Showing results by narrator "Tom Lawrence" in All Categories

It felt like any other evening before Karl and his daughter were ambushed by a figure in a blank mask. A knife is put to her throat and Karl is forced to make an impossible decision. Stay and die, or walk away and take this thug's word that they will both live. It's not long before more seemingly unconnected and innocent people across London are offered a deal in exchange for their life. More blood is spilled, more families shattered and more people are left to suffer with the consequences of their decisions.

The Boy Who Didn't Want to Die describes an extraordinary journey, made by Peter, a boy of five, through war-torn Europe in 1944 and 1945. Peter and his parents set out from a small Hungarian town, travelling through Austria and then Germany together. Along the way, unforgettable images of adventure flash one after another: sleeping in a tent and then under the sky, discovering a disused brick factory, catching butterflies in the meadows, watching bombs falling from the blue sky outside Vienna, learning maths from his mother in Belsen.

Luke spots Eve at his dad's funeral. She's hot - and she's the perfect distraction from his messed up family life. There's only one problem - she's got a boyfriend. Still, Luke's not going to give up that easily.

A vivid eulogy for London of the late 1970s and early '80s - the last years prior to the rise of the digital city. An elliptical, wildly atmospheric remembrance of the sites and soundtrack, at once aggressively modern and strangely elegiac, that accompanied the twilight of one era and the dawn of another.

Not sure what to do when you've been dumped? Join The Ex-Files society and let them help you. Pete Johnson takes another affectionate and funny look at the ups and downs of teenage life in this sparky tale of love and how to get over it.

When Nat Carver takes home a strange and smelly mutt, his life is changed forever. Woody is the last of his kind, a Wolven, thought only to exist in legend. Then Nat discovers Woody has escaped from a top-secret science project - and some very bad guys want him back....A fast, funny, howlingly hairy adventure featuring a very odd dog, from début author Di Toft.

Whether we want to improve education or cut crime, to enhance public health or to generate clean energy, science and its experimental method is critical. The Geek Manifesto shows us what needs to happen to entrench scientific thinking more deeply into politics and society, and how to turn our frustrated outrage into positive action that our country's leaders cannot ignore.

1985. Kazumasa Yuuki, a seasoned reporter at the North Kanto Times, runs a daily gauntlet against the power struggles and office politics that plague its newsroom. But when an air disaster of unprecedented scale occurs on the paper's doorstep, its staff are united by an unimaginable horror and a once-in-a-lifetime scoop.

Tetsuya Ishikawa's story reveals how a young Oxford graduate found himself in command of vast sums of other people's money. It also explalins how a novice to the mysteries of hedge funds and sub-prime mortgages fixed complex deals for billions of dollars in the exclusive bars, brothels, and trading floors of London, New York, Frankfurt and Tokyo - and reaped the benefits in a colossal annual bonus and an international luxury lifestyle.

Gideon and Luke are spending some quality family time, playing at being normal teenagers. They have no reason to use their telekinetic powers in the small seaside town, and they have enough bodyguards to keep them safe, right? Wrong. A brutal killer is stalking them, and he has Gideon and Luke in his sights. The second in a sensational new series about a group of teenagers with special powers, from best-selling author Ali Sparkes.

At 11 years old, Morgan Sheppard solved the murder of his maths teacher when everyone else believed it to be a suicide. Twenty-five years later... Morgan Sheppard wakes up handcuffed to a bed in an unfamiliar hotel room, with five strangers waking up around him. In the bathroom - a corpse. One of the people in the room is the killer, and Sheppard has three hours to solve the murder. If he doesn't find the killer, they all die.

Another rapid-fire selection of short, stimulating and entertaining capsules of philosophy from the master of the genre. This time Baggini applies his philosophical scalpel to famous sayings, proverbs and pieces of homespun wisdom. Should you really do as the Romans do when in Rome and practice what you preach? Is the grass always in fact greener on the other side of the fence, and is there ever smoke without fire? Is beauty always in the eye of the beholder and is it actually better to be safe than sorry?

A new couple have moved into Hardstone House, and it's just Jake's luck that instead of a cool, footballing grandson they have a granddaughter called Claire, who likes tap dancing and tea parties. But then Claire tells Jake and Jenna that Hardstone House was once a school, with a cruel and heartless headmaster, and she reckons it's haunted. But by whom? And why?

After accidentally summoning a demon while playing poker, the normally mild-mannered Chesney Anstruther refuses to sell his soul…which leads through various confusions to, well, Hell going on strike. Which means that nothing bad ever happens in the world – and that actually turns out to be a really bad thing. There’s only one thing for it. Satan offers Chesney the ultimate deal – sign the damned contract, and he can have his heart’s desire.

It’s within the power of each and every school to unleash the best in teachers, day by day, month by month, year by year. This practical handbook takes the guesswork out of professional learning, showing school leaders how they can build a self-improving culture and remove barriers to learning. The authors set out their advice for how every school can bring in the best ideas from the whole system, and make sure that these have a lasting effect in the classroom.

Claire Beacham returns from a busy day at work to a parcel on her doorstep - no note, no label. As a politician, she's used to being suspicious of anonymous hate mail but today she's too tired to worry. She opens it, finding a gruesome surprise inside. A severed head falls to her kitchen floor; the rich, red drip of blood on her hands. It is clear to Claire and those around her that this terrifying package is a message. But who sent it, and why?

Perhaps I would be too late to save them. The last dozen had been spotted on a remote island in the North Atlantic, on a bare ledge of rock, but it was already rumoured the final breeding pair had been killed - their skins sold to private collectors - and the single egg between them needlessly crushed. These were only rumours, I kept telling myself. But as I set out for the Liverpool docks, on that breezy April morning in 1845, I couldn't help hoping that I might be able to reach them in time, the last of the birds.

Every single one of us has an unlimited source of potential for personal growth - and the way to tap into this is not through following rigid advice or rules: it's by asking the right questions. In The 7 Questions, award-winning life coach Nick Hatter offers a toolkit that you can apply time and again for more clarity and continuous self-awareness whenever you feel you've lost direction in life.

Luke is in trouble. Skin and the gang have a job for him. They want him to break into Mrs Little's house and steal her jewellery box. They want him to prove that he's got what it takes - that he's part of the gang. But Luke finds more than just a jewellery box in the house. He finds something so unexpected it will change his life forever....

Here is a powerful, rich novel of love, loss, and healing from award-winning author Tim Bowler.

A collection of four novellas: each taking place in 1998, each set in the world of Six Four and each centreing around a mystery and the unfortunate officer tasked with solving it. Prefecture D continues Hideo Yokoyama's exploration of the themes of obsession, saving face, office politics and interdepartmental conflicts. Placing everyday characters between a rock and a hard place and then dialling up the pressure, he blends and balances the very Japanese with the very accessible, to spectacular effect.