Showing results by narrator "John Telfer" in All Categories

Geoffrey Staddon turned his back on the best things in his life. He turned his back on the beautiful house Clouds Frome, his finest achievement as an architect. He turned his back on the woman he loved, Consuela Caswell, and who loved him in return. Twelve years later, amidst the tatters of his career and marriage, he is forced to contemplate the remorse and shame of his betrayal. But when he reads that Consuela has been charged with murder, he knows instinctively that she cannot be guilty....

Detective Peter Porteous is called to Cranwell Lake where the body of a teenager has been discovered. After trawling through the missing persons files, he comes to the conclusion that the corpse is Michael Grey, an enigmatic and secretive young man who was reported missing by his foster parents in 1972. The news report that a body has been found leaves prison officer Hannah Morton in shock. Michael had been her boyfriend, and she had been with him the night he disappeared. And now the discovery is bringing back dreaded and long buried memories from her past.

Tristram Abberley was an acclaimed English poet of the 1930s whose legendary reputation was sealed when he died fighting for the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War. Nearly 50 years later, his sister Beatrix is brutally murdered in her seaside cottage. Her family are stunned by the crime - especially Beatrix's niece, Charlotte Ladram. But Charlotte has little time to mourn her aunt as 50 years of secrets begin to unravel.

Ancient Egypt wasn't all pyramids, sphinxes and gold sarcophagi. For your average Egyptian, life was tough, and work was hard, conducted under the burning gaze of the sun god Ra. During the course of a day in the ancient city of Thebes (modern-day Luxor), Egypt's religious capital, we meet 24 Egyptians from all strata of society - from the king to the bread-maker, the priestess to the fisherman, the soldier to the midwife - and get to know what the real Egypt was like by spending an hour in their company.

One fateful summer evening, businessman Robin Timariot meets a strikingly beautiful woman while out walking. They exchange only a few words, but those words prove to be unforgettable. A few days later, the newspapers are full of the rape and murder of Lady Louise Paxton - and to his horror, Timariot realises that this was the woman he met just hours before her death. A man is swiftly charged and convicted of the crime, but a series of bizarre events begin to convince Timariot that all is not what it seems.

Walk a day in a Roman's sandals. What was it like to live in one of the ancient world's most powerful and bustling cities - one that was eight times more densely populated than modern-day New York? In this entertaining and enlightening guide, best-selling historian Philip Matyszak introduces us to the people who lived and worked there. In each hour of the day, we meet a new character - from emperor to slave girl, gladiator to astrologer, medicine woman to water-clock maker - and discover the fascinating details of their daily lives.

Estranged from his family for most of his adult life, Chris Napier is persuaded to return home for his niece's wedding. At the reception, he is shocked to recognise a dishevelled intruder as his childhood friend Nicky Lanyon, whose presence is a chilling reminder of a murder and subsequent trial that Chris has tried hard to forget. When Nicky hangs himself, Chris is compelled to revisit the tragic events of 34 years ago and the apparent justice that was served.

The Royal Navy to which Admiral Lord Nelson sacrificed his life depended on thousands of sailors and marines to man the great wind-powered wooden warships. Drawn from all over Britain and beyond, often unwillingly, these ordinary men made the navy invincible through skill, courage and sheer determination.

A psychopathic criminal on the run from prison. A family of five held hostage in their home. A frantic police manhunt across the snowbound Derbyshire moors. Just one survivor. The definitive account of the terrifying 1977 Pottery Cottage murders that shocked Britain. For three days, escaped prisoner Billy Hughes played macabre psychological games with Gill Moran and her family, keeping them in separate rooms of their home while secretly murdering them one by one.

February 1605. A series of killings shake the quiet life of Devon's Tavy valley. Country doctor Gabriel Taverner, summoned to examine the bodies, believes the murders are somehow connected to a mysterious woman recently discovered in shocking circumstances. Gabriel is determined to solve the mystery, and soon uncovers clues that link his unexpected patient to the brutal killings.

