Showing results by narrator "Jot Davies" in All Categories

When 18-year-old Michael visits the Hanbury's remote family home, he is captivated by their bohemian lifestyle. Years later, when he marries the strong-willed, beautiful Rebecca, he is secretly hoping to create his own version of that free-thinking family, but after the birth of their first child, their marriage begins to flounder. The chance to escape once more to his friend's country house comes as a welcome relief, until he discovers a family changed and his own romantic notions of country life begin to disintegrate....

Two teenagers form an unlikely friendship in pre-War Philadelphia. Al is obsessed with lifting weights, looking good and chasing girls. Birdy is obsessed with flight.Birdy’s passion becomes all-encompassing. Birdy wants to fly. A few years later these young men find themselves emotionally and physically scarred by Word War Two. Al is called to an army psychiatric hospital to help the doctors there treat his friend, who he finds squatting on the floor of his cell and acting like a bird.

It is a well-known fact that fairies are born from a baby's first laugh. What is not as well documented is how monsters come into being. This is the story of a creature who is both strange and unique. When he hatches down in the vast underground lair where monsters dwell, he looks just like a human boy - much to the disgust of everyone watching. Even the grumpy gargoyles who adopt him and nickname him ‘Imp’ only want him to steal chocolate for them from the nearby shops. He’s a child with feet in both worlds, and he doesn’t know where he fits.

Meet Jack. Jack Rossiter. I'm 27 years old, single and live with my best mate, Matt. Matt and I started hanging out when we were eight. Life was simpler then. Meet Amy. Sometimes in my darker moments I've thought about applying to go on Blind Date. Actually it's a bit of a worry. I think it's my warped way of telling myself something's got to change. Now find out what happens when they meet each other....

In this surreal comedy of soldiers and spies, Lieutenant James Churchill and his colleagues find themselves questioning their purpose. These men of action will travel between the barracks, the lunatic asylum and the house of an aristocratic nymphomaniac in search of answers. For while few know the awful truth about Operation Apollo, the mission they are being trained for, fewer still understand the motives of the powerful psychiatrist Dr Best, who thinks he is surrounded by repressed homosexuals, and none know the identity of the secret agent among them.

Escape into this hugely enjoyable, big-hearted, and beautifully written novel set in Vallerosa, a European country you've never heard of before. Find yourself in Vallerosa, a place lost in time. Vallerosa is every tourist's dream - a tiny, picturesque country surrounded by lush valleys and verdant mountains; a place sheltered from modern life and the rampant march of capitalism. But in isolation the locals have grown cranky, unfulfilled, and disaffected.

We've all had sleepless nights thinking about it. You're home alone. Someone breaks in. In defending yourself, you end up killing the intruder. Now you're the one the police want. That is the situation that criminal barrister Paul Reeve arrives home to find. His wife, Alice, stands in the bedroom, clutching a bloodied letter opener in her shaking hand. 'What have you done, Alice?' 'I didn't have a choice....' We would all believe the person we love most.

Welcome to Victorian London; the home of the Artful Dodger, Sherlock Holmes... and Ben Kingdom, cocky street urchin - and the saviour of mankind. Unknown to mere mortals, an ancient battle is being waged across the city.

Journey from fantasy mountains to super-cities, through piratical seas and up into space without missing any must-see sights - or putting a foot wrong with the locals! Whether you’re lord of the shoestring-budget or Luxe Skywalker - Notes from Small Planets is your pastiche passport through the best worlds of science fiction and fantasy. Your ultimate travel guide to all the must-see locations in the worlds of science fiction and fantasy.

On a typical afternoon, teenage Joe is being chased by bullies from school when he accidentally runs through a portal to another world. He finds himself in a training camp for a group of teenage boys and girls who will become Runners. Each cycle, three Runners are sent to place the power sources that will secure the shield that protects their land, Carcassia, and keeps the enemy Kabanians at bay.

