Showing results by narrator "Ben Allen" in All Categories

All is quiet in the seaside town of Bywater-by-Sea - that is until a meteorite falls to earth, landing in the middle of the Field Craft troop's camp. Now it's not just Tom with strange powers: Trouble-maker Jacob can set things on fire and sensible Eric has the power to put them out. What's more, the excavation has uncovered a glittering rock, and the dust is making Bywater-by-Sea even more eccentric than usual.

Paige Henley has always dreamed of owning a bakery, but her busy life in New York City has never left much room for following her heart. So, when she’s given the chance to move to Port Landon to set up her own bakery, she’s ready to take a leap of faith and make her dreams a reality. When single dad and local veterinarian Cohen Beckett enters Paige’s bakery for her grand opening, there’s an undeniable connection, and Paige can’t help but notice an unfamiliar feeling in her chest.

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.

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.

Kiki grew up in New Zealand, dreaming of one day going to Glastonbury Festival. Now, mourning the loss of her beloved Yaya—the woman who raised her—she travels to the UK to follow that dream. It is only when she leaves home that she realises just how sheltered her life has been up until now. Ned lives an active and exciting life. Well, he did until the accident. Now, he's woken from his coma, except no one knows. He can hear everything happening around him but can't make his body respond.

The Jungle Book Collection brings together Rudyard Kipling's two iconic works of children's literature - beloved by generations of children and the inspiration for countless adaptations on stage and film.

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.

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.

First published in 1893 by an anonymous author (although often attributed to the nineteenth century writer Oscar Wilde), Teleny, or the Reverse of the Medal is a homoerotic novel set in fin de siècle Paris. It is one of the first pornographic works in the English language that focusses almost exclusively on a queer relationship.

The Professor is Charlotte Brontës first novel. Our protagonist is William Crimsworth and, like Jane Eyre, he is parentless; like Lucy Snowe in Villette he leaves the familiar surroundings of England to forge a life in Brussels. Brontë explores the relationship between power and sexual desire through William's first person narration.

'Enchanting' Simon Russell Beale --- 'Remarkable' James Shapiro 'Wonderful . . . compulsively readable' Nicholas Hytner Why do the collected works of an Elizabethan writer continue to speak to us as if they were written yesterday? When Robert McCrum began his recovery from a life-changing stroke...

The Brothers Grimm collected some 200 traditional tales of Northern Europe that might very well otherwise have been lost to us. This collection contains 60 of the most famous, including ‘Rumpelstiltskin’, 'Snow White', ‘Hansel and Gretel’ and ‘Rupunzel’.

Two secrets, an unbreakable bond . . . a powerful and heartbreaking love letter to a life-changing friendship, from award-winning author, Stewart Foster. I wish you were here, because maybe this isn’t a story, or a diary. Perhaps it’s just the longest thank you letter a friend could ever...