Showing results by narrator "Mark Peachey" in All Categories

The Outsider was an instant literary sensation when it was first published in 1956, thrusting its youthful author into the front rank of contemporary writers and thinkers. Wilson rationalised the psychological dislocation so characteristic of Western creative thinking into a coherent theory of alienation, and defined those affected by it as a type: the outsider. Through the works and lives of various artists, including Kafka, Camus, Hemingway, Hesse, Lawrence, Van Gogh, Shaw, Nietzsche and Dostoevsky, Wilson explored the psyche of the outsider, his effect on society and society's on him.

Detective Rob Loxley has had to fight for everything in his career. The shadows of his past lead many to view him with suspicion. He's isolated and ostracised, despite his dedication to the job. In Sherwood Forest, a sadistic archer plays a deadly game. Victims are kidnapped, stripped, and become living targets for a relentless hunter. It's a cruel game of cat and mouse with fatal consequences.

Ryan and Phil had always been inseparable. Twins born 35 minutes apart, Ryan was the protective one, constantly looking out for his younger brother. They can't remember how old they were when the abuse started, but they can remember their uncle very clearly. A frequent visitor to their home in Lincoln, he lavished their family with expensive treats. School holidays and weekends were spent visiting him, when he would often take the two little boys aside to play the games he liked. Trapped with him, day after day, year after year, the abuse continued until Ryan and Phil turned 16.

Max is distraught when he receives a letter from the school telling him he has to go on a weekend of cycling and camping for the Duke of Wellington awards scheme. But things vastly improve when his friends agree to come with him. It isn't long before they find adventure–or adventure finds them... They make a friend called Byron and set up camp in a forest near to his home. But that night they wake to see strange lights and a fierce wind blowing through the trees.

What does it take to thrive in one of the most pressurised leadership roles in modern times? What is the real story behind the men in the football hotseat who shape the dreams and ambitions of millions? The First 100 Days: Lessons in Leadership from the Football Bosses is both an entertaining book for football fans and a self-help manual for those embarking on a leadership challenge of their own.

Things in Southwold get off to a bad start! Max has to do extra lessons while Charlie has been roped into helping with the decorating. Meanwhile Lucy loses an important race to a new girl in her school, Miranda Fitchwitherington, who seems to enjoy being as mean as possible to Lucy and the rest of the gang. And there is more bad news–when the gang meet Captain Tom, walking his own dog, Pugly, he tells them about an outbreak of pet thefts in the area.

Joe can't believe his luck when his dad rents a castle for their Easter holidays—but is devastated when his mum receives a better invitation and the trip is cancelled. Determined to have his holiday, Joe develops a plan to go with his friends instead. The castle is everything the friends had hoped for, but it's not long before they hear strange noises underground and notice yellow eyes lurking in the forest. And when Sherlock falls through some rotten boards and into an old well, they discover an ancient box, containing a 200-year-old notebook and an incomplete treasure map.

When Emmett opens his wheelie bin to dispose of the morning waste, he finds a decapitated head staring back at him. Someone is killing the local prostitutes, chopping them up, and dumping the parts in wheelie bins around the old mining villages close to Mansfield. Assigned the case, recently promoted DI Rob Loxley and his new team start the hunt for this vicious killer. They're desperate to stop this monster before these vulnerable women are targeted again.

Take a trip to a terrifying carnival and uncover the secrets within, solve a mysterious puzzle box and await your reward, join a travelling circus and witness the strangest ventriloquist act you've ever seen. In this follow-up to the bestselling Cursed: An Anthology, you'll unearth curses old and new. From a very different take on Snow White, to a new interpretation of The Red Shoes, the best in fantasy spin straw into gold, and invite you into the labyrinth.

Biomimetics literally means emulating biology—and in a broader sense the term covers technological advances where the original inspiration came from nature. The Earth is a vast laboratory where the mechanisms of natural selection have enabled evolutionary solutions to be developed to a wide range of problems. Science writer Brian Clegg looks at how humans have piggybacked on natural experimentation, redeploying a solution to create things that make our lives easier.

