Showing results by narrator "Mark Topping" in All Categories

Wilhelm Canaris was appointed by Hitler to head the Abwehr (the German secret service) 18 months after the Nazis came to power. But Canaris turned against the Fuhrer and the Nazi regime, believing that Hitler would start a war Germany could not win. In 1938 he was involved in an attempted coup, undermined by British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain. In 1940 he sabotaged the German plan to invade England, and fed General Franco vital information that helped him keep Spain out of the war.

Thomas Berrington, emigre Englishman who has made the doomed city of Garnatah his home, is once again attempting to solve a series of mysterious deaths. Accompanied by his companion, the palace eunuch Jorge, Thomas struggles to discover the truth while those in power seek to distract him. As his investigation continues, his personal life splinters into chaos, and he finds the Spanish, once more, demanding his presence.

For Thomas Berrington it begins with the mystery of a stolen body. Soon he is hunting a killer searching for the untold wealth of the richest city in Al-Andalus. Moving to Malaka with his family and friends, Thomas hopes for respite from the war that ravages Al-Andalus. Then two events conspire to throw his settled life into chaos. Someone seeks the location of the city’s fabled wealth while Spanish forces gather like storm clouds ready to rain down fire and iron.

Just as power has moved from boardrooms into the domain of dynamic individuals, Invisible Work maps the evolution of this new way of being and succeeding. From the author of The Creative Economy comes a new audiobook on the most important new phenomenon in the radically changed world of work.

The dawn of the fifth century and the Roman Empire totters on the edge of the abyss. Already divided into two, the Imperium is looking dangerously vulnerable to her European rivals. The huge barbarian tribes of the Vandals and Visigoths sense that their time is upon them. But, unbeknown to all of these great players, a new power is rising in the East. A strange nation of primitive horse warriors has been striking terror upon border peoples for 50 years. But few realise what is about to happen. For these so called 'Huns' now have a new leader. His name is Attila - 'the Scourge of God'.

Grief-stricken following the death of his baby son, surgeon Dan Lewis is struggling to make sense of it all as his marriage collapses. His work is his lifeline. But when he fixates on a child patient he thinks has a potentially lethal disease, no one believes the diagnosis. They all think he’s losing his mind. When one of Dan’s critics is senselessly murdered and the evidence points to the damaged doctor as the prime suspect, his bad situation becomes desperate. But there’s a dark secret linking the ill child and the murder victim - one that no one other than Dan can see.

In a time of chaos choosing the right side is impossible. 1491-2: Granada, Andalusia: In a land ravaged by willful destruction, Thomas Berrington tries to serve Queen Isabel as best he can. When an attempt is made on her life, only Thomas can save the life of her companion. The assassin doesn’t care who they hurt in their quest to change the conflict that is coming to a conclusion. Alongside his companions, Thomas tracks down the culprit only to discover someone else lies behind their actions. For Thomas, Jorge, and the others life has grown complex.

The fifth century has dawned in blood. The young boy exiled 30 years ago has grown into a man. One stormy autumn day, a mysterious rider is seen out on the plains. Attila has returned, his sentence served, to claim his kingdom. He will ride out at the head of no more than 100 chosen men, driven by the ambition to unite all the feuding Hunnish and Scythian tribes under single banner and a single king. 

The battlefields run with blood in this gripping finale to the best-selling Attila trilogy. The infamous leader of the Huns stills thirsts for blood and supremacy as he crosses the Danube and prepares to attack the Western Empire and face once more his boyhood friend-turned-foe: Aetius the Roman. For Attila is set on a plan that will take him right through the entire Italian peninsular and up to the gates of Rome. He must weigh up whether he should attack this, the greatest of cities, or whether the gamble is too high, even for the most battle-hardened of warlords. 

