Showing results by narrator "Huw Parmenter" in All Categories

Nine men: each of them at a different stage of life, away from home, and striving - in the suburbs of Prague, in a cheap Cypriot hotel - to understand just what it means to be alive here and now. Tracing an arc from the spring of youth to the winter of old age, All That Man Is brings these separate lives together to show us men as they are - ludicrous and inarticulate, shocking and despicable; vital, pitiable, hilarious, and full of heartfelt longing.

Exploring the dichotomy between one's inner and outer self is central to Behind Her Eyes. When a vulnerable woman is drawn into the lives of an enigmatic couple, she finds it hard to differentiate between reality and what truly lies beneath a seemingly perfect exterior. 

Everyone at Barry’s school has gone football crazy, but Barry gets thrown out of the team (the Mogden Maniacs) for being completeerly rubbish. Then it turns out that his best friend, Bunky, is a super striker—so Barry becomes his manager. The cup final match is approaching, and Bunky’s getting carried away with his football fame—can Barry keep his head in the game?

When Seb is offered a place on a radical retreat designed to solve the national crisis of teenage unhappiness, he is determined to change how people see him and make his parents proud. But as he finds himself drawn to the enigmatic Finn, Seb starts to question the true nature of the challenges they must undergo. The deeper into the programme the boys get, the more disturbing the assessments become, until it’s clear there may be no escape.

D. H. Lawrence is no longer censored, but he is still on trial - and we are still unsure what the verdict should be, or even how to describe him. History has remembered him, and not always flatteringly, as a nostalgic modernist, a sexually liberator, a misogynist, a critic of genius and a sceptic who told us not to look in his novels for 'the old stable ego’, yet pioneered the genre we now celebrate as auto-fiction. But where is the real Lawrence in all of this, and how - 100 years after the publication of Women in Love - can we hear his voice above the noise?

Frank is 10. He likes cottage pie and football and cracking codes. Max is five. He eats only Quavers ,and some colours are too bright for him, and if he has to wear a new T-shirt he melts down down down. Sometimes Frank wishes Mum could still do huge paintings of stars and asteroids like she used to, but since Max was born she just doesn’t have time. When tragedy hits Frank and Max’s lives like a comet, can Frank piece together a universe in which he and Max aren’t light-years apart?

When Rosie's best friend has an affair with her husband, the consequences reverberate through the lives of two families. Relationships are torn apart, friendships shattered and childish innocence destroyed. Her daughter Daisy's fragile hold on reality begins to unravel when a letter arrives that opens old wounds. Rosie's son, Max, blames himself for everything that happened. And her ex-husband, Nick, has his own version of events.

When Gemma meets Aaron, she feels truly seen for the first time. Their love story is the intense kind. The written-in-the-stars, excluding-all-others kind. The kind you write songs about. But little by little their relationship takes over Gemma's life. What happens when being seen becomes being watched, and care becomes control? Told in both Gemma's and Aaron's words, this is a raw, moving exploration of gaslighting in teenage relationships that skewers our ideas of what love looks like.

When lost red squirrel Lucky finds himself in Albion Park, the native squirrels all around him are bigger, tougher, and much more... grey. He needs all the luck he can find to fit in, and even more to pass the Squirrel Trial that will give him a permanent place in the park. But when Lucky discovers a plot that threatens their home, he'll need more than just good fortune on his side…

After discovering that Happyhead was a sinister eugenics experiment, Seb along with a select group of participants, finds himself washed up (literally) on an isolated island called Elmhallow. Here the teens are split into two groups – the chosen Ten and the Bottom Percentile.

It’s only a few days into the half-term holidays, and Barry's dad has already had enough of him! He’s packing Barry off to Pirate Camp, the same one he used to be sent to every year. Barry’s not impressed—he’s not a baby anymore, so why should he have to go to a camp for kiddywinkles? But horrible things are afoot at Pirate Camp—it’s been taken over by the villainous Morag, and now its future’s in doubt. There’s only one thing to do: Barry and his new friends Sally Bottom and Renard Dupont have to uncover the hidden treasure of Mogden Island....

As far back as Barry can remember, he’s always wanted a sausage dog. They’re like two of his favourite things (sausages and dogs) squidged together! Who cares if they bark the whole time, do poos everywhere, need three walks every day and stop you going to the cinema with your friends? Not Barry. Until he actukeely gets a real-life sausage dog, that is.

Barry's class are off on a school trip to see a history of television exhibition, which Barry knows will be comperleeterly rubbish. But then he discovers that Future Ratboy (super-keel superhero TV show) is filmed in the same TV studios! All he has to do is find a way to sneak away and find the set.... Will Barry come up with an amazekeel plan? Will he get to audition for Future Ratboy? Will they get the best seats on the coach?

Cymbeline Igloo is bored. Bored of home learning, bored of lockdown, bored of not being able to do anything. And to make things even worse, his mum accidentally gave away his favourite football shirt. But then Mrs Stebbings, the beloved school cook, is taken into hospital, and suddenly coronavirus seems much closer to home. When Cym starts a project all about Mrs Stebbings’ childhood in World War II, he can’t know that it’s the beginning of something incredible and even dangerous.

The festive season isn't always happy for Tori Spring and her brother, Charlie. And this year's going to be harder than most. I used to think that difficult was better than boring, but I know better now.... I’m not going to think about the past few months, about Charlie and me and all of the sad. I’m going to block it all out just for today. 'Happy Christmas,' I say.

Two remarkable tales featuring Cymbeline Igoo from the bestselling and Carnegie shortlisted author Adam Baron. BOY UNDERWATER Cymbeline Igloo (yes, really!) has NEVER been swimming. Not ever. Not once. But how hard can it be? He’s Googled front crawl and he’s found his dad’s old pair of...

Everyone knows that Nick and Charlie are the perfect couple – that they’re inseparable. But now Nick is leaving for university, and Charlie will be left behind at Sixth Form. Everyone’s asking if they’re staying together, which is a stupid question – they’re ‘Nick and Charlie’ for God’s sake!

But as the time to say goodbye gets inevitably closer, both Nick and Charlie question whether their love is strong enough to survive being apart. Or are they delaying the inevitable? Because everyone knows that first loves rarely last forever....

A story about a little dog with the heart of a lion. From the bestselling author of a ‘A Dog Called Homeless’. Leo dreams about being a hero. In his imagination he is a fearsome gladiator, but he wants to be a hero in real life. When the boys at school dare Leo to do something he knows is...

A heart-pounding love story that grips like a riptide and doesn't let go.... Fifteen-year-old Sam has moved from the big city to the coast - stuck there with his mum and sister on the edge of nowhere. Then he meets beautiful but damaged surfer girl Jade. Soon he's in love with her and with surfing itself. But Jade is driven by an obsession: finding and riding a legendary huge wave no one has ever ridden.

‘Angela’s Ashes on four legs’ Evening Standard A furry festive miracle who’s there for you with a helping paw. Percy definitely isn’t just for Christmas… Percy is homeless, abandoned by his owner at an animal rescue centre on a cold winter’s night. So when he finds a loving new...