Lucy, Max, Charlie and Joe aren’t looking for new friends – they have too many of their own problems to worry about. But when the four of them, and Charlie’s faithful dog, Sherlock, spot a phantom figure on Southwold beach one winter’s night, they are thrown together to unravel a mystery that none of them expected. Just who is the ghostly spectre that walks the sands of Southwold with a lantern in his hand? What is the connection to the ancient curse that hangs over the town?

When philosopher and traveller Will Buckingham’s partner died, he sought solace in throwing open the door to new people. Now, as we reflect on our experiences of the pandemic and its enforced separations, and as global migration figures ever more prominently in our collective future, Buckingham brings together insights from philosophy, anthropology, history and literature to explore how our traditions of meeting the other can mitigate the issues of our time.

Physics informs our understanding of how the world works - but more than that, key breakthroughs in physics have transformed everyday life. We journey back to 10 separate days in history to understand how particular breakthroughs were achieved, meet the individuals responsible and see how each breakthrough has influenced our lives.

When Dennis finds a vulnerable woman by the roadside, recently beaten and robbed, he brings her back to his new home: the basement of a house in which he is the caretaker. But Dennis is a peculiar man. With an ineffectual father and a domineering mother, what he craves is a girlfriend to love. Rosie awakens to find herself held captive by this strange and disturbing man, who returns to his family home every evening to spend time with Mother. What twisted power does Mother hold over her son? Will Mother ensure that Rosie's fate is sealed? Or is Dennis the real threat?

A Detective Superintendent of the Nottinghamshire Police Force is found brutally murdered in the idyllic Clumber Park. The victim used to run the same Unit that DI Rob Loxley is now a part of. That was until a drug bust went badly wrong, resulting in the deaths of four officers. Corruption was suspected, and Rob is something of an expert on that. As the new DI of the unit, it falls to Rob to investigate the murder and find the killer, but this means dealing with Anti-Corruption, a worrying prospect at best.

Sky is convinced a woman she met in tears on the beach is in desperate danger. After all, the abuse is all spelled out in the diary she dropped when she fled. But when Sky tries to rescue Esme Winters from her violent and controlling husband, she stubbornly rejects Sky’s offer of help. Because it’s not her husband she’s frightened of. Esme has a bigger secret to hide and will stop at nothing to protect her lies - even if that means sacrificing Sky’s life to save her own.

Written by experts and offering listeners the opportunity to pass off appropriated knowledge as their own, the Bluffer's Guides provide hard fact masquerading as frivolous observation in one witty, easy listen. Instantly acquire all the knowledge you need to pass as an expert in the world of quantum physics. Never again confuse a boson with a hadron, a fermion with a meson, or a photon with a lepton or an electron. If in doubt, always fall back on a bluffon.

Simon Selwood is an academic expert on the monogamous sexual behaviour of birds but hopeless at finding human love. Then he meets Kim, and at last something is more important to him than ornithology. Kim doesn’t give a hoot about birds. And at first she isn’t very interested in Simon, either. Relying on what he has gleaned from observing the opportunistic pied flycatcher and other species, plus the unorthodox advice of old friend Phil, Simon sets out on a mission to discover love for himself. But will he make the right choice?

If your life was on the line, how far would you go? Surgeon Jacob Thorn isn’t worried when the police interview him over Nurse Katy Leith’s disappearance. She is a co-worker, nothing more. But when a leaked video of him and the missing woman arguing goes viral, the social media reaction is vicious. When harrowing images of the kidnapped woman start to appear on his phone, along with a demand from her abductor that Jake confesses to a crime he has no recollection of committing, he is forced to act or face terrifying consequences.

A remarkably powerful yet heart-warming story, Being with Cows pays homage to Life's unending compassion and insistence that in the very centre of all things, lies pure and untainted simplicity. Through a deeply tangible sense of gratitude, it tells of how tragedy can be overcome through the healing power of nature.