Showing results by narrator "David Pickering" in All Categories

With authority and enthusiasm, Peter Underwood discusses the varying techniques and approaches to ghost hunting, uncovers some notorious fakes, and reveals many remarkable mysteries for which no material explanations can be found.

The good people of Battle Hill are getting ready to put on a play by the renowned playwright, Peter Stanhope. As the rehearsals continue and the date of the premier draws closer, many things that are hidden are revealed.

The death of one’s spirit should come with a great deal of noise: weeping and wailing, if not thunder or the roar of a fire. Elizabeth could not have imagined a spirit forced into darkness by something so mundane as the scratch of pen on paper. Elizabeth Bennet has been certain of many things in her life: her place in society, the love of her family, her ability to choose her own future, and her ability to accurately judge the character of those she meets. Three days after the Netherfield Ball, a near tragedy shakes that foundation.

The history of Ukraine is a fascinating story of how cultures, political systems, religions, and power have met, intersected, morphed, and expanded. After various cultures helped develop the region, the legendary Cossacks arrived during the early modern period and dominated the region for several centuries, forming an independent republic that helped forge Ukrainian identity to this day. Even as the origins of these ferocious fighters remain murky and obscure, the Cossacks have continued their growing international appearance with the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.

The Phoenix and the Mirror: or, The Enigmatic Speculum by Avram Davidson is a fantasy novel that tells the story of a sorcerer named Vergil Magus. This sorcerer was named for Virgil (or Publius Vergilius Maro), poet and author of The Aeneid. In an introduction to The Phoenix and the Mirror, Davidson claims that during the Dark Ages, people tended to forget that Virgil was a poet and instead believed he was a sorcerer. The Phoenix and the Mirror was the first book in which Davidson attempted to retell the legend of this mysterious sorcerer.

Forty-Two Stories is a comedy about life in a high-rise condominium. A motley assortment of staff members struggles with survival in the face of urban pandemonium - and with the fact that one of them may be breaking into the units and stealing women's underwear.

Geneva, 1688. Jeanne is barely scraping by on meager earnings from weaving. She dreams of her previous life as a wealthy merchant’s wife before Louis XIV’s soldiers ran her family out of France for refusing to renounce their faith. But even in Geneva, Jeanne and her son aren’t anywhere close to free from persecution. Jacob hopes his letters make it to Jeanne from the other side of the ocean. As he bides his time as an indentured servant on a Caribbean plantation, tragedy strikes in the form of shipwreck and pirates.

New York, 1689. Jacob Delpech thinks day and night about his wife and child. He's determined to reunite with his family in London, but New York’s brutal winter deep-freeze has ruined his carefully laid plans. With transport across the Atlantic at a standstill and European politics on the verge of upheaval, his chances of ever making it home grow slimmer by the day. Snowbound in Switzerland, Jeanne Delpech’s heart aches for a loving reunion with her husband. To make it back to London, she and her son must travel across extremely treacherous terrain.

Peregrine was the bastard son of the King of Sapodilla, the last Pagan kingdom in the world to resist Christianity. Accompanied by his page and the rather time-worn sorcerer, Appledore, the prince sallies forth into the Dark Ages to find his fortune. What he finds instead is: dragons, whores, Huns, Roman legions, emperors, and a most fantastic collection of mysteries and adventures.

When Lester Furnival and her friend Evelyn die in a plane crash, they find themselves walking through a ghostly, surreal, twilight London. The scandalous magician Simon Leclerc has sacrificed his own child to gain control over this world - and the next. As Lester and Evelyn discover what has happened to them, they are pulled in different directions - one toward isolation and despair, and the other toward a sacrificial self-giving that, to her great surprise, saves even her. All Hallows’ Eve is Charles Williams’ final novel - poignant, relevant, and chilling.

