Showing results by narrator "James Langton" in All Categories

The fascinating characters that roam across the pages of Emma Donoghue's latest fact-inspired fictions have all gone astray: they are emigrants, runaways, drifters. They cross other borders, too: those of race, law, sex, and sanity. They travel for love or money, incognito or under duress. Donoghue describes the brutal plot hatched by a slave in conjunction with his master's wife to set them both free.

Somebody’s gunning for Josh Michaels. They must be. There’s no other reason why a stranger would run him off the road, taunt him with a “thumbs-down”, and leave him to die. Josh may have made some messy mistakes in the past, but who’s suddenly decided that he’s worth more dead than alive? As more and more near-fatal accidents befall him, there can be no denying it: he’s got a bull’s-eye on his back. But why? Is it revenge? Mistaken identity? Or is it something far more insidious?

Livia’s been planning her wedding to Jed for ages. Now, at the venue in beautiful Barcelona, with her dress pressed and the guests all on their way, she’s only left one tiny detail until the last minute: letting the groom know he’s about to get hitched. But as far as Jed’s concerned, they’ve been bumping along just fine for ten years and even have a baby on the way, so why spoil things with an ‘I do’? Especially when he’d really rather not. Meanwhile the guests are arriving with plenty of baggage of their own.

The wildest story in the world these days is not fiction; it's what's really happening all around us as the world's global economy has gone into freefall. How did we get here? What does it all mean? How could so many smart people be so dumb and believe their own hype? Accessibly, cleverly, and with mordant humor, journalist John Lanchester trots the globe in search of the answers to these questions.

Once upon a Regency time, an author created a family.... But not just any family. Eight brothers and sisters, assorted in-laws, sons and daughters, nieces and nephews (not to mention an overweight corgi), plus an irrepressible matriarch who's a match for any of them.... These are the Bridgertons. Through eight best-selling novels, listeners laughed, cried and fell in love. But they wanted more. What happened next? Does Simon ever read his father's letters? Do Francesca and Michael become parents? Who would win in a Pall Mall grudge match?

Late in the twenty-first century, drought and wildfires prompt an exodus from southern Europe. When twelve-year-old Caleb is separated from his mother during their trek north, he soon falls prey to traffickers. Enslaved in an enclave outside Manchester, the resourceful and determined Caleb never loses hope of bettering himself. After Caleb is befriended by a fellow victim of trafficking, another road opens. Hiding in the woodlands by day, guided by the stars at night, he begins a new journey - to escape to a better life, to meet someone he can trust, and to find his family.

Drawing from classical as well as contemporary examples and ranging across politics, business, science, technology, and the arts, Enough Said is a smart and shrewd look at the erosion of language by an author uniquely placed to measure its consequences.

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.

A queen of punk before her time. A duo on the brink of stardom. A night that will define their story for ever. Opal is a fiercely independent young woman pushing against the grain in her style and attitude, a Black punk artist before her time. Despite her unconventional looks, Opal believes she can be a star. So when the aspiring British singer/songwriter Neville Charles discovers her one night, she takes him up on his offer to make rock music together.

Buster, an English springer spaniel who has served his comrades and his country with unstinting devotion, has saved thousands of lives. This is the story of his partnership with RAF Police Sergeant Will Barrow, told by Will himself, describing how each came to save the other's life. It is a relationship that produced some heroic feats - including sniffing out explosive vests that led to the arrests of two suicide bombers - in the dust and desert heat of Afghanistan and beyond.

If you think you've failed on every diet you've ever tried, think again: The diet failed; you didn't. Now it's time to forget all those weight-loss cliches and listen to the truth. Based on a plan originally designed by a nutrition expert and personal trainer Venice A. Fulton for his A-list clients, Six Weeks to OMG is a groundbreaking system that uses a precise mix of nutrition, biochemistry, genetics, and psychology to produce amazing results. Authoritative, clearly written, and entertaining, this book combines years of red carpet success with fresh, cutting-edge strategies to help anyone get thin and healthy - fast!

As a psychologist for the Los Angeles police department, Jamie Beaverbrook has seen it all. Or so he thinks until the night a full moon brings out the crazies, including Terry Ferriman. Trouble is, Terry isn’t exactly crazy. But how else can the police explain finding the girl in an alley off Sunset, crouched over a man’s lifeless body, her mouth smeared with blood? After an interview that is unsettling at best, the good doctor decides to dig deeper into Terry’s story. What he discovers is that a world he previously imagined to exist only in horror movies is actually flourishing in the shadows of L.A. Vampires are real....

A cop as well as an art historian, Marco Valoni leads a crack team of investigators in a race to solve a crime he's certain is about to shock the world: someone is planning to steal the Holy Shroud of Turin.

Listeners will discover lost and forgotten women who wrote horror every bit as effectively as their male contemporaries. They will learn about their lives and careers, the challenges they faced as women working in a male-dominated field, the way they overcame those challenges, and the way they approached the genre - which was often subtler, more psychological, and more disturbing.

The Way Of Peace recounts the tale of how a young bachelor learns of the secret to a happy, successful marriage from an old couple just celebrating their 50th anniversary. Told in the charming Irish accent of the old couple, the story takes on the feel of a delightful advice manual.

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.

Daniel believed that his parents were enjoying a peaceful retirement on a remote farm in Sweden, the country of his mother's birth. But with a single phone call, everything changes. "Your mother...she's not well," his father tells him. She's been imagining things - terrible, terrible things. In fact, she has been committed to a mental hospital. Before Daniel can board a plane to Sweden, his mother calls: "Everything that man has told you is a lie. I'm not mad...I need the police...Meet me at Heathrow." Daniel is immediately caught between his parents - whom to believe, whom to trust?

On 11 June 2011, three days short of his sixth-ninth birthday, Jonathan Raban suffered a stroke which left him unable to use the right side of his body, wheelchair-bound in a rehab facility and endlessly frustrated by his newfound physical limitations. As he resisted the overbearing ministrations of the nurses helping him along the road to recovery, Raban began to reflect not only on the measure of his own life but the extraordinary story of his parents’ early marriage, conducted for three years by letter while his father fought in the Second World War.

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.

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.