Showing results by narrator "Bert Seymour" in All Categories

Iceland, 1956. Fourteen-year-old Lára decides to spend the summer working for a couple on the small island of Videy, just off the coast of Reykjavík. In early August, the girl disappears without a trace. Time passes, and the mystery becomes Iceland‘s most infamous unsolved case. What happened to the young girl? Is she still alive? Did she leave the island, or did something happen to her there? Thirty years later, as the city of Reykjavík celebrates its 200th anniversary, journalist Valur Robertsson begins his own investigation into Lára's case.

Meet Celine and Luke. For all intents and purposes, the happy couple. Luke (a serial cheater) and Celine (more inter­ested in piano than domestic life) plan to marry in a year. Archie (the best man) should be moving on from his love for Luke and up the corporate ladder, but he finds himself utterly stuck. Phoebe (the bridesmaid and Celine’s sister) just wants to get to the bottom of Luke’s frequent unexplained disappearances. And Vivian (a wedding guest) is the only one with any emotional distance and observes her friends like ants in a colony.

A dangerous snake attacks Prince Tamino in the forest but three noble ladies protect him. Together with the bird catcher Papageno, Tamino is supposed to free Princess Pamina because the dreaded Sarastro has imprisoned her in his castle. Tamino and Papageno receive a magic flute and a glockenspiel from Pamina's mother, the Queen of the Night. The brave rescuers must overcome difficult tests, but the daring rescue plan succeeds. In the end, Tamino and Pamina, Papageno and his new girlfriend Papagena are happily in each other's arms.

Clara receives a nutcracker from her godfather Drosselmeyer on Christmas Eve. That night she dreams the nutcracker is fighting with toy soldiers against the army of the Mouse King. Clara helps the nutcracker and it transforms into a prince. Together they travel to the land of sweets and celebrate a wonderful sweet festival with the Sugar Plum Fairy. It was all just an amazing dream - or was it...?

Prince Siegfried comes of age and celebrates his 21st birthday in the palace gardens. The next day he is to finally choose his future bride at the court ball. Near the castle, on the shores of Swan Lake, the beautiful swan girl Odette emerges from the water in the moonlight. She is actually a princess transformed by the magician Rothbart. Siegfried is overwhelmed by her beauty and immediately swears his eternal love and loyalty. The curse of the evil wizard Rothbart is now supposed to be broken, but he has his own plans for Odette.

In 1755, Abel Cloudesley, a London watchmaker and creator of remarkable mechanical automata, is mourning his wife, Alice, who died giving birth to their son, Zachary. Six years later, Abel is further devastated when a freak workshop accident takes Zachary’s eye. With his new eye made of gold and lapis by Abel’s soft-spoken apprentice Tom, Zachary, now with an astonishing gift of second sight, is sent to live with his eccentric Aunt Franny in the country. Abel buries himself in work until he is coerced by shadowy figures into designing a chess-playing automaton.

Hansel and Gretel are sent into the forest by their mother to collect berries as a punishment. The siblings get lost in the twilight and discover the gingerbread house of an old ugly witch. She enchants the children and wants to bake them into gingerbread. Hansel and Gretel use their wits to save themselves and push the wicked old woman into her own oven. The children are finally found by their worried parents, who are looking for them in the forest. In the end the family is happily united.

Originally written over 13 years ago, the teachings in this book have transformed the lives of people across the world, and, despite the passing of time, the advice has never been more pertinent. Having lived an extraordinary life spanning across Eastern and Western cultures, Lama Yeshe Losal Rinpoche, world-renowned meditation master and abbot of the oldest and largest Buddhist monastery in the UK, Kagyu Samye Ling, shares how simple Buddhist practices can help us all to train our minds so that we can find happiness and achieve our true potential.