Showing results by narrator "Elliot Fitzpatrick" in All Categories

The This is the new social media platform everyone is talking about. Allow it to be injected into the roof of your mouth and it will grow into your brain, allowing you to connect with others without even picking up your phone. Its followers are growing. Its detractors say it is a cult. But for one journalist, hired to do a puff-piece interview with their CEO, it will change the world forever.

When 3 Para began their assault under cover of darkness on Mount Longdon in June 1982, nobody knew what to expect. The three platoons of B Company each approached the mountain silently, treading carefully through a series of defensive minefields. But following an explosion, fighting quickly escalated with shocking speed and severity, resulting in some of the bloodiest close hand fighting, terrible injuries and shocking loss of life experienced by British troops since the Korean war. 

Short daily reflections from one of the world's favourite adventurers. Best-selling author Bear Grylls has survived a free-fall parachute accident that left him with a broken back, possibly unable to walk again; falling down a mountain in the Rockies, severing a finger in the Vietnam jungle, a broken shoulder in Antarctica. He passed the gruelling training to join the SAS, crossed the North Atlantic in an open inflatable boat, and held the highest ever open-air formal dinner party, in a balloon at 25,000 feet. 

The first panoramic history of the Western world from the 1970s to the present day: Empire of Democracy is the story for those asking how we got to where we are. Half a century ago, at the height of the Cold War and amidst a world economic crisis, the Western democracies were forced to undergo a...

1941. The Battle of the Atlantic is a disaster. Thousands of supply ships ferrying vital food and fuel from North America to Britain are being torpedoed by German U-boats. Prime Minister Winston Churchill is lying to the country about the number of British ships sunk. He is lying about the...

Becky Brown has selected extracts from the Mass Observation Archives to anthologise the voices of everyday people as they deal individually and collectively with the crisis of the Second World War. The diarists themselves have been selected from every level of society - from warehousemen to widows, soldiers to farmhands, WRENs to architects. The extracts have been chosen to both uplift and to ground, to remind listeners that nothing is new, that everything can be weathered and perhaps even made better. After all, World War II saw the birth of the NHS.

In 1999, after publishing three cult novels, famous author Nathan Fawles announces the end of his writing career and withdraws to Beaumont, a wild and beautiful island off the Mediterranean coast. Autumn 2018. Over the past 20 years, Fawles has not given a single interview. As his novels continue to captivate readers, Mathilde Monney, a young Swiss journalist, arrives on the island, determined to unlock his secrets. That same day, a woman's body is discovered on the beach and the island is cordoned off by the authorities. 

On her 47th birthday, Sydney Smith stands on a rooftop and prepares to jump.... Sydney is a cartoonist and freerunner. Feet constantly twitching, always teetering on the edge of life, she's never come to terms with the event that ripped her family apart when she was 10 years old. And so, on a birthday that she doesn't want to celebrate, she returns alone to St Ives to face up to her guilt and grief. It's a trip that turns out to be life-changing - and not only for herself.

You could say it started with vanity. We believed we were special. But the truth is we were simply vulnerable. One of them is lying. One of them is guilty. No one is safe. Months after landing their dream job, five brilliant young minds are sent on a remote retreat. But when one of them disappears, they're forced to question why they were brought here in the first place - and how far they'd go to get what they want. And for the first time in their lives, they realise too much knowledge can be deadly. 

Mary Rackham was born in Norwich on 14th August 1848 to a merchant family. Little is known of her early life and her biography only re-appears in September 1871 with marriage to Fairman Joseph Mann, a farmer with 800 acres. She took up writing, partly to offset the dreary village life of her surroundings, in the 1880s and published her first novel, ‘The Parish of Hilby’ (1883) at her own expense. It was well received by the critics. Thus began a career that spanning three decades provided thirty-three novels, hundreds of short stories, and fourteen plays.

Mary Rackham was born in Norwich on 14th August 1848 to a merchant family. Little is known of her early life and her biography only re-appears in September 1871 with marriage to Fairman Joseph Mann, a farmer with 800 acres. She took up writing, partly to offset the dreary village life of her surroundings, in the 1880s and published her first novel, ‘The Parish of Hilby’ (1883) at her own expense. It was well received by the critics. Thus began a career that spanning three decades provided thirty-three novels, hundreds of short stories, and fourteen plays.

The great author of Vanity Fair and The Luck Of Barry Lyndon was born in India in 1811. At age 5 his father died and his mother sent him back to England. His education was of the best but he himself seemed unable to apply his talents to a rigorous work ethic. However, once he harnessed his talents the works flowed in novels, articles, short stories, sketches and lectures.

Charles Grant Blairfindie Allen was born on February 24th, 1848 at Alwington, near Kingston, Canada West (now part of Ontario). He was the second son of the Rev. Joseph Antisell Allen, a Protestant minister from Dublin, Ireland and Catharine Ann Grant, the daughter of the fifth Baron of Longueuil. Grant Allen is rarely heard of today, although an occasional short story can be heard on the radio or reprinted among magazine enthusiasts but in his time he did much to entertain the masses and push several genres along a richer journey they are still proceeding on today.

Ernest Richard Suffling is one of those authors about whom little is known. In his career he wrote across travel, local history, and folklore. His short stories bring out another side of his literary style that, though now neglected, add measurably to the genre.

There is something about the number 3. The Ancient Greeks believed 3 was the perfect number, and in China 3 has always been a lucky number, and they know a thing or two. Whatever history and culture says WE think 3, a hat-trick of stories, is a great number to explore themes and literary avenues that classic authors were so adept at creating.

James Edward Preston Muddock was born in 1843. He was a prolific journalist and of mystery and horror short stories. He used two pseudonyms ‘Joyce Emmerson Preston Muddock’ and ‘Dick Donovan’. Between 1889 and 1922 he published nearly 300 detective and mystery stories.

Violet Mary Firth wrote under her pen name Dion Fortune. Born in 1890 her talents included being a occultist, ceremonial magician, novelist and author. She wrote prolifically, much of it on occult themes.

Edward Harold Begbie was born 1871. He was primarily a journalist, poet and the author of several dozen books. His works also included studies of the Christian religion. He wrote numerous other books, including on political satire, comedy, fiction, science fiction, plays and poetry. His short stories are highly regarded.

Arabella Kenealy was born in 1859. A writer of short stories that had much merit she was also a physician and active in the fight against early feminism. She died in 1938.

Major Hesketh Vernon Prichard, DSO MC FRGS FZS was born on the 17th November 1876 in Jhansi, North-Western Provinces, India, then part of the British Empire. His achievements in life, beyond his literary career, are both voluminous and startling. He was an explorer, adventurer, marksman, game hunter and first-class cricketer. In his literary career he wrote short stories, novels, travel pieces and was also a newspaper correspondent.