Showing results by narrator "Humphrey Bower" in All Categories

Written in 1940 in Yiddish, this heart-wrenching story of two nine-year-old friends caught up in the earliest tremors of anti-Semitic hatred in Vienna is all the more shocking because its author had no idea of what was still to come. Despite the casual violence done to their families - Karl's parents were socialists and Emil is Jewish - the boys find moments of kindness, courage and hope along their painful journey.

From the best-selling author of What the Birds See comes a brilliantly told suspense novel. As life slips away, Gabriel looks back over his brief 20 years that have been clouded by frustration and humiliation. A small town and distant parents ensure that he is never allowed to forget the horrific mistake he made as a child. He has only two friends, his dog Surrender, and the unruly wild boy Finnigan, with whom he made a boyhood pact.

In a world where eight billion souls have perished, the survivors huddle together apart, perpetually at war, in the city-states of Rise and Shine. Yet this war, far from representing their doom, is their means of survival. For their leaders have found the key to life when crops, livestock and the very future have been blighted - a key that turns on each citizen being moved by human suffering. Yet is this small hope, this compassion, enough to sustain them against the despair born of all the friends they’ve lost, all the experience they’ll never know?

How do you catch a killer who thinks murder is art? Michael Fisher sees himself as an artist rather than a killer and poses his victims to resemble famous paintings. Detective Nick Kelly is called to attend the latest crime scene and finds himself at the centre of a media storm. But while the rest of the police department feels under pressure, Nick relishes the attention. Karen Kelly, Nick’s soon to be ex-wife, watches in horror as this brutal game of cat and mouse plays out. But Karen has secrets of her own.

For more than a century Major Thomas has been a footnote in diverging historical arguments. A proper hearing is long overdue. Opinion is still sharply divided on whether Breaker Morant and his Australian co-defendants were criminals who got what they deserved or scapegoats used by the British Empire. Major Thomas, the bush lawyer drafted in at the last minute to defend them, is invariably depicted as either a hero or an incompetent fool. Now, for the first time, Greg Growden attempts to unravel the truth about the lawyer and soldier who returned from South Africa a broken man.

Voss is the story of the secret passion between an explorer and a naïve young woman. Although they have met only a few times, Voss and Laura are joined by overwhelming, obsessive feelings for each other. Voss sets out to cross the continent. As hardships, mutiny and betrayal whittle away his power to endure and to lead, his attachment to Laura gradually increases.

Through the crumbling ruins of the once splendid Xanadu, Miss Hare wanders, half mad. In the wilderness she stumbles upon an Aboriginal artist and a Jewish refugee. They place themselves in the care of a local washerwoman. In a world of pervasive evil, all four have been independently damaged and discarded. Now in one shared vision they find themselves bound together, understanding the possibility of redemption.

Arthur and Waldo Brown are twins and destined never to grow apart. They share everything, except their views of things. This is the story of two people living one life. Arthur and Waldo Brown were born twins and destined never to to grow away from each other. They spent their childhood together. Their youth together. Middle age together. Retirement together. They even shared the same girl. They shared everything - except their view of things. Waldo, with his intelligence, saw everything and understood little. Arthur was the fool who didn't bother to look. He understood.

Hurtle Duffield, a painter, is incapable of loving anything except what he paints. The men and women who court him during his long life are, above all, the victims of his art. He is the vivisector, dissecting their weaknesses with cruel precision: his sister's deformity, a grocer's moonlight indiscretion and the passionate illusions of his mistress, Hero Pavloussi.

A group of elephants is called a herd. But what are other animal groups called?

Cows say moo. But what sounds do other animals make?

Far away in Ancient Egypt, Jackal and Ibis are brought before the Cat Pharaoh to be punished for stealing from the town market. In a merciful moment, the Pharaoh decides to give the two friends one last chance: they must journey up the River Nile to the Temple of Karnak and bring back something that has been taken from her – a beautiful and precious Jewel Fish.

Deep in the Scottish Highlands, many years from now... Gertie Gif, a lowly cleaning droid from the village of Loch Lan, sets out on an heroic quest to liberate her fellow robo-folk from the curse of a legendary, battery-draining laptop who lives in the castle on the hill.

It's washing day, and Wuffle the puppy, Lou the kitten and Billington the duck watch the clothes blow about in the wind.

Sprocc, a young splingtwanger-player, leaves his home planet Blipp in search of musical freedom, pursued by the overly ambitious Musical Inquisitor. Lured by the promise of fame and fortune, Sprocc enters the annual Worst Band in the Universe Competition...

Monkeys live in trees. But where do other animals live?

Starfish are pointy. Ponies are short. Otters are long. Giraffes are tall. But what shapes are other animals?

The wheat is ripe, but the harvester is broken and a plague of locusts is on the way. It looks as if Jim and his mother may lose the farm. But when Jim shows kindness to a stranger, their fortunes are set to change in the most surprising way imaginable!

On a dark and stormy night, Wuffle the puppy, Lou the kitten and Billington the duck watch the garden gate swing open in the wind. And when disaster strikes, who will save the day?

Was Bjorn of Bromme one of the greatest explorers of the Viking Age or just a simple-minded, lice-infested Barbarian with a passion for beach volleyball? Could Soong Mei Ying really have discovered every Asiatic Dragon known to Serpentology, or was she just a thirteenth-century teenager who wanted to travel and meet people? Did Dr E.F. Liebermann perish after discovering the Common Green Draak, also known as the ‘Awful Gurgler’, or was he suffering from a severe bout of jungle madness?