Showing results by narrator "Barnaby Edwards" in All Categories

Levison Wood was only 22 when he decided to hitchhike from England to India through Russia, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan, but he wasn't the conventional follower of the hippy trail. A fascination with the deeds of the early explorers, a history degree in the bag, an army career already planned and a shoestring budget of £750 - including for the flight home - he was determined to find out more about the countries of the Caucasus and beyond - and meet the people who lived and worked there.

A former Russian spy, living in hiding in Malta, goes on the run after an attempt on his life. He's been targeted because of what he knows about chemical weapons and the poisoning of an exiled oligarch who cut a deal with MI6, but he's actually got information about a planned Russian invasion. Now he's gone to ground, and MI6 want to get hold of him before the Russians do. When a retired general learns about the op he reports back to his Russian paymasters. The former spy must be killed before he spills his guts to MI6.

The lot of an SAS man is not always a happy one. Strikeback hero John Porter is sent on a mission with Regimental scallywag John Bald. Where Porter plays it by the book, Bald will always want to break the rules. They are sent to Sierra Leone to extract Ronald Soames, a former CEO of the Regiment and now right-hand man to the President. But when Porter and Bald arrive, the Englishman has disappeared, leaving a trail of destruction in his wake.

Cambridge, 1994. Professor Don Lamb is a revered art historian at the height of his powers, consumed by the book he is writing about the skies of the Venetian master Tiepolo. However, his academic brilliance belies a deep inexperience of life and love. When an explosive piece of contemporary art is installed on the lawn of his college, it sets in motion Don's abrupt departure from Cambridge to take up a role at a south London museum. There he befriends Ben, a young artist who draws him into the anarchic 1990s British art scene and the nightlife of Soho.

Today's world is in flux. Competition between the great powers is back on the agenda and governments around the world are turning to secret statecraft and the hidden hand to navigate these uncertain waters. From poisonings to electoral interference, subversion to cyber sabotage, states increasingly operate in the shadows, while social media has created new avenues for disinformation on a mass scale. This is covert action: perhaps the most sensitive—and controversial—of all state activity.

Fear is humanity's greatest enemy. The Cyberman can free us from it. The Cybermen.... The great civilisation we could have been...if we'd taken another path. A purer path. The Scorpius strategy is now in full operation. There will be victory in Orion.... Written and directed by Nicholas Briggs.

Condensed matter physics is what happens when atoms cluster together to make something of a size we can understand—something like a car, say, rather than a galaxy. It's what makes things hover in mid-air or crystals glow (thermoluminescence). It's also what we mean by magick. Join Felix Flicker on an empirical adventure in condensed matter physics, the scientific mechanism behind the mysteries of alchemy, transmogrification, and much more. This is the one-stop guide on how to harness the enigmatic workings of the natural world to become a thoroughly modern wizard.

The Classic Crime Collection is a collection of 12 classic detective novels, read by an esteemed cast of award-winning narrators. Included here are stories by some of the most iconic crime writers in history, including Arthur Conan Doyle; Wilkie Collins; Josephine Tey; AA Milne; and more.

Covering the development of the atomic bomb during the Second World War, the origins and early course of the Cold War and the advent of the hydrogen bomb in the early 1950s, Churchill and the Bomb in War and Cold War explores a still neglected aspect of Winston Churchill's career: his relationship with and thinking on nuclear weapons.

This collection of short stories from E. M. Forster contains six tales that were initially written between 1903 and 1912. Many of these stories, including the modern classic 'The Machine Stops' - which is set in a world where humanity lives underground and relies on a giant machine to provide its needs - deal with science fiction and supernatural themes.

Venice, 1522. Intelligence arrives from the east confirming Europe's greatest fear: the vastly rich Ottoman Sultan has all he needs to wage total war - and his sights are set on Rome. With Christendom divided, Suleyman the Magnificent has his hand on its entrails. From the palaces of Istanbul to the blood-soaked fields of Central Europe and the scorched coasts of North Africa, The Lion House pioneers a bold new style of eye-witness history to tell a true story of power at its most glittering, personal and perilous.

A tour of some of the world's most iconic and endangered species - and what we can do to save them. Climate change and habitat destruction are not the only culprits behind so many animals facing extinction. The impact of consumer demand for cheap meat is equally devastating, and it is vital that we confront this problem if we are to stand a chance of reducing its effect on the world around us. Our planet's resources are reaching a breaking point.

When Jess Tidy was Mark Winter's student, she made a shocking accusation. Mark maintained his innocence, but the damage was done. Karen Winter stood by her husband through everything, determined to protect her family. Now, 10 years later, Jess is back. And the truth about that night is finally going to come out....

Three years ago, Julian Norwood was the rising star of the political universe. As the co-founder of a wildly successful London-based political consultancy, Norwood and his colleagues used controversial tactics to help win the election for the American President and played a decisive role propping up odious governments around the world. But after a scandal broke, the company's reputation was shredded. All of a sudden, Norwood was toxic. People stopped returning his calls. Nobody wanted to work with him. In desperation, he fled to the Seychelles to escape the media spotlight.

John Porter, hero of the original Strikeback novel and TV series, returns in an exciting adventure when old enemies attack the SAS. It's 1999. A bitterly cold morning in the Brecon Beacons, and the soldiers trying out for SAS Selection are preparing to face their toughest test yet. Overseeing the soldiers is John Porter: once a promising young Blade, now a broken man and a drunk, seeing out his days in the Regiment Training Wing. But before the Fan Dance can begin, six masked gunmen carry out a devastating attack.

Five noble war heroes of Vagandrak get drunk one night and sign a contract - to journey to the Karamakkos in search of the Five Havens where, it is written, there lies untold abandoned wealth and, more importantly, the three Dragon Heads, legendary jewels claimed to give unspeakable power and everlasting life to those who wield them. But the Dragon Heads aren't what the adventurers think they are, and the world has not encountered their like in generations!

Like the creation myths they supersede, the revelations of science are seared into our collective imagination through storytelling. From Archimedes' bath to Newton's apple, vivid accounts of scientific discovery help us understand the principles behind each theory, and add to the larger narrative of how the universe works, and how we came to be here. This anthology draws out and distils science's love of narrative from a wide range of scientific disciplines, weaving theory into very human stories.

Hans Holbein the Younger is chiefly celebrated for his beautiful and precisely realised portraiture, which includes representations of Henry VIII, Thomas More, Thomas Cromwell, Anne of Cleves, Jane Seymour and an array of the Tudor lords and ladies he encountered during the course of two sojourns in England. But beyond these familiar images, which have come to define our perception of the world of the Henrician court, Holbein was a protean and multi-faceted genius.

Sunday Times top 10 best seller by the author of Walking the Himalayas, winner of the 2016 Edward Stanford Adventure Travel Book of the Year award.

Walking the Americas chronicles Levison Wood's 1,800 mile trek along the spine of the Americas, through eight countries, from Mexico to Colombia, experiencing some of the world's most diverse, beautiful and unpredictable places.

Psychopaths seem to be everywhere. They are on the news and at the movies. People who lack empathy, be they ruthless entrepreneurs or crazed spree killers, are frequently labelled psychopathic; the charming socialiser is just as suspect as the awkward antisocial loner. The conception of what defines a psychopath seems to be a morass of contradictions, the only consistency being the supposition of a lack of empathy.