Showing results by narrator "Richard Turner" in All Categories

Join Professor John Lloyd and curators Jimmy Carr, Humphrey Ker, Phill Jupitus and Sarah Millican as they plunge down the badger hole of ignorance in a search for the universe's most mind-boggling oddnesses. The Museum of Curiosity is BBC Radio 4's monumental comedy edifice and the only one with gargoyles in the foyer. It allows nothing inside that doesn't make you scratch your head, stroke your chin or, at the very least, go 'hmm'.

The remarkable new novel from the Booker Prize-shortlisted author of Do Not Say We Have Nothing, which leaps across centuries past and future as if different eras were separated by only a door. Why did people, who lived so briefly in this universe, contain so much time? Lina and her ailing father have taken refuge at an enclave called the Sea, a staging post between migrations, with only a few possessions, among them three volumes from The Great Lives of Voyagers encyclopaedia series.

Country born and bred Miss Caledonia Johnston has come to London during the Silly Season, not to dance and flirt, and please her Mama by making an advantageous match. Enter one Simon Roxbury, Viscount Brockton, surprising himself when he comes to Callie’s aid...which infuriates her, but she’ll find a way around him to complete her “mission.” He seems nice enough, and his mother is a dear thing, so she agrees to be good...especially considering she’d almost shot the man.

Lady Colleen O’Shea simply cannot stand Lord Benedict Boleran. He is overbearing, he is arrogant, he is opinionated, he is handsome and has lovely eyes and a fine form and…oh dear. But no, she most definitely cannot abide him. And she won’t fall victim to her brother’s marriage machinations and marry the man.

Broc’s reign as King of the Black Isles had lasted seven years already. That was a long time to go without a queen and therefore, an heir. He knew what he had to do: to claim the human offering and make her his own. When they met, it changed everything. A glimmer of hope, even of love, in unexpected places. But life on the Black Isles was far from simple. And there were powerful secrets, yet to be uncovered, that could change everything yet again.

Lady Marie O’Shea lives life by her own rules...but her days of running free end when her brother, Lord Fergus O’Shea, returns from England, intent on marrying his sisters off to keep them from being the scourge of the county. And when Marie lands herself in a scandalous amount of trouble, she ends up as the first sister doomed to whatever marriage of convenience her brother can arrange. Bad boy Christian Darrow is having too much fun to be tied down, and as the younger son of an earl, he isn’t expected to amount to much.

Churchill was far from transparent about his religious beliefs and never regularly attended church services as an adult, even considering himself “not a pillar of the church but a buttress”, in the sense that he supported it “from the outside”. But Gary Scott Smith assembles pieces of Churchill’s life and words to convey the profound sense of duty and destiny, partly inspired by his religious convictions, that undergirded his outlook.

In this dark, haunting tale, Richard Merton recounts the story of his close friend, Tony, a young lawyer recently returned from the war and the subtle, sinister destruction of his personality by his servant, Barrett. Seeking ease and comfort, Tony hires Barrett to cater to his needs, not realizing that his new servant has a hidden agenda.

Lady Shannon O’Shea has seen all of her sisters married off by their brother, Fergus, in order to keep them out of trouble. She is determined not to encounter the same fate. She has far too many other things on her hands, including her secretive, scandalous, and growing beer brewing business. She is convinced that the end of the century will be the beginning of a new world for women, and the last thing she has time for is a man.

Lady Chloe O’Shea lives life with her head in the clouds—or rather the stars. As a budding astrologer, she thinks the course of the world and her life is written in the stars, and if she just looks hard enough, she can see where the future will take her. But the last thing she saw coming was a handsome duke with a secret. Deane Crenshaw, the Duke of Blackburn, is in Ireland looking for a bride after an embarrassing scandal that has turned all of the eligible English maidens against him.

Is Christianity a fairy tale for the infantile? Or worse, a cruel fantasy? Such questions reflect the skepticism of outsiders and the doubts of insiders. The answer isn’t a louder faith to shout them down, but a humbler faith that points to a bigger God. Samuel Wells illustrates this through his engagement with 10 difficult questions about Christianity. In each case, he portrays the traditional position and the skepticism of the modern age as two rival stories, transcending both to offer a revitalized story that better renders the radical and vulnerable nature of authentic faith.

Arty Intel, an artificially intelligent robot, is created with the purpose to care for a human child named Stanley. He uses this task to study the human species and form his personal psychoanalysis of the human race. Watching and learning from Stanley’s life, Arty observes the issues of mental health, education, corporate culture, and family life. Stanley, being the primary source of Arty’s research, battles the typical emotions humans experience in different stages of life as he grows from boy to man.

The running wolf inscription told the world that a Solingen blade was at its throat. When a German smuggler is imprisoned in Morpeth Gaol in the winter of 1703, why does Queen Anne's powerful right-hand man, the Earl of Nottingham, take such a keen interest? At the end of the turbulent 17th century, the ties that bind men are fraying, turning neighbour against neighbour, friend against friend and brother against brother.

The fierce warriors of Black Isle are used to living with the threat of war hanging above their heads at all times. They work hard to survive and celebrate even harder. Shifters of various types must band together to defeat their numerous enemies, yet they never forget that life and love is precious and to grab happiness wherever they can find it. After all, any given day could be their last.

Ferris has spent the better part of six years training and preparing for vengeance. The barbarians who abducted his sister so long ago would pay for their sins in blood. With the help of his magic, he’d avenge her honor, and wipe out the Black Isles once and for all. It’s all so clear, until he starts to wonder if he’s fighting for the wrong side.

I'm a warrior. No one will tame me, except.... Rhea's new position as General of Black Isles’ armies brings with it a whole host of challenges. The enemy is at the gates, and he's furious. Black Isles’ defenses are weaker than she would like, so she sees only one solution: To summon their secret weapon. A creature so untamed and powerful, he’s been banished to the depths of the dungeons, only to be let out in the direst of need.

After several millennia living as a lone sentinel in the Garden of Eden, the angel Tesque is contemplating leaving his post in rebellion against God. Meanwhile, in another time and place, a professor of mathematics isolates herself in remote Iceland as she finds herself increasingly at odds with society. The connection between these two characters? A letter, a sentient dog, and a deep-seated resistance to the demands of love.

Liliwen has all she could wish for, yet her sheltered life as Princess under the Seas leaves her unfulfilled. She goes rogue and travels to the enemy's territory. When she sees him, she knows he's a rare specimen. A soldier with many a battle scar. She ought to flee...but the challenge is on. Can she chisel through his defenses and seduce the enemy? Even though she risks losing her heart, or even her life, in the process?

Sophie Winstead is utterly perfect, from the top of her tousled honey-brown ringlets to the tips of her dainty pink toes. Indeed, any man in London Society would want her. The problem for Sophie lay in what they wanted from her. For Sophie is the orphaned daughter of one Constance Winstead, the Widow Winstead, mistress of many men during her abbreviated lifetime. Woo her, win her, yes. Marry her? Don’t be ridiculous!

Marguerite Balfour lived an enchanted life as the beloved daughter of her soft-spoken mother and her adored father, a dreamer who filled her young life with hope and wonder. Anything was possible in Marguerite’s life...until the day her father died while she was in her young teens and her mother all but retreated from life. Marguerite carried on, trying to live by the words her father taught her, until everything she’d believed in came crashing down when her mother whispered into her ear as she was dying.