At the age of 42, his father not long dead and his young sons growing fast, Toby Ferris set off on a seemingly quixotic mission to track down each of the 42 surviving paintings by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, who, at the age of 42, had been approaching the end of his own short life. Over the next five years Ferris would travel to 22 galleries in 19 cities in 12 countries across 2 continents: Budapest to San Diego, Detroit to Naples, Berlin to Madrid, ticking off his Bruegels as he went. The results of his journeying are a revelation....

Rookie barrister George Winsome, young and arrogant, defends an old boy who thinks he’s Merlin on a manslaughter charge. The riotous trial turns Merlin into a celebrity; money, greed and ambition take hold of George and his partner, Heather, until the secret of Merlin’s past is revealed as the spirit of Saint Yves intervenes to ensure George and Heather follow their true paths.

Wolf Hadda's life has been a fairy tale. From humble origins as a Cumbrian woodcutter's son, he has risen to be a hugely successful entrepreneur. Then early one morning, there comes a loud knocking at his door and the fairy tale ends. Within months he is universally reviled as a convicted fraudster and paedophile, abandoned by his friends, divorced by his wife, cut off from his daughter, and his company Woodcutter Enterprises has collapsed.

1990. A woman’s body is found brutally murdered in the woods, and next to it, a shallow grave hiding a terrified young girl. 2021. When Mia and Rich move to an eco-village in Spain, they’re looking for a new start. Val Verde is everything they wished for—at least to begin with. But when someone is murdered in an olive grove, Mia realises the village isn’t the safe haven she was hoping for.

By the end of this century, living beyond 100 will be the rule rather than the exception. What medical breakthroughs and new technologies will make this possible? In this brilliantly wide-ranging, one-stop guide, WIRED journalist James Temperton outlines the medical revolutions that are transforming healthcare. He looks at the burgeoning immune therapies that could one day cure such life-threatening diseases as cancer.

The new novel from David Baddiel, comedian, columnist and author of the critically-praised The Secret Purposes.As Eli Gold, a famous old writer lies dying in a hospital in New York, his family gather around his bed. His first wife Violet is too old to travel from London but Harvey, their son, who has never emerged from the shadow of his overpowering father, makes the journey. And there is Colette, a six-year old daughter from a second marriage, struggling to make sense of the fact her father is about to leave her.

How the mighty will fall... 1497. Pope Alexander VI Borgia is perfecting his plans for the control of Italy when a heinous crime deprives him of one of the people dearest to him. All of Rome is mobilised to discover the perpetrator but a strange series of coincidences means famous court painter Pinturicchio finds himself on the front line. To shed light on a murder, Pinturicchio is assisted by the city's most established artists, from Michelangelo Buonarroti and Filippino Lippi to Piermatteo d'Amelia and Perugino.

From the award-winning author of Space Mutts comes the second otterly chaotic title! Part of the Awesome Animals range - the funniest fiction staring the wildest wildlife! There's a new family on the river…the beavers. And they're ruining everything for the Otters. The beavers' big fat dam has blocked up the river and worse…it's stopped their supply of delicious crayfish! Something must be done! It seems like things can't get any worse for our otters until they discover a mountain lion has also moved in.

A wonderful story written by the children's laureate Michael Morpurgo.One morning, while chopping wood in the forest, Tod notices a small white fawn fleeing the King’s hunt. Swiftly, Tod gathers the fawn into his arms and runs back to his father’s cottage. As the years go by, the fawn grows into a magnificent white stag, and the bonds between boy and deer grow strong. But Tod has yet to face a great test of his devotion to the The King in the Forest.

Wombat loves digging deep holes and thinking deep thoughts, but nobody thinks much of that until danger threatens the bush and the small wombat comes up with a great big idea! One day Wombat digs the deepest hole he's ever dug and crawls into the cool darkness to think. But when he climbs out again, he can't see his mother anywhere. He is all alone.