Showing results by author "A. Carpenter" in All Categories

Famous fans choose their favourite writers for BBC Radio 4's Great Lives. For 20 years, Great Lives has been a cornerstone of the Radio 4 schedules, presented by Joan Bakewell, Humphrey Carpenter, Francine Stock and Matthew Parris. Each week, a well-known personality is invited to select someone who has inspired them. They then discuss the 'Great Life' with the presenter and a guest expert to decide whether their hero really merits the accolade.

You Are Worth It is a memoir about the War in Afghanistan and Kyle’s heroics, yes, but it also is a manual for living. Organized around the credos that have guided Kyle’s life (from “Don’t Hide Your Scars” to “Call Your Mom”), the book encourages us to become our best selves in the time we've been given on earth.

Thirteenth-century Bohemia is a dangerous place for a girl, especially one as odd as Mouse, born with unnatural senses and an uncanny intellect. Some call her a witch. Others call her an angel. Even Mouse doesn't know who - or what - she is. But she means to find out. When young King Ottakar shows up at the Abbey wounded by a traitor's arrow, Mouse breaks church law to save him and then agrees to accompany him back to Prague as his personal healer.

I'm torn between three men that I swore I wouldn't get involved with. I know it's wrong, but part of me loves it. Craves it. Everyone thinks I'm the good girl, but what they don't see is that my carefully crafted persona is crumbling around me. My mask is cracked. I'm hanging on by a thread. We all have weaknesses. Mine just make me a glutton for punishment.

In an immersive Southern Gothic with echoes of Shirley Jackson’s The Lottery and Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn, a restauranteur lured by pandemic-era incentives moves her family to a seemingly idyllic small town in Georgia, only to discover a darkness lurking beneath the Southern hospitality and sun-dappled streets.

The year is 1903, and tenacious and spirited Aoi Ichi is sold to the most exclusive brothel in Kumamoto, Japan, becoming the protégée of Shinonome, the oiran, or the highest-ranking courtesan. Through Shinonome's teachings, fifteen-year-old Ichi begins to understand the intertwined power of sex and money. Education for a courtesan extends beyond the art of seduction, and as Ichi is taught to read and write she develops a voice that refuses to be dampened by the brothel's rigid hierarchy.

When a wormhole failure sends geneticist Dr. Osric Rhendall one billion years into Earth’s past, he becomes the sole survivor of humanity’s most ambitious spacefaring mission. Trapped aboard the terraforming ship Daedalus One with a stubborn AI, Osric faces an impossible question: what to do when you’re the only soul in the solar system? Driven by a desire to give meaning to his isolation, Osric begins to remake Earth from scratch. One ecosystem at a time. One species at a time. From engineered algae to bioluminescent canines.

I thought my first husband was dead. But when I get a letter with his name on it just days before my wedding, it will tear my perfect new life apart… As we drive up to the gorgeous house by the lake with its red and yellow roses round the door, I breathe in the pure air and count my blessings. In two days’ time I’m getting married to Matt, my soulmate and the father of my beautiful boy. After all the pain of my past, my life now is perfect.

As with everything else in my life, the descent into Hell was not so simple. When I jumped into the portal, I expected to find the Sins on the other side. I expected to find my people - demons - waiting and ready. What I found were flames and fire and ash. The apocalypse hadn't waited for me. It had already begun. Hell's barriers were collapsing in on themselves - making my task of finding the Sins infinitely harder. As the Horsemen and I set out on our journey to find them, we discover that not all is what it seems.

I'm the daughter of the Don, but my life as a mafia princess is far from a fairy-tale. Trapped in a pretty cage, my family clipped my wings so that I can fill the role all princesses are tasked: to marry a prince and secure an alliance. My mob boss father would give anything to gain an edge over the rest of the Supernatural Syndicates in New York—including me.

A god wants me dead. My ancestors stole half his soul then imprisoned him in Tartarus, thinking he'd be forgotten. That he could never return. They were wrong. The day he rips open a portal between our worlds, my life is over. As the current guardian of his cursed soul, my head is on the chopping block, but there's a snag in his plan. This dark god believes he's my fated mate. We're not, but he refuses to take no for an answer. When he kidnaps my cousin, I'm forced to make a deal. To rescue her, I have to spend six months in Tartarus. Pretending to be his mate. His queen.

The Devil's Bible. Once considered an eighth wonder of the world, the ancient book is shrouded in mystery. No one knows who wrote it or where it was written. Even dry-boned scholars whisper about the secrets hidden in the book: how it calls to the power-hungry. How it drives people mad. How it was written in the shadows by the hand of the devil himself. But no one knows the truth - no one except Mouse.

Inspired as a boy by the multiple meanings to be found for a single word in the dictionary, Kohei Araki is devoted to the notion that a dictionary is a boat to carry us across the sea of words. But after thirty-seven years creating them at Gembu Books, it's time for him to retire and find his replacement. He discovers a kindred spirit in Mitsuya Majime - a young, disheveled square peg with a penchant for collecting antiquarian books and a background in linguistics - whom he swipes from his company's sales department.

Cherished by a Father, coveted by a king, loved by an almost-priest; tormented by demons, tortured by a madman, hunted by a cult, hounded by her father. Mouse has survived it all. Despite Mouse's power, her father always wanted a son - and now, at long last, he has him. And Mouse has a brother, someone else in the world just like her. Hiding among a tribe of the Martu in the isolation of the Australian outback near the edges of Lake Disappointment, Mouse and Angelo have seemingly evaded at least one of the predators hunting them.

Sexual abuse is the secret shame that lies deep within. Men hold on to this secret shame for an average of 25 years before they disclose the hurt and pain they have endured and carried from sexual abuse perpetrated by another male. As men disclose their abuse, it is important to examine how the abuse changed their thinking and behavior. A good majority of men were abused before puberty. The research shows that men, on average, are abused around the age of eight or nine, while in the latency stage of development.

I used to hunt witches. Now I live with one. To further complicate things, my past as a supernatural bounty hunter doesn’t exactly make me popular in these new circles I’m running in. Shocker, I know. Someone wants me dead. He wants me to stay in Nathalie’s apartment and be safe while he handles the threat, all while holding Bree’s future over my head. Not gonna happen. To say I’m f--ked is an understatement. But I’ve been in worse spots before. Lucifer may be gone, but the corruption of magic isn’t.

For a decade, I’ve hated the supernaturals who owned my world. I hunted them. I killed them. And now, in the most grand twist of fate - I am bonded to one of them. Oh, the irony. Being a supernatural bounty hunter isn’t exactly a popular job. But after the magic wars, there aren’t many things a human can do that will put food on the table. Thankfully, anything my right hook can’t handle, my guns can. Or so I thought.

Twenty terrifying and gruesome stories about ghosts, monsters, maniacs, and so much more!

My goddess is reborn. The mouthy peacock shifter I find is not the woman I knew. She's somehow more. More human. More lovely. More sinful. And I want her more than I ever have before.

When the Underworld burned, I thought that was the end. Turns out it was only the beginning. Lucifer’s death was a shot heard around the world. The sudden loss of magic turned the tides for the first time in over two decades. The humans are rallying. Rioting. It feels like the stirrings of war.