Audiobooks narrated by Matthew Spencer

The Power and the Glory: The Country House Before the Great War

Brought to you by Penguin. Adrian Tinniswood opens the doors on the excess, intrigue and absurdities of life in the late Victorian and Edwardian country house In the decades before the First World War, the owners of the nation’s stately homes revelled in a golden age of glory and glamour. Nothing lay beyond their reach in a world where privilege and hedonism went hand-in-hand with duty and honour. This was a time when the ancestral seats of ancient nobility stood side-by-side with the fabulous palaces of Jewish bankers and Indian princes, when dukes and duchesses mixed with aristocratic society hostesses who had learned to dance in the chorus line and self-made millionaires who had been raised in the slums of Manchester and Birmingham. The Power and the Glory explores the country house during this golden age, when Britain ruled over a quarter of the world’s population, when its stately homes were at their most opulent and when, for the privileged few, life in the country house was the best life of all. 'Glamour, scholarship and superlative storytelling [...] an enthralling read.' LUCY WORSLEY 'A wonderful book.' JUDITH FLANDERS 'Scintillating and brilliant, from a master of the subject.' GARETH RUSSELL © Adrian Tinniswood 2024 (P) Penguin Audio 2024

Adrian Tinniswood (Author), Matthew Spencer (Narrator)

Audiobook

How Migration Really Works: A Factful Guide to the Most Divisive Issue in Politics

Brought to you by Penguin. An authoritative analysis that busts 22 deep-rooted myths about migration - and sets out a new way to think about it Global migration is not at an all-time high. Climate change will not lead to mass migration. Immigration mainly benefits the wealthy, not workers. Border restrictions have paradoxically produced more migration. These statements might sound counter-intuitive or just outright wrong - but the facts behind the headlines reveal a completely different story to the ones we're told about migration. In this ground-breaking and revelatory book, based on more than three decades of research, leading expert Professor Hein de Haas explodes myths espoused by both left and right that politicians, interest groups and media regularly spread about migration. Comparing trends and perspectives from Western 'destination countries' (UK, US and Europe) as well as 'origin countries' in Asia, Africa and Latin America, de Haas equips readers with essential knowledge on migration based on the best evidence and data, showing migration not as a problem to be solved, nor as a solution to a problem, but as it really is. Above all, How Migration Really Works offers a new vision of migration based on facts rather than fears, and a paradigm-altering understanding of this perennially important subject. ©2023 Hein de Haas (P)2023 Penguin Audio

Hein De Haas (Author), Matthew Spencer (Narrator)

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A Duty of Care: Britain Before and After Covid

Brought to you by Penguin. The 'duty of care' which the state owes to its citizens is a phrase much used, but what has it actually meant in Britain historically? And what should it mean in the future, once the immediate Covid crisis has passed? In A Duty of Care, Peter Hennessy divides post-war British history into BC (before corona) and AC (after corona). He looks back to beginnings when, during wartime, Sir William Beveridge identified the 'five giants' on the road to recovery: want, disease, ignorance, squalor and idleness and laid the foundations for the modern welfare state. Hennessy examines the attack on the giants after the war and asks what the giants are now, and calls for 'a new Beveridge' to build a consensus for post-corona Britain with the ambition and on the scale that was achieved in the decades after the Second World War. © Peter Hennessy 2022 (P) Penguin Audio 2022 THIS AUDIOBOOK MAY INCLUDE INFORMATION REGARDING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC. INFORMATION RELATED TO COVID-19 CONTINUES TO EVOLVE. AUDIOBOOKS.COM ENCOURAGES YOU TO SEEK UP-TO-DATE INFORMATION AND GUIDANCE FROM YOUR LOCAL PUBLIC HEALTH UNIT.

Peter Hennessy (Author), Matthew Spencer (Narrator)

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World Class: How to Lead, Learn and Grow like a Champion

Brought to you by Penguin. What gives the world's best leaders the edge? Will Greenwood is best-known for being an integral part of the 2003 Rugby World Cup-winning team. Ben Fennell has spent over 16 years helping the world's biggest businesses and brands grow. Together, they have established that world-class performance - in both business and sport - requires a fresh approach, and a new set of behaviours. Having spoken to inspirational leaders across all areas of business and sport, including Michael Johnson, Tanni Grey-Thompson, Rio Ferdinand, Dame Carolyn McCall, Dave Lewis and Sir Clive Woodward, the authors have identified the key characteristics of world-class performance. These guiding principles of celebrating difference, forging togetherness and accelerating growth constitute a new framework for modern leadership. Packed with insightful personal stories, and often painfully learnt lessons, Will and Ben offer a new playbook for world-class leadership, learning and growth. © Ben Fennell, Will Greenwood 2021 (P) Penguin Audio 2021

Ben Fennell, Will Greenwood (Author), Matthew Spencer (Narrator)

