Showing results by narrator "Peter Noble" in All Categories

This novel has all the makings of a classic murder mystery, but with a twist: as Attorney-General Anstruther Blayton leads the court through prosecution and defence, Inspector Fenby carries out his investigation. All this occurs while the identity of figure in the dock is kept tantalisingly out of reach. Excellent Intentions is a classic crime novel laced with irreverent wit, first published in 1939.

Books v Cigarettes is a funny and irreverent essay comparing the costs of reading to other forms of recreation including smoking. Originating from the experience of an editor friend who was firewatching during the Second World War, who was told by factory workers that they had no interest in literature because they could not afford books, the essay first appeared in Tribune in 1946.

In 1922, Paul Beckermann arrives at the Bauhaus art school and is immediately seduced by both the charismatic teaching and his fellow students. Eccentric and alluring, the more time Paul spends with his new friends the closer they become, and the deeper he falls in love with the mesmerising Charlotte. But Paul is not the only one vying for her affections, and soon an insidious rivalry takes root.

Funny, moving and sharply observed, these stories are confirmation of Boyd's status as one of English fiction's finest writers. Here are 24 gripping tales told in bold, distinct voices from Brazil to Africa and from Nice to Hollywood. This eclectic collection by the acclaimed author of Restless and Brazzaville Beach is a must for any lover of the short story.

Daniel Richardson and his best friend, Hugh Ashley-Hunt, both rising British actors, are in love with the same woman, the free-spirited Tamsyn Burke. Daniel reluctantly steps aside when Tamsyn decides to marry Hugh, but right before the wedding ceremony, Tamsyn is murdered. Suspicion falls on the family, friends, and associates in attendance. Motivated by both Hugh's grief and his own, Daniel joins forces with Tamsyn's younger sister, Carey, to find the killer.

Molly wakes her mother to go to the toilet. The campsite is strangely blank. The toilet block has gone. Everything else has gone, too. This is a place with no sun. No god. Just four families remain. Each has done something to bring them here - each denies they deserve it. Until they see what's coming over the horizon, moving irrevocably towards them. Their worst mistake. Their darkest fear. And, for just one of them, their homecoming.

The Army That Never Was: D-Day and the Great Deception tells the remarkable story of the deceptions, hoaxes, and misdirection carried out by the Allies ahead of the most pivotal moment of the Second World War—the D-Day invasion.

Daniel Amat has left Spain and all that happened there behind him. Having just achieved a brilliant role in ancient languages at Oxford University and an even more advantageous engagement, the arrival of a letter - a demand - stamped 'Barcelona' comes like a cold hand from behind. He arrives back in that old labyrinthine and near-mythic city a few days before the great 1888 World's Fair, amid dread whispers of murders - the injuries reminiscent of an ancient curse and bearing signs of the genius 16th century anatomist Vesalius.

In the aftermath of World War II, the Earth’s population was devastated by an alien virus. Those who survived were changed forever. Some, known as jokers, were cursed with bizarre mental and physical mutations, others, granted superhuman abilities, became the lucky few known as aces. Queen Margaret, who came to the English throne after the death of her sister, Elizabeth, now lies on her death-bed. Summoning the joker ace Alan Turing, she urges him to seek the true heir: Elizabeth's lost son. He was rumoured to have died as a baby but, having been born a joker, was sent into hiding.

From the author of The Girl from Lace Island and A Twist of Fate. When five random people simultaneously receive 'the key', they don't realise that their lives are about to change forever. Shrouded in secrecy, the mysterious silver key is delivered to each of them along with a code, a web address and a promise that - if used wisely - it can unlock a door to luxury and privilege beyond their wildest dreams. However, as each of them begins to use the key, they are propelled into a world of hazy moral choices and soon start to question their enigmatic gift.

It's 17 September 1944. The Allies launch the largest airborne offensive in history, delivering 36,000 troops by parachute and glider to the Dutch/German border. In nine days' time, half of them will be casualties of war. Among their number is Theo Trickey, a young paratrooper so dreadfully injured he is not expected to survive. Under the care of Medical Officer Captain Daniel Garland, Trickey is shipped to Germany as a prisoner of war.

When Rachel marries dark, handsome David, everything seems to fall into place. Swept from single life in London to the beautiful Carnhallow House in Cornwall, she gains wealth, love and a stepson, Jamie. But then Jamie makes a chilling prediction, and Rachel's perfect life begins to unravel. Haunted by the spectre of David's late wife - Jamie's real mother - Rachel finds herself drawn to the deserted mines where she plunged to her death three years prior.

England, 1315. Famine and unrest spread across the country, and when Sir William Bradshaigh joins Adam Banastre’s rebellion against their overlord, the earl of Lancaster, things do not go to plan. Sir William is lucky to escape with his life after a battle at Preston and, as a wanted man, has no choice but to become an outlaw. Meanwhile the lands at Haigh are forfeit to the king and are given to Sir Peter Lymesey for a year and a day, and Lady Mabel Bradshaigh must make a hard choice if she is to protect her children and herself.

Young paratrooper Theo Trickey has had a remarkable war. Boy soldier, commando, intelligence officer - fighting from northern France to the African desert and in the mountains of Italy. He has already done more than should be asked of any man in war. But D-Day is looming and British intelligence have one more misson for Trickey: to negotiate with his extraordinary old acquaintance, General Erwin Rommel. There are rumours that Germany's greatest general wants to save the Fatherland by any means possible....

Dreadfully injured in the Arnhem landings, paratrooper Theo Trickey was never expected to survive. Medical Officer Captain Daniel Garland pulled Trickey's comatose body from a pile of corpses, keeping him alive as they were shipped to a prisoner-of-war camp in Germany. As Garland discovers, Trickey has had a remarkable war. Boy soldier, commando, paratrooper, intelligence officer - fighting from northern France to the African desert. But that's not all. What was Trickey's connection with Germany's greatest general, the recently deceased Erwin Rommel?

Endearing characters back to life in unparalleled quality in this classic edition of The Wind in the Willows.

In the 17th century, a wall is built around the deer park of a great house. Wychwood is a world in itself, its ornamental lakes and majestic avenues planned by Mr Norris, a master of the new art of landscaping. A world where, after decades of civil war, everyone has something to hide or something to fear, where dissidents hide in the forest and Londoners fleeing the plague are at the gate.

Philip Norman’s acclaimed biography paints a frank but sympathetic portrait, from Elton’s rise to success to the attempted suicides, from football club chairman to flamboyant Versace shopaholic, and the extraordinary moment in Westminster Abbey when ‘Candle in the Wind’ turned into a requiem for his friend Diana, Princess of Wales.

London, 1942. A killer going by the name of "Crimson Jack" is stalking the wartime streets of London, murdering women on the exact dates of the infamous Jack the Ripper killings of 1888. Has the Ripper returned from the grave? Is the self-styled Crimson Jack a descendant of the original Jack—or merely a madman obsessed with those killings? In desperation Scotland Yard turns to Sherlock Holmes. Surely he is the one man who can sift fact from legend to track down Crimson Jack. As Holmes and Watson tread the blacked-out streets of London, death waits just around the corner.

Published in 1948, this cautionary tale follows a lone protagonist who struggles under the rule of a repressive totalitarian government. Set in a future version of England, called Airstrip One, the novel is famous for its imagined language that conjures a cruelly cynical authoritarian regime. One of the most popular novels in the English language, it is part political thriller and part science fiction, and it established the word Orwellian to describe official deception, unwarranted surveillance, and revisionist history by the state.