Showing results by narrator "Charles Johnston" in All Categories

England, 1930. An antiques dealer is found robbed and murdered in a third class train compartment on a remote Suffolk branch line. The police believe they know who the killer is, and an arrest is soon made. A passenger on the same train, the Reverend Lucian Shaw, country parson and former army chaplain, is concerned that the police have the wrong man and begins an investigation of his own. Before long, Shaw is drawn into a web of intrigue, deceit, and murder which lurks beneath the surface of a seemingly peaceful country parish.

October, 1931: an anonymous telegram summons the Reverend Lucian Shaw, country parson and former army chaplain, to the deathbed of his elderly uncle in the remote Scottish Highlands.

February, 1932: The highly unpopular Joan Hexham, "the spider at the centre of a web of village gossip", is killed on stage during an amateur performance of Hamlet. An accident, surely. Nobody would be brazen enough to commit murder in full view of 50 witnesses in Lower Addenham village hall—or would they?

Step into the heart of history with the War Omnibus: Volume I from History Nerds, a sweeping exploration of five monumental wars that reshaped the world. From Napoleon’s rise and fall in the Napoleonic Wars, to the epic clashes of the Crimean War and American Civil War, this collection traces the struggles that defined nations.

Summer 1931: After finding the battered corpse of a spiritualist medium at an archaeological site on the Suffolk coast, the Reverend Lucian Shaw is thrust into a dark and deadly mystery. Was the medium a victim of the evil forces he claimed to have harnessed for his own use, or is there a rational explanation for his demise? Discovering a trail of blackmail and intimidation leading from the foothills of the Himalayas to an English seaside town, Reverend Shaw must battle his own inner demons and struggle with the deepest questions of faith before he is able to unmask the killer.

Suffolk, 1934: When the Very Reverend Eckhart Vale, the Red Dean of Midchester Cathedral, falls to his death during Evensong, the police are only too quick to dismiss the whole affair as a tragic accident, and the only guilty party some rotten wooden railings. The Reverend Lucian Shaw, bicycling enthusiast, country parson and former army chaplain, is the only person to have seen the Dean fall, and begins to ask questions - questions that lead him into very dangerous waters.

Brian Duffy, aging soldier of fortune, had been hired in Venice by a strange old man who called himself Aurelianus Ambrosius. He was supposed to go to Vienna and act as bouncer at an inn where the fabulous Herzwesten beer was brewed. That was clear enough. But why was he guided and guarded on the trip by creatures from the ancient legends? Why should he be attacked by ifrits and saved by mythical dwarfs? What was so important about the Herzwesten beer to the Fisher King—whoever he was?

"I know of no gamekeepers who are not countrymen to their fingertips. They observe, they consider, they cherish, and they do more than most to look after out woodlands and hedgerows, our moorlands and fens. Theirs is not an easy job—out in all weathers and misunderstood by many townies who are further removed from the countryside and its workings than they have ever been, thanks to increasing technology which keeps them housebound."

Featuring popular tales such as Cinderella, Snow White, Belle, Tom Thumb, and Thumbelina - this audiobook contains versions of popular fairy tales by the famed Jacob & Wilhelm Grimm, who gathered the oral traditions and set the juggernaut that is the modern fairy tale in motion, or so some argue. Along with some interesting Hans Christian Andersen stories - and some from the American tradition by the likes of Baum - we have here the children’s poetry of Stevenson, Lear, and Howitt, among others, plus a few gems cherry-picked to delight and entertain!

Christmas, 1930. An exiled Balkan king, living incognito in rural Suffolk, is shot dead in his secluded mansion following a meeting with the local vicar, Reverend Lucian Shaw. Special Branch detectives are soon on the trail of sinister agents of a foreign power that they think are responsible, but Shaw begins to realize that the culprit could be much closer to home. Observation, cogitation, meditation, and prayer lead him down a dangerous road toward a desperate killer who will stop at nothing to evade capture.

Veteran journalists Simon Pearson and Fiona Gorman follow the remarkable life of heart surgeon Magdi Yacoub from his formative years in Egypt, through spectacular success at Cairo University, to his long and distinguished career in Britain. Although at times he clashed with the medical establishment in London, Yacoub pioneered great advances in heart surgery. He was knighted in 1992, and in 2014, he was awarded the highest honor in the gift of the Queen, the Order of Merit.

Divorce is one of the most stressful life events encountered. Focusing on the man, this book covers the author's experiences in his divorce and gives practical advice on the pitfalls, and how to avoid them.

“DNA," is what I read in the paper. That’s hard to argue with. Until an unofficial search of the victim’s room uncovers evidence that the police missed, or chose to ignore. An engraved ring; a phone number; and an antique copy of Lorna Doone inscribed with a cryptic message.

Is it true that every life is the stuff of novels? Or are some people just too ordinary? This is the question a struggling Parisian writer asks when he challenges himself to write about the first person he sees when he steps outside his apartment. Secretly hoping to meet the beautiful woman who occasionally smokes on his street, he instead sets eyes on octogenarian Madeleine. She’s happy to become his subject, but first she needs to put her shopping away. Wondering if his project is doomed to be hopelessly banal, he soon finds himself tangled in the lives of Madeleine’s family.

Roger Bushell was 'Big X', mastermind of the mass breakout from Stalag Luft III in March 1944, immortalised in the Hollywood film The Great Escape. Very little was known about Bushell until 2011, when his family donated his private papers - a treasure trove of letters, photographs and diaries - to the Imperial War Museum. Through exclusive access to this material - as well as fascinating new research from other sources - Simon Pearson, Chief Night Editor of The Times, has now written the first biography of this iconic figure.

Pushkin’s story of thwarted love is set in Russia of the early years of the C19th. In verse at once satiric and penetrating, it tells the tale of a bored young man and the country girl, brought up on romantic novels, whose love he rejects. His behavior leads indirectly to tragedy. The tables are turned some time later when he in his turn becomes obsessed with her. In a final confrontation, she rejects his advances.

In his darkest hour, hiding in the depths of the Somerset marshes in AD 878, King Alfred devises a scheme to save his kingdom from the Vikings threatening to overwhelm the country. His spectacular success, beginning with the triumphant battle of Ethandun, involves creating a sense of nation among his subjects.

This is a succinct biography of Schopenhauer and provides a glimpse of his philosophical thinking.

Retired Italian detective, Giuseppe Bianchi, travels to England to escape one tragic death, when he comes face-to-face with another. When the body of a teenager is found on a Sussex beach, Giuseppe is drawn to the case - a case with no witnesses, and a case about which no one is prepared to talk. National news reports of a missing 12-year-old in Manchester spark fear across the nation. The phrase "stranger-danger" filters into public consciousness. Local reporter, Christina Rossi, already has concerns about her local community. Families are not as close-knit as they first appear.

A brazen daylight robbery at Christie's becomes the talk of London, but Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson are no longer in the business of solving crime. Holmes has retired to Sussex, to keep bees, and Watson, recently widowed, has returned to general practice. But when Watson, desperate for distraction, agrees to accompany his old friend to Vienna, to visit eminent neurologist, Sigmund Freud, it is not long before the pair are pulled back into the murky world of ruthless criminals bent on abduction, intimidation and murder.