Showing results by narrator "Nathaniel Priestley" in All Categories

1265. England has a new master. Simon de Montfort's victory at the Battle of Lewes has made him king in all but name. He has vowed to restore the rights and liberties of the kingdom, but now even his friends grow wary of his power. As old alliances break down, new rebellions gather strength. The captive king's supporters muster, vowing to overthrow the new regime. Meanwhile Adam de Norton, who won the honour of knighthood on the field at Lewes, has reclaimed his ancestral lands. A peaceful and prosperous future lies before him - until he receives a summons he cannot refuse.

There are countless books on music with much analysis given to musicians, bands, eras and/or genres. But rarely does a book delve into what's going on inside us when we listen. Michel Faber explores two big questions: how we listen to music and why we listen to music. To answer these he considers biology, age, illness, the notion of 'cool', commerce, the dichotomy between 'good' and 'bad' taste and, through extensive interviews with musicians, unlocks some surprising answers.

On a foggy winter morning two children discover the impossible: the wreck of an eighteenth-century ship stranded in a field. One enters the hatch on the deck and is never seen again. And she isn't the last to disappear... Soon a government agency begins to investigate, determined to uncover the ship's secrets before a media storm erupts. They enlist Robert Grim, a retired specialist of the occult, to unravel the mystery, who soon realises the ship could be a harbinger of an ancient doom awakened under the sea.

Two Brits, George and Mark, set off from New York City to explore the back roads of America. In this calamity-ridden travel tale, George sets out in true clichéd fashion to discover the real America. Throw in plenty of run-ins with the police, rapidly dwindling finances, and Josephine - the worst car in the world - and you have all the ingredients for a classic American road trip. Will George and Mark make it all the way to California? And then there is Rachel, George's girlfriend, left back in England.

When Trystan Cartwright, the Earl of Zennor, is bored, he makes wagers…dangerous ones. One night, in a grimy little tavern in Penzance, he and his friends stumble upon a wild, hellcat of a woman masquerading as an ill-tempered lad. Unable to resist the temptation of such a challenge, Trystan wagers he can turn the little hellion into a lady in less than one month. To win, he’ll have to present her at a ball in London and fool the beau monde. But he never imagines that his lady lessons will lead to love....

A young woman is brutally attacked on her way home. It looks like she was the victim of a jilted—and twisted—ex-lover. But then two more women, also engaged to be married, are found dead. The press call the killer the "Surrey Stalker". And there’s a stack of similar cold case files. The pressure is on for young, ambitious DI Rob Miller. But with all the time he’s spending at the office, Rob’s also running a fine line trying to keep his fiancée, Yvette, onside as they try to plan their wedding.

In this indispensable follow up to his acclaimed The End of the Line: How Overfishing Is Changing the World, Charles Clover chronicles how determined individuals are proving that the crisis in our oceans can be reversed, with benefits for both local communities and entire ecosystems. Rewilding the Sea celebrates what happens when we step aside and let nature repair the damage: whether it is the overfishing of bluefin tuna across the Atlantic, the destruction of coral gardens by dredgers in Lyme Bay or the restoration of oysters on the East Coast of America.

From centres of antiquity like Athens or Rome to modern metropolises like New York or Shanghai, cities throughout history have been the engines of human progress and the epicentres of our greatest achievements. Now, for the first time, more than half of humanity lives in cities, a share that continues to rise. In the developing world, cities are growing at a rate never seen before. In this book, Professor Goldin and Tom Lee-Devlin show why making our societies fairer, more cohesive and sustainable must start with our cities.

The Tour de France may provide the most obvious fame and glory, but it is cycling’s one-day tests that the professional riders really prize. Toughest, longest and dirtiest of all are the so-called ‘Monuments’, the five legendary races that are the sport’s equivalent of golf’s majors or the grand slams in tennis. Milan–Sanremo, the Tour of Flanders, Paris­–Roubaix, Liège–Bastogne–Liège and the Tour of Lombardy date back more than a century, and each of them is an anomaly in modern-day sport. Peter Cossins tells the history of these extraordinary races and the riders they have immortalised.

From Carnegie Medal-winning author Kevin Crossley-Holland, these dramatic, enthralling and atmospheric tales are based on the Scandinavian myth cycle - one of the greatest and most culturally significant stories in the world - and tell of Odin with his one eye, Thor with his mighty hammer and Loki, the red-haired, shape-shifting trickster. In this stunning anthology of myths, the strange world of ancient magic, giants, dwarfs and monsters is unforgettably imagined. 

