Showing results by narrator "Gavin Osborn" in All Categories

Mayan legends tell of a location where the secret to surviving the end of the world may be found. One part of that legend is recorded on a stone tablet in the dusty attic of Lord 'Ratty' Ballashiels' crumbling manor. The other twin part disappeared from a Berlin museum when the Nazis took power. When Ratty seems about to sell his tablet to the adopted son of Josef Mengele, his friend, the archaeologist Ruby Towers, is appalled. Soon it is clear that more than archaeology is at stake.

A new novel from this master storyteller - In a gentle village on the Scottish borders, Roland Fox, a young aspiring writer, moves in next door to the equally young and attractive Jane Highsmith, a newly qualified veterinary surgeon. But the growing attraction between them is muted by the recent and mysterious death of her beloved great-grandfather. There are all the ingredients present for a traditional village mystery in true Gerald Hammond style and with his usual Scottish flavour.

Popular playwright Philocles and his actors are hired to take his latest play to Corinth, to promote goodwill between the two cities. But on arrival, their guide and fixer Eumelos drops dead - a victim of poison.

Tricky is one of the most original music artists to emerge from the UK in the past 30 years. His signature sound, coupled with deep, questioning lyrics, took the UK by storm in the early 1990s and was part of the soundtrack that defined the post-rave generation. This unique, no-holds barred autobiography is not only a portrait of an incredible artist - it is also a gripping slice of social history packed with extraordinary anecdotes and voices from the margins of society.

A beautiful, funny and surprising story of autism, family and love, perfect for fans of The Rosie Project, David Nicholls' Us and Nick Hornby's About a Boy. Life is built on the little things.... Eight year-old Sam has always been different - beautiful, surprising and autistic. For all he loves his family, dad Alex has always struggled to connect with Sam, and the strain has pushed Alex's marriage with Jody to the edge.

In How to Live, Professor Robert Thomas, one of Britain's leading oncologists and an expert in integrating nutritional and lifestyle strategies into cancer treatment, gives us effective, scientifically proven advice about everything from diet and exercise to sleep and skincare. As Thomas explains, through achievable changes to our daily routine we can improve the expression of our genes - helping us beat the odds of cancer and chronic disease.

Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2016. Timothy Buchannan buys an abandoned house on the edge of an isolated village on the coast, sight unseen. When he sees the state of it, he questions the wisdom of his move but starts to renovate the house for his wife, Lauren, to join him there. When the villagers see smoke rising from the chimney of the neglected house, they are disturbed and intrigued by the presence of the incomer, intrigue that begins to verge on obsession.

It’s festival time in Athens, and Philocles is looking forward to the holiday. Visitors are coming from across the Hellenic world for eight days of sporting competitions, musical contests and sacred rites to honour Athena, the city’s patron goddess. Thousands will flock to the Pnyx to be enthralled by three-day performance of Homer’s Iliad, an entertainment unique to the Great Panathenaia. Taking part is the highest honour and greatest challenge for an epic poet.

Alexander the Great’s story often reads like fiction: son to a snake-loving mother and a battle-scarred father, tutored by Aristotle, a youth from the periphery of the Greek world who took part in his first campaign aged 16, becoming king of Macedon at 20 and king of Asia by 25, leading his armies into battle like a Homeric figure. Each generation has peered through the glass of history and come to their own conclusion about Alexander, be it enlightened ruler, military genius, megalomaniac, drunkard or despot. Yet the first two decades of his life have until now been a mystery.

Former SAS soldier David Shelley was part of the most covert operations team in the special forces. Now settling down to civilian life in London, he has plans for a safer and more stable existence. But the shocking death of a young woman Shelley once helped protect puts those plans on hold. The police rule the death a suicide, but the grieving parents can't accept their beloved Emma would take her own life. They need to find out what really happened, and they turn to their former bodyguard, Shelley, for help.

