Showing results by narrator "Nathaniel Priestley" in All Categories

From centres of antiquity like Athens or Rome to modern metropolises like New York or Shanghai, cities throughout history have been the engines of human progress and the epicentres of our greatest achievements. Now, for the first time, more than half of humanity lives in cities, a share that continues to rise. In the developing world, cities are growing at a rate never seen before. In this book, Professor Goldin and Tom Lee-Devlin show why making our societies fairer, more cohesive and sustainable must start with our cities.

Yorkshire, 1878. Young, ambitious and in love, Albert Cowgill’s life is finally beginning in earnest. At just 23, he has already been made partner at Haigh, Ackroyd & Cowgill – the best wool business in the city. He’s also just laid eyes on the prettiest girl he ever saw, Hannah Ackroyd. Romance soon blossoms for Albert and Hannah, and they marry and set up home in Scarborough. But before long, clouds gather over Number 1, Byland Crescent. Within a year, Albert’s family begins to disintegrate.

Six nights a week the cast of the smash-hit play Daughter of the Revolution performs to a sold-out audience. A thrilling story of forbidden marriage and a secret love child, the critics say it'll run for years. That is until one night the third act ends not in applause but in death, when leading lady Alexandra Dyce is beheaded live on stage.

Rebecca Parcell is eager to reach Paris to marry Daniel Alloway, who's gone ahead to take up a new post there. But their idyllic prenuptial life unravels when they accept an invitation to reside with Dr. Benjamin Franklin, America's brilliant, enigmatic ambassador to France. A murdered man is found on the roof of Dr. Franklin's home outside of Paris, and he calls upon his two new houseguests–former spies for George Washington–to investigate.

Reminiscing over times gone by at Number 1 Byland Crescent, Jenny Cowgill takes a break from her baking to sit and enjoy the long-awaited postcard from Spain from her son, Andrew. But she is soon disturbed by a knock at the door. The policeman says a member of the Cowgill family has suffered a serious accident in London and her husband Mark must go at once. It’s Mark’s estranged sister Lizzie. Lizzie’s accident leaves her with life-changing injuries. Her career is over. Now perhaps she will finally come home to reconcile with the family in Scarborough?

Still living in the shadow of a global pandemic, George and Rachel attempt some of their toughest events so far. Rachel decides to sign up to her first iron-distance triathlon. But a broken bone threatens to derail George’s chances of joining her. They take on their longest ever run, most challenging swim, their first swim-run event, and a backyard ultra—a race that can only have one finisher. Ludo—the family’s hairy four-legged friend—gets in on the action as an official competitor in a muddy fun run.

They called him the Young Pretender, a Prince of England whose throne was stolen from him. Charles Stuart risked a blood bath for his crown. To fund his war between Scotland and England, Charles had millions in gold buried by his followers and lost to time. Annja, Roux, and Garin team up to hunt for the Jacobite treasure from the underground alleys in Edinburgh, to the misty hills, lochs, and castles of The Highlands.

Street gangs, corrupt merchants, and a powerful thieves guild. What could go wrong? Fighting orcs and hobgoblins on the frontier has seasoned Akke, but her return to the city of her birth could prove just as challenging. In a race against time to rescue an old friend, Akke and Ailuros land in the middle of a brewing gang war, where a person’s safety must be bargained for with more than just gold. But Akke must be careful what she promises and to whom, for dangers lurk everywhere. Some of them harder to see than others.

Few sports have had a more eventful last 50 years than rugby union. Even fewer involve such a range of different cultures, contrasting characters or diverse geographical settings. With the 2023 Rugby World Cup in France and the 200th anniversary of the game’s ‘birth’ on the horizon, Around the World in 80 Minutes sets out to find the game’s most inspiring people and places. Observant, amusing and thought-provoking, the book takes listeners on a global journey to meet key figures from rugby’s ‘golden age’ between 1973 and 2023.