It's been nearly 300 years since anyone's received the Golden Circle firemark, but when the symbol appears on Archie's palm, it marks the resurgence of the Alchemists' Club and its dreaded curse. Archie Greene is doomed, and he's got the firemark to prove it. The last time the Golden Circle appeared, the marked apprentices were never heard from again. The rebirth of the Alchemists' Club is met with uneasiness, but it's clear the present is not so different from the past. The charms protecting the magical texts the Flame Keepers have sworn to look after are fading.

Summoned to attend the Spanish queen, English surgeon Thomas Berrington discovers Sevilla in turmoil. Plague ravages the city, and the Inquisition takes both innocent and guilty alike. Among this chaos Thomas must investigate a series of killings. Two victims are taken together, but for what reason?

Thomas Berrington has come to the high mountains of Spain’s Sierra Nevada in search of an escape from the loss that haunts him. Standing at the boundary between life or death he cannot decide which to choose. When his friend Jorge Olmos tracks him down Thomas tries to reject him, but Jorge cannot be rejected. Events draw Thomas back toward the world of the living, and he finds himself pursuing the men who stole all hope from him. Thomas’s nemesis Abbot Mandana is working together with his son to gather an army. But for what purpose?

Spain, 1489. Cordoba, Andalusia. Sent to Cordoba on the orders of a man he hates, Thomas Berrington welcomes the distraction of a murder, but is shocked when he uncovers evidence pointing to the killer being his closest companion. When Jorge is imprisoned, Thomas must continue the investigation alone - a task made harder by the distraction of two beautiful women.

Northmen sacked the monastery at dawn before anyone had awakened. They burned the village and slaughtered all who stood in their path. The relics of Saint Philbert were lost, and the island was abandoned by those who once dwelled there. Sixteen years later, a monk named Abriel who had survived the attack as a boy is sent to recover the relics to help restore the reputation and legitimacy of Saint Philbert. What he discovers on his journey changes his life forever.

Do you eat too much sugar? What proportion of your country are immigrants? What does it cost to raise a child? How much tax do the rich pay? Are we more ignorant than we used to be? Take a minute to answer these questions. No matter how educated you are, this audiobook suggests you are likely to be very wrong indeed. Informed by exclusive research across 40 countries, conducted by global polling firm Ipsos, The Perils of Perception investigates why we don't know basic facts about the world around us. 

Archie Greene receives a mysterious present on his birthday. Deep within an ancient wooden box he finds an old book, written in a language he doesn't recognise. With the book comes a Summoning - Archie must travel to Oxford to return the book to the Secret Library. Soon Archie will meet family that he never knew he had, and discover the world of the Book People - a community devoted to finding and preserving magical books.

Through pioneering research and interviews with a host of major figures, ranging from Jay-Z and LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman to Bernie Madoff and Man Booker Prize-winning Hilary Mantel, Waller and Younger reveal the key mechanisms that make and remake our reputations, providing the essential guide to the most important game in business and in life.

For centuries, ships' commanders kept journals that recorded their missions. These included voyages of discovery to unknown lands, engagements in war and sea and general trade. Many of their logs, diaries and letters were lodged at The National Archives and give a vivid picture of the situations that they encountered. Entries range from Captain James Cook's notes of his discovery of the South Pacific and Australia, to logs of the great naval battles, such as Waterloo and Trafalgar.

AD 1569. The March lands between England and Scotland are a place of terror, where outlaw bands and broken men rob, pillage, and murder in open defiance of the law. Here, deadly blood-feud is a way of life. Families of robbers, known as Border Reivers, live via blackmail and terrorism. No man sleeps safe in his bed, and the sound of hoof beats on the tops is a herald of death. Richie Reade, known as Richie O'the Bow, finds himself dragged into this dark and bloody world.

In this original and deeply researched book, polling expert and professor of public policy Bobby Duffy explores how when we're born determines our attitudes to money, sex, religion, politics and much else. Informed by exclusive studies from IPSOS, as well as his own research, Duffy reveals that many of our preconceptions are just that: tired stereotypes.