Showing results by narrator "Gareth Armstrong" in All Categories

The Battle for Monte Cassino, which blocked the Allies' road to Rome in early 1944, was fought over terrible terrain and in appalling conditions, and saw human sacrifice and privation almost beyond imagination. Based on the first-hand accounts of veterans from around the world, Matthew Parker has recreated this epic battle from the experiences of the men who fought it.

Dark Echo is an unlucky boat. Despite this knowledge, Martin Stannard falls under her spell and prepares to sail her across the Atlantic with his father. But his lover, Suzanne, is uneasy and begins exploring the yacht's past. What she finds is terrifying. Dark Echo isn't just unlucky, it's evil. It was built for Harry Spalding, a soldier and sorcerer who committed suicide yet still casts his malevolent spell nearly a century after his death.

The discovery of Bradley Pines body off a busy road signals the end of his bid to win a local election. But why would the killer risk dumping the body so publicly? With the election looming, and Charlie Woodends old enemy Marlowe replacing Pine as candidate, Woodend is required to produce a result.

French Academician and Nazi sympathiser Paul-Jean Husson writes a letter to his local SS officer in the autumn of 1942. Tormented by an illicit passion for Ilse, his German daughter-in-law, Husson has taken a decision that will devastate several lives, including his own.

Terry Walton has kept an allotment for over 50 years - man and boy - in the Rhondda valley in South Wales. He started when he was 4, helping on his dad's plot on the side of the mountain, when he was sent to cut bracken and collect sheep manure by the bucketful to feed the rows of vegetables. By the time he was 11 he had his own plot - the youngest ever to do so - and while still in his teens established an allotment empire to grow the vegetables and flowers he sold to local customers.

When Francis Armstrong moves into his fussily designed Victorian house in the heart of the Vale of York, his August stretches before him in a haze of leisurely house refurbishment. His decision to move a pile of rubble, however, brings DCI Hennessey and Sergeant Yellich springing to the scene at the double. Louise D'Acre helps them with the examination of the skeleton that has been uncovered, and everything seems to point to the murder of a woman who was reported missing 19 years previously.

2024 marks both the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy, and the 150th anniversary of the birth of Churchill himself. This book brings together General Lord Dannatt, one of Britain's most respected contemporary military leaders, and former head of the British Army, with Allen Packwood, one of the world's foremost Churchill experts, the archivist responsible for the holdings at the landmark Churchill Archives Centre in Cambridge. Together they take us through the decision-making for the planning and execution of D-Day.

Eva Gatsby has often wondered about her grandfather Lawrence's past, and exactly what happened to him in Burma during the Second World War. But it is only when Eva's job as an antiques dealer suddenly requires a trip to Mandalay that Lawrence finally breaks his silence and asks her to return a mysterious artefact of his own - a chinthe - to its rightful owner. As Eva arrives in Burma her mission soon proves dangerously complicated, and the treasure she is guarding becomes the centre of a scandal that will have far-reaching consequences.

Lady Yvette, the beautiful wife of local MP Sir Charles Millhouse, is found choked to death in a reservoir. Her clothes and an antique pearl collar she usually wore are missing. Within a short space of time another body is discovered, also choked to death. With no clues and little forensic evidence to go on, will quirky Yorkshire policeman Michael Angel's guile be enough to reveal the identity of the choker?

For fans of C J Sansom and S J Parris, Holy Spy features the Queen's Intelligencer John Shakespeare in the latest of Rory Clements' acclaimed and best-selling series of Tudor spy thrillers. Clements, winner of the Ellis Peters Historical Fiction Award, "does for Elizabeth's reign what C.J. Sansom does for Henry VIII's" ( Sunday Times). In London's smoky taverns, a conspiracy is brewing: a group of wealthy, young Catholic dissidents plot to assassinate Elizabeth and free Mary Queen of Scots.

The new Charlie Woodend mystery - Angela Jackson has been missing for over 24 hours and, in the opinion of Dr. Stevenson, the psychiatrist who Woodend turns to for advice, her kidnapper will first torture and then kill her. With damaging strains operating within his own team, the more the investigation proceeds the less hope Woodend can see. And he knows deep within himself that he will fail in bringing Angela back alive....

Adapted from the Arthur Conan Doyle story "Silver Blaze".... Horseracing is the sport of kings, perhaps because racehorses are very expensive animals. But when they win races, they can make a lot of money too - money for the owners, for the trainers, and for the people who put bets on them to win.Silver Blaze is a young horse, but already the winner of many races. One night he disappears from his stables, and someone kills his trainer.

Dogs are the happiest creatures in the world. They possess qualities that include their ability to live in the moment, their incredibly loving and playful natures and their innate forgiveness and joie de vivre. So a dog is the perfect narrator for a book about how to be happy. If dogs could share their secrets on happiness, this audiobook is what they would say.

When Countrywise presenter Paul Heiney's son, Nicholas, committed suicide aged 23, Paul and his wife, Times columnist Libby Purves, were rocked to the core. Nicholas had been a highly gifted, promising young man, although he had struggled to keep his head above water at times as severe depression slowly dragged him down over many years.

The Elizabethan navy has a secret weapon: an optical instrument so powerful it gives England unassailable superiority at sea. Spain will stop at nothing to steal it and seize the two men who understand its secrets - William Ivory, the 'Queen's Eye', and the magician Dr Dee. With a second Armada threatened, intelligencer John Shakespeare is sent north to escort Dr Dee to safety. But he finds Dee's host, the Earl of Derby, dying in agony, apparently poisoned.

Roger Dykmans, a university student, is living with his brother Hans, an international emissary who's secretly working against the Nazis. As time goes by, Roger finds himself increasingly drawn to Magda, Hans' Jewish wife. But their secret world is turned upside down when Magda and her young daughter, Anna, are arrested by the Nazis. The Gestapo make a deal with Roger: if he hands over information about Hans' operations, they'll set Magda and Anna free. Suddenly, Roger is faced with an impossible decision....

Meet Detective Inspector Michael Angel. An old-school policeman who sometimes rubs his colleagues up the wrong way. He’s got his flaws, but he never gives up on a case. Frank P. Jones, the celebrity art critic known nationally as 'The Man in the Pink Suit', is seen by four independent witnesses and recorded shooting industrialist Charles Tabor. Jones strongly denies the charge, but he has the motive, the opportunity, a Walter PPK/S automatic, and no alibi.

A. N. Wilson has been thinking about the Bible, and reading it, since he read theology for a year at university. Martin Luther King was 'reading the Bible' when he started the Civil Rights Movement. When Michelangelo painted the fresco cycles in the Sistine Chapel, he was 'reading the Bible'. In The Book of the People, A. N. Wilson explores how readers and thinkers have approached the Bible and how it might be read today.

Prince William has emerged as the people's prince, surfacing from a lifetime of scrutiny and speculation as a discerning and charming young man, determined to serve the nation he loves. His wedding to long-term sweetheart Kate Middleton last year was watched by over two billion people around the world. Protective of his new bride, William has emphasised that he's keen to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past. He has inherited an instinctive empathy for others.

In the final days of summer in 2013, a young woman is shot dead in her apartment. Three floors above, the blue lights of the police cars awaken Leo Junker, a longtime police officer. Leo works in the internal affairs division as the lowliest form of officer - a spy. Leo is even lower, however, having been suspended after committing a terrible mistake. He can't stay away for long.