The history of Ukraine is a fascinating story of how cultures, political systems, religions, and power have met, intersected, morphed, and expanded. The region was relatively sparsely populated for much of ancient history, a wilderness of rivers, forests, and steppes, but that does not detract from the rich historical development of the region. 

A magician has caused a rift in the fabric of the universe, and platonic ideals are now roaming the English countryside, taking the form of giant animals and generally wreaking havoc on the small town of Smetham. While others flee, a young student named Anthony Durrant realizes that it is up to him to face the monstrous powers before they destroy the world. The Place of the Lion is one of Charles Williams' most beloved novels.

The Late Bronze Age Near East (c. 1500-1200 BCE) was a time and place where great kingdoms and empires vied for land and influence, playing high stakes diplomatic games, trading, and occasionally going to war with each other in the process. The Egyptians, Hittites, Babylonians, Assyrians, and several smaller Canaanite kingdoms were all part of this system, which was one of the first true “global” systems in world history and also one of the most materially prosperous eras in antiquity.

Jerrod Northi-rogue, pirate and a citizen of Pemath, was desperate enough to want to go through the transformation. It cost 100,000 units for the Craftsmen to endow him with the Seven Signs - a rather steep price even for him. But he would pay it somehow, for since the attack of the deadly leeris, he feared that the cost of missing this opportunity to find a refuge in the land of Tarnis would be even higher.

On December 16, 1945, Prince Konoe committed suicide after refusing to collaborate with US Army officer Bonner Fellers in Operation Blacklist. His refusal to exonerate Emperor Hirohito and the imperial family of war crimes responsibilities. A week before he took the cyanide, he wrote a memoir regarding his experience governing Imperial Japan during World War 2. The memoir shows many efforts of Prince Konoe's efforts for negotiations with Chinese and US government officials to try to end the war early as well as his governing during a time of crisis.

Eleven-year-old Vincent van Gogh discovers a curious new world through a tunnel on the moor. A mysterious white rabbit introduces Vincent to Alice, and their quest begins - defeat the dreaded Jabberwock before it consumes all of Wonderland. A slithy tove, an ill-tempered caterpillar, and the Cheshire cat meet them along the path as their adventures take them through fields dancing with flowers, tangled forests, and looking-glass pools.

Logicide! Heretic! Everyone knows cats can't talk. Everyone except Niclas, a halfwit slum boy who's just landed a new job as a talking cat's man-servant. But this is Laburnum and the age of Rationalism. Here, the Academy's Inquisition takes illogical happenings very seriously. Locking people up, throwing away keys, that sort of thing. And it's not just the Crimson Men Niclas and his new master have to worry about. A man with no name has come to the capital in search of the Black Science - they call him Witchhunter.

When occult enthusiast Sir Giles Tumulty comes into possession of a stone known as the Crown of Solomon, he is amazed at its startling powers. It can replicate itself infinitely, and can transport its holder to any place or time. Sir Giles and his nephew Reginald, an opportunistic businessman, conspire to exploit their new treasure. Seeking to enlist honest Lord Arglay in their plans, Arglay quickly realizes what is at stake. Unlimited power should not fall into the wrong hands...and it already had....

From the best-selling author of A Drive Through Time comes a time travel novella with a hint of fantasy. A down-on-his-luck historian, William, meets an enigmatic woman at a coffee shop in London. Her fascinating stories spark the beginning of an adventure that leads him to the banks of the Nile river. But his past catches up with him, and William is left to die alone in the Sahara desert. What happens next will have you wonder and second-guess yourself until the end. If you liked the Inception movie, surely you'll enjoy this book.

It is difficult to say when the Immersion happened. There is little doubt as to where it began. It was in a village. Despite an impoverished life, the village held a community rich in the love of life and each other. Some would say these conditions are the essence of an Immersion. Mik and his friends are at that age when the future looks infinite in all its possibilities. Life in the Village has never seemed so good. This year they attend the county fair as adults. But there is a world outside that cares little for the country people and their yearly celebrations of life together.