Showing results by narrator "Roger May" in All Categories

David Morris lives the quiet life of a book-valuer for a London auction house, travelling every day by omnibus to his office in the Strand. When he is asked to make a trip to rural Somerset to value the library of the recently deceased Lord Buff-Orpington, the sense of trepidation he feels as he heads into the country is confirmed the moment he reaches his destination, the dark and impoverished village of Ashbrittle.

In the early 1990s, at an old-fashioned boarding school, two boys form an intense friendship that will shape the course of their lives. Shy Bruno Jackson is infatuated by the glamorous but troubled Anthony Blunden. Taken under the wing of an idealistic English teacher, the boys are encouraged to explore the more serious things of life beyond college. But in the hothouse of the school, a slight from their mentor seems of earth shattering-importance, with fateful consequences.

Here are the favorites from Lewis Carroll, Jonathan Swift, William Shakespeare, and more. And that is not to forget perhaps the greatest of them all: Anon. There are ballads, sonnets, proverbs, and nonsense verse. Poems to inform, divert, satirize, castigate and praise. A collection to make all listeners smile, laugh, remember and discover.

Picardie, France, 1964, the exclusive Clos du Lac sanitarium: A man is discovered standing in the therapy pool. But he's not there for his health; someone has chained him to the bottom and left him to die very, very slowly. Inspector Lucas Rocco believes it's an unusual and elaborate method of execution. But nobody seems to have heard or seen anything, the staff are resolutely unhelpful - or dead - and ministry officials sent from Paris to 'assist' attempt to impede Rocco's efforts to find answers.

Arriving too late, Amos Cotswold cannot decipher what the dying Lord Marston is desperately trying to convey, and his failure threatens to destroy the villagers’ way of life. What will become of the estate? Amos and Lord Marston’s son had been friends, but Crispin hasn’t been seen for 40 years and no one knows if he’s still alive. As the estate disintegrates, Amos finds himself haunted by the Marston ghosts. Merely finding the rightful heir won’t be enough to save his village; Amos must also determine how the legend ended.

When it comes to his daughter’s school, Bergerac has a lot to learn. Bergerac’s daughter, Kim, is a reluctant pupil in a liberal Jersey school stuffed with the offspring of jet-setting parents. But there’s trouble in store when the headmaster’s wife is assaulted and a member of staff disappears. Asked to investigate by Hungerford, a school governor, Bergerac uncovers a rich seam of corruption, centred on one of the more notorious of the school’s pupils, and shoots to the top of the class.

Agatha Christie is the most widely published author of all time and in any language. Now Collins has adapted her famous detective novels for English language learners. These readers have been carefully adapted using the Collins COBUILD grading scheme to ensure that the language is at the correct level for an intermediate learner. This book is Level 4 in the Collins ELT Readers series. Level 4 is equivalent to CEF level B2 with a word count of 20,000-26,000 words.

Collins brings the Queen of Crime, Agatha Christie, to English language learners. Agatha Christie is the most widely published author of all time and in any language. Now Collins has adapted her famous detective novels for English language learners. These readers have been carefully adapted using the Collins COBUILD grading scheme to ensure that the language is at the correct level for an intermediate learner. This book is Level 4 in the Collins ELT Readers series. Level 4 is equivalent to CEF level B2 with a word count of 20,000-26,000 words.

1963, France: A farmer reports a truck ramming into a car near Picardie, followed by gunfire. A group of Englishmen are brought in after a bar fight. A tramp's body is discovered in a burnt out truck. All this occurring after multiple attempts on the President's life. Inspector Lucas Rocco knows there's a connection somewhere, and is recruited by Colonel Saint-Cloud to assist with the President's Security.

France 1670. Carlo Demirco's mastery of the extraordinary new art of creating ice creams has brought him wealth, women, and a position at the court of Louis XIV. Then Carlo is sent to London, along with Louise de Keroualle, an impoverished lady-in-waiting. The most powerful ministers of two countries have decided that Louise is to be Charles II's new mistress and Carlo must decide where his loyalties lie..?

Bodies are being exhumed at King's Lynn's cemetery, the bones moved to higher ground to avoid flooding. But when the coffin of murdered pub landlady Nora Tilden is hauled up into the light there's a grim discovery: the twisted corpse of a young black man, dumped in the grave on the night Nora was buried. Who was this young man? Was he the victim of a racist crime?

In Rome, the severed hand of a retired MI6 head of station is found at one of the city's landmarks. The hand is grasping a bag containing 30 silver pieces. Meanwhile, in London, MI6 agent Paul Aston is on the point of quitting. When he is approached to head up a new task force, he jumps at the chance. His first mission is to investigate the murder in Rome. When one of MI6's directors dies suddenly, Aston realises there is more going on than meets the eye.

On a hot August day in 1994, 76 holidaymakers travel to an island off the North Norfolk coast. Only 75 return alive - a young man is murdered, the case left unsolved. Twenty years later, using state-of-the-art forensics, the DNA results of a blood-soaked towel prompt DI Peter Shaw to summon all 75 original suspects to a mass screening. But one of them is found dead in her bed. Is there a link to the 1994 murder? DI Shaw and DS Valentine become immersed in the secrets of an isolated community.

In the middle of the 18th century, a ship docks at Bristol with an extraordinary cargo: two young elephants. Bought by a wealthy landowner, they are taken to his estate in the English countryside. A stable boy, Tom Page, is given the task of caring for them. The Elephant Keeper is Tom's account of his life with the elephants.

Picardie, 1963. A truck drops a group of illegal workers by a deserted stretch of canal in the dead of night, desperate travellers in a pipeline, searching for a better life. Days later, one of them surfaces, stabbed to death. For Inspector Lucas Rocco, finding the victim's fellow travellers presents problems. Most Algerian immigrants are welcome, but trawling for any who aren't is a sensitive issue loaded with threats of civil unrest - something which terrifies his bosses in the Ministry.

When the aging Russian Prince Prince K. arrives in the town of Mordasov, Marya Alexandrovna Moskaleva, a doyenne of local society life, takes him under her protection with the aim of engineering his marriage with her 23-year-old daughter Zina. Yet with many rivals for the hands of both parties, events are not guaranteed to run smoothly. A rare foray into comedy by the giant of Russian literature, this tale still possesses all the hallmarks of Dostoevsky's psychological and philosophical writing.

After shooting a teenage boy in an undercover operation, DS Sue Manson is taken off the front line and transferred to a desk job in Missing Persons. But no sooner has she arrived than she's in the thick of the action once more, tasked with tracking down a trio of twisted criminals.

In the village of Iping, a strange man arrives at a local inn wrapped in bandages. He refuses to leave his room where he is carrying out experiments to make himself invisible. The stranger's success has grave implications for everyone. When he realises that he cannot reverse the experiment, he is gradually driven insane.