Riddle's house - and his plans take a surprising new turn. For the Chief Constable's 16-year-old daughter, Emily, has run away, and for once Riddle wants Banks to use his unorthodox methods to find her without fuss.

When London's legal establishment is shaken to its foundation by the grisly crucifixion of a retired Lord Chief Justice, Detective Chief Inspector Joelle Levy is tasked with finding his killer. With 50 years of potential enemies to choose from, only the identical murder of former solicitor Adam Blunt offers a ray of hope: what is it that connects these victims who met such a gruesome end?

Playing with Fire is the 14th novel in Peter Robinson's Inspector Banks series, following on from The Summer That Never Was. In the early hours of a cold January morning, two narrow boats catch fire on the dead-end stretch of the Eastvale canal. When signs of accelerant are found at the scene, DCI Banks and DI Annie Cabbot are summoned. But by the time they arrive, only the smouldering wreckage is left, and human remains have been found on both boats.

Gallows View is the first novel in Peter Robinson's best-selling Inspector Banks series. Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks has recently moved to the Yorkshire Dales from London to escape the stress of the metropolis. But he soon finds that life in the country is not quite as idyllic as he had imagined. A peeping Tom is frightening the women of Eastvale. Two glue-sniffing thugs are breaking into homes. An old woman may or may not have been murdered....

Through years of success in Hollywood composing music for Oscar-winning films, Chris Lowndes always imagined he would come full circle, home to Yorkshire with his beloved wife, Laura. Now he’s back in the Yorkshire Dales, but Laura is dead, and Chris needs to make a new life for himself. The isolated house he buys sight unseen should give him the space to come to terms with his grief and the quiet to allow to him to work. Kilnsgate House turns out to be rather more than he expected, however.

When the lawyers of alleged war criminal Hannibal Strauss are caught up in a terror attack in The Hague, barrister Michael Devlin immediately suspects all is not what it seems. Teaming up once more with Agent Joe Dempsey, they must find who’s behind it all before any more innocent lives are lost.

It is time for us to learn a new way of thinking. The 21st century presents complex problems that require a wiser way of reasoning, one that recognises our current limitations, tolerates ambiguity and uncertainty, balances multiple perspectives, and bridges diverse areas of expertise. Whatever our age and experience, whether a NASA scientist or a school student, we will benefit from wielding our minds with insight, precision, social sensitivity and humility.ntial.

What can Roger Federer teach us about the secret of longevity? What do the All Blacks have in common with improvised jazz musicians? What can cognitive neuroscientists tell us about what happens to the brains of sportspeople when they perform? And why did Johan Cruyff believe that beauty was more important than winning? Matthew Syed, the Sports Journalist of the Year 2016, answers these questions and more in a fascinating, wide-ranging and provocative book about the mental game of sport.

Four men once close to Jack Dodds, a London butcher, meet to carry out his peculiar last wish: to have his ashes scattered into the sea at Margate. For reasons best known to herself, Jack’s widow, Amy, declines to join them. On the surface a simple tale of an increasingly bizarre day’s outing, this Booker Prize-winning, internationally acclaimed novel is a resonant and classic exploration of the complexity and courage of ordinary lives.

Wednesday's Child is the sixth novel in Peter Robinson's Inspector Banks series, following on from Past Reason Hated. When two social workers, investigating reports of child abuse, appear at Brenda Scupham's door, her fear of authority leads her to comply meekly with their requests. Even when they say that they must take her seven-year old daughter, Gemma, away for tests.... It is only when they fail to return Gemma the following day that Brenda realises something has gone terribly wrong.

Dead Right is the ninth novel in Peter Robinson's Inspector Banks series, following on from Innocent Graves. The broken body of Jason Fox has been found in a dirty alleyway. At first it looks like a typical after-hours pub fight gone wrong. But Inspector Alan Banks soon realizes that the truth is rarely so straightforward....

