Showing results by narrator "Paul Metcalfe" in All Categories

It’s mid-September 1942. A German U-boat, U-156, sinks a converted British ocean liner, HMT Laconia, with just two torpedoes. The captain of the sub is horrified to discover that the troop transport he has just sunk was carrying 1,800 Italian POWs, along with British and Polish passengers and crew. Why the sub captain chooses to launch an operation to rescue his surviving Italian allies is perfectly understandable. But why he also chooses to rescue the British and Polish survivors is truly a mystery.

Do you love cars? Do you love interesting stories about start-ups? Do you love crazy stories about founders and their ups and downs? This book, and the books in this series, are for you.

When Hamish Montgomery learns his brother is getting married, he vows to stop the wedding. After all, his brother is a duke and is intended for someone else. Georgiana Butterworth is startled when a handsome Scotsman breaks into her bedroom and brandishes money. Evidently, he's mistaken her for her newly engaged sister and is trying to bribe her into not marrying his brother.

In this story, Lawrence returns to the scenes of his young manhood with farming scenes and the life he experienced when courting Jessie Chambers at Haggs Farm in Nottinghamshire. Two brothers find love in two different women, both out of the ordinary for farm lads - one a German nanny, the other the wife of a tramp who begs food from the farmers. Both men are redeemed from their rivalry for each other and their suppressed sexuality by the first experiences of love on the same night.

Lawrence is often accused of misogyny, and this story used as evidence against him. There is the simple but honest mine worker who has taken on a wife who is "above" him, but who is struggling to understand her and her feelings for him. Slowly, the story unravels the woman's past. The listener cannot be entirely unsympathetic to her plight - Lawrence is too good a writer to let that happen - but her dishonesty has probably ruined two lives, and our feelings are for the husband.

Esra Weaver, exo-geologist, is hired for the Kerberos-90 Mining expedition, but when she awakens in her Emergency Egress Pod on a tropical, uninhabited planet, she realizes her life has taken a drastic turn for the disastrous. "Predator Planet" tries to kill her at every turn. When danger and death converge on her, her hunter becomes her savior, and when her feelings for him evolve, she realizes she must battle not only Predator Planet but also her past to make room in her heart for an unexpected but passionate future.

In the year 1799, British army captain William Mason and fiery Irish convict Sean find their fates entwined. The sole survivors of a shipwreck, they find themselves stranded on a deserted island. Despite their mutual distrust toward each other, both men realise they must cooperate to survive and over time, animosity gives way to a fragile camaraderie. To pass the time, William tutors the previously illiterate Sean in reading, arithmetic, and even French, and he discovers an astonishingly brilliant and poetic soul within the young rebel.

Witchcraft is both a religion and a myth. It is a secret society, a fertility cult, a mystery cult, and a Priesthood. The Initiatory culture of Witchcraft spans generations, representing the lives of thousands of our forebears. After thousands of years of suppression, the Witch, the Priestess, reclaims her role, returning that lost power and holy presence to Western civilization once again.

The Man Who Loved Islands is a haunting story of a man who tries to control his life by making his world ever smaller by moving to increasingly smaller islands. Each one proves to be beyond his ability to control either other people or his sexual desire, and finally the last island conquers him. The story can even be seen as a metaphor of man's inexorable march to death, when we are all finally alone.

"England, My England" is set in the years before the Great War of 1914, seen by some as an idyllic time of sunshine and peace before everything was shattered by the mechanized war. The family is placed in an idealized setting, deep in the English countryside, but there are snakes in this Garden of Eden. There is conflict between man and woman, brought to the fore by an accident to a child, and there is the seeming purposeless life led by the husband. The story ripples with the eugenic theories popular at the time, yet the conflicts are finally solved by the horror of the war.

"The Primrose Path" looks at what can be the ephemeral nature of man and woman, love, and the horror and certainty of death, which seems to hang over all the characters in this haunting short story.

Inspired by recent events, COVID-19 The Pandemic helps answer many questions about the outbreak that has affected our everyday lives. Drawing from his years of experience as a physician and a researcher, Dr. Bhagat investigates cutting-edge research and hundreds of scientific papers to compile the best, evidence-based information about the pandemic.

Masinissa: Ally of Carthage is the first part of the story and experiences of the Numidian Prince and later King Masinissa during the Second Punic War between Rome and Carthage. In terms of the wider world, Rome and Carthage (the most powerful nations of the time) have been at war for five years, ever since Hannibal crossed the Alpine passes and inflicted catastrophic and crippling defeats on the Roman armies at the battles of Trebia, Lake Trasimene, and most devastatingly, at Cannae, where an army of nearly 90,000 Romans was completely destroyed.

Peter Williamson, investment director at Aardvark in London, is in trouble! The investment he led into Riverjack Crypto looks doomed when the notorious founder kills himself (and his finance director) in a bizarre car crash! Peter's boss, Gordon, is on the hunt, seemingly not just for him but for superstar Susannah. Meanwhile, the firm's suave lawyer, Tom, is permanently distracted by Peter's delectable PA. When everyone descends on a hotel for the meeting—and at night attempt to descend on each other—total mayhem ensues. This is the world of venture capital—fully exposed!

Resigned to a lonely life after a fierce betrayal of the man who broke her spirit, Meg Alpin retreats to her family’s castle. In her pursuit to move on with her life, she uncovers long-buried secrets and discovers something magical amidst the furniture in the tower. In one instant, her dull world is given bright new meaning in the form of a highlander too magnificent, too handsome to be real.

This is a bedtime, fun time, "anytime" story about 26 friends, numbers, adjectives, colors, alphabets, and activities. Each of us is that one shiny, red apple, and all we need to do is to inspire the person next to us.

London, 1960. Robin is hypnotized by a dazzling moon, and it sets him on a quest to seek a better life. Fearful of his future, he puts his trust in the wrong person, clueless of the trap he is falling into. Dublin, 1968. Two Irish orphans are separated by the church. Six-year-old Bess panics at the thought of being sent to London. An English family want to adopt her, but if only it didn’t mean abandoning her elder brother....

Lawrence wrote three drafts of ‘Lady Chatterley’s Lover’ between 1926 and 1928: ‘The First Lady Chatterley’s Lover', this audiobook, ‘John Thomas and Lady Jane’ and the final version, ‘Lady Chatterley’s Lover’. Although all three books have the same story line of an aristocratic woman falling in love with a working-class man, there are differences in their tone and sensibilities.

The Woman Who Rode Away is a dark, troubling story set in the wilderness of South America. What makes this story compelling is that the woman is at the end of her personal tether and the Indians are at the end of their cultural one. They seek one another out for terrible but perhaps predictable uses. Each of them looks to the other for "salvation" in a way that expresses the desperation and futility of their situation.

Afeclin walked nervously to the entry of the cottage. He held his breath as he passed over the threshold. A little cradle was the only piece of furniture left in the building. Afeclin touched the cradle delicately with one finger. All of a sudden he fell backward onto the floor as an image of the fire burst into his mind…. He had seen a horrified face that screamed amongst red hot flames.