Showing results by author "A. Morris" in All Categories

A collection of four ghostly tales inspired by M. R. James: Casting the Runes, Lost Hearts, The Treasure of Abbott-Thomas and A View from the Hill.

Thea has a secret. She can tell how long someone has left to live just by touching them. Not only that, but she can transfer life from one person to another – something she finds out the hard way when her best friend Ruth suffers a fatal head injury on a night out. Desperate to save her, Thea touches the arm of the man responsible when he comes to check if Ruth is all right. As Ruth comes to, the man quietly slumps to the ground, dead. Thea realises that she has a godlike power: but despite deciding to use her ability for good, she can’t help but sometimes use it for her own benefit.

An Italian general is found dead in his apartment. Next to his body is a small card inscribed with a salamander in a bed of flames. Is it suicide or murder? Dante Matucci, a captain in the Italian secret service, begins an investigation that leads him into a maze of political violence and intrigue. He meets the general’s former mistress, Lili Anders, and embarks on a dangerous affair with the beautiful onetime spy.

"Roy's tiny breaths sounded like milkshake fighting its way up a very thin straw. His eyes were closed. 'Rory', I said. 'Don't die. Don't die.' His eyes fell open. They flicked wildly around. 'The goat', he shouted. I didn't bother looking behind me. I knew there was no goat. And I knew Rory wasn't dying. Not yet."

American Ambassador Maxwell Gordon Amberley has a reputation as a tough negotiator. Yet when he is sent to Vietnam, the dilemma he faces throws him into self-doubt. He is made arbiter of his nation’s fate on the one hand and of the life and death of the ruling house of Vietnam on the other. Out of every international crisis comes at least one great story.

Little Eepersip doesn't want to live in a house with doors and windows and a roof, so she runs away to live in the wild - first in the Meadow, then by the Sea and finally in the Mountain. Her heartbroken parents follow her at first, bringing her back home to 'safety' and locking her up in the stifling square of the house. But she slips away once more, following her wild heart out of the door and far away....

Rowena Batts has enough problems in her life without adopting a crazy cockatoo. She's just splattered two hundred grown-ups with jelly and custard, and her dad's getting married to her teacher. But Sticky the cockatoo turns out to be just the friend she needs.

Is our sun behaving differently from other stars? When an amateur astronomer discovers something strange on telescopic solar pictures, an explanation must be found. Is it merely artifact? Or has he found something totally unexpected? An expert international crew is hastily assembled, a spaceship is speedily repurposed, and the foursome is sent on the ride of their lives. What challenges will they face on this spur-of-the-moment mission to our central star?

The sub-prime mortgage crisis was only the beginning: a more profound economic and political restructuring was on the way. The astronomical leverage at investment banks with their hedge fund and private equity clients virtually guaranteed massive disruption in global markets. A quarter century of free-market zealotry that extolled asset stripping, abusive lending, and hedge fund secrecy came crashing down with it. Continued denial and concealment caused the crisis to stretch out for years, but financial and government leaders still downplayed the problem.

This is no ordinary celebrity biography pieced together by an outsider. Steve Martin and author Morris Walker had a close relationship growing up. They were class clowns together, charming the girls and the teachers with their wit, and eventually going on the road as comedians. This personal account will introduce you to the Steve Martin you've never seen before.

The Scarifyers is a series of rip-roaring tales of comedic supernatural intrigue set in 1930s Britain, distilling the likes of Dick Barton, The Avengers, The Devil Rides Out and Quatermass into cracking new audio adventures. The Scarifyers is broadcast on BBC Radio 4 Extra, and has been described as 'rollicking good fun', 'a slice of audio perfection', 'the smartest and most enjoyable thing on British radio' and 'like Tintin but with the lights out.'

The Unwinding is a pillow book, in the ancient tradition of Sei Shonagan. Designed to be a portal, a talisman, it invites listeners to enter its world, through word and image. In this exquisite, haunting audio version, Jackie Morris' dreamlike stories are narrated by Bethany Porter with a specially commissioned musical back track performed by The Bookshop Band, including two exclusive new songs: "The Binding" and "At the Edge Is Hope". It is an audiobook to relax and unwind to.

"I burst out of a clump of bushes and froze. Silhouetted against the moonlit sky were several massive shapes. What if Eileen had infected something else? What if the hospital had cockroaches? Or bedbugs? What if the frogs weren't all dead? I stifled a scream."

Hannah and her husband appear to live a good life. No one knows the emotional nightmare Hannah endures behind closed doors. A blessed freedom is in the jewelry she crafts in the shed behind her house. But what will Hannah do when her husband threatens to take away even the smallest things that bring her joy? Hannah has a plan. Now it’s just a matter of pulling it off without leaving a single trace behind.

Bumface! That's who Angus wants to be. He dreams of being bold, brave, wild and free. Like the pirate in the stories he tells his younger brother and sister. Instead, Angus is just plain tired from changing nappies and wiping food off walls. His mum calls him Mr. Dependable, but Angus can barely cope. Another baby would be a disaster. So Angus comes up with a bold and brave plan to stop her getting pregnant. That's when he meets Rindi And Angus thought he had a problem before...

Redbird is an extended epilogue of about 20,000 words for Sovereign, set six years after the book ends. It's a heartwarming (and high-heat) look into Keira and Gerard and their family life on Sovereign Mountain Ranch.

On the other side of the fence horrible, gobbling squeals came from THE SLOBBERERS as they fought over the bloody trail I had left behind.

This thrilling adventure takes listeners into the most compelling frontier: the human heart. By 1866, Dr. Cheney Duvall has had her fill of places where people distrust her skills simply because she is a woman. So she and her assistant, Shiloh Irons, return to Cheney's home in New York City, where Cheney can set up practice among "respectable" folks. But an outbreak of cholera has Cheney questioning her decision and looking to God to find out how she can best use her talents.

Join professional comedy writer Joel Morris on a hilarious journey into the hidden world of shared laughter, where he reveals the mechanisms that make jokes work and what comedy can teach us about ourselves. Offering astute analysis of everything from stand-up to slapstick and sitcom to spoof, Morris examines comedic patterns, rhythms, and dynamics to uncover the algorithms that secretly underpin comedy.

'Ouch,' said Limpy. 'Why's my back hurting?' A horrible thought hit him. Perhaps it was a fork wound. Perhaps while he was unconscious the human had tried to eat him. He looked around. 'Stack me,' said Limpy. All he could see was blue plastic. Limpy's on a quest to find toad heaven. A place where cane toads won't be blown up with bike pumps or bashed over the head with folding chairs. Limpy's determined to find this place if it takes the rest of his life. But first he has to get out of the bucket.