Showing results by narrator "Jeff` Harding" in All Categories

Ben Hur could be said to be the first American blockbuster. It combines all the best elements of popular classic, epic and action story against a background of authoritative historical detail. As this vivid reading shows, the story, together with the sweeping rhythm of the writer's prose, make it ideally suited to the audiobook.

Writer Carl Borden mysteriously falls violently ill one evening whilst out walking his dog, and then again less than two weeks later, whilst asleep in bed. His friend and physician, Doctor Thomas Wingate, suspects foul play, but it will take a lot to convince Borden he could be in danger in his own home.

Spotting a face in a crowd is so easy, you take it for granted. But how you do it is one of science's great mysteries. And vision is involved with so much of everything your brain does. Explaining how it works reveals more than just how you see. In We Know It When We See It, Harvard neuroscientist Richard Masland tackles vital questions about how the brain processes information - how it perceives, learns and remembers - through a careful study of the inner life of the eye.

The pretty gift-wrapped box floating in a toy dinghy looks innocent enough, but it holds a bloody secret: a human heart. Nothing is more important to Detective Sam Becket than being able to keep his family safe. But when that gruesome package is found outside their home, they fear it can mean only one thing: that Cal the Hater is back. When a second grisly discovery is made in a crowded resort pool, the great manhunt is back on.

There have been reports of a phantom ship attempting to run down other vessels on the waters. It is said to be a cutter that went missing, along with its crew. A ship eventually stumbles across the missing cutter, a final log from those on board shedding light on the fate of the cutter.

Did you know that bats compose their own songs? That mice giggle when tickled? Or that lizards do push-ups to seduce a mate, that elephants ‘hear’ through their feet, or that rats laugh? Drawing upon the latest scientific research, we see how animals build, create, and entertain themselves and others; how animal ‘friends’ keep in touch; and how some animals problem-solve more effectively than humans. The result is a thrilling scientific exploration that unlocks the secret lives of the animal world.

A short story from the British Library Tales of the Weird collection Evil Roots. Best known as the creator of Sherlock Holmes, this short story by Conan Doyle preceded the famous detective by almost a decade. After an altercation, a disgruntled American storms off into the night, only to disappear mysteriously. Could a giant flytrap really be capable of engulfing an adult victim?

The Time Traveller's Almanac is the largest, most definitive collection of time travel stories ever assembled. Intrepid chrononauts and world-renowned anthologists Ann and Jeff VanderMeer have scoured time itself to bring you these classic stories. Be warned: reality will be warped, wormholes opened, paradoxes woven and parallel universes breached.

In an age of cybercrime, Finn is a thief with a unique specialty: he steals only big things. Fresh out of prison, he is faced with his biggest steal yet: breaking out $50 million worth of rhodium.

To do so, Finn calls in the team that put him in prison. But things get twisty when Finn navigates the betrayals of double-crossing partners, a corrupt billionaire and the ambiguous proposals of a woman.

Having escaped the Island - a wasteland that housed those no longer able to contribute to society - ageing 'Big Guy' Clancy thought his fight was over. But they have returned to the mainland to find that it is not the haven they anticipated. With the punishment satellites that kept them on the Island - and the city under control - gone, hell has been unleashed.

Tom Valle, a small town Californian journalist, is reporting on a car crash when he senses that something about the incident is not quite right - this is no ordinary accident. For starters, the autopsy reveals that the victim has been castrated. And although his driving licence pictures him as a 42-year-old white man, his charred bones are those of a black man. Valle's journalistic zeal kicks in, and he is unable to leave the case alone.

Paul Wood was just a tourist in battle-scarred Sarajevo when an unexpected encounter changed his life. Now he is a desperate woman¿s only hope of escape, but to get her to safety he must find a way through the minefield of warlords, criminals, and peacekeepers that is postwar Bosnia. Unable to leave the country legally, he agrees to do a job for a shadowy group of human traffickers, in exchange for safe passage.

Why is it that we read? Is it to pass time? To learn something new? To escape from reality? For Will Schwalbe, reading is a way to entertain himself but also to make sense of the world, to become a better person, and to find the answers to the big (and small) questions about how to live his life. In this delightful celebration of reading, Schwalbe invites us along on his quest for books that speak to the specific challenges of living in our modern world, with all its noise and distractions.

The titular house in this short story sits not far from the state of Missouri. An old, run-down building, missing windows and doors, it has been overgrown with foliage, and its dilapidated appearance has given it an ‘evil reputation’.

Emma Vane blurs the line between human and plant in this short story featuring a lily that has developed a mouth and can moan. Concern is soon raised for the safety of the central protagonist, botanist Carl Brense.

There is a dark mood aboard Serapis, driven by its distracted captain. It was agreed that this ship would not be returning from its voyage, the insurance money paying for a new ship. But the captain loses more than he bargained for, and it is years until he is at peace when he is unexpectedly reunited with the wreck on the coast of Chile.

A Western trio of renegades, outlaws and the Alaskan gold rush days of the 1890s.

Rome: McCabe and Chip, two American exchange students, are about to become embroiled with a violent street gang. Detroit: Sharon Vanelli's affair with Joey Palermo, a Mafia enforcer, is about to be discovered by her husband, Ray. Brilliantly plotted and shot through with wry humour, All He Saw Was the Girl takes place as these two narratives converge in the backstreets of Italy’s oldest city.

During the 1970s and early '80s, dozens - perhaps hundreds - of Japanese civilians were kidnapped by North Korean commandos and forced to live in 'Invitation Only Zones', high-security detention centres masked as exclusive areas on the outskirts of Pyongyang. The objective? To brainwash the abductees with the regime's ideology and train them to spy on the state's behalf.

Bruce Lee, having had access to more than one million pages of US Army documents and thousands of pages of daily top-secret messages dispatched to Tokyo from the Japanese embassy in Berlin, assembles fascinating revelations about pivotal moments in the war, including the reason Eisenhower stopped his army at the Elbe and let the Russians capture Berlin, the invasion of Europe, and the battles on the African and Eastern fronts.