Audiobook

Left Out: The Inside Story of Labour Under Corbyn

Brought to you by Penguin. Left Out is the first full account of Labour's recent transformation and historic defeat. The 2017 parliament began with Labour on the precipice of power, and its left-most fringe - for so long alienated within its own party - closer to government than it had ever been. It ended with them even farther away than they started. From the peak of Jeremy Corbyn's popularity and the shock hung parliament of 2017 to Labour's humbling in 2019 and the election of Keir Starmer, Left Out draws on unrivalled access throughout the party and to both leaders' inner circles to provide a blistering narrative exposé of the Labour Party during one of the most tumultuous and significant episodes in its history. It reveals a party riven by factionalism and at war over ideology, then incapacitated by crisis and indecision. From the plotting of the break-away Independent Group to the inaction and despair over accusations of anti-Semitism, from complaints of sexual harassment and bullying to foiled coups and furious disagreements over Brexit, the reader is in the room as tempers fray and tensions boil over, as sworn enemies forge unlikely alliances and lifelong friendships are tested to breaking-point. At the heart of the book is Corbyn himself, a man whose like had never been seen at the top of British politics - and is unlikely to ever be seen again. Heroised for his principles by some, derided as an idealist by others, the loyalty and hatred he inspired changed not only the party but the nation. Intimately drawn and brilliantly told, Left Out is the revelatory inside account of how Labour became the party it is today and of the greatest experiment seen in British politics for a generation. 'A stunningly good book with jaw-dropping revelations on every page, Left Out is the ultimate inside story of how Jeremy Corbyn went from the brink of victory to one of the worst defeats in British political history. It is both a breath-taking work of political journalism and a gripping first draft of history that is unlikely ever to be bettered. Unquestionably the political book of the year' TIM SHIPMAN, author of All Out War © Gabriel Pogrund, Patrick Maguire 2020 (P) Penguin Audio 2020

Gabriel Pogrund, Patrick Maguire (Author), Matthew Spencer (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Moonstone: Penguin Classics

Brought to you by Penguin. This Penguin Classic is performed by Jessie Buckley, Richard Cordery, Julian Wadham, David Sturzaker, Hugh Fraser, Bruce Alexander, Oscar Batterham, Matthew Spencer, James MacCallum, Stewart Clarke and Jot Davies. This definitive recording includes an Introduction by Sandra Kemp. The Moonstone, a priceless yellow diamond, is looted from an Indian temple and maliciously bequeathed to Rachel Verinder. On her eighteenth birthday, her friend and suitor Franklin Blake brings the gift to her. That very night, it is stolen again. No one is above suspicion, as the idiosyncratic Sergeant Cuff and the Franklin piece together a puzzling series of events as mystifying as an opium dream and as deceptive as the nearby Shivering Sand. T. S. Eliot famously described THE MOONSTONE as 'the first, the longest and the best of modern English detective novels', but, as Sandra Kemp discusses in her introduction, it offers many other facets, which reveal Collins's sensibilities as untypical of his era. (c) 1868, Wilkie Collins (P) 2019 Penguin Audio

Wilkie Collins (Author), Bruce Alexander, Hugh Fraser, James Maccallum, Jessie Buckley, Jot Davies, Julian Wadham, Matthew Spencer, Oscar Batterham, Richard Cordery, Stewart Clarke (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Remarkable Life of the Skin: An intimate journey across our surface

Penguin presents the audio edition of The Remarkable Life of the Skin by Monty Lyman, read by Matthew Spencer. How does our diet affect our skin? What makes the skin age? And why can't we tickle ourselves? Perched on the exterior of our delicate and intricate bodies, the skin is our largest and fastest-growing organ. We see it, touch it and live in it every day. It's a habitat for a mesmerizingly complex world of micro-organisms, its physical functions are vital to our health and indeed our survival, and it's crucial to our sense of identity. Yet how much do we really know about it? Through the lenses of science, sociology and history, Dr Monty Lyman leads us on a journey through the comedy, tragedy and exquisite humanity of our most underrated and overlooked organ. By delving into something that seems so familiar, he reveals how the skin is far stranger and much more complex than you've ever imagined, making it impossible ever again to take your skin for granted.

Monty Lyman (Author), Matthew Spencer (Narrator)

Audiobook

A Fatal Game

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of A Fatal Game written by Nicholas Searle, read by Matthew Spencer. A terrorist attack has just hit a busy railway station. Jake Winter was the British intelligence officer in charge of stopping the attack and now his career, and his conscience, are in freefall . . . Jake's next anti-terror operation has to be a success. He has got himself a new source - a young British Asian man, Rashid, recently returned, apparently disillusioned, from battle, who he hopes is the key to foiling the next attack and to getting Jake to the leader of the network. But is Rashid really working for British intelligence, or has Jake put his faith in the wrong man once again? A Fatal Game is the story of an organization, and a single man, in a state of panic. And panic is the last thing you need when you're playing a game like this . . .

Nicholas Searle (Author), Matthew Spencer (Narrator)

Audiobook

Audiobooks Narrated by Matthew Spencer