Showing results by narrator "Jake Urry" in All Categories

Henri René Albert Guy de Maupassant was born on August 5th, 1850 near Dieppe in France. Maupassant’s early life was badly torn when at age 11 (his younger brother Hervé was then five) his mother, Laure, a headstrong and independent-minded woman, risked social disgrace in order to obtain a legal separation from her husband. After the separation, Laure kept custody of her two boys. With the father now forcibly absent, Laure became the most influential and important figure in the young boy's life.

A peculiar tablet unearthed in a Middle Eastern ossuary provokes madness in those who encounter it. One by one, people come under the tablet's sway and are subjected to horrific visions and dreams. In time, the tablet's true purpose becomes clear: It is the harbinger of an eons-dead god whose reemergence will steep the world in terror and suffering. Having put the pieces together, two men race against the clock and attempt to disrupt the terrifying work of an ancient cult.

London’s East End has over the centuries been a magnet for immigration, innovation, culture, crime and a vast spectrum of other things. It is often seen as both part of and yet very distinct from the vast metropolis of London. Today it has been transformed from the often grimy, derelict and overcrowded area, that many of these stories describe, into a landscape of gentrification, sleek and shiny buildings and a booming economy. But here such noted talents as Arthur Morrison, Henry W. Nevinson, William Pett Ridge and Thomas Burke show the East End as it really was.

The Mailer family are oblivious to the terrible danger that enters their lives when seven-year-old Anthony is referred to the child guidance service by the family GP following the breakdown of his parents' marriage. Fifty-eight year old Dr. David Galbraith, a sadistic, predatory paedophile employed as a consultant child psychiatrist, has already murdered one child in the soundproofed cellar below the South Wales Georgian townhouse he shares with his wife and two young daughters. Anthony becomes Galbraith's latest obsession and he will stop at nothing to make his grotesque fantasies reality.

Though enjoying an increase in business following his last case, life isn't all roses for private investigator Harlan Ulrich. His newest job, another missing person's case, is unlike any other he's ever taken on. Local businessman Michael Poole hires Ulrich to find his estranged daughter. The problem? She's been dead for a decade.

I was born in London as Gabriel Wallace. The child of high society, although I was raised to appreciate everything that softly landed in my hand. I followed all the rules. I worked hard, studied hard, and ended up a captain in the Royal Navy before my 25th birthday. Unfortunately, I saw the world through my own eyes, not the eyes of my superiors, and my vision was clear.

Thirty years ago Anthony Mailer was a seven-year-old boy trapped in Dr Galbraith’s basement. Now he’s a journalist, a husband and a father. But no matter how far he’s come, at times he’s still that scared little boy. In order to save his marriage, he has to stop hiding from what happened and deal with it once and for all. But digging into the past holds dangers Anthony never imagined.

While an ugly war with its neighbouring realm continues to rage, the insulated members of Ruritania’s upper class laugh and dance their way through their superficial lives. Some people, increasingly disillusioned by the pointless conflict, start to consider how the king might be persuaded - or forced - to end it. Meanwhile, an increasing number of items of great value are going missing from those attending these high society gatherings. At whom will the finger of suspicion point? Who can be trusted?

In the small town of Melington, evil lurks in the darkness, and no child is safe. This collection includes Children to the Slaughter, Shadow’s Embrace, Copper’s Keeper, and bonus novel, Listen to Me Now.

This book is your portal into the magic of Norse Pagan holidays and festivals, and it’ll take you by the hand into a world that is deeply entwined with the power of nature, with countless blessings of Norse gods and goddesses.

John Buchan was born on August 26th 1875. After a brief career in the legal profession he began a twin career as writer and politician. He was a prodigious writer not just of fiction but of such acclaimed works as a 24 volume history of World War I. It was during the war, where, as a sideline writing propaganda, he wrote his most famous work, ‘The Thirty Nine Steps’. Its hero, Richard Hannay, continues his story in other Buchan novels, most notably Greenmantle (1916) and Mr Standfast (1919).

