Showing results by narrator "James Langton" in All Categories

Find out how love blooms when red-hatted Juliet meets blue-hatted Gnomeo while their rival families wage war to have the best garden in Stratford-upon-Avon.

The Dualitists recounts the tale of the Bubb family, childless for very long but finally blessed with twins. Two friends lived in the houses surrounding the Bubbs, Harry and Tommy, but they were forbidden to see each other because of the trouble they caused. Harry and Tommy began to secretly meet in the Bubb's garden, bringing with them their knives and items to destroy with the knives. Soon, items are not enough for the boys and they begin dueling, then killing animals. But their thirst could not be quenched.

In the winter of 1836, a young journalist named Charles Dickens held an infant in his arms. Only eight months of age, Ruby Spriggs was living under the most deplorable conditions that existed in London. Crushing poverty seemed her only future. Through the intervention of kind patrons, the child blossoms into a young woman instilled with a love of learning and books. But the forces that Dickens fought against for most of his life threaten to destroy her.

King Cullin may be known as "the Dragon Slayer", but he fears his son’s legacy will be as "King Maurice Who Speaks with Proper Grammar". The boy keeps his nose buried in parchments, starry-eyed at the idea of noble knights and eager to hand royal gold to any con man hawking a unicorn horn. Tonight, though, Cullin will educate the prince in the truth behind minstrels’ silly songs of glory….

In this comprehensive biography, David Willey explores the religious and personal background of the inspirational Pope Francis, his stunning impact on the Catholic Church, the hopes he has raised, and the legacy he will leave behind.

Set in contemporary India as well as that of several hundred years in the past, The Mirror of Fire and Dreaming continues the adventures of Anand and his efforts to become a fully fledged member of The Brotherhood of the Conch. This time Anand's journey takes him back to Moghul times, as he encounters powerful sorcerers, spoiled princes, noble warriors and evil jinns. Divakaruni is a master storyteller, and once again she weaves a vibrant tapestry of action, suspense, and rare beauty.

When Tom's girlfriend walks out on him the day before Christmas, he feels humiliated but not necessarily heartbroken. Sadie wasn't, after all, The One. If we're being precise, she was number 85. And so, for reasons that are only mostly wrong, Tom embarks on a mission to bring his number of encounters up to a nice neat 100. Over the course of his quest he sleeps with a colleague, a colleague of a friend, a friend of a friend, a friend of a friend's wife, the estate agent selling his flat, and several more besides.

When a young couple moves into their new home, they are taken aback by the strange behavior of their new landlord. While at first he bid them to do all of the fixing-up the home needed on their own, he quickly changed his tune and was persistent in his attempts to help them tackle some of the rooms himself. The source of his desire to help lies in the fact that the old tenant may have hidden a fortune within the walls - a fortune that winds up belonging to the young couple after all!

Young Prince Zaphir, son of King Mago, was a kind young man much beloved by his people and all the animals around the kingdom. He is also quite taken with a young princess, the Princess Bluebell, who feels the same way for him. When a giant descends on the land and the army and other brave men who volunteer to fight him are defeated, Zaphir decides to face the Giant one on one, before more men risk their lives.

The Shadow Builder dwells in the gloomy nether regions of the universe, lonely and haunting in his realm. He dwells in the area beyond the Gate of Dread, where the great procession meets its final end. The Shadow Builder sees all from his gloom, happiness and sadness, hope and despair. He focuses intently on the relationship between a mother and son, watching everything unfold from his Threshold. It his from these two that he learns the truth about his power, the power of death.

In a tiny village in Northeast Hungary, close to the Romanian border, a young unnamed boy warily observes day-to-day life and chronicles his family's struggles to survive. Like most of the villagers, his family is desperately poor, but their situation is worse than most - they are ostracized because of his father's Jewish heritage and his mother's connections to the Kulaks, who once owned land and supported the fascist Horthy regime before it was toppled by Communists.

The Eroes of Thames tells the story of a famous swimmer, Peter Jimpson and his son, also named Peter, trying to maintain their fame in the big city of London. The father designed a skit in which his son would fake drowning in the Thames, and a random passerby (actually Peter himself) would dramatically rescue the boy. His plan is thwarted when a pair of grifters catch onto Peter's scheme and prevent him from following through with it as planned.

Bill and Joe, two best friends, discover they have both fallen in love with Mary, a girl they have grown up with and enjoyed a close friendship with throughout their lives. They both decide that they do not want to tell her about their feelings, but they must do something about it before another man comes along and steals her away. And so they decide that Joe will go to her first and confess his feelings, and let Mary decide if she feels the same or if she might prefer Bill instead. But even after she makes her choice, the other man winds up making the ultimate sacrifice out of his love for Mary.

The Gombeen Man is an evil moneylender who several peasants owe money to. When the peasants find themselves unable to repay the wicked man on time, he is quick with his desire to take their land from them, refusing to take the payment from them in the future if they should be able to come up with it. The poor peasants are then forced to come up with a plan to keep their land from the evil Gombeen Man. This short story is actually a chapter from Stoker’s novel The Snake’s Pass, about a romance between an English tourist and an Irish peasant.

It's 1973, and David Leveraux has landed his dream job as a Flavorist-in-Training, working in the secretive industry where chemists create the flavors for everything from the cherry in your can of soda to the butter on your popcorn. While testing a new artificial sweetener - Sweetness #9 - he notices unusual side-effects in the laboratory rats and monkeys: anxiety, obesity, mutism, and a generalized dissatisfaction with life. David tries to blow the whistle, but he swallows it instead.

After recovering from near-fatal injuries sustained on a mission, Luke Porterfield is offered a second opportunity to fight terrorism by a private venture. He is stored in bleeding-edge technology before agreeing to the deal and wakes to an uncertain fate. In the vastly changed and advanced city of London, Luke is tasked to defeat a deadly and elusive terrorist group. When his mission unearths a five-decades-long conspiracy, the explosive consequences force him into a fight against the power of a demented dictator.

Popular science master Brian Clegg’s new book is an entertaining tour through the science of what makes you you. From the atomic level, through life and energy to genetics and personality, it explores how the billions of particles which make up you - your DNA, your skin, your memories - have come to be.

A unique and fascinating look at Victorian society through the remarkable lives of an enlightened and philanthropic aristocratic couple, the marquess and marchioness of Aberdeen, who tried to change the world for the better but paid a heavy price. This is a true tale of love and loss, fortune and misfortune.

Like any mother, Chrissie wants to protect her family. She would do anything to keep them safe. So when a mysterious stranger turns up at her door, offering to prevent the deaths of the people she loves, it sounds too good to be true. The only problem: she must choose someone to die in their place. A substitute. When her daughter Holly has a terrible accident, Chrissie has no option but to enter the programme. In that horrifying moment, she would do anything to save her.

It is autumn time, and on a peaceful Cornish beach, Finn and his sister, Ava, defy planning regulations and achieve a childhood dream when they build themselves an illegal beach hut. This tiny haven will be their home until Ava departs at Midwinter for a round-the-world adventure. In town, local publican Donald is determined to get rid of them.