Showing results by narrator "Damian Lynch" in All Categories

In this illuminating tour of humanity, Joy Hendry and Simon Underdown reveal the origins of our species, and the fabric of human society, through the discipline of anthropology. Via fascinating case studies and discoveries, they unravel our understanding of human behaviours and beliefs, including how witchcraft has been used to justify misfortune, and debunk old-fashioned ideas about 'race' based upon the latest genetic research. They even share what our bathroom tells us about our concept of the body – and ourselves.

New islands are being built at an unprecedented rate, whether for tourism or territorial ambition, while many islands are disappearing or fragmenting because of rising sea levels. It is a strange planetary spectacle, creating an ever-changing map that even Google Earth struggles to keep pace with. In The Age of Islands, explorer and geographer Alastair Bonnett takes the listener on a compelling and thought-provoking tour of the world's newest, most fragile and beautiful islands and reveals what, he argues, is one of the great dramas of our time.

For the crew of the Keiko, their stay at the Grand House casino on New Samara was supposed to be a well-deserved rest. It didn't last. Captain Ichabod Drift promised that the side trip to the mining planet Uragan would be a quick in and out - a data retrieval job then back to the tables. He was wrong. When the revolution comes, all you can do is choose a side and hope to get out alive.

A Brock and Poole Mystery - DCI Harry Brock is called to a murder scene on Ham Common early on a Sunday morning. But it is far from being an ordinary sort of murder. The victim has been stabbed to death, locked in a wooden box and set alight. Brock and his assistant, DS Dave Poole, believe that there might be a connection to a gang, which leads them on a journey through Londons underworld...

Jeremiah O'Connell made his name solving problems in London and now does the same in LA. The problems other people can't or won't touch? They're the ones that end up at Jerry's door. Suddenly Jeremiah has problems of his own when he sets out to right a wrong and finds himself on the hitlist of one of LA's most feared drug gangs. As the stakes rise, so does the body count, and Jerry has the fight of his life on his hands.

Both harrowing and life-affirming, the final novel from Carnegie Medal-winning author Mal Peet is the sweeping coming-of-age adventure of a mixed race boy transported to North America. Born from a street liaison between a poor young woman and an African soldier in the 1900s, Beck is soon orphaned and sent to the Catholic Brothers in Canada. Shipped to work on a farm, his escape takes him across the continent in a search for belonging.

Afghanistan, 2009. Eighteen-year-old squaddie Briggsy is just three weeks into his first posting in Helmand Province and he's thrilled to be part of the action. But when his Rifle Section loses a man in battle, Briggsy is forced to confront the realities of war. Also included is the fascinating interview with Andy McNab, in which he speaks to Jo Fidgen about his childhood, military career and writing.

London. A newspaper editor is horrifically murdered, his death quickly followed by a series of more brutal and often bizarre slayings. The police are baffled, the only clear link between the murders being a single blood-red rose left at the scene of every killing. Why? What does the rose mean? What connects the killer to each bloody corpse? Scotland Yard detective Alan Winters leads a hunt for the elusive prey.

An adventure story set in the Solomon Islands sees Jack and Toni, childhood schoolmates, set out on a routine boat trip to a neighbouring island, but things go awry when they discover, due to an oversight by Toni, that they do not have enough fuel to make the journey and are stranded at sea. At first they are optimistic that they will be rescued within hours, but as the first days draw to an end they slowly begin to realise that the mistake has left them in serious jeopardy and they can see no end but their own demise in sight.

In Don't Believe a Word trained linguist David Shariatmadari takes us on a mind-boggling journey through the science of language, urging us to abandon our dearly held beliefs in a bid to uncover the (far more interesting) truth about what we do with words. Exploding nine widely held myths about language while introducing us to some of the fundamental insights of modern linguistics, with David Shariatmadari as our energetic guide we can marvel at the beauty and quirkiness of humanity's greatest achievement.