There's only one book that ever truly got inside the Beatles, and this is it. During 1967 and 1968, Hunter Davies spent 18 months with the Beatles at the peak of their powers as they defined a generation and rewrote popular music. As their only-ever authorised biographer, he had unparalleled access - not just to John, Paul, George, and Ringo, but to friends, family, and colleagues. He collected a wealth of intimate and revealing material that makes this the classic Beatles book - the one all other biographers look to.

Drawing on a huge range of sources - letters, memoirs, conversations - Orlando Figes tells the story of how Russians tried to endure life under Stalin. Those who shaped the political system became, very frequently, its victims. Those who were its victims were frequently quite blameless. The Whisperers recreates the sort of maze in which Russians found themselves, where an unwitting wrong turn could either destroy a family or, perversely, later save it: a society in which everyone spoke in whispers - whether to protect themselves, their families, neighbours or friends - or to inform on them.

1346. France. King Edward III is restless. Despite earlier victories the French crown remains intact. Determined to bring France under his own rule, Edward has devised a new plan of attack – one which he believes will finally bring the French army to its knees: a final, cataclysmic battle ... Berenger Fripper, Vintener of a pox-ridden mob of sixteen who make up the Vintaine of Sir John de Sully, storms the beaches of Normandy to bring victory to their king. But the French are nowhere to be seen…

When Oscar Lupe appears 20,000 feet up in the air, his body is frozen solid and free-falling to earth. It shatters on impact. Soon after, a CIA Special Activities Division squad goes rogue with a cargo marked ‘Torchwood’ that they’ve been escorting from somewhere called Cardiff. The Agency puts Rex Matheson on the case. As the strange deaths pile up, Rex realises there must be experimental tech out there, but someone is obstructing him at every turn. Rex is the CIA’s golden boy - but has he met his match in the evasive Mr Wynter…?

A fascinating new portrait of Medieval Britain that brings together the everyday and the extraordinary. Using wide-ranging evidence, Martyn Whittock shines a light on Britain in the Middle Ages, bringing it vividly to life. Thus we glimpse 11th century rural society through a conversation between a ploughman and his master. The life of Dick Whittington illuminates the rise of the urban elite.

Whether he is in Cannes, St Tropez, Nassau or Lucerne, the Saint always finds some action to interest him. In these seven stories Simon faces competition in the jewel thief business, encounters an unpleasant movie mogul, uncovers a Ponzi scheme that isn't what it seems, deals with sabotage in the world of motor racing, finds a missing body, tangles with the Russians and rescues an heiress.

When a shipment of iridium is stolen, the Saint hatches a scheme to recover the goods - but then one of his prime leads is murdered, and he's framed for the crime. He escapes to Galveston in Texas in pursuit of a man who has been sabotaging weapons factories, only for him to turn up burnt to a crisp. The Saint has to contend with the local police, a trio of mysterious men, and a beautiful Russian in his attempt to get to the bottom of what is going on.

When Belize is invaded by a powerful neighbour, it's Britain that must spring to the defence of this old outpost of empire. But intervening in distant Central America will test the limits of the former colonial power. And in the end the outcome will turn on the skill, boldness and heart-bursting bravery of a handful of British forces already in country....

In 1774, Josiah Wedgwood, master craftsman possessed with a burning scientific vision, embarks upon the thousand-piece Frog Service for Catherine the Great. Josiah's nephew Tom journeys to America to buy clay from the Cherokee for this exquisite china. Tom is caught up in the American rebellion, and falls for a Cherokee woman who will come to play a crucial role in Josiah's late, great creation: the Portland Vase.

This compelling collection brings Baker Street's celebrated resident and his cohort, Dr Watson, out of retirement to investigate seven of the most notorious mysteries in the annals of true crime, from the murder of a London prostitute to the 1907 theft of the Irish Crown Jewels.