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Audiobooks Narrated by Andrew Cullum
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'The Rule of Law' is a phrase much used but little examined. The idea of the rule of law as the foundation of modern states and civilisations has recently become even more talismanic than that of democracy, but what does it actually consist of?
In this brilliant audiobook, Britain's former senior law lord, and one of the world's most acute legal minds, examines what the idea actually means. He makes clear that the rule of law is not an arid legal doctrine but is the foundation of a fair and just society, is a guarantee of responsible government, is an important contribution to economic growth and offers the best means yet devised for securing peace and co-operation. He briefly examines the historical origins of the rule, and then advances eight conditions which capture its essence as understood in western democracies today. He also discusses the strains imposed on the rule of law by the threat and experience of international terrorism.
The audiobook will be influential in many different fields and will be key for anyone interested in politics, society and the state of our world.
The blockbuster thriller from Graham Hurley, The Blood of Others is part of the SPOILS OF WAR Collection, a thrilling, beguiling blend of fact and fiction born of some of the most tragic, suspenseful, and action-packed events of World War II.
A catastrophe no headline dared admit.
Summer 1942. Abwehr intelligence officer Wilhelm Schultz is baiting a trap to lure thousands of Allied troops to their deaths.
George Hogan is a devout young Canadian journalist who has caught the eye of press baron Lord Beaverbrook. Now he faces an assignment that will test his faith to breaking point.
Jackie Wrenne, meanwhile, is working in Lord Louis Mountbatten's cloak-and-dagger Combined Operations headquarters and is privy to the boldest cross-Channel raid yet conceived.
Three lives interlinked by a name and a date that no Canadian will ever forget: Dieppe, 19 August 1942. At dawn, over six thousand men storm ashore on heavily defended French beaches. Barely hours later, less than half will make it back alive...
From highly acclaimed thriller author GRAHAM HURLEY, the blockbuster SPOILS OF WAR non-chronological collection features compelling recurring characters whose fragmented lives mirror the war that shattered the globe. For fans of Philip Kerr and Robert Harris.
Praise for the author: 'A penetrating, compelling, and skilfully vivid slice of historical fiction' LOVEREADING
'Historical fiction of a high order' THE TIMES
'Tense, absorbing and faultlessly plotted' SUNDAY TIMES
'Beautifully constructed... This is one of Hurley's finest' DAILY MAIL
'Capable and understated characterization' PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
William James is a young psychiatrist specialising in the psychology of stalking. A rather dry academic, but already a world authority on obsessive love – he’s certainly not the type to get mixed up with beautiful women… until he’s recruited by the Foreign Office to join a unique police protection unit, exclusively focused on besotted admirers who unpredictably flip into assassins. He now finds himself mingling with Philippa Foot, the unusually glamorous Foreign Secretary, and Dread, a notorious rock star.
A spate of bizarre and inexplicable threats mean he’s now battling with antagonistic police forces as well as obstructive personal bodyguards. Can the offbeat psychiatrist apprehend these deadly stalkers, relentlessly evading sanity, hunting their prey even from behind prison bars, ever-willing to die for their delusion?
As Dread prepares for a diva’s ultimate global audience – the largest charity concert in history, opened by the beguiling Foreign Secretary – William races against time. Can he prevent a massacre of the famous on a world stage?
Peppered with real-life true stories from luminaries, and other victims, this psychological thriller, already endorsed by genuine experts in the field, lifts the lid on the dark side of our infatuation with celebrity and possessive love.
This is a delightful short biography of an eccentric Hungarian scholar who became one of the fathers of Western studies of the Tibetan language and culture. Educated at an austere Calvinist school until aged 31 where he demonstrated exceptional skills as a linguist, Csoma de Korös (1784-1842) finally set out alone on a pilgrimage to the East. His personal mission was to discover the roots of the Hungarian people, whom he and others of the time theorized to be descended from Attila the Hun.
