Showing results by narrator "Gordon Griffin" in All Categories

Forced to flee Revolutionary France after the brutal guillotining of her beloved father, Isabella de Savigny arrives at Nethergate, the Suffolk house of her cousin, hoping for sympathy and succour. Instead, as a poor relation, she is forced to live the life of a servant and suffer the casual cruelty of lady’s maid Martha Pratt. When she is seduced and abandoned by the son of the house, Isabella is forced to marry Martha’s brother, and her struggle to survive truly begins. However, her misery is lessened when her daughter is born....

Graham and Joan Bendix have apparently succeeded in making that eighth wonder of the modern world, a happy marriage. And into the middle of it there drops, like a clap of thunder, a box of chocolates. Joan Bendix is killed by a poisoned box of liqueur chocolates that cannot have been intended for her to eat. The police investigation rapidly reaches a dead end. Chief Inspector Moresby calls on Roger Sheringham and his Crimes Circle - six amateur but intrepid detectives - to consider the case.

Robinson Crusoe is the classic tale about one man's lust for adventure. Crusoe leaves his parents and hometown for the open sea in the year 1651. But the ocean can be unforgiving, and Crusoe unfortunately learns this the hard way. Through a series of wild events, he ends up shipwrecked on a shore in South America, being forced to salvage what he can in order to survive. Overcoming his despair, Crusoe begins a new life on this island, searching for meaning and eventually finding redemption.

Before Bletchley Park could break the German war machine’s code, its daily military communications had to be monitored and recording by "the Listening Service" - the wartime department whose bases moved with every theatre of war: Cairo, Malta, Gibraltar, Iraq, Cyprus, as well as having listening stations along the eastern coast of Britain to intercept radio traffic in the European theatre. This is the story of the - usually very young - men and women sent out to far-flung outposts to listen in for Bletchley Park, an oral history of exotic locations and ordinary lives turned upside down by a sudden remote posting.

From the origins of Homo sapiens to the Space Race, and from the French Revolution to the Digital Revolution, this instalment in the best-selling Big Ideas series offers an essential exploration of the human timeline up to and including the rise of modern Islam, the world wide web and the global financial crisis. Making big historical ideas accessible and easy to understand, with stunning facts and memorable quotes, The History Book audiobook is perfect for students, adults or anyone who wants to travel back in time and understand the fascinating past of mankind.

The main aim of detective stories is to entertain, but the best cast a light on human behaviour and display both literary ambition and accomplishment. Even unpretentious detective stories, written for unashamedly commercial reasons, can give us clues to the past and give us insight into a long-vanished world that, for all its imperfections, continues to fascinate. 

It’s only a slight exaggeration to say that the British mathematician Alan Turing (1912-1954) saved the Allies from the Nazis, invented the computer and artificial intelligence, and anticipated gay liberation by decades--all before his suicide at age forty-one. This classic biography of the founder of computer science, reissued on the centenary of his birth with a substantial new preface by the author, is the definitive account of an extraordinary mind and life.

Larry Darrell is a young American in search of the absolute. The progress of this spiritual odyssey involves him with some of Maugham's most brilliant characters: his fiancée Isabel, whose choice between love and wealth have lifelong repercussions; and Elliot Templeton, her uncle, a classic expatriate American snob. The most ambitious of Maugham's novels, this is also one in which Maugham himself plays a considerable part as he wanders in and out of the story, to observe his characters struggling with their fates.

Books That Changed History is a unique encyclopedia spanning the history of the written word, from 3000 BCE to the modern-day, chronologically showing the evolution of human knowledge and the changing ways in which books are made. Discover incredible coverage of history's most influential books including the Mahabharata, Shakespeare's First Folio, The Diary of Anne Frank, and Penguin's first ever paperbacks.