When Miss Lilybeth Rose Hathaway and her family arrive in Ardmond for the season, Lily can’t help but be charmed by wealthy, popular Theo Overton’s lovely manners and genuine affection. The Hathaways are soon elevated far beyond what they might have imagined, and like everyone else, they are captivated by rumors of the national hero known as the Wraith, who is saving human children from the terrors of the Fair Court. The arrival of the Special Envoy of the Fair Court tasked with capturing the Wraith frightens everyone. But the Wraith is far too clever to be captured.

Debby Morris, mother of two, goes to a Christmas party at historic Hollyhock Manor in Marlow, and never comes home. Her phone, handbag and Santa’s elf hat are found in a park near the River Thames. The police issue a nationwide search, but Debby is nowhere to be found. Three weeks later, Debby’s body, still in her elf costume, is discovered five miles downstream from where she disappeared. Detective Rob Miller is pulled from compassionate leave and put in charge. He’s still reeling from his last botched case, and he knows all eyes are on him—waiting to see if he’ll crack.

Detective Rob Miller is at home with his crying newborn son when he gets the news. Retired Chief Superintendent Sam Lawrence, Rob’s friend and mentor, has been shot dead. Rob is devastated. An hour ago Lawrence had called to ask him to meet, but Rob couldn’t go because he was on daddy duty. Now he will hunt down the killer—but his boss thinks he’s too emotionally involved. This time it’s personal, but it’s not the only murder Rob’s got on his plate. His baby won’t sleep. His partner needs him. Can he be there for them and bring a killer to justice?

Peregrine Ashby, the newly and unexpectedly titled Earl of Rutland, is muddling through the affairs of becoming a suddenly wealthy and titled man of means. After the disaster of his parents’ loveless marriage, he’s sworn off wife-hunting. But when he stumbles quite literally into a mysterious beauty wearing a mask at a ball who begs for his help, he can’t deny her. After the magic of the night is over and the mysterious beauty has vanished, he remains haunted by her and what might have been.

Rachel marks her cycling sportive debut in style with 110 horrendously hilly miles that are apparently all George’s fault. Now officially a better marathon runner than George - and a rapidly improving cyclist and swimmer - Rachel is pushed to the limits after reluctantly agreeing to an ultramarathon. Did Not Start also features more family camping holidays, a visit to Paris, the arrival of the Beast from the East, and some unexpected news from a former neighbor.

After signing his wife Rachel up for her first marathon without her knowledge and living to tell the tale, George is now struggling to keep up with her. He risks her wrath once again by entering her into a half-Ironman triathlon against her will: a 1.2-mile swim, 56-mile bike ride and a 13.1-mile run. Did Not Try sees George and Rachel travel to Barcelona, Cornwall and the Cotswolds, and helps answer the age-old question: what happens when you are bursting for a wee while riding your bike, but an injured ankle means you can’t unclip your cycling shoes?

Fleeing a cruel stepfather, Harriet Russell escapes into a stormy night, relying only on the mercy of servants to help her. Her coach overturns, leaving her and her driver injured. Seeking help from whoever lives nearby, she stumbles between a set of gates guarded by fierce demonic gargoyle statues. As she enters the shadowy, haunted lands belonging to the duke of Frostmore, she’s afraid of meeting with him, but she must in order to help her driver.

When Dietrich von Hildebrand converted to Catholicism in 1914, he was surprised to find that, despite an abundance of books on the dangers of impurity, there were practically none on the positive values of purity. “So,” writes Alice von Hildebrand, widow of Dietrich, in a new foreword to the book, “this is what he set out to do in In Defense of Purity: to explore purity as a positive reality and only in light of its beauty to describe its contrary.”

AD 1066. Cerdic is a prisoner of war. Captured after the Battle of Hastings, his fate is in the hands of the victorious Norman count Cynric, who is in no mood to feed and look after worthless Englishmen as the army moves inland. His survival depends on his ability to convince them of his value. Cerdic’s sole bargaining chip is his lordship of Wulfbury, a small stronghold in Northumberia, following the deaths of his father, its earl and elder brother in the invasions. If he can entice them with the lure of this fiefdom, he may yet survive.

A father is found dead in his posh West London home. Stabbed to death. By somebody who couldn’t stop. There are seven or eight puncture wounds. There’s no time to relax for recently married DI Rob Miller. Now a second man is found brutally murdered in the same frenzied manner. Do the police have a serial killer on their hands?