Due to a Chinese decree restricting foreign entry to Tibet he was sadly never to reach Yarkand in the Western plains of China, where he hoped to find linguistic proof of the Central Asian origins of the Hungarian race. However on his way, via many adventures, misfortunes and disguises, he expanded his repertoire to as many as 14 languages and became one of the first Europeans to enter Ladakh, Tibetan in language and culture, but politically part of India. Supported by the British vet and superintendent of the East India Company's Stud, William Moorcroft, Csoma was encouraged to use his extraordinary facility for languages to learn Tibetan, (largely unknown in the West), and produce the first English-Tibetan dictionary. He studied with Lama Sangye Phuntsog in a remote monastery in Zanskar. For 16 months the two men studied the Tibetan language and its vast religious canon in austere freezing conditions in a tiny nine-foot square cell. The fruits of this arduous but pioneering effort, the first reliable grammar and dictionary of Tibetan, was finally published in two volumes in 1834 - using a Tibetan font that had to be specially made. Csoma spent the last years of his life working for the Asiatic Society of Bengal in Calcutta, mastering Marathi, Bengali and Sanskrit, before dying of malaria on a final courageous attempt to travel across Tibet to Western China. Csoma's life-story and achievements gradually became known in Hungary, and he is now a revered national figure. A fascinating little book.
The Incredible True Story of Britain's 'Kamikaze' Pilots of World War Two
'An unforgettable tale of high-stakes action, ingenuity and raw courage. This war story's got it all' Rowland White, Author of Vulcan 607
'IF WE FAIL IN THIS, THEN WE LOSE THE WAR'
With the Battle of Britain won, Winston Churchill and his military chiefs faced an even more fearsome challenge in the Battle of the Atlantic.
Thwarted in his plans to invade, Hitler decided he would starve Britain into submission instead. Operating in conjunction with U-Boats, long-range Condor aircraft manned by élite German airmen attacked Allied ships far beyond the range of any land-based RAF fighters, with devastating results.
To counter the Luftwaffe threat, men from the RAF and Fleet Air Arm were asked to volunteer to be catapulted from the foredecks of merchant ships in specially modified Hawker Hurricanes. But with nowhere to land afterwards, it was a one-way mission.
If the British fighter pilots survived combat, they would have no option but to bail out into the North Atlantic and hope they were picked up by the one of the convoy escorts.
Survival was anything but certain ...
'Extraordinary ... excitingly told' Sunday Express
'Masterly' Daily Telegraph
How does magic in J. K. Rowling’s universe work? Finally, the scientific secrets of the Harry Potter universe are revealed!
The insanely popular Harry Potter books and movies have brought the idea of magic and sorcery into mainstream. Modern muggle scientists have uncovered explanations to the seemingly impossible, including answers to such questions as:
-Will we ever see an invisibility cloak?
-How hazardous is a flying broomstick like the Nimbus 2000?
-How has medicine made powerful potions from peculiar plants? (Felix Felicis, anyone?)
-Can scientists ever demonstrate Wingardium Leviosa, or the flying power of a Golden Snitch?
-Is it possible to stupefy someone?
-And many more!
Often perceived as a supernatural force, magic captivates and delights its audience because of its seeming ability to defy physics and logic. But did you ever wonder if science has any explanation for these fantastic feats?
The Science of Harry Potter examines the scientific principles behind some of the spells, scenes, and games that Harry, Hermione, Ron and Dumbledore love best. Author Mark Brake, whose The Science of Star Wars was a knockout success, has found the answers to satisfy the curious spirits of muggles everywhere. Here is a perfect Harry Potter listen for anyone obsessed enough to stand in line to see Harry Potter and the Cursed Child or Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Witches and wizards and even muggles everywhere will be fascinated by the merging of this improbable realm and real science!
Inspector Ravenscroft and Constable Tom Crabb return in their most intriguing mystery to date. Perfect for fans of M.R.C. Kasasian, E.S. Thomson, Oscar De Muriel and Karen Charlton.
March 1889. Midnight. Six strangers meet for the first time outside the great door of Tewkesbury Abbey. They are searching for the tomb of the medieval crusader knight, Sir Roger de la Pole. What they find inside is unexpected and deeply shocking. They were seeking holy relics. But the body they uncover is barely cold. And Sir Roger's ancient bones are missing. Detective Inspector Ravenscroft and Constable Tom Crabb are called on to solve the crime. They must decipher the strange coded letters on the outside of the Templar's tomb. Soon they will discover that the solution to both mysteries stretches back far into the past and that their origins lie in distant lands . . .
Inspector Ravenscroft and Constable Tom Crabb return for their most dangerous adventure yet. Perfect for fans of M.R.C. Kasasian, E.S. Thomson, Oscar De Muriel and Karen Charlton.
