Showing results by narrator "Michael Tudor Barnes" in All Categories

Doctors, nurses, medics and stretcher-bearers must venture wherever someone is injured and the cry for assistance goes up. Their job is to put themselves in the heart of danger – to risk their own lives as they try to save the dying. War at its rawest is their domain, an ugly place of shattered bodies, severed limbs and death. They fulfil society’s vital pledge to its warriors that they will not be abandoned on the battlefield. Yet, more often than not, what they do goes unnoticed – except by those who survive because of their extraordinary courage and skill.

North Africa, 1942. Dust, heat, thirst, flies. For those who liked that sort of thing, it was a good clean fight: nothing to harm but the sand, the enemy and yourself. Striking hard and escaping fast, Fanny Barton’s squadron play Russian roulette, flying their clapped out Tomahawks on ground-strafing forays. On the ground, the men of Captain Lampard’s SAS patrol drive hundreds of miles behind enemy lines to plant bombs on German aircraft.

It is the eve of the French Revolution and England awaits with trepidation the news from the Continent that will propel her into war again after six years of peace. But Lieutenant James Hayter's orders from the Admiralty do not at first involve the sea. He must go inland to seek out his friend Captain William Rennie, who has disappeared into the wilds of Dartmoor. When he finds Rennie alone and broken down in an isolated farmhouse, Hayter fears the Captain will be unable to make the journey to London.

Stuck in a job he doesn't want - but can't afford to lose - as nominal Head of the Communications Department at Fenland University, Wilt is still subject to the whims of The Powers That Be, both in and outside of work. The demands of his snobbish wife Eva, and the stupendous school fees of his despicable quadruplet daughters cause him the biggest headaches...apart from the hangovers, that is. When Eva signs him up for a summer job, teaching the gun-toting idiot son of a lusty local aristocrat, Wilt is not amused.

In April 2006 the elite 3 Para Battle Group was despatched to Helmand Province on a tour that has become a legend. All that summer the Paras were subjected to relentless attacks. Two years later the Paras are back. The enemy has been forced to adopt new weaponry and tactics. But how much progress are we really making in the war against the insurgents? And is there an end in sight? In this searing account of 3 Para's return,

The body of a young woman is found in the Bradfield canal: a new case for DCI Thackeray. But with the entire town focused on the local club's match against Chelsea, no one seems able to identify the girl, let alone give any clue as to how she died. Meanwhile, Thackeray's girlfriend, reporter Laura Ackroyd, stumbles upon evidence of shady dealings by the club's directors and unsavoury goings-on at post-game parties. But in her pursuit of answers, Laura may be putting Thackeray's job and her life in danger.

1325: England is a hotbed of paranoia under the reign of the unpredictable Edward II and his lover, Sir Hugh le Despenser. When the queen’s lady-in-waiting is slaughtered and a man’s body, hideously mutilated, is discovered behind the throne, the king demands to be avenged. Sir Baldwin de Furnshill, an experienced investigator of murders, is appointed to track down the killer, aided by his friend, Simon Puttock. In an age of corruption, when the king’s friends can use torture, blackmail and murder to promote their ends, a rural knight and bailiff must fight to stay alive.

Meanwhile, Mohammed Sharif is finding it difficult to keep his balance on the tightrope he walks between his family's traditional Muslim beliefs and his job as a policeman. When his young, newly married cousin Faria Aziz disappears, Mohammed tries to trace her to ease the worry of his family. But as this unofficial inquiry soon becomes a police matter, DCI Thackeray must tread carefully in his investigations.

After the British military lose an officer to Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan, a desperate race begins to find his killers. Little do the assailants know that the precious information they have stolen could bring down the entire network of Western intelligence in the Mid-East. But then one of them is captured by US troops and flown to the States for interrogation. And so begins a nail-biting, claustrophobic and explosive thriller that will ultimately lead British operative John Stratton to the Styx penitentiary, America's undersea prison.

On capture, British officers and men were routinely told by the Germans, “For you the war is over”. Nothing could have been further from the truth. In the camps the war was eternal. There was the war against the German military, fought with everything from taunting humour to outright sabotage. British PoWs also battled starvation, disease, Prussian cruelties, boredom, and their own inner demons. And, of course, they escaped. Then escaped again.

