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Audiobooks Narrated by Phillip Franks
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Discover the hidden history of Britain through the stories of its 'lost' or abandoned places and buildings.
Portillo's Secret History of Britain presents a compelling and wonderfully evocative history of Britain through the stories of its 'lost' or abandoned places and buildings. The chapters cover a variety of historical themes: Crime and Punishment, Health and Medicine, Defence and Warfare, and Entertainment and Leisure. Using a combination of his own investigations and archive research, plus memories and quotations from the contributors he interviewed for the series, Michael Portillo explains what the buildings were used for and by whom, why they were abandoned, and what they can tell us about our past. For example:
* Learn what the ruins of London Road Fire and Police Station in Manchester reveal about the history of the emergency services in the last 100 years
* How Bradford's art deco Odeon cinema encapsulates a century of film-making and movie-going
With evocative text that brings each location vividly to life, Michael Portillo describes the building and its activities in its heyday and compares this past life with its faded grandeur or melancholic abandonment seen today. Filled with fascinating insights and observations, his narrative provides a compelling and original perspective on Britain's social and military history.
Portillo's Hidden History of Britain features deserted villages, abandoned prisons, closed-down cinemas, empty hospitals, derelict military bases, sewers and much more. Complementing the text are 32 pages of atmospheric and informative photographs, including 'then' and 'now' images of the locations, which pointedly juxtapose their former glory with their present-day destitution.
His name is carefully guarded from the general public but within the secretive inner circles of the ultra-rich Dr Alex Hoffmann is a legend - a visionary scientist whose computer software turns everything it touches into gold.
Together with his partner, an investment banker, Hoffmann has developed a revolutionary form of artificial intelligence that tracks human emotions, enabling it to predict movements in the financial markets with uncanny accuracy. His hedge fund, based in Geneva, makes billions.
But then in the early hours of the morning, while he lies asleep with his wife, a sinister intruder breaches the elaborate security of their lakeside house. So begins a waking nightmare of paranoia and violence as Hoffmann attempts, with increasing desperation, to discover who is trying to destroy him.
His quest forces him to confront the deepest questions of what it is to be human. By the time night falls over Geneva, the financial markets will be in turmoil and Hoffmann's world - and ours - transformed forever.
BOHEMIA, 1741: on the northern banks of the Vltava River, an extraordinary event is taking place. Inside a private chapel, a high-born Hungarian lady is being laid to rest. But not before her heart is removed from her body, and she is buried beneath a layer of heavy stones - lest she rise again to prey upon her victims ...
VENICE, PRESENT DAY: in the world's most beautiful city, something unspeakable is happening. An unnamed tomb has been opened revealing a female skeleton and a diary dating back hundreds of years. Soon corpses of young women start appearing across the city, all killed in the same horrific manner.
Chris Bronson and Angela Lewis are holidaying in the city when Angela finds the diary. Written in code, it chronicles disturbing and arcane rituals, and references a scroll that will provide an 'answer' to an ancient secret. Then Angela is snatched off the street, and Bronson knows that he must find her before she too is slaughtered.
His attempts to unravel the mystery of the scroll and to find Angela lead him back to the Island of the Dead, and into a conspiracy more deadly than he could ever have imagined ...
