Showing results by narrator "Malk Williams" in All Categories

Ezra Pound referred to 1922 as year one of a new era. It was the year that began with the publication of James Joyce's Ulysses and ended with the publication of TS Eliot's The Waste Land, two works that were arguably 'the sun and moon' of modernist literature, some would say of modernity itself. In Constellation of Genius, Kevin Jackson puts the titanic achievements of Joyce and Eliot in the context of the world in which their works first appeared.

Since the monastic era in the West, this organisation by hours has become so ubiquitous that it has come almost to seem uncaused, a fact of nature. Now, Kevin Jackson restores its strangeness and richness. From the structure of the working day to the imposition of curfews, from the scheduling of public events to the content of etiquette, in a manner no less remarkable for being rarely remarked, the hours give a meaning to our days. 

In the Wild West of Wales, in the year 1808, a shepherd is ambushed and left in the roadway, more dead than alive, with three stripes carved across his chest. A note, written in his own blood, is pinned to his skin. It reads, 'For Rhiwallwn. From Gruddnei'. Four sinister men who call themselves surveyors are clearly responsible for this crime and others that follow. It emerges that there is a 'campaign of retribution' against selected individuals. Mistress Martha Morgan, a young widow with five children, is at the top of the hit list.

It is 1845, and Martha Morgan, mistress of Plas Ingli, is feeling her age. She receives warnings that she should 'take care'. Her beloved estate collapses, and she has to call upon her deepest reserves of strength in order to survive. But her misery is lessened when she meets a travelling evangelist on the summit of Angel Mountain. It turns out that the fate of minor prophet Amos Jones is inextricably bound up with her own. A single indiscretion in Tycanol Wood splits the community and tests the loyalty of friends and family to the limit.

Budapest, January 2016. The Danube is grey and half-frozen, covered with ice, and the city seems to have gone into hibernation. But not for Detective Balthazar Kovacs. He has been called out to investigate the disappearance of a young Israeli historian, Elad Harari. Harari was working in the archives of the city's Jewish museum, researching what happened to the assets of the Hungarian Jews murdered in the Holocaust. His work could bring justice to the families of those who died, but it seems not everyone welcomed his probing into the country's darkest period.

Martha Morgan, the beautiful young mistress of the Plas Ingli estate, is warned that trouble is brewing for her family. She tries to carry on with her life - but then she receives the most terrible news that any young wife can imagine. Despair threatens to overwhelm Martha, but she has many responsibilities and must live up to expectations. Little by little, with help from her family and from some of the more colourful local characters, she sets out to prove that she is more than a match for the scoundrels who have committed an appalling crime.

The Sunday Times national newspaper is famous for its insight investigative journalist team. This book profiles the major stories from the Thalidomide case to the Coronavirus investigation.

Arm yourself with garlic, stake and crucifix, for the vampires are back in force - at the top of the best seller lists, on your TV, on the web and lurking in darkened cinemas. But where did they come from? Why have they come back now? And how can you tell if you are one? Beginning with the first sightings of bats and blood-sucking in the Romantic period, Bite follows the undead's progress through the ages, right up to the present.

The Afterdark world of Haven was far more terrible and beautiful than Pil Persins could ever have expected. But not everyone had survived the mission aboveground. They had been betrayed, and the traitor revealed a name that would soon become infamous: The Castaway King. As Pil and his friends return back underground they learn that, in their absence, a war has begun. The Elfin Mound Southden had been invaded by monsters and Fairy, and at the head of this army is the mysterious Castaway King.

Heritage. Adaptation. Values. Flexibility. From the oldest pub in the world to the Liberty Bell and the origins of a nation, Established: Lessons from the World's Oldest Companies tells the stories of 12 businesses with a combined age of almost 5,000 years. They've survived war, plague, rebellion, boom, bust, depression and strange twists of fate. But how and what can we learn from them?

In 1994 Marko Novak's world is torn apart by the death of his best friend - Kemal Lekic, a soldier in the Bosnian war. After the funeral Marko flees to England, hoping to put his broken homeland behind him. In 2004 human rights researcher Anya Teal is following a tenuous lead in the hunt for a Bosnian man with blood on his hands. What no one can know is that a disaster as destructive as war is approaching...a disaster that will connect the fates of Marko and Anya across the years and continents.

In April 1943, top secret documents written by Sir Archibald Nye and Lord Louis Mountbatten are found by German agents on the body of a drowned man, revealing a daring Allied strategy. But are these letters authentic? Inexperienced Erich Anders, working for the German Intelligence Service, is dispatched to England to find out. A good spy must also be a good actor. Yet only when he encounters the dead man's fiancee, herself a professional actress, are Erich's abilities put fully to the test. What is illusory and what is real?

Nicky has always known Russell was rich, but he has no idea how astronomically rich Russell is until his friend drops dead, on his 50th birthday, in his San Francisco mansion, with Nicky as the only witness. For forty years the two men have kept up their friendship, with Russell's birthday offering him an annual opportunity to remind Nicky of how much more successful Russell is, and how much further he has come since their English suburban childhood.

A king grappling with personal tragedy prepares his army to save his kingdom. A restless princess seeks love and adventure. In the middle of it all is Traven, a poor, ambitious peasant who dreams of being more than a simple woodcutter and unknowingly holds the key to saving the world.

Theophile Escargot, cast out of Twombly Town for the crime of stealing his own pie, bade a midnight farewell to his unfeeling neighbours and set out on a journey to fabled Balumnia. There he would clash with the master of an elfin airship and a conniving, marble-stealing dwarf; battle to save Leta, a beautiful maid possessed by a malevolent witch; discover magical powers that could make him a hero; and unearth secrets of the legendary land itself.

Jacob Seger arrived in Lebanon with a head full of dreams. This is his first job in the world of international diplomacy, and he's determined to change the world. When he meets the handsome, soulful Yassim at a glamorous party, his happiness is complete. But three weeks later, Jacob recognises his own face in the newspaper. He is wanted on terrorism charges. Has Yassim set him up? Is he now a pawn in a murderous plot?

1765: Lady Isabella Gerard asks her maid to take her new golden gown and destroy it. Its shimmering beauty has been tainted by the actions of her husband the night before. Three months later: Lord Eustace Gerard stands beside the lake looking down at the woman in the golden gown. As the body slowly rolls over to reveal her face, it’s clear this is not his intended victim....

Welcome to the Fiction on the Web audiobook series, featuring a collection of short stories with a different theme for each volume. Lovingly curated by the owner of Fiction on the Web, Charlie Fish. Come and share in the joy and power of short stories.

William Arrowood, Victorian London’s less salubrious private detective, is paid a visit by Captain Moon, the owner of a pleasure steamer moored on the Thames. He complains that someone has been damaging his boat, putting his business in jeopardy. Arrowood and his trusty sidekick Barnett suspect professional jealousy, but when a string of skulls is retrieved from the river, it seems like even fouler play is afoot. It’s up to Arrowood and Barnett to solve the case before any more corpses end up in the watery depths.

Accused of political subversion as a young man, Dostoyevsky was sentenced to four years of hard labor at a Siberian prison camp — a horrifying experience from which he developed this astounding semi-autobiographical memoir of a man condemned to ten years of servitude for murdering his wife. A haunting and remarkable work filled with wonder and resignation, The House of the Dead ranks among the Russian novelist's greatest masterpieces. Of this powerful autobiographical novel, Tolstoy wrote, "I know no better book in all modern literature.