Showing results by narrator "Rupert Degas" in All Categories

Grandma has come to stay for the royal visit by Princess Lucy to launch her new badger charity, 'Badges for Badgers'. Which would be fine, if she hadn't knitted Roman the crummiest jumper (AKA 'crumper') on earth that he's forced to wear to school. His whole class is in a fundraising frenzy, led by fame-crazy Rosie Taylor who is convinced that organising a charity fashion show is bound to win her favour with the princess.

On a tiny island far away, in a sea that ripples with magic, Monty never knows what he might find. The most unexpected things wash up on Monty's Island. And a golden egg might be his most amazing find yet! But when a pair of flying monsters and a mysterious explorer arrive, it seems the egg is about to hatch into a very big problem. Can Monty find a way to solve it? Surely he can! All he needs is a little help from his friends. And the Hairy Horrible.

First published in 1924, Beau Geste tells the story of a stolen sapphire and three brothers, who consequently join the Foreign Legion. Michael "Beau" Geste, as his nickname suggests, represents honor and bravery in the midst of deceit and treachery. An action-packed adventure, much of the plot is set in French North Africa, where the Geste brothers have to contend with both a mutiny in their ranks and the attacks of the Touaregs.

On 8 August 1914, five days after the outbreak of World War One, the Endurance, a wooden-hulled, coal-fired icebreaker, set sail for the South Pole, in a bid to complete the first-ever trans-Antarctic expedition, which would cross the continent from the Weddell Sea to Scott's base at Cape Evans, via the Pole. However, despite the best planning, the ship succumbs to the ice floes of the Weddell Sea, and is subjected to months of uncontrollable drifting before its crew makes a scramble for Elephant Island, where they battle constant cold and starvation.

Kate and Pete have been the perfect couple ever since they were teenagers. Fifteen years later, they have two young daughters, live in a beautiful London townhouse, and seem like they have it all. But one day, Pete leaves for work and never comes home. In a note Kate discovers, he confesses that he’s been unhappy for a long time and that he’s met someone else. Distraught, she later learns that he has left everything behind, including his mobile phone, and she sets out to learn the truth about his disappearance.

After the defeated Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte goes into exile on tiny St. Helena Island in the remote South Atlantic, he and his lover, Albine de Montholon, plot to escape and rescue his young son. Banding together African slaves, British sympathizers, a Jewish merchant, a Corsican rogue, and French followers, they confront British opposition as well as treachery within their own ranks with sometimes subtle, sometimes bold, but always desperate action. When Napoleon and Albine break faith with one another, ambition and Albine’s husband threaten their reconciliation.  

Jasper Lightner is a decorated Crimean War hero and the most admired inspector in London's Metropolitan Police. Along with a chest full of medals, he's got a head injury that's left large chunks of his memory missing. But Jasper's biggest problem is his father, the Duke of Kersey, who is enraged by a series of front-page newspaper stories extolling Jasper's exploits. Jasper is sent packing to New York City on a yearlong assignment to train detectives and discovers a police department hovering on the brink of armed conflict.

Lorenzo Cumi is a 14-year-old misfit. To quell the anxiety of his concerned, socially conscious parents, he tells them he’s been invited on an exclusive ski vacation with the popular kids. On the morning of the trip, Lorenzo demands that his mother drop him off before they arrive at the train station, insisting that his status will be compromised if he shows up accompanied by his mother. Reluctantly, she agrees, and as soon as she is safely out of the vicinity, he turns around and makes his way back to his neighborhood, to put his real plan in motion.

It's the night of the most decadent party of the century. Starlets, politicians, soccer stars, and intellectuals all turn up to rub elbows. Among them is a neurotically charming author struggling to write his next literary tome and pining for renewed recognition. In an unexpected turn of events, he crosses paths with The Wilde Beasts of Abaddon, a satanic sect planning to ruin the evening’s festivities in order to go down in history as a world-famous cult.

As world leaders gather and a student demo gathers pace, a small flame takes hold - and suddenly an unquenchable fire bursts into life and an inferno of flames up to l00 metres high tears through the streets, threatening homes and lives. And in the smoke and confusion, an important general is kidnapped!

Having walked into the middle of the real reason the Hen Harriers are being shot down, Ben and Annie are captured as intruders and taken to a secure unit on a deserted area of the camp. These birds are just helpless victims in a much bigger operation - they attract too many visitors to the area and there's a top-secret piece of warfare technology being developed that needs to be kept quiet. If this weapon gets into the wrong hands it could have catastrophic worldwide effects.

Take a tour through your body and the many ways it can fail in What's Wrong with You? An Insider's Guide to Your Insides. Everybody has a body, and everybody gets sick. But unless you go to medical school, the mechanisms behind your medical symptoms remain a mystery. Why do you get diarrhoea...

Shanghai in 1935 is a twentieth-century Babylon, an expatriate playground where fortunes are made and lost, where East and West collide, and the stakes include life itself. Into this, Rowland Sinclair arrives from Sydney to represent his brother at international wool negotiations. Rowland is...

On a beautiful island far away, on a sea that ripples with magic, Monty never knows what he might find. Monty lives on a perfect island in the middle of a magical sea. Sometimes the sea throws up something interesting...and Monty goes on an amazing adventure! Monty, Tawny and friends receive some startling news: Scary Mary and her pirate crew are on their way, looking for a new island to call home. What can they do? Hiding is not an option - especially when Bunchy accidentally turns the whole island stripey with her new magic wand.

The Ragpickera man, bonded into a mysterious 'secondskin' that has prolonged his life after the digital apocalypsewanders the lush, deserted Earth, haunted by failing avatars and fragmented texts. Hes searching for traces of his long-dead husband but his journey is interrupted by a girl, Ysmany...

How far would you go to save your son? The fifth book in the best-selling time travel series, Tesseract continues the story of Josh and Caitlin and their desperate search for their missing son, Zachary. Taken beyond the borders of their continuum, they will need to recruit the greatest...

When Rebecca Russell’s brother marries, she finally has the opportunity she has been dreaming of: to leave the seclusion of her reclusive grandfather’s home and enter into society. But when her inexperience has her making blunders and courting embarrassment, help comes from an unexpected source: the brooding, irritable brother of her chaperone.

There are not many English novels which deserve to be called great: Parade's End is one of them. W. H. Auden Last Post is the fourth and final installment of Ford Madox Ford's Parade's End tetralogy, a work that Ford hoped would contribute to the obviating of all future wars. The story follows...

Over twenty unabridged selections of Rudyard Kipling's stories, poems and letters, including famous works such as "If" and "How The Whale Got his Throat". 1. PRELUDE - "To Departmental Ditties" (1885) read by Rupert Degas 2. TODS' from "Plain Tales from the Hills" read by Martin Jarvis 3. THE...

Orphaned John Trenchard lives in the little coastal town of Moonfleet, entranced by the local legend of Blackbeard, whose ghost is said to rise each winter night in search for his lost diamond. While hunting for the treasure one night, John collides with a band of smugglers who take him under their wing.