Showing results by narrator "Jot Davies" in All Categories

It is a well-known fact that fairies are born from a baby's first laugh. What is not as well documented is how monsters come into being. This is the story of a creature who is both strange and unique. When he hatches down in the vast underground lair where monsters dwell, he looks just like a human boy - much to the disgust of everyone watching. Even the grumpy gargoyles who adopt him and nickname him ‘Imp’ only want him to steal chocolate for them from the nearby shops. He’s a child with feet in both worlds, and he doesn’t know where he fits.  

Sam’s life has always been strange. After all, his family have no idea that he’s half monster, half fairy. But now he’s keeping an even bigger secret. He alone has the power to bring monsters to life! (He’s even got a tiny gargoyle hatchling hidden in his sock drawer.) When Queen Maggie finds out, she’s delighted. She wants Sam to create her a whole new legion of vile ogres. When he refuses, she vows that she will destroy everything Sam holds dear.

Colin Coleridge is facing a long, boring summer holiday with nothing to do. But when he notices some weird markings outside his house, and some strangers acting very suspiciously in his neighbour’s garden, he decides to investigate. And before too long, Colin and his new friend Lucy have found themselves caught up in a mission involving an ancient sword, a mysterious curse, and a plan to save the world.

Banned by the Nazis, the haunting novel At the Edge of the Night (Am Rande der Nacht), by the German writer Friedo Lampe, is a work of magic realism. This poignant book, beautifully translated by Simon Beattie, was, in Lampe’s own words, ‘born into a regime where it could not breathe’; he hoped that one day it might rise again. It evokes the sensations and impressions of a sultry September evening on the waterfront of Bremen, with its charm and tenderness, squalor and lust.

How the mighty will fall... 1497. Pope Alexander VI Borgia is perfecting his plans for the control of Italy when a heinous crime deprives him of one of the people dearest to him. All of Rome is mobilised to discover the perpetrator but a strange series of coincidences means famous court painter Pinturicchio finds himself on the front line. To shed light on a murder, Pinturicchio is assisted by the city's most established artists, from Michelangelo Buonarroti and Filippino Lippi to Piermatteo d'Amelia and Perugino.

In 1990, within the deceptively peaceful woods of her Sussex neighborhood, Mia witnesses the brutal murder of her mother and wakes up in a shallow grave. A man confesses to the murder and later dies in prison, but Mia never comes to terms with her mother's death. After another brush with tragedy in 2021, Mia and her boyfriend Rich move from London to a small Spanish village where they can begin a new life. At first, Val Verde seems to be everything they could wish for. But when a body is found in the olive grove outside of town, they realize that their would-be safe haven harbors a secret.