Showing results by narrator "Clive Mantle" in All Categories

The day I was appointed Chair of the shop union was the same day the Pope was elected. There the similarities end, however. For while his elevation took place beneath the fine art of the Sistine Chapel, with the mysterious white smoke rising, mine took place in the cold store, with nothing more mysterious than the bacon delivery and yesterday's waste...A vicar for twenty years, Simon Parke trades in his dog collar for a job on the tills in his local supermarket.

Race to the Pole tells of several expeditions into the unknown. It looks at Scott, the old fashioned hero whose lack of preparation led to tragedy, and at Shackleton, who refused to sacrifice his men to the cause.

Sports day gets off to a shaky start when a bump to Stacey’s head kicks off a chain of events that aren’t on the programme. It soon becomes clear that the pupils are up against more than just each other, and James, Lenny and Alexander find themselves in a race to save their school from winning first prize for freakiness...The fifth spooky story in the 'Too Ghoul for School' series.

From the author of the best-selling Forgotten Voices of the Great War comes a final look at the last 21 living British veterans of the First World War. These interviews, conducted in 2004, will never be repeated, as the youngest was 106 years old, and most are now gone. These first-person accounts follow the young soldiers from their homes throughout Britain to the raging battles while in the service of the Royal Field Artillery, Black Watch, Royal Navy, and others.

Grk is walking happily through the park, sniffing trees and chasing squirrels, when he's suddenly snatched by two men in black suits. Where are they taking him? And how can Tim get him back? Tim and Grk's eighth amazing adventure takes them to the home of pizza, pasta, and the leaning tower of Pisa. There they meet the Duke of Macaroni, a man with a terrible secret which he will do anything to hide....

Martin Sturrock desperately needs a psychiatrist. The problem? He is one.Emily is a traumatised burns victim, Arta a Kosovan refugee recovering from a rape. David Temple is a long-term depressive, while the Rt Hon Ralph Hall MP lives in terror of his drink problem being exposed. Very different Londoners, but they share one thing: every week they spend an hour at the Prince Regent hospital, revealing the secrets of their psyche to Professor Martin Sturrock.

Malta, 1913, and hot air balloons hover over the Grand Harbour. But one of them falls from the sky, the balloonist dying later from his injuries. He is not the only one to die unexpectedly at the Naval Hopspital, however, as a letter to the Times points out. Special Investigator Seymour of the Foreign Office is sent out from London to uncover the truth. Malta is still a British protectorate; indeed, with its red post boxes, English beer, and English language, it seems like an exotic "Little Britain". But as the rumblings of war reach the small island, many of the old Maltese families are becoming divided in their loyalties.

Tim finds himself chasing the most dangerous criminals in Brazil - the Pelotti brothers. He stumbles across their hideout in Rio de Janeiro and pursues them in to the jungle. Tim just has his brains - and a little help from a dog called Grk.

When Mr Watts, the science teacher, turns up for class and tries to open his briefcase with his teeth, James, Alexander and Lemmy realise he's not quite himself. The friends investigate, and uncover a plot so dangerous that the life of every pupil and teacher is at risk. How will they possibly foil it and restore Mr Watts to normal? The third spooky story in the 'Too Ghoul for School' series.

Athens, 1912, and the country is on the brink of war. The new Greek Prime minister Venizelos, tired of the Ottoman overlords, has a dream - which he refers to as his 'Great Idea'. The idea is to form a new nation, uniting all the Greek people scattered around the Mediterranean. Not such a great idea in the view of other countries, among them Britain, who believes in letting sleeping dogs lie. Not to mention cats. Such as the one recently poisoned in Salonica which belonged to the exiled former Sultan.

This is a follow-up to the critically-acclaimed Wintering, in which our hero, Billy Palmer, comes of age in the swinging sixties - he moves to London, grows his hair, chats up girls, and dreams of finding himself in Marrakesh.

St. Sebastian's School in Grimesford is the pits. Can James and his friends get to the bottom of the problem and flush out the ghosts, or will every term at the school be plagued with misery?

Despite warnings from his new found friends, ex-university lecturer Frank spies on his old life from beyond the grave.

India. The country of curry, chutney, tigers, the Taj Mahal... and the Blue Rat Gang! In Delhi, hundreds of children have been enslaved. Will no one help them? Does no one care? One person does. And one dog too. On trains and rickshaws, travelling from slums to palaces, Tim and Grk plunge into the heart of India for the most exciting adventure of their lives.

The school inspectors are here! The visit seems to go smoothly until the gym display arranged in their honour takes an unusual twist. James, Alexander and Lenny realise something’s up - in more ways than one! - and the friends soon find themselves with double trouble on their hands as they try to save their school from closure.

Published in time for Remembrance Day 2008, the 90th anniversary of the end of the First World War, We Will Remember Them commemorates the veterans who are no longer among us. With an introduction by Henry Allingham, 110, only survivor of the Battle of the Somme and Britain's oldest living man, Max Arthur's new book expands the circle of contributors by interviewing the families of First World War veterans.

It will take someone from Special Branch to look into it, someone capable of speaking the relevant languages. Only one man fits the bill - Seymour, an officer from an East End immigrant background. Capable, hardworking, but ... not entirely British.

Before Bradley Wiggins, there was Sean Yates. Behind Bradley Wiggins, there was Sean Yates. One of only five Britons to wear the yellow jersey in the Tour de France, Sean Yates burst onto the cycling scene as the rawest pure talent this country has ever seen. After turning professional at the age of 22, he soon became known as a die-hard domestique, putting his body on the line for his teammates.

BERLIN 1948: - A vanquished city of rubble - sliced into sections by the Allies, and set well back behind the Russian lines. A city of old women, black marketeers and sleazy cabarets in ruined cellars.In the British sector was Squadron Leader Michael Harrison, a war hero who had helped to bomb Berlin into fragments. He hated the Nazis who had killed his sister and her children. But here he was, doing his best to ensure that food and fuel was somehow brought in to save the surviving Berliners.

All major social advances have started with a complaint. Emmeline Pankhurst, Martin Luther King, and Nelson Mandela each brought about changes by beginning with a complaint that the status quo was wrong and needed to change. It's time to reclaim complaint as a progressive, positive force again, and this book explores every kind of complaint that people make.