Andrew Crowther, a wealthy retired manufacturer, is found dead in his seat on the 12.30 flight from Croydon to Paris. Rather less orthodox is the ensuing flashback in which we live with the killer at every stage, from the first thoughts of murder to the strains and stresses of living with its execution. Seen from the criminal's perspective, a mild-mannered Inspector by the name of French is simply another character who needs to be dealt with. This is an unconventional yet gripping story of intrigue, betrayal, obsession, justification and self-delusion.

Strategy-to-performance gaps foster a culture of under-performance. Unrealistic plans create the expectation throughout the organisation that plans simply will not be fulfilled. This book shows how to overcome such failings and implement strategy effectively.

Alderman John Foster purchases a piece of land from the Magdalen Nunnery intending to build a chapel, dedicated to the Magi - the Three Kings of Cologne - and some almshouses. He little imagines the shocking discovery about to be made.

Grim Reaper sits on the heart surgeon's shoulder. A slip of the hand and life ebbs away. The balance between life and death is so delicate, and the heart surgeon walks that rope between the two. In the operating room, there is no time for doubt. It is flesh, blood, rib retractors and pumping the vital organ with your bare hand to squeeze the life back into it. An off day can have dire consequences - this job has a steep learning curve, and the cost is measured in human life. Cardiac surgery is not for the faint of heart.

Jim Henderson is one of six guests summoned by the mysterious Edwin Carson, a collector of precious stones, to a weekend party at his country house, Thrackley. The house is gloomy and forbidding, but the party is warm and hospitable except for the presence of Jacobson, the sinister butler. The other guests are wealthy people draped in jewels; Jim cannot imagine why he belongs in such company. After a weekend of adventure with attempted robbery and a vanishing guest, secrets come to light, and Jim unravels a mystery from his past. 

Lydia Weekes is distraught at the break-up of her marriage. When her young son, Charlie, makes friends with the local doctor, Jean Markham, her life is turned upside down. Charlie tells his secrets to no one but the bees, but even he can’t keep his mother’s friendship to himself. The locals don’t like things done differently. As Lydia and the doctor become closer, the rumours start to fly and threaten to shatter Charlie’s world.

Everyone thinks that Sophie is an orphan. Found floating in a cello case, she is the only recorded female survivor of a shipwreck on the English Channel. But Sophie remembers seeing her mother wave for help… When the child welfare agency threatens to send Sophie to an orphanage, Sophie and her guardian flee to Paris to find her mother, starting with the only clue she has - the address of the cello maker.

Former inspector Sir John Appleby is worried about his friend Charles Vandervell. An elderly philosopher who lives alone on the Cornish coast, his nephew has expressed concern about his melancholic state. But when Appleby drops by to visit Vandervell, he is surprised to find him entertaining his female neighbour. And then a week later, Vandervell disappears leaving what seems like a suicide note....  

The adventure begins in London on Tuesday, October 1st, 1872, when rich British gentleman Phileas Fogg gets in an argument with a group of friends. He enters a wager that sets him on a race to make it around the world in 80 days. Although the trip begins as planned with his valet Jean Passepartout, he is quickly mistaken as a bank robber by Scotland Yard detective Fix. Now being pursued on his journey, Fogg must quickly travel in order to win the wager, see the world, and avoid being apprehended for a crime he did not commit in the ultimate adventure story.

After getting shot down in the skies over France in the winter of 1939, airman Robert Bozdech stumbled across a tiny German Shepherd puppy. He hid the dog, whom he named Ant, inside his jacket, and from that moment on an unbreakable bond was formed. They flew together with Bomber Command, and when Ant was eventually grounded by the RAF top brass he waited patiently on the runway for his master to return from each and every sortie. By the end of the war Ant had become a very British hero.

One night a stranger wrapped in bandages and eccentric clothing arrives in an English village. That stranger, Griffin, is a brilliant and obsessed scientist who has discovered how to turn his entire body invisible. Although he initially feels joy at his newfound freedom and abilities, that joy quickly turns to despair when he struggles to discover a way to reverse the process.