Showing results by narrator "Steven Pacey" in All Categories

April 1945. East of Berlin the Red Army stands poised to unleash its final assault upon the ruined capital of Hitler's Thousand-Year Reich. To the north, at a lonely outpost near the Baltic Sea, German scientists perfect a guidance system for the mighty V2 rocket, which has already caused massive damage to the cities of London and Antwerp. This device, known only by the codename Diamondstream, will allow the rocket to arrive at its target with pinpoint accuracy.

The setting is Berlin. Into this divided city, wrenched between East and West, between past and present; comes twenty-five-year-old Leonard Marnham, assigned to a British-American surveillance team. Though only a pawn in an international plot that is never fully revealed to him, Leonard uses his secret work to escape the bonds of his ordinary life - and to lose his unwanted innocence.

The survivors of The Other Side of Midnight come back for one last round of play in this compelling sequel set in post-war Europe. Catherine Douglas, victim of amnesia, is taken in by the world's richest man, Greek shipping tycoon Constantin Demiris. Haunted by faint memories of the past, Catherine must remember the truth before Demiris, the man who killed her husband, sets his murderous sights on her.

Menace awaits. Sleath. Quiet, peaceful. A small village hidden away in the Chiltern Hills, almost forgotten by the modern world. Nothing much seems to happen here; little disturbs the centuries-old tranquillity. Until the ghosts begin to appear and frighteningly bizarre events start to occur. Psychic investigator David Ash, a man burdened by the dark secret of his own past, is sent to Sleath to investigate the phenomena and his discoveries there drive him to the very edge of his own sanity.

Twenty years on and an Argentine military junta is returned to power. They determine to reinvade the Falkland Islands. Now a senior NCO, Hood is back in the South Atlantic, haunted by memories he thought he had buried. British air defences have been knocked out in a sneak attack and once again Argentine forces are being secretly readied for an assault on the Islands.

At St Oswald’s, a long-established boys’ grammar school in the north of England, a new year has just begun. For the staff and boys of the school, a wind of unwelcome change is blowing. Suits, paperwork and Information Technology rule the world; and Roy Straitley, the eccentric veteran Latin master, is finally – reluctantly – contemplating retirement. But beneath the little rivalries, petty disputes and everyday crises of the school, a darker undercurrent stirs.

Introducing Stuart, Gillian and Oliver. One by one they take their turn to speak straight out to the camera - and give their side of a contemporary love triangle. What begins as a comedy of misunderstanding slowly darkens and deepens into a compelling exploration of the quagmires of the heart.

J. G. Ballard was, for over 50 years, one of this country’s most significant writers. Beginning with the events that inspired his classic novel, Empire of the Sun, in this revelatory autobiography he charts the course of his astonishing life. Miracles of Life takes us from the vibrant surroundings of pre-war Shanghai, to the deprivations and unexpected freedoms of Lunghua Camp, to Ballard’s arrival in a devastated Britain.

When a bunch of neo-fascist thugs named The Bulldogs attack a Gay pride march in the sleepy country town of Lafferton, detective Simon Serrailler moves quickly to find the assailants. He’s already got his hands full making security arrangements for a memorial service to honour soldiers returning from Afghanistan. When anonymous threats come in, Serrailler wonders if the Bulldogs are behind these too - and worries that they know the Prince of Wales will be in attendance.

Time's Arrow tells the story, backwards, of the life of Nazi war criminal, Doctor Tod T. Friendly. He dies and then feels better, breaks up with his lovers as a prelude to seducing them and mangles his patients before he sends them home.

The sequel to Eye of the Red Tsar. It is 1939. Facing the secret threat of Nazi Germany, Stalin has placed his hopes on the F-34 tank, a 30-ton steel monster known as the 'Red Coffin' to those men who will soon be using it. But the design is not yet complete. And when the weapon's secretive and eccentric architect is found murdered, Stalin sends for Pekkala, his most trusted investigator. However, Pekkala is not the only one whose loyalty is divided....

Three new adventures for the Liberator crew, starring some of the actors from the original hit BBC TV series. In 'Corners of the Mind' by Andy Lane, Avon is trapped in a labyrinth full of puzzles, with no way to teleport to safety and deadly traps at every corner. He needs all his wits to survive, but there is one problem - he is losing his mind with every puzzle, piece by piece, memory by memory. Also includes 'Capital' and 'Punishment'.

Residing on the threshold of E-Space with the Tharil Laszlo, Romana is on the trail of a terrible enemy. Allies of the enslaved, the duo ride the Time Winds in search of the desperate Sluagh. Meanwhile, on a bloody American Civil War battlefield, young soldier Joshua is haunted by spectres: pale, vicious-looking aliens who prey upon the dead to raise an army of living corpses. With the fabled Kairos Ring they can carve portals into other dimensions - and, by accident, Joshua is blown through one of them.

A young wife becomes obsessed with the wallpaper in the room of her holiday home in The Yellow Wallpaper. A man is tormented by the embalmed hand of his deceased uncle in The Beast with Five Fingers. For the protagonists of these three supernatural stories, ghostly terror lurks beneath the surface of ordinary life, and reality can all too easily fray at the seams.... Evocatively read by three of our finest actors, and with atmospheric music, these eerie, enthralling tales are perfect listening for dark winter nights.

The world is burning. Rume is under attack. The Autumn Lords, rulers of the Tchinee Empire, have had their true nature revealed. The Emperor descends into madness. And Fisk and Shoe - unlikely heroes, very likely mercenaries - must find their way to Fisk's wife and child, whom he has never seen. There might be quite a lot in their way. A war, for one thing. But Livia is as determined as Fisk to be reunited. And Shoe may have a plan....

In the first century AD, the Roman Empire faces a new threat from its long-standing enemy Parthia. Parthia is vying with Rome for control of Palmyra an officially neutral kingdom. Palmyra's royal household is on the brink of open revolt, and so a task force under the command of experienced soldiers Macro and Cato is dispatched to defend its king and guard its borders.

In Talking It Over, Gillian and Stuart were married until Oliver - witty, feckless Oliver - stole her away. In Love, etc, Julian Barnes revisits Stuart, Gillian, and Oliver, using the same intimate technique of allowing the characters to speak directly to the listener, to whisper their secrets, to argue for their version of the truth… Love, etc is a compelling exploration of contemporary love and its betrayals.

There are no monsters this time...are there? Aunty Pat is in her prime. She's snagged herself an ex-rock star at the Kendal Folk Festival, and now, in the brave new world of the early 1980s, they manage together a snazzy hotel on the poetic and shingly shore of Lake Grasmere. However, still waters run deep, and friends from the past are returning, intent on milking the old cash cow....

Pickpockets, pimps and prostitutes: All in a day’s work for the city constable – until work moves too close to home… When Richard Nottingham, Constable of Leeds, discovers his former housemaid murdered in a particularly sickening manner, his professional and personal lives move perilously close. Circumstances seem to conspire against him, and more murders follow. Soon the city fathers cast doubt on his capability, and he is forced to seek help from an unsavoury source.

Outside of Pakistan, the world's highest concentration of al-Qaeda lurks in southeast Asia and there, Nick Stone's bosses get wind of an act of terror that will dwarf even the nightmare of 9/11. When Stone is despatched to Malaysia by the CIA to assassinate a biochemist, he expects his mission to be a straightforward part of the fight against Bin Laden.