Showing results by narrator "Philip Battley" in All Categories

Oxford, Spring - 1354. When the series of accidents to the building of the chapel at Queen’s College begin, they do not appear a cause for concern, but they grow more serious, and stonemasons are injured. Nicholas Elyot becomes involved after it is discovered that an intruder has reached the college by way of his garden. When Jordain Brinkylsworth’s youngest student goes missing, it seems at first that his disappearance is unconnected, yet he is one of the ‘poor boys’ supported by Queen’s. Surely this serious and studious boy cannot be responsible for the troubles?

When Nicholas Elyot and his friends set out to spend the Christmas season in the country, they are prepared for a hard journey in winter. They are also wary of violence on the road, for these are troubled times after the Great Pestilence, when bands of dispossessed and desperate men roam the countryside of England. It is not surprising, therefore, when the troubadours hired to provide entertainment at Leighton Manor are attacked in Wychwood. Yet why should this group draw the attention of outlaws, who are searching for something? Is one of the troubadours not quite what he seems?

Oxford, Autumn 1353. St. Frideswide's Fair is a great annual event in Oxford, bringing together merchants and buyers from all over England and Wales, and from as far away as Flanders and France. Yet the earnings from the fair, granted to the Priory of St. Frideswide centuries before, are resented by the town, and resentment can turn to violence. Under the unscrupulous Prior de Hungerford, even more trouble is brewing.

When the novice Emma Thorgold goes missing from Godstow Abbey in the summer of 1353, the hunt is on throughout the Oxfordshire countryside. Bookseller Nicholas Elyot and scholar Jordain Brinkylsworth are anxious to help the girl, but her stepfather has other intentions. Why is he so determined to shut her away for life? Or worse? And will she be found unharmed?

Oxford, late summer, 1353. On hearing that his cousin is short-handed for the harvest, Nicholas Elyot takes a group of friends back to the family farm to help. When a deer hunt in Wychwood ends in tragedy, suspicion is directed toward the huntsman, a boyhood friend of Nicholas. But the victim has made many other enemies, any one of whom could have shot the fatal arrow. Can Nicholas uncover the real killer before it is too late?

His Grace, Martin MacGalloway, has well-earned the reputation as the most celebrated rake on the entire isle of Britain. But upon his father's sudden death, he heads for Scotland, where he finds his inheritance in a shambles, his sisters without prospects, and his brothers relying on his patronage—and he's not about to conquer his problems alone. Penniless, Lady Julia St. Vincent has no choice but to dress as a man and accept a position as steward to the Duke of Dunscaby. The more time she spends with the duke, the more difficult it is to ignore the flickers of passion in her heart.

It was the early 1960s. The place, a far-off corner of the Himalayas long fabled in Tibetan tradition to be hiding a valley of immortality among its peaks and glaciers - a real-life Shangri-La. They waited generations for the prophesied lama to come, the one with the secret knowledge of how to "open" the Hidden Land. Then, one day, he came. His name was Tulshuk Lingpa.

Oxford, Spring 1353. When young bookseller Nicholas Elyot discovers the body of student William Farringdon floating in the river Cherwell, it looks like a drowning. Soon, however, Nicholas finds evidence of murder. Who could have wanted to kill this promising student? As Nicholas and his scholar friend Jordain try to unravel what lies behind William's death, they learn that he was innocently caught up in a criminal plot.

It started with a downed Nazi submarine and moved into the jungles of Nicaragua...now, the ultimate plan behind the deadly U-boat cargo and one man’s attempt to seize power in Central America teeters on the edge. All it takes is a single nudge to tip the balance.... Scott and Lisa are enjoying a sailing race when Jarvis is approached by a Miami business man. Ramon Tavares suspects that his fishing and shipping businesses are being used to smuggle cocaine into the country, and he needs private investigators Scott Jarvis and Lisa Gonzalez to discover who’s behind it.