In a battle between two ancient evils, can one naïve young man become the last hope against powerful creatures of legend? David Dolan thinks he's already got the world figured out. But when a collapsed bridge plunges him into the icy Hudson, he's pulled deep into the deadly realm that exists between life and death. And with his earthly form trapped in a coma, he's vulnerable to the horde of demons hell-bent on his utter destruction. Traversing the road to the afterlife, David seeks the wisdom and skills he needs to fight the demonic forces reigning havoc on his allies above ground.

Born into poverty and orphaned young, Daveth Blyd had one chance for success when his fighting prowess earned him a place in the Tangye city guard - a place he lost to false accusations of theft. Now he scrapes out a living searching for wayward spouses and missing children. When a nobleman offers him a small fortune to find an entertainer who’s stolen a ring, Daveth takes the case.

The year begins positively with George and Rachel running every single street of their local town. Just days before the country goes into lockdown, they take on the 20 miles of the Grizzly. A race so muddy that firefighters are stationed at the finish line to hose down runners. Then the year takes a dramatic turn. Food shortages, homeschooling, quiet roads, home haircuts, yoga, Rachel’s new marathon a month challenge and a walking holiday...in a different part of Devon.

Despite the trauma of the previous year’s Dartmoor Classic, George and Rachel sign up again. This time the weather takes a turn for the worse and Rachel is forced to make some creative wardrobe improvisations. Having completed several long bike rides, George now considers himself a relatively experienced cyclist. On the road.

Rachel marks her cycling sportive debut in style with 110 horrendously hilly miles that are apparently all George’s fault. Now officially a better marathon runner than George - and a rapidly improving cyclist and swimmer - Rachel is pushed to the limits after reluctantly agreeing to an ultramarathon. Did Not Start also features more family camping holidays, a visit to Paris, the arrival of the Beast from the East, and some unexpected news from a former neighbor.

Yorkshire, 1923. Sonny Cowgill is slowly regaining his memory. He was declared missing in action in the First World War, presumed dead. But Sonny’s beloved wife Rachel found him and brought him home. As he rebuilds his relationship with his wife and learns how to be a father to the son he never knew he had, memories begin to resurface. Sonny remembers something that the Cowgill family thought lost forever – the whereabouts of his eldest brother.

When Miss Lilybeth Rose Hathaway and her family arrive in Ardmond for the season, Lily can’t help but be charmed by wealthy, popular Theo Overton’s lovely manners and genuine affection. The Hathaways are soon elevated far beyond what they might have imagined, and like everyone else, they are captivated by rumors of the national hero known as the Wraith, who is saving human children from the terrors of the Fair Court. The arrival of the Special Envoy of the Fair Court tasked with capturing the Wraith frightens everyone. But the Wraith is far too clever to be captured.

George Mahood is not a philosopher, scientist, theologian or psychologist – he’s just a regular guy trying to figure life out. Like most of us, he wanted to be healthier, happier, and maybe a little less stressed. But after reading a mountain of self-help books, he found himself frustrated and underwhelmed. So, he decided to take matters into his own hands. Why sift through hundreds of confusing, contradictory, and overly serious self-help books when George has already done it for you?

The tide of war has turned against the Nazis, but desperation has made them more brutal than ever. After the Gestapo hung members of the White Rose for distributing leaflets. Their father solicits the help from the Edelweiss Pirates to save a Jewish girl in hiding.

If Jane Austen wrote sci-fi, she might have envisioned great airships and pneumatically powered carriages. She might have penned a tale about a romance between a Scottish lad and the niece of the Duke of Wellington, both being gifted in the mechanical arts and brought together by a great threat to their queen and her empire.

Some time after Inspector Newcomen’s strange case concerning Dr. Jekyll, the occurrence of a dreadful mental deviancy begins possesses many of the cultivated and sophisticated occupants of London’s West End. For Newcomen and others, it can be no coincidence that the outbreak seems suspiciously near to the home and surgery of the doctor whose demise was of such untoward circumstances.