Showing results by narrator "Matthew Davies" in All Categories

The last thing he expected to find in Ireland that summer was the inspiration to go on with his life, and certainly not in the form of an adolescent heiress. New York socialite Peg Shannon has everything - wealth, position, beauty, and limitless prospects for happiness. Or so the world believes. Aspiring London violinist Kendall Gregg is talented, handsome, and charming. While hardly well-to-do, he has connections and ambition which should take him far. Or so it appears.

For Lee "Kix" Thompson, life is about having fun - even when times are tough. Growing Out of It is the tale of one "nutty boy" not really growing out of it at all. From getting up to no good as a teenager to his many musical (mis)adventures in the 1970s, Lee's memoir of his formative years captures his enduring love for his north London stomping ground, where he first met the other members of Madness.

Meet the hapless Jeremy: a man in his late 50s, he scrapes together a living in Paris by writing soft-core pornography under the saucy guise of "Nathalie Cray". When his all-but-estranged sister tells him their father is on his deathbed, Jeremy reluctantly travels back to his parental home in the depths of the English countryside. Confronted with a life that he had always been eager to escape, his return marks the start of an emotionally fraught journey into the family's checkered past.

Grace Flynn has found the sword she has been longing for, the fabled blade of "Tristam". She has just one problem - it is locked away in the Tower of London. With the aid of the scoundrel Nereus Neptune she must enter a most heavily guarded place to reach her goal. Hopefully she fares better than the infamous Colonel Blood, who failed to rob the tower in 1671.

Brought to you by Penguin. Twenty-five years after her tragic death, James Patterson tells the heartbreaking true story of Princess Diana's life as a mother and a global icon ______________________________ At the age of thirteen, she became Lady Diana Spencer. At twenty, Princess of Wales. At...

James Orr - husband, father, reliable employee and all-around model citizen - awakes one morning to find half his face paralyzed. Waiting for the affliction to pass, he stops going to work and wanders his idyllic estate, with its woodland, uniform streets and perfectly manicured lawns. But there are cracks in the veneer. And as his orderly existence begins to unravel, it appears that James himself may not be the man he thought he was.

Spain, 1639. When Len de Montemayor’s family is killed, she thinks her life is over until an aristocratic family rescues her. Len finds a soul mate in their son, Piers, and as they grow up together, their friendship becomes a love so intense that it comes with a promise: it will last forever. But with the outbreak of civil war, a dutiful Piers knows his fate is with the Royal Navy, leaving Len waving from the shore as he sails toward an uncertain future.

A millionaire businessman and his loving family; two young conmen and an unspoken bond; and a pair of hardened hit men - these three groups are from different worlds, but one event will bring those worlds together and change their lives forever.

John Worthington is a man who knows his place in the world and keeps to it. That is, until a letter he writes is misdirected. A simple and thoughtful reply begins a correspondence that will turn that well-ordered life upside down.

A collection of strange, wonderful, sad, romantic, and weird tales about what happens when the underdog bites back. The latest book from the "master of wit and satire" - a collection of surreal, subversive, and satirical tales.

Life doesn't pick winners and losers. That's for the corporations to decide. And they picked Liam Argyle for a carefree life of fame and fortune as host of the world's most popular reality show competition. After two seasons of parading about the world's biggest victims on The Grass Is Greener, he's been forced to put a happy face on one tragedy too many - and he won't turn a blind eye to the horrors of the corporate dystopian world of the 2070s any longer. Now, Liam is out to destroy the very people who made him a star.

Investigating a web of international conspiracy and destruction, it's up to H to untangle the threads. Under the direction of the head of the Japanese Secret Intelligence Service and with the help of an alluring French special agent, H is drawn into perilous situations and sensual affairs in exotic locations. He must discover the link between a respected German billionaire philanthropist and a shadowy international assassin to prevent them from changing world history before it’s too late.

London, 1666. Orphaned by the Great Plague, Sam is soon starving on the streets - and desperate enough to steal. He's quickly recruited as one of sinister Uncle Jack's children, and taught to steal. If he gets caught by the law, the punishment will be death - and if he crosses Uncle Jack, it could be just as bad. Still, it's a living for Sam and his fellow thief Catherine - until the long, hot London summer means a blaze at the Pudding Lane bakery runs out of control.

A bewildering feature of so much contemporary political violence is its stunning impersonality. Every major city center becomes a potential shooting gallery; and every metro system a potential bomb alley. Victims just happen, as the saying goes, to "be in the wrong place at the wrong time". We accept this contemporary reality - at least to some degree. But we rarely ask: where has it come from historically? Killing Strangers examines how such violence became "unchained" from interpersonal relationships.

Jacob Montfield, regarded by the majority as a homeless eccentric, a nuisance by a few, had pushed a supermarket trolley around the city for years. However, one person regards him as a liability. Eccentric was correct, a nuisance, for sure, mad, plenty thought that, but few knew the truth, that Montfield is a brilliant man, once a research scientist. 

Five young, western women buy souvenirs of their delightful trek…and unknowingly smuggle heroin into Singapore. They are immediately detained and arrested by authorities upon their entrance into the country. There appears to be no escape for the tissue trail women until medical researcher and wild country photographer Edward Thurston takes video footage of a high altitude salt caravan near the tissue trail and is inexplicably detained and interrogated.

Mo, the wealthy dictator of a volatile Middle Eastern country, enlists a ghostwriter to tell his story to the world and enshrine him in history as a glorious ruler. Inside Mo's besieged palace, the ghost forms an unlikely friendship with a wise and seemingly innocent Italian gardener who slowly reveals that the regime isn't all it appears to be. As a violent rebellion threatens all their lives, the ghost struggles to cope with a personal secret too painful to bear.

A man who married young, and so never had the chance to sow his wild oats, suddenly breaks out when in his mid-30s - and becomes convinced he has stumbled on the secret of happiness.

Ten short stories by author Christopher J F Gibson. The author has here put together a kaleidoscope that often takes a wry look at ourselves.... Of course there are some stories that feature cats.

Twelve little oddities - an assortment of the bizarre, unexpected, charming, unsettling, and downright peculiar. Into darkness or light, there are many ways to escape.