After five years of mourning her lost love, Moira MacKenzie had finally move on with her life and seek a husband. Finding out Vincent MacKintosh was alive after all those years dealt her the greatest shock of her life. She might have loved Vin, but he had never loved her back. Vin is a man tormented by the past and, with little hope that her dreams of true love will be fulfilled, Moira instead offers him the friendship he so desperately needs as he integrates himself back into a normal life.

After spending six years to an oppressive husband, Evelyn Ashley-Cooper is free to be herself again, to live again . . . and to love again. Eve finds herself floundering under the veneer of perfection her domineering husband demanded, unable to unleash the vivacious girl she was once was. Since meeting Eve many years before, Francis MacKintosh has become a man embittered by life, by a wife who has made him a cuckold to the whole of Scotland, and by a scandalous divorce.

When Jack Merrill becomes Earl of Haddington, inheriting not only a title but the devastating debt that came with it, his friends convince him that there is nothing for it but to gain quick wealth the really old fashioned way . . . marry into it! On the hunt for a wealthy bride, Jack stumbles upon Kitty Hayes, the sister of his former target Evelyn. To him, Kitty is everything Eve was not to him—full of a fire and spirit that challenges him. But Kitty is a married woman! Can he wait it out until she finds her freedom?

With her commission in her coat and a well-found deck beneath her feet, Catherine Cook, granddaughter of the great explorer, prepares to set sail. With her new frigate and her master and commander’s warrant, Kate is ready to begin her career in the Royal Navy. Yet as every sailor knows, not all seas run smoothly. As Kate and her crew set out to defend British and American shipping from French and Spanish marauders, the young, improbable captain is sailing straight into deadly peril. For her old nemesis, Pierre Meraux, survived their last encounter and is out for vengeance.

When wounded Templar Knight Sir Marcus de Rancourt receives word that his sister is dying, he returns to a home he hasn't seen in twenty years, only to find his sister dead, and her children orphaned. Sir Marcus decides to take on the greatest challenge of his life and remain behind to raise the children, his loyal sergeant and squires insisting on joining him to work the land by his side.

The kingdom of Farsala is broken and black clouds hang heavy over the arid lands. Former grand-mage of the high court, Cyril Laverre, has spent the last decade hiding himself away in a hut by the sea, trying to catch fish for his cat familiar, Shoestring, and suppressing his guilt over the kingdom's ruin. For he played his part—for as the king, Eufrates Margrave, descended further into paranoia, violence, and madness, his grand-mage—and husband—Cyril didn't stop him.

Through a series of interviews with a wide range of people connected to Pink Floyd in their earliest days (including Nick Mason, Peter Jenner, Jenny Fabian, Storm Thorgerson, Duggie Fields and Peter Whitehead), John Cavanagh paints a vivid picture of how this remarkable debut album was created. He brings to life the stories behind each track, as well as Pink Floyd's groundbreaking live performances of the time.

Meet Ellie. She's perfectly happy living a quiet life with her husband, Clive. (Well, she does sometimes wonder about the way he talks to her and about all the things she hasn't achieved yet. But she's happy enough.) Meet Dan. He's definitely content - content with his predictable, ordered existence, making harps in his isolated barn on Exmoor. Content being on his own, far away from other people and - crucially - far away from any risk of surprises.

David Stahel's groundbreaking new account of Operation Typhoon captures the perspectives of both the German high command and individual soldiers, revealing that despite success on the battlefield the wider German war effort was in far greater trouble than is often acknowledged.

Mr. George Knightley. According to Emma Woodhouse, you won’t see one in a hundred who is so clearly the gentleman. Respected by all, he’s kind, unpretentious, and scrupulously honest, with an air so remarkably good that it’s unfair to compare other men to him. We also know he’s been his “own master” from a young age. But Jane Austen tells us little more.

Catherine Cook, unclaimed granddaughter of the great explorer James, Cook is on her way to America to re-connect with her mother’s family when fate intervenes and thrusts her into ultimate peril. All of her life, Kate has yearned to go to sea and to command a sailing ship in the Royal navy…an impossible dream for a young woman in 1797.