Showing results by narrator "Ben Allen" in All Categories

Foulsham has been destroyed. Darkness lies heavily over the city; the sun has not come up for days. Inside the houses throughout the capital, ordinary objects have begun to move. There are rumours of a terrible contagion. From the richest mansion to the poorest slum, people have disappeared. The police have been instructed to carry arms. Someone has stolen a certain plug. Someone is lighting a certain box of matches. All will come tumbling down. The Iremongers have come to London.

The Iremongers are a mean and cruel family, robust and hardworking, living in the Heaps, a vast sea of lost and discarded items. A storm is brewing over Heap House. The Iremongers are growing restless and the whispers are getting louder. When Clod meets Lucy, a girl newly arrived from the city, everything changes. The secrets that bind Heap House together begin to unravel to reveal a dark truth that threatens to destroy Clod's world.

Set in the atmospheric town of Cloisterham, the novel centers on the sudden disappearance of young Edwin Drood, a man with a tangled web of relationships and a dark past. As those closest to him—his fiancée Rosa, his uncle Jasper, and a colorful array of town residents—become embroiled in the search for the truth, the lines between innocence and guilt blur in a chilling way.

Martin Chuzzlewit follows the ambitious and headstrong young Martin as he embarks on a journey that will test his character and shake his beliefs. Driven by greed, selfishness, and a desire for wealth, Martin clashes with his eccentric, self-serving relatives—none more so than his manipulative grandfather, old Martin Chuzzlewit. The novel's twisty narrative takes him across the Atlantic to America, where he is confronted with the greed of the New World, revealing his own flaws in the process.

Hazel and Jamie are happily married. Or so it would seem. Behind closed doors, things are far from normal. Jamie has an unhealthy obsession, and Hazel is more worried about herself than her husband. So when Millicent injects herself into their lives, with Jamie firmly in her sights, the trio end up on a path that will end in death. Everyone has secrets. Everyone has a dark side. But who is good, who is bad, and who is going to get away with murder?

Married to a soldier who has returned from Afghanistan injured in body and mind, Stella Carey leaves the house every evening. During her nursing shifts, Stella writes letters for her patients to their loved ones - some full of humour, love and practical advice, others steeped in regret or pain - promising to post them after their deaths. Until one night Stella writes the letter that could give her patient one last chance at redemption, if she delivers it in time....

Spirited and unpretentious, Chesterton's romp through English history recounts the thrilling story of a somewhat complicated nation, told through the soul of its people. From the Roman roads to the Magna Carta, the Reformation and the rise of democracy, Chesterton compellingly traces England's journey through history, often noting the persistent struggle between ordinary folk and overreaching elites.

A compelling series of twenty essays sees Chesterton take aim at fashionable contemporary thinkers – writers and philosophers such as H. G. Wells, Rudyard Kipling and Bernard Shaw – who are proponents of rebellion and relativism. With his razor-sharp wit and charm, Chesterton cleverly unpicks these concepts, arguing that there is a better way forward.

Twelfth-century Europe. Newly crowned King Philip of France is determined to restore his nation to its former empire and bring glory to his name. But when his greatest enemy, King Henry of England, threatens to end his reign before it can even begin, Philip is forced to make a precarious alliance with Henry’s volatile son—risking both his throne, and his heart.

The Finance Collection is a wide-ranging collection of 6 classic works focused on the building of wealth, economics, and critiques of capitalism itself. Including works by authors as diverse as James Allen, George Samuel Clason, Adam Smith, and Karl Marx

Jago is a kid from a rough part of London who has worked hard to get a job in a bank. Marcantonio is a member of the 'Ndrangheta crime families from Southern Italy. He is in Germany to learn how to channel their illicit millions towards legitimate businesses. When Jago witnesses Marcantonio commit a vicious assault, he is drawn into the middle of a delicate surveillance operation.

This audiobook, read by Audie award-winning narrators, includes unabridged recordings of Fyodor Dostotevsky's two finest works of non-fiction.

Introspective sailor Charles Marlow recounts a life-changing and deeply unsettling expedition to Congo as riverboat captain for a Belgian trading company. He is eager to find Kurtz – an allegedly progressive thinker and talented man – during his travels. The journey to Africa is long and arduous; the surrounding jungle is dense and oppressively quiet, causing havoc among the ship’s crew. Marlow also begins to sense all is not well with Kurtz – the others seem to be fearful of him and he is rumoured to be ill.

A well-to-do professor working in Moscow strikes up an unlikely friendship with a stray dog and attempts a scientific first by transplanting the testicles and pituitary gland of a recently deceased man into the dog. With a wild, but alarmingly human animal on the loose, the professor's previously respectable life becomes a nightmare beyond his imagination. A superb satirical novel, it is also a sharp and pointed criticism of Soviet society, especially the new rich that arose after the Bolshevik revolution.

Dan and Gemma have found their dream first home, but the asking price is the stuff of nightmares. The only way they'll ever save for a deposit is by returning, rent free, to Dan's childhood home. Obviously no one wants to move back into a bedroom still adorned with Kylie posters, with a mother whose culinary skills are noted for their spectacular gastrointestinal effects. But it's for only six months. Even they can manage that. Surely.

Published in 1885, Dickens As I Knew Him recounts Dolby's time managing Dickens's reading tours across Britain and America from 1866 to 1870. Dolby's narrative offers a firsthand account of these tours, illustrating Dickens's dedication to both his craft and his readers. From the extensive travelling, logistical challenges of the events and the enthusiastic audiences Dickens received it paints a vivid portrait of the literary giant's career in his later years, providing valuable insights into the man behind some of the most popular works of the century.

Who would imagine a little gold ring could lead to kidnap, torture and even murder? How could the curse of the Pharaohs come to Falmouth? The year is 1923, and a young Cockney woman appears in Falmouth. Inspector George Bartlett and Constable Archibald Boase think she's harmless enough - until she and they are caught up in a seemingly endless cycle of mayhem and deceit.

Following a drunken misunderstanding, Simon Dawson gave up his job in the city, moved to the wilds of Exmoor and became an accidental self-sufficient smallholder with an array of animals. But that was years ago now. Following up on his first book, Pigs in Clover, this is the story of what happens when he suddenly realises that his life is changing all over again. He's not quite the spring chicken that he used to be: he is, horror of horrors, getting older.

The Complete G.K. Chesterton Collection brings together all of Chesterton's major works, including all five volumes of the beloved Father Brown stories, ten other novels or short story collections, 7 works of non-fiction, including his famous writings on politics, religion, and philosophy, and a selection of his best poetry (including The Ballad of the White Horse).

When Douglas B. Douglas - leading light of the London theatre - premiers his new musical extravaganza, Blue Music, he is sure the packed house will be dazzled by the performance. What he couldn't predict is the death of his star, Brandon Baker, onstage in the middle of act two. Soon another member of the cast is found dead, and it seems to be a straightforward case of murder followed by suicide.