A mysterious stranger arrives in the small Herefordshire market town of Ledbury. He offers a solicitor, Anthony Midwinter, a generous sum to look after a package for him until spring, no questions asked. The stranger warns that it must remain sealed or else the very stability of England will come under threat. The Ledbury Lamplighters see out the year with a public ceremony extinguishing the town's lamps, a local tradition. A prominent local businessman is brutally murdered in full view of the revellers. Detective Inspector Samuel Ravenscroft is reunited with his old friend and colleague, Constable Tom Crabb. They unravel a sequence of events that threatens the very political and social stability of the country.
1855: The Industrial Revolution is in full swing, powered by steam-driven cybernetic Engines. Charles Babbage perfects his Analytical Engine, and the computer age arrives a century ahead of its time. Three extraordinary characters race toward a rendezvous with the future: Sybil Gerard - fallen woman, politician's tart, daughter of a Luddite agitator; Edward Leviathan Mallory - explorer and palaeontologist; Laurence Oliphant - diplomat, mystic, and spy. Their adventure begins with the discovery of a box of punched Engine cards of unknown origin and purpose. Cards someone wants badly enough to kill for.
Part detective story, part historical thriller, The Difference Engine took the science fiction community by storm when it was first published. It is a prime example of the steampunk sub-genre; It posits a Victorian Britain in which great technological and social change has occurred after entrepreneurial inventor Charles Babbage succeeded in his ambition to build a mechanical computer called Engines. Provocative, compelling, and intensely imagined, this audiobook is poised to impress a whole new generation.
Jack the Ripper is terrifying London. Outside the capital, another killer will shock the country. It's up to Police Inspector Samuel Ravenscroft to stop him. Perfect for fans of M.R.C. Kasasian, E.S. Thomson, Oscar De Muriel and Karen Charlton.
Worcester, 1888. Nicholas Evelyn, the elderly cathedral librarian, has disappeared. A priceless medieval manuscript has been stolen. Its glass case smashed with a candlestick. Ravenscroft is sent from the grimy streets of Whitechapel to investigate. Aided by his trusty companion Constable Tom Crabb, Ravenscroft soon discovers that behind the cathedral's facade lurks a dark world of death and deceit. Could the murder relate to an unsolved mystery dating back nearly forty years? Meanwhile, in London, a mysterious woman in black is wreaking revenge in the dark alleyways of Whitechapel. In a spectacular climax, the two worlds of Worcester and Whitechapel meet.
A captivating historical murder mystery set in Victorian England. The Malvern murders is packed with delicious dialogue, sly humour and Victorian atmosphere. Perfect for fans of M.R.C. Kasasian, E.S. Thomson, Oscar De Muriel and Karen Charlton.
Before Jack the Ripper terrorized London, Police Inspector Samuel Ravenscroft patrolled the streets of Whitechapel. Clever and hard-working, Ravenscroft nonetheless has the worst record in the force. He lets a murderer escape during a chase and is banished to the spa town of Malvern for a water treatment to cure his asthma. Ravenscroft accepts a dinner invitation from a new acquaintance, Jabez Pitzer. Before dinner, the maid finds Pitzer slumped over his desk - dead. Ravenscroft immediately recognizes the signs - Pitzer has been poisoned. But the local authorities are reluctant to believe there is a murderer in Malvern. Hungry to prove himself, Ravenscroft is determined to solve the case. But the bodies mount up. Someone is killing local luminaries.
Announced in 1912, the Schneider Trophy was a series of glamorous air contests, popularly known as races, that captivated both sides of the Atlantic. While there were many other aviation competitions, the Schneider proved to be, after a rocky start, by far the most memorable attracting a hugely popular and glamorous following whether Trophy races were held in Monaco, the Venice Lido, the Solent or Chesapeake Bay.
The Schneider Trophy was a focus not just of remarkable aircraft, derring-do pilots and swooning public attention, but also of fierce rivalries between the competitors: Britain, France, Italy and the United States. It gripped the imaginations of pioneering manufacturers and two of the world's finest aircraft designers - Reginald Mitchell and Mario Castoldi - who worked feverishly hard to outdo one another. Perhaps inevitably, the dynamism of rival engineering and politics led to the most potent military fighters of World War Two with Reginald Mitchell's record-breaking Supermarine seaplanes morphing, one way or another, into the Spitfire.
Wings Over Water not only tells the story of the Schneider Trophy afresh but also examines the backdrop and legacy of these legendary air races, which became a driver and celebration of speed and engineering prowess for both sea and ground-based aircraft. It is an exhilarating tale of raw adventure, public excitement, engineering genius and the fortunes of flying boats and seaplanes.