Opening with the notorious bonfires of 'un-German' and Jewish literature in 1933 that offered such a clear signal of Nazi intentions, Burning the Books takes us on a 3,000-year journey through the destruction of knowledge and the fight against all the odds to preserve it. Richard Ovenden, director of the world-famous Bodleian Library, explains how attacks on libraries and archives have been a feature of history since ancient times but have increased in frequency and intensity during the modern era.

Climate change is the defining issue of our time - we know, beyond reasonable doubt, what that science now tells us. Just as climate change is accelerating, so too must we - summoning up a greater sense of urgency, courage and shared endeavour than humankind has ever seen before. The Age of Climate Change is an age of superlatives, but Porritt is optimistic. He believes we have time to do what needs to be done, but only if we move now - and move together.

An extraordinary reimagining of the life of one of the greatest screen comedians the world has ever known: a man who knew both adoration and humiliation; who loved and was loved in turn; who betrayed and was betrayed; who never sought to cause pain to others yet left a trail of affairs and broken marriages in his wake...and whose life was ultimately defined by one relationship of such tenderness and devotion that only death could sever it: his partnership with the man he knew as Babe. he is Stan Laurel. But he did not really exist. Stan Laurel was a fiction.

The sixteenth book in the dramatic and intriguing story about the colonisation of Australia: a country made of blood, passion, and dreams. Michael knows that he cannot outrun his past, yet it is the longing for freedom that keeps him alive. Australia... For some, a land of opportunity where bravery and honour rule the once savaged wilderness, for others, a brutal prison where even the best of men are driven to commit some of the cruellest acts in the name of freedom. Michael Wexford is aware that his past follows him wherever he goes, yet Kitty and Patrick Cadogan are determined to clear his name, no matter the cost.

The fifteenth book in the dramatic and intriguing story about the colonisation of Australia: a country made of blood, passion, and dreams. After being accused of high treason, Michael Wexford seeks revenge upon those who took everything from him. It is 19th century Australia: Irishman Michael Wexford is unravelling his existence in the penal colonies after defying the justice system. Considered a criminal beyond reform or redemption, Michael plots his revenge. Meanwhile, siblings Kitty and Patrick Cadogan venture out to the Norfolk Island in search of their brother, praying that he is not the miscreant everyone makes him out to be.

The nineteenth book in the dramatic and intriguing story about the colonisation of Australia: a country made of blood, passion, and dreams. Jon Fisher and Harry Ryan take part in a bloody war between the British and the Zulu in South Africa. Jon Fisher faces war in South Africa. The Zulus have proven themselves a surprisingly powerful enemy to the British Army. After losing his men during battle, Jon Fisher decides to go home to Australia. Harry Ryan has arranged passage for them on a merchant ship. And there starts their travels across the ocean to get back home.

Despite the many films and television programmes over the decades since the end of the Second World War that portrays our allied heroes as grown-up men and women, the Battle of Britain was in the main actually fought and won by teenagers. The average age of an RAF fighter pilot was just 20 years old. Many of the men and women who designed and built their planes were even younger.

The seventeenth book in the dramatic and intriguing story about the colonisation of Australia: a country made of blood, passion, and dreams. Destinies intertwine and brutal battles ensue to secure a brighter future. During the 1860s, Australian settlers, among them Lady Kitty Broome and Adam Vincent, venture out on new, exciting adventures which will lead to a war between cultures, friends and lovers, as they fight for the future of their world.

In Rise Like Lions, Booker Prize winning writer Ben Okri has compiled a collection of poems that celebrate the many voices of politics, from polemics and rallying cries to lyrics and meditations. Many of these poems have resonated with readers over lifetimes and through generations, from William Blake to Marvin Gaye. In exploring the impact political poems have on ideas, vision, protest, change and truth, Okri demonstrates how the need for this strand of poetry is as great as it has ever been, and its inspiration just as powerful.