1996: in a Ugandan dive bar, the 'freight dogs' gather. An anarchic group of mercenary pilots from Texas, Russia, Kenya and Belgium who transport weapons between warring African nations, without allegiance. And tonight they have a new recruit—Manu, a nineteen-year-old cowherd fleeing Congo's bloody war. Taken in by this band of unlikely brothers, Manu hopes to reinvent himself. But no matter how fast he flies, trouble always seems to follow closely behind...

Actor, voice artist and writer Damian Lynch joins us to discuss the Audible Original collection of short stories, in particular, Ben Okri’s 'The Multiverse Murder' and Paul Cornell’s 'A Conclusion'. Best known for starring in Day of the Dance, Waking the Dead, Star Citizen and Little Britain, Damian talks to us about this new and exciting audio collaboration, his experience within the acting industry and his love of storytelling.

A financially comfortable but troubled young London author, Alex Hargreaves stumbles across the work of an unknown writer from the early 1990s, Vernon Crane, and, presuming the missing Crane is dead, decides to pass the work off as his own. The problem is that the novel he wishes to plagiarise has been split among Crane's disparate and scattered group of friends....

The superclasico, the Buenos Aires derby between River Plate and Boca Juniors, is unique in world football. These two clubs fought for supremacy in the Boca neighbourhood in the early 20th century. Today they fight for the city, for Argentina and the world. This is your ticket to the game; a guide through the streets of Buenos Aires; a journey through the dramatic and violent history of the fixture; a showreel of the great players who have played in it and an analysis of why they now leave for Europe earlier than ever before.

When Arthur Bishop, editor of Atlanta's leading Black newspaper, is killed in his office, cop-turned-journalist Tommy Smith finds himself in the crosshairs of the racist cops he's been trying to avoid. To clear his name, he needs to learn more about the dangerous story Bishop had been working on. Meanwhile, Smith's ex-partner Lucius Boggs and white Sergeant Joe McInnis—the only white cop in the Black precinct—find themselves caught between meddling federal agents, racist detectives and communist activists as they try to solve the murder.

When the body of a woman is found stabbed to death, the blame falls to her twin sister. But who killed who? And which one is now the woman behind bars? Zara and Miranda have always supported each other. But then Zara meets Seb, and everything changes. Handsome, charismatic and dangerous, Seb threatens to tear the sisters’ lives apart - but is he really the one to blame? Or are deeper resentments simmering beneath the surface that the sisters must face up to?

A Brock and Poole mystery - When MP Hugh Blakemore is shot dead near a bus stop in the Fulham Road, DCI Harry Brock and DS Dave Poole are assigned to the case. But there is a complication that, at first, misleads the detectives: Months previously, Blakemore killed an inmate when visiting a prison. Although Blakemore was exonerated, Brock is convinced that underworld characters have exacted revenge.…

Professor Hakim Adi draws on a variety of published works in Black Voices on Britain, all of which describe powerful experiences: James Gronniosaw and his family endure poverty, illness and unemployment; Mary Prince is driven out by her cruel owners and turns to London charities for help; Frederick Douglass, on a lecture tour around Britain, reveals how the Christian clergy built churches with slave-owners’ money and William Wells Brown gives his impressions of England as he travels around a country which welcomes him more readily than America.

A Brock and Poole Mystery - On Christmas Day, Detective Chief Inspector Brock’s celebrations are interrupted when he is called to a murder at Heathrow Airport. Kerry Hammond was due to fly out to New York with her husband - but never made it further than the car park. Brock and his sidekick, DS Dave Poole, put Kerry’s husband at the top of their suspect list, but the case becomes increasingly complex, and they find themselves embroiled in a complex case of smuggling that stretches from the South of France to Central London...

When Eunice Bailey takes her wedding ring into a London jewellers to have it enlarged, she is very keen for it to be done quickly. So when she doesn't return or answer her telephone, the jeweller contacts the police. DCI Brock and DS Poole are on the case, and what begins as a fairly simple missing person enquiry develops into a mystery that has ramifications stretching as far as Bermuda...