Showing results by narrator "Mitchley Richard" in All Categories

This volume proves that the assertion that women are the gentler sex is frequently an unfounded and unlikely description. From the minds and pens of some of the best female writers of the last century comes a series of macabre, twisted tales that are anything but gentle. But as they weave their magic - usually black - and entrance you with their narratives you just know that “sugar and spice and everything nice” are not likely to be what all girls really are made of - and certainly not these femme fatales....

If ever a writer needed an introduction, Arthur Conan Doyle would not be considered that man. After all, Sherlock Holmes is perhaps the most well-known literary detective of any age. Add to this canon his stories, his historical novels, his political campaigning, and his efforts in establishing a Court Of Appeal, and there is little room for anything else. Except he was also a poet. Not perhaps the finest but his distinctive voice is certainly evident amongst his lines and verses. And it’s a voice worth listening to; something very different from what you might expect.

Dickens is a name that dominates the landscape of English novelists. His works are masterpieces and he is held everywhere in the highest regard. In his fairly short life of 58 years he accomplished an extraordinary number of classic novels, especially in light of his humble and poor beginnings. Here we collect together his slim number of poems. Concise it may be, but from the mind of the master it most certainly reveals some insights of great interest.

Something moved at an upstairs window.... Nothing ever happens in the tiny village of Coney Cley. At least, that's what eleven-year-old Josh and his sister, Jinty, think. Until their trip down Shadows Lane. For there, within the walls of an isolated, crumbling cottage, something - someone - is hiding. Josh and Jinty are about to discover a shocking secret, which they must keep hidden at all costs.... A tense, fantastically gripping tale from Carnegie Award-winning author Robert Swindells.

From the best-selling author of Salmon Fishing in the Yemen comes a story of inheritance, a great country house, and a way of life that is disappearing...Ed Hartlepool has been living in self-imposed exile for five years, but with a settlement regarding his inheritance looming, he must return to his ancestral seat, Hartlepool Hall.

Jackson Fortune has always followed the lead of his tough older sister, 11-year-old Tracey. Then he receives the first of a series of secret messages and he suddenly has a mystery to solve all by himself. Without Tracey. But the messages to Jackson are not the only mystery. Who is the stranger on a motorbike seen hanging around their cousin Tessa's house? And why does Tracey suddenly decide she wants to wear a dress?

When Taters sneaks into an unknown garden to search for a tennis ball, he meets Skipper, a handicapped boy who, like Taters, is mad about cricket. Skipper invites Taters to play a game of miniature Test cricket that has been set up on the lawn and Taters finds a whole new world is opened up to him as the two become fast friends. But things start to go wrong. What is the mysterious secret surrounding Skipper’s father? Will Sawbridge, the school bully, succeed in destroying the friendship between the two boys? And just how ill is Skipper?

When his parents move to the small town in New Zealand where his father grew up, ten-year-old Pete can hardly wait to meet all his relatives who live there - especially the four cousins his own age. Will he like them? And, more importantly, will they like him? But his cousins - Tracey, Jackson, Tessa and Lolly - decide that Pete must pass a test before he can join their gang: the Good Fortunes Gang. Now Pete must face a scary ordeal that means facing up to his very worst fears - alone in the dark...

I think I'm going to be a Fortune again,' Lolly said. I mean really a Fortune. I think I'm going to be called Fortune like you...'Ten-year-old Loreli Bancroft has always longed to be part of the Good Fortunes Gang - a real Fortune, just like her four cousins, Tracey, Jackson, Tessa and Pete. After all, she's still their cousin, even if her mother, a Fortune, did marry a Bancroft. But then her parents have a terrible argument - a real, hot Fortune kind of fight - and her father leaves home.

A story about Blanco Polo, the great-nephew of Marco Polo, and his journey from Venice to Spain to build flying machines with the villainous Count Maleficio. Along the way he meets Eva, also bound for Spain - for an arranged marriage.

Pursuing rainbows, saving frightened little trees from terrible witches, and flying over roof tops on their magic bicycle are all in a day’s work for Titch and Mitch, but this time it’s Mitch that needs saving.... The trolls of Sugar Loaf Wood love sugar loaf from the Sugar Bread Mines and force other poor creatures to dig it out for them. And they have taken Mitch prisoner! But luckily Titch, Wiffen and Perry are on the case.

The second fantastic Titch and Mitch story from best-selling author Garth Edwards.

As the sun lengthens its days to summer, so a sport begins to dominate the thoughts and actions of many people. This game, which so encapsulated the village greens and evening song of Middle England, has now spread across the world.

Toby Tucker is an orphan with a secret. He owns a chest filled with torn paper, and a strange message: Piece your family tree together and you'll find out who you are and when you come from. When he manages to put together a name, the most incredible magic happens. Toby travels back in time and becomes his ancestor! This time he is plunged back to ancient Greece, into Titus's life, where he finds himself dodging the donkey doo.

Have you heard of Glob the Mutant? Did you know that even though he looks exactly like an ordinary boy he actually comes from another planet? This story is about him. It's also about sweet little Lucasta Smirk and how she fearlessly faced the evil Mr Crushchild and the dangerous Miss Hatchet!

Toby Tucker is an orphan with a secret. He owns a chest filled with torn paper and a strange message: Piece your family tree together and you'll find out who you are and when you come from. When he manages to put together a name, the most incredible magic happens. Toby travels back in time and becomes his ancestor! This time Toby is catapulted back into ancient Egypt, into Seti's life, and finds himself clashing with crazy chickens.

Are the dinner ladies at your school rough and tough? Do they pour vats of hot soup over innocent children? It was exactly the same at Littlehampton Primary where Plughole, owner of the World's Weirdest Laugh, went to school.

Toby Tucker is an orphan with a secret. He owns a chest filled with torn paper, and a strange message: Piece your family tree together and you'll find out who you are and when you come from. When he manages to put together a name, the most incredible magic happens. Toby travels back in time and becomes his ancestor! This time Toby hurtles back to ancient Rome, into Titus's life, and finds himself sludging through a sewer in search of riches.

London. A candidate for global capital. Centre of an empire. The swift-beating heart of culture. A sprawling metropolis of life’s rich tapestry. And a bewildering Escher cityscape of overlapping and colliding forces. People, streets, buildings interweaving and interchanging. And our eminent writers have the talent and focus to reveal the story that lies beneath the words.

The church building has been pivotal to man’s spiritual and religious life for centuries. For many the interior of a church is literally their one to one with God. The interiors, whether soaring or simple, ornate or minimal, are built for communion, for worship. Outside and surrounding our many churches is the churchyard; the burial ground, the repository for faithful souls. An all-weather idyll of calm around where many a poet has sat and contemplated the surrounding world.

Night. The day has gone. Departed. And the dark embrace, the inky shadows of night descend. For many a time to unwind and slumber. For some a nagging doubt that all is not well. That some primeval and primordial happening may yet go bump in the night. But for our poets the night is a time of wonder and imagination as well as many other emotions and feelings. Among our ranks of gloried talents are Keats, Coleridge, William Morris, DH Lawrence, Whitman, Longfellow and many more besides. Their descriptions capture what they see and feel as perhaps only a poet can.