Pathway to Prosperity provides you with the tools you need to create your own road map to greater wealth and financial security. It gives you priceless insights into your wealth-defeating mindset and how to stop repeating the same mistakes to start building wealth by design - not by chance. It offers proven prescriptions for digging your way out of the debt-heavy financial rut you're in so you can start building wealth right away; and features numerous inspiring case studies of Mesiti's clients and mentees who found financial freedom following his approach to wealth.

Do you believe in soulmates? Aiden does. So when his colleague, Jen, is dumped unceremoniously by her dreadful boyfriend, Aiden decides to take matters - and Jen's life - into his own hands. Scouring the internet for a suitable partner for Jen, Aiden finds Tom. He'd be perfect for Jen apart from one minor detail: Tom lives in New York. Luckily for Jen and Tom, Aiden's not just an interfering colleague. In fact, Aiden isn't exactly human - he's a very complicated artificial intelligence....

When your life is based on lies, how do you hunt down the truth? Jerry Beche should be dead. Instead he's rescued from a desolate Earth where he's the last man alive. He's then trained for the toughest conditions imaginable and placed with a crack team of specialists on an isolated island. Every one of them is a survivor, as each withstood the violent ending of their own alternate Earth. And their new specialism? To retrieve weapons and data in missions to other apocalyptic versions of our world.

Life is good for Jane Highsmith and Roland Fox - Jane is planning on taking over the local veterinary practice, Roland’s second novel has been accepted for publication, and they are soon to be married. However, their wedding day is interrupted by a knife-wielding intruder. After confronting Jane in her surgery, she manages to inject the culprit with a microchip used for identifying pets. When a nearby petrol station is robbed by the same perpetrator, DI Fellowes and DS Bright hope that the microchip will lead them to the suspect....

In the hours before dawn on 6th June 1944, an unprecedented assemblage of men, weapons, and machines swung into action.The long-awaited, highly secret D-Day invasion had begun. By the end of the day, the mission to liberate Europe would have made its most crucial advance. This book marks the 75th anniversary of D-Day through a rich account of the invasion and its aftermath. Drawing on the unparalleled collections of IWM, it reconstructs the historic landings and the subsequent battle for a foothold in Normandy.

If Melody hadn't run out of deicer that day, she would never have slipped and banged her head. She wouldn't be left with a condition that makes her sing when she's nervous. And she definitely wouldn't have belted out the Arctic Monkeys' 'I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor' in assembly at her son's school. If Dev hadn't taken the kids to the zoo that day, then the accident wouldn't have happened. He wouldn't have left Flynn and Rose without a dad. Or shattered the love of his life's heart.

Notes from the Sick Room is an investigation into the connections between physical illness and creativity. Although there are a number of books investigating mental illness and creativity, there are very few that concentrate on physical illness - cancer, HIV, tuberculosis and disabilities caused by accidents. Incapacity provides time for contemplation and creativity, yet pain and discomfort detract from inspiration.

Alun Cochrane has a 25 year mortgage which he can only pay off by being funny. In this series he takes us on a room by room, stand up tour of his house. He has a fridge that beeps at him when he doesn't move quickly enough and a fire alarm he can't reach. His relationship with his house is a complicated one. A hoarder of funny and original observations on everyday life, Alun invites us to help him de-clutter his mind and tidy his ideas into one of those bags that you hoover all the air out of and keep under your bed.

What is the relationship between the number of films Nicolas Cage appears in and the number of deaths by drowning in swimming pools? How in 1850s London did John Snow calculate the relationship between the city's water suppliers and the number of deaths from cholera? Thousands of years ago the inhabitants of Mesopotamia became the first to use numbers. Since then, mathematics has been unstoppable. It's behind almost everything, from search-engines to cruise-control, from coffee-makers to timetables. But how relevant is mathematics to everyday life?

Alexandria, Egypt, 1977. During a dive to an old shipwreck, archaeologist Isabella Warnock uncovers an artefact unlike anything she has ever seen: an astrarium, a mysterious ancient device rumoured to have shaped the destinies of pharaohs and kings since the beginning of time. But her discovery comes at a terrible price, and it falls to her husband, Oliver, to keep the priceless object safe.