Showing results by narrator "Nicholas Boulton" in All Categories

As a Frenchwoman of highly questionable upbringing, Marie-Anne de Vauteuil was shunned by genteel society. But then, an invitation to London on a mission of mercy from the very family who cast her aside lands her back in society - and into the arms of a man who is nothing but trouble. Wealthy American businessman Mason is a) accidentally engaged, b) desperate to get out of it, and c) neither wealthy nor a businessman. When he meets Marie-Anne, she makes him rethink his life as a fraud, and hoping for something he never believed possible: A proper life with a not-so-proper wife.

Written by Matthew Solon. This play tells the story of the tense negotiation that followed the 2010 general election, which led to the country's first post-war coalition. Based on interviews with those who were at the meetings, political journalists and on published material - and using actors to play all the key characters - this is a compelling account of those five momentous days in May.

Ancient Egypt: The Glory of the Pharaohs tells us about civilization under the pharaohs, of mysterious statues and tombs, incredible obelisks, and the Sphinx. In this selection, the ancient Egyptian kingdom is brought to life in a way that fuels the listener’s imagination, teaching and entertaining in equal measure.

All he ever wanted was to go home. Leaving his life as a noble hostage behind him, Gryff has fled from one danger to another, never safe, always longing for a forbidden return to his conquered Welsh homeland. Held captive by villainous men, his unlikely savior is the most beautiful woman he’s ever seen - and the most deadly. Her silence is unnerving, her generosity unexpected, and her pointed warning that she will not be an object of lust is perfectly clear.

Laura Kinsale presents a second novel by talented new author Elizabeth Kingston. Fair, Bright, and Terrible is the riveting companion to The King's Man. Wales is conquered, and Eluned has lost everything: her country, her husband, her hope. All that remains is vengeance, and she will stop at nothing to have it. When Robert de Lascaux is asked to marry the woman he has loved for eighteen years, he never hesitates. No wealth has ever mattered to him as much as Eluned has.

War is brewing between England and France. Impressed into the Royal Navy, Lieutenant Merrick, against all odds, advanced through the ranks to become an officer, but he is not a gentleman. A man with a tainted past from a traitorous family, cast down by King George—a stain no man can remove. Merrick’s thrust into the role of captain, when the HMS Boudica is attacked by pirates off the coast of Nova Scotia. On a captured enemy vessel, he discovers a king’s ransom in treasure and a woman chained in the hold from a passenger ship that mysteriously disappeared at sea.

Praised by Chekhov as his favorite writer, Nikolai Leskov occupies a unique place in Russian literature. His original stories often seem like folk-tales, their larger-than-life characters including soldiers, Tsars, priests and gypsies. Leskov's storytelling, simple in its style, combines a deep religious spirit with comic absurdity. The Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District, Leskov's best-known work, is a realist account of a young woman who escapes from her loveless marriage through adultery, leading to violence and murder

Lord Gideon Birch, wounded former naval Captain and freshly minted Viscount, has a colorful history as a renowned lover of women. But a decade at war has transformed this sensual rake, and what he wants now is only to live a life on his own terms. And so, he comes to the quietest village in England, searching for serenity and instead, encounters an astonishingly enthralling pair of green eyes that unsettle his carefully constructed world.

After his father’s untimely death, Nicholas Nickleby is charged with supporting his mother and sister as he finds his way in the world. Broke, Nickleby goes to his maleficent uncle Ralph for help. The ruthless and resentful businessman appeases his nephew with a thankless position at a grim orphans’ home. Nickleby is swiftly conspired against, and the young man is forced to leave his family and London behind. Accompanied by colorful eccentrics and a rogues’ gallery of villains, Nickleby is tested at every turn on his journey home and to self-discovery.

In search of a legendary mare, Lord Winter enters the crucible of the red sands, forging unbreakable bonds of loyalty and trust with his young companion in the desert. But hidden beneath the ragged costume of a Bedouin boy is a remarkable young woman: Zenia Stanhope, daughter of the extraordinary Queen of the Desert. Zenia wants nothing of the danger that Lord Winter lives for. She wants only to reach England, far from the blood and sand of the desert.

In the World is the second instalment of Maxim Gorky’s autobiographical trilogy. Published in 1916, the book depicts Gorky’s experiences as a young adult, portraying his encounters with an array of characters from different social classes and conveying his observations of society at large. Gorky skilfully depicts the struggles, dreams and complexities of the lower classes, highlighting the social inequalities prevalent in Russia during the later 19th century.

Dumas' novel became one of the great love stories from its first publication in 1848. The title role of the consumptive heroine and her ultimate sacrifice inspired actresses from Sarah Bernhardt to Greta Garbo and led Giuseppe Verdi to write La traviata. In the hands of Nicholas Boulton, the story of passion and conflict is as fresh and moving as when it was first written.

When her naturalist father dies on the upper reaches of the Amazon, Lady Tess Collier sets out to fulfill his last wish: return to England and marry. Desperate and broke, privateer Gryphon Meridon takes on an assignment he'd much rather refuse - shepherding a beautiful, eccentric young lady through London's ballrooms.

In this audiobook, Oxford biologist John Parrington proposes a radical new theory of human consciousness, arguing that a qualitative leap in consciousness occurred during human evolution as language and tool use transformed our brains. Rejecting outdated views of the brain as a hard-wired circuit diagram, he draws on the latest insights from neuroscience to show that meaning is created within our heads through a dynamic interaction of oscillating brain waves.

Trevelyan d'Augustin and Lady Callista Talliafaire were secret sweethearts, until the day her father dismissed him with a whip across the face. Ten years and three jiltings later, shy Callie is resigned to a quiet village life as the late earl's spinster daughter. But now Trev has returned from his estates in France, upending everything, dragging her into adventures, stealing Hubert the prize-winning bull, and flinging Callie's heart into mayhem again.

M'lady's name is Shadowless, cos she's the fastest ship in the sky. And she ain't no everyday airship, she's an aethership, meaning she don't need engines nor turbines nor nowt but an aethermancer and the stars t' guide her. When luckless Dil falls half-dead onto the deck of the skyship Shadowless, he joins an outlaw crew haunted by visions of maelstrom. Driven by a ruthless captain, guided by a pilot with madness in her eyes, they hunt the power that holds up the clouds. Until it turns - to hunt them.

The music of Bohemian composer Antonín Dvořák is suffused with natural nobility, fluency and freshness, and embodies the spirit of his native land. This revealing biography portrays Dvořák as a complex and wide-ranging composer, and explores the creation and performance of his music as well as its reception on both sides of the Atlantic, tracing his art in all its richness and variety.

Daphnis and Chloe is a gem from the pen of the otherwise unknown second-century CE Greek writer Longus. It is the only work of his to survive, and little is known of him. Though perhaps overshadowed by the Roman magnificence of Ovid’s Metamorphoses (dating from a century earlier), Longus’ story entranced the choreographer Michel Fokine, who persuaded the French composer Maurice Ravel to write music for a ballet on the love story as part of the Ballets Russes’ season in Paris in 1912. Ravel, inspired, produced one of the most ravishing scores of the Impressionist period.

Tim, Meredith and Harry are three sassy, 30 something traders who, tired of making money for someone else, combine to launch a new hedge fund. But it doesn't take long before they get seriously above themselves, losing a small fortune and making some pretty heavy enemies in the City markets.

Enter a post-apocalyptic world of paradise with M1-The Black Key, the genre-bending debut novel of the Millennium series by Staci Morrison. One thousand years of Edenic paradise have been shattered by a brutal betrayal and murder, setting the stage for an epic fiction series that will keep you on the edge of your seat.