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....

Good News, Bad News... a secret agent is trained to try to think of every possible outcome and eventuality. Who could have guessed, though, that a bureaucratic error would send two men to the same 'cover' job, working in a shabby photo-processing booth, where each must keep his real identity secret from the other, while awaiting orders. Or that those orders would be to assassinate... each other. Thrown together by this apparently ghastly mistake, Charlie and George decide to go on the run together. In the whole world, the only people they can trust are each other. Or can they?

Oxford University, 1271: for the first time in the university's history a college is to be purpose-built. As old buildings are pulled down, a skeleton is revealed. The skull is missing - it is clear the man has been murdered. Regent Master William Falconer deduces that the body was hidden 20 years ago.

France, 1963. Taken out of his home town as part of a nationwide “initiative”, Inspector Lucas Rocco finds himself in the village of Poissons-Les-Marais, Picardie – and answerable to his former army CO Francois Massin. On his first day he finds a murdered woman wearing a Gestapo uniform lying in a British military cemetery. When the body is removed from the mortuary before Rocco can finish his investigation, he traces the paperwork to the dead woman’s father, industrialist Philippe Bayer-Berbier.

When Stella Swift is discovered holding a shard of broken glass near her newborn baby boy, fears that she might harm William result in her being taken to Catcombe - the local asylum. Although the regime is not as harsh as it once was, it's not somewhere that Tom wants to send his wife - but he has no choice. Turning to his kind-hearted sister-in-law Grace for help taking care of his other three children whilst he keeps working at the mine seems like the simplest solution until Stella is well - if only there wasn't the shared history between Tom and Grace....

In the mid-1990s, Kevin Keegan brought sporting romance and expectation of trophies to Newcastle, Sunderland moved the the Stadium of Light backed by a wealthy consortium, Middlesbrough signed one of the best Brazilians of the era and won their first major trophy - even little Darlington had a former safe-cracker turned kitchen magnate in charge, promising the world. The region even provided England's two key players in Euro 96 in Alan Shearer and Paul Gascoigne - the far corner seemed destined to become the centre of England's footballing world. But it never happened.

Halloween 1861. A special train with two carriages steams across the Lake District at night on its way to a place notorious for its record of supernatural incidents. Lighting inside the carriages is poor, and without warning, the lamp goes out in the last compartment of the second carriage, plunging it into darkness. When the special reaches the end of its journey, the passengers pour out on to the station platform. There are almost 60 of them in all, laughing and jostling.

180 AD. North of the Wall, Sarmatian warrior Kai and his adopted tribe, the Votadini, struggle for survival, cast into unfamiliar lands by Roman reprisals. When news arrives that an old enemy is in charge of the Votadini's hated foes, a confederation of tribes known as the Painted People, and has roused them to action, Kai heads south towards the Wall, hoping to ally with the Romans against this resurgent threat. Meanwhile, the Romans have heard tales of butchery and mayhem beyond the Wall.

A tool is an object with endless possibilities. Contained within each item is the chance to create, to inspire, to repair and improve. It's no wonder that scientific studies have shown humans are hardwired to appreciate hardware. This book is a celebration of both that potential and our reverence, exploring more than 150 incredible tools, their history, their unique appeal and how they are used by creative people to make just about anything.

A scurrilous newspaper has built up a large following by publishing details of political and sexual scandals. It is remarkably well-informed and has therefore created a whole host of enemies. When the editor is killed and the printing press smashed to bits, the Invisible Detectives are hired by the man who financed the production of the paper. He wants the killer brought to justice and the scandal sheet revived. Peter and Paul Skillen find themselves in great danger as they unearth an enormous amount of scandal and corruption before the villains are brought to book.

In the hard, unforgiving land at the northernmost point of the Roman Empire lies a great wall. Once, the edge had been but a thing of thoughts and dreams, but one day the great Emperor from across the water had grown tired of such borders. So, a wall was raised from the earth at his command. From afar, it looked invincible. Yet every wall has its weaknesses—if one looks close enough. In its shadow gather five thousand fearsome soldiers. Men bred to fight and kill. The Sarmatians have suffered capture and defeat, but under a new command they are prepared to fight again.

The essential novels of Jules Verne include the classics such as 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Journey to the Center of the Earth, and Around the World in Eighty Days. Enjoy all three novels in this enthralling science-fiction collection.

In October 1975, an assassin tried to murder Norman Scott on Exmoor, but the trigger failed and he only succeeded in shooting Scott's beloved dog, Rinka. Scott subsequently found himself at the centre of a major political scandal and became an unlikely queer icon. But this was never his intention.

In the fictional Harrington Convent, one of its more challenging inhabitants, Baroness Sliema, is found murdered. Chief Inspector Pearson of Scotland Yard is called to solve the crime. He discovers the convent is governed by a particularly shrewd and omniscient Reverend Mother, and we meet a varied and entertaining cast of characters observed with wit and charm. Shepherd describes the world of a convent with its colourful and in some cases unlikely inhabitants with sympathy and humour, making for a gentle and entertaining tale.

When Captain John Fowler discovers his trusted lover is a spy, he must make the ultimate sacrifice for his country before she betrays his secrets to the enemy.

As It Is Written is set in a British munitions factory during a blackout. It explores the vulnerability of the enemy as well as the important contribution to the war effort made by munition workers.

When Hugh Latimer is shot in the head during combat, he is not expected to survive. But he returns home a hero and is awarded the VC. As time moves on, though, it becomes clear that whilst he may have recovered physically, he has been dramatically changed psychologically by the war....

This adventure story follows a German agent to India as he attempts to agitate the Muslim population. His plans are soon thwarted, though, when he is exposed as a fraud by hypnotist Muhammed Din.

A story from The Prisoner’s Defence, a collection of First World War short stories. In this short piece of war fiction, the popular wartime song 'Mademoiselle from Armentières' is rewritten as a tragedy.

In this short story, the author throws the spotlight on British submarine crews and their contribution to the war effort.