One of the best-loved composers of all time, Dvorák rose from rural origins to become not only a great but an influential composer. The first composer to put his native Bohemia on the musical map of the world, he was invited to do the same for America. One result was the famous "New World" Symphony, which made him a household name across the globe. Writing music of irresistible color, lilt and peasant vitality, he was also a melodist-in-a-million. This portrait-in-sound follows a lovable and in many ways a very simple, man from hay cart to imperial palace, from tragic loss to heart-warming joy, to pigeon-raising and world celebrity.

Forty years ago, Exeter's Cathedral Close was the scene of a vicious ambush. Afterwards, the bodies left lying in their blood bore witness to the conflicts tearing at the heart of the cathedral itself. Today, in 1323, murder is again polluting the Cathedral Close - but this killer is not so easily caught. The victim, Henry Potell, was feared and hated; he held secrets that some wished to keep hidden....

The gunners on the Golden Ray were a strangely assorted bunch. There was the professional, Sergeant Willis, in love with his job, Vernon the intellectual, and Miller the tragic communistic misfit who found his Russian Mecca not quite what he expected.

In the dark days of King James I, a man must know his enemies to survive. To Henry Gresham, gentleman, scholar, courtier, and spy, William Shadwell is invaluable. A thief, informer, double-dealer, and pimp, he may not be the most moral of men, but he is one of Gresham's best sources. When Shadwell is murdered, Gresham's enquiries uncover a plot so audacious it is scarcely believable.

Bailiff Simon Puttoc’s servant, Hugh, has been granted leave to look after his wife, Constance, and her son. But their happy time is to be short-lived, for a gang of men break into their home and attack Hugh’s family. When Simon and Sir Baldwin Furnshill, Keeper of the King’s Peace, arrive on the scene the cottage is burnt to the ground, the bodies from within already buried. It seems that Hugh must have perished in a dreadful accident - but appearances can be deceptive.

Robert Cecil, chief secretary to the king, summons the gentleman spy, Henry Gresham, to his death bed to give his arch enemy one final, deadly case. An unknown Cambridge bookseller has obtained devastating correspondence between King James I and Robert Carr, and Gresham is the one man who can return the letters, saving the monarch from a potentially scandalous downfall.

Journalist Laura Ackroyd has a lot on her plate. Having recently discovered she is pregnant, she must now gather the courage to tell her partner, DCI Michael Thackery. So she could have done without the task of profiling the elusive venture capitalist Sir David Murgatroyd. Gradually, Laura discovers more about Murgatroyd, but is there a more sinister side to him?

Apothecary John Rawlings has travelled to Devon to be by the side of his mistress, Elizabeth di Lorenzi, who is due to give birth to their child. Leaving his shop and his new carbonated water business in good hands, John is presented with a surprise on his arrival at Sidmouth House. While Elizabeth is recuperating, he learns that Lady Sidmouth's daughter, Miranda, is to marry the elderly Earl of St. Austell, who is 54 years her senior and has a cruel reputation.

Apothecary John Rawlings is intrigued when a letter arrives asking him to investigate an impostor claiming to be the long-lost step-son of a wealthy Bristol merchant in possession of his dead wife's diamond inheritance. John Rawlings' father, Sir Gabriel Kent joins him on the trip to take the healing waters at Hotwell where they socialize with the crème of Bristol society. But Rawlings is compelled to try and solve the mystery and so he must trawl through the underbelly of 18th-century society.

Apothecary John Rawlings has been summoned to Devon by Elizabeth di Lorenzi, his beautiful but unpredictable mistress. Leaving his young daughter Rose in the good care of her grandfather Sir Gabriel Kent, Rawlings sets off for Exeter on board the stagecoach. His fellow-passengers are a motley crew, and incelude a large and talkative German lady; Cuthbert Simms, a dance-master; and Jack Beef, the so-called ï¿¿ï¿¿ï¿¿Black Pyramid", a bare-knuckle fighter.