Deep in a deserted forest, a coven of witches is taken by surprise as they attempt to summon the Dark Lord, Anubin, from the spirit world. At his Easter camp, young Gilbert Hawkins has an amazing divine encounter. However, as the subsequent years pass, he and his girlfriend find themselves increasingly the subject of demonic visitations. What is the connection between these seemingly isolated events, over 300 years apart?

Signed over 200 years ago, the Blood Contract ensured the sanctity of the Blood lands. In return, the Blood family dedicated their lives, and their deaths to the protection of the town of Thorne. For many years, the town of Thorne was nothing more than a picturesque New England village. But in modern day, the town is enjoying a boom in real estate development. To satisfy the developers with enough land, the town has decided to break the Blood Contract...and the people of Thorne are going to learn that there is a price for ignorance.

William Cowper was born 26th November 1731 in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire. Traumatically he and his brother, John, were the only siblings, out of seven, to survive infancy. His mother died when he was six. In 1763 he was offered a Clerkship of Journals in the House of Lords. With the examinations approaching, Cowper had a mental breakdown. He tried to commit suicide three times, and a period of depression and insanity seemed to settle on him. The end of this unhappy period saw him finding refuge in evangelical Christianity, becoming the inspiration behind his much-loved hymns.

Robert Laurence Binyon, CH, was born on 10th August 1869 in Lancaster in Lancashire, England, to Quaker parents, Frederick Binyon and Mary Dockray. He studied at St Paul's School, London, before enrolling at Trinity College, Oxford, to read classics. Binyon’s first published work was Persephone in 1890. As a poet, his output was not prodigious, and, in the main, the volumes he did publish were slim, but his reputation was of the highest order. When the Poet Laureate, Alfred Austin, died in 1913, Binyon was considered alongside Thomas Hardy and Rudyard Kipling....

Philip Edward Thomas was born on 3rd March 1878 at 14 Lansdowne Gardens in Stockwell, Lambeth, which was then a part of Surrey. His family had a rich Welsh heritage. Thomas was educated at Battersea Grammar School before proceeding to St Paul's School in London and then becoming a history scholar, between 1898-1900, at Lincoln College, Oxford. Whilst still studying for his degree he married Helen Berenice Noble in June 1899, in Fulham, London.

Dr. Siegfried Klein has vanished on a mysterious pilgrimage to an abandoned infirmary in the ghost-town of Moonville. The locals in the surrounding areas are tight-lipped, hostile to outsiders. Local legend has it that the old Sick House is packed with spirits, none of them friendly, and that to set foot in it is to enter Hell itself.

An epic war between dragons and mankind! Dragons rule the world, united under their powerful dragon-king. Humans struggle to survive as slaves, pets, and prey. One man, the mysterious Bitterwood, strikes at dragons from the shadows, fighting a long, lonely war of resistance. When Bitterwood is blamed for the death of the dragon-king's son, the dragons launch a full scale campaign to rid the world of the legendary dragon-slayer - even if they must kill all of mankind to do so.

Set in a sprawling Gothic mansion in a remote coastal location, somewhere in the British Isles, the elderly recluse Lord Alfred Willoughby is deciding what is to become of his vast fortune after his death. Whilst his head is telling him to leave nothing at all to his wastrel son, Matthew, his heart is speaking differently. After much deliberation, in a last-ditch attempt to try and show to his son the importance of applying himself to a task and staying with it to the end, he devises a series of enigmatic puzzles cunningly concealed within the lines of a poem - the cryptic lines.

Lord Alfred Willoughby is deciding what is to become of his vast fortune after his death. Whilst his head is telling him to leave nothing at all to his wastrel son, Matthew, his heart is speaking differently. After much deliberation, in a last-ditch attempt to try and show to his son the importance of applying himself to a task and staying with it to the end, he devises a series of enigmatic puzzles cunningly concealed within the lines of a poem - the cryptic lines.