Showing results by narrator "Philip Franks" in All Categories

August 1914: In the sweltering heat, the fate of Europe hangs in the balance. Germany is hurling her forces into a carefully planned invasion of Belgium and France. Bound by an 1839 treaty to protect Belgium from any invader, Britain came to its defence. With the British Expeditionary Force numbering just 120,000 men, and dwarfed by the vast manpower of Germany, Kaiser Wilhelm II remains unfazed by this ‘contemptible little army'. But the BEF was, man for man, the best trained army in Europe.

Author, bookseller, spy-breaker, killer. Enter the world of Russell Stickles. Not since George Harvey Bone in Hangover Square has there ever been a singular protagonist as compelling. As sickly. As sick. From the creator of Dead Funny: Horror Stories by Comedians comes a stunning novel that re-invents the tale of the empty man.

Stephen Narth steht das Wasser bis zum Hals. Wenn er nicht in kürzester Zeit 50.000 Pfund auftreibt, ist seine Firma am Ende. Hoffnung keimt auf, als ein Testament ihm Reichtum verspricht, wenn er eine nahe Verwandte zur Ehe mit einem Unbekannten zwingt.

A hay barn is set on fire at Low Dale Farm. It seems that an arsonist is targeting isolated barns. Arnold Merryweather’s ancient bus helps catch a car thief. And when Nick arrests not only a pig thief but also the expectant pig, the police station cleaner is not very pleased. But it’s not all crime. A glider crashes into a romance in a thatched cottage, and then Constable Nick is involved in a plot to force a penny-pincher to spend money. In the beautiful North Yorkshire countryside of the 1960s, Constable Nick’s roles are as varied as the eccentric villagers.

Telling the Story shows how leaders affect our understanding of what is possible and desirable through the stories they tell. It opens a door into the world of narrative leadership: what stories are and how they work, when to tell a story and how to tell one well, and how the language and metaphors we use influence our actions and change how we think about the world.

The villagers are quite a handful, from the rogue that is Claude Jeremiah Greengrass and his wily dog, Alfred, to the mysterious spinster Adelaide Bowes. Even some of the newcomers seem to be a little odd. But thankfully for Constable Nick, they are mostly law-abiding characters. But when old conflicts between villages flare up, it’s Constable Nick who has to sort things out.

Not when missing sheep need locating, stray dogs need homing, and thieves need identifying! As Britain’s most popular copper continues his work around the village, he has to cope with an array of eccentric characters: a postman who can’t read, a helpful lady who steals from the elderly people in her care, and a delightful small-time villain called Tin Lid Talbot. Winning an aged tin of sardines in a local raffle and upsetting the villagers by getting first prize at the local whist drive, PC Nick Rhea must contend with the variety and humorous exploits of a Yorkshire village.

Nick joins the Criminal Investigation Department to learn about the work of the detectives in civilian clothes. Asked to keep a watchful eye on a house thought to be used as a brothel, Nick quietly climbs the roof and sends a tile crashing through the window. When the woman inside and her five brothers attack the neighbors for causing the damage, the police turn out in force and arrest everybody. Meanwhile Nick lies low on the roof.

Constable Nick’s beat is modernized, with his police bike replaced by a mini-van. He gets more than he bargained for as his work draws him into closer contact with villagers, in more ways than one. There are compromising positions aplenty in this next charming installment of Aidensfield life. Nick finds himself lost in heavy fog and runs across a couple of illicit lovers trapped in their car. He advises the village grocer about his very respectable lady shoplifter and discovers how farmer Owens copes with his bossy wife.

In 1964, a young artist sat sketching former prime minister Winston Churchill. The Sunday Times refused to print the resulting drawing of this frail, aged figure - so far from the public image of the man - it was too truthful. In Long Drawn Out Trip, Gerald tells his life story for the first time. With captivating, often thrilling stories, he takes us back to his wartime childhood and the terrible curse of asthma, through his days as an advertising draughtsman, to his field reporting in Vietnam and the giddy highs of rock 'n' roll.

First he considers moments in history - Periclean Athens, the English Civil War, the American and French Revolutions, among them - in which the challenges we face today were first encountered and what solutions, however imperfect, were found. Then he lays bare the specific problems of democracy in the 21st century and maps out a set of urgently needed reforms. With the advent of authoritarian leaders and the simultaneous rise of populism, representative democracy appears to be caught between a rock and a hard place, yet it is this space that it must occupy, says Grayling, if a civilised society that looks after all its people is to flourish.

In the mid-20th century the relationship between America and Britain had a chequered past. Theirs was a history of protection and oppression, of rebellion and ultimately war. But then the shared crisis of the Second World War brought Britain and America closer than ever before or since and saw an unprecedented level of military cooperation. How was such a radical shift possible?

On November 12, 1912, a rescue team trekking across Antarctica's Great Ice Barrier finally found what they sought - the snow-covered tent of the British explorer Robert Falcon Scott. Inside, they made a grim discovery: Scott's frozen body lay between the bodies of two fellow explorers. They had died just eleven miles from the depot of supplies which might have saved them.

Trapped in a London flat, Beth remembers a transgressive love affair in 1960s Paris. The most famous writer in Russia takes his last breath in a stationmaster’s cottage, miles from Moscow. A father, finally free of his daughter’s demands, embarks on a long swim from his Canadian lakeside retreat. And in the grandest house of all, Danni the Polish housekeeper catches the eye of an enigmatic visitor.Rose Tremain awakens the senses in this diverse collection of short stories.

Miss Mackenzie by Trollope was the runner-up in Radio 4's 'Neglected Classics' vote. Margaret Mackenzie is a single woman in her mid-thirties who receives a large inheritance when her brother dies. She must then deal with what comes with the fortune, including several suitors, who may, or, may not, simply be after her money.

In einem streng geheimen Forschungslabor wagt Wissenschaftlerin Dr. Julia Bahr ein fragwürdiges Experiment: die Genmanipulation an einem Menschen. Die Folgen sind grauenhaft. Als ein Mitarbeiter der Ärztin ermordet wird, interessiert sich die Kriminalpolizei für die Forschungsarbeit auf der "Ebene 03" - und auch eine fremde Macht. TV-Reporter Klaus Peter Halmer und seine Freundin Dominique werden in den Strudel der Ereignisse hineingezogen und stellen sich immer mehr die Frage: Darf der Mensch Gott spielen?

What if the villain of your childhood turned out to be someone really rather extraordinary? A disgraced politician, Sir James Hastings is living out his retirement in a secluded Surrey village. He is unmoved by his centenarian mother's death - a woman he emotionally buried upon her abandonment. Raised by his father, a charismatic war-hero turned racing driver, the young James, torn between self-blame and longing, eventually dismissed her.

Sherlock Holmes ein Mörder? Das kann nicht sein! Davon ist Dr. Watson überzeugt und auch Inspektor Lestrade vollstreckt seinen Haftbefehl nur mit äußerstem Widerstreben. Hinter Gittern zwar in seiner Ermittlungs- aber nicht Denkfähigkeit beeinträchtigt, will der Meisterdetektiv nicht nur seine Unschuld beweisen, sondern auch herausfinden, was wirklich hinter dieser mysteriösen Geschichte steckt.

Jack und Cliff freuen sich: Sie dürfen mit Onkel Curtis auf der Asturia nach Florida fahren. Doch gleich zu Beginn der Reise häufen sich die seltsamen Vorgänge: Cliffs Koffer lässt mit seinem Schlüssel nicht öffnen, ihre Kabine wird durchwühlt und sie verfolgen einen verdächtigen Lauscher.