EMPIRES OF THE NORMANS by Levi Roach, read by Luke Thompson - audiobook extract

06/29/22 • 8 min

The first global history of the Normans, who—beyond the conquest of England—came to dominate Europe, the Mediterranean and the Middle East. How did descendants of Viking marauders came to dominate Europe, the Mediterranean and the Middle East? It is a tale of ambitious adventures and fierce freebooters, of fortunes made and fortunes lost. The Normans made their influence felt across all of western Europe and the Mediterranean, from the British Isles to North Africa, and Lisbon to the Holy Land. In Empires of the Normans we discover how they combined military might and political savvy with deeply held religious beliefs and a profound sense of their own destiny. For a century and a half, they remade Europe in their own image, and yet their heritage was quickly forgotten—until now.

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I AM NORWELL ROBERTS by Norwell Roberts, read by Ben Onwukwe - audiobook extract

Norwell Roberts, the Met's first Black police officer in 1967, found out he had a new job the same way the rest of the country did—from a Daily Telegraph headline that read 'Met to Have First Coloured Policeman'. From that day forward his face became a symbol—of acceptance, of a diverse police force, of a changing Britain. He was turned into the poster boy for progressive policing—but his day-to-day reality was anything but. Greeted with prejudice, ridicule and rejection, he refused to quit. And thus began an extraordinary career that placed him on the frontlines for a tumultuous period in Britain's history. Stationed at embassies, anti-war protests and riots, his race singled him out and landed him on front pages around the world. This is the story of the man behind the headlines, in his own words. Conversations about the police as an institution have never been more heated or more urgent than they are today, but to appreciate the present and how far we have come we sometimes need to revisit the past, no matter how painful. Honest, moving and impossible to forget, I Am Norwell Roberts is a story of resilience against the odds, and of one man's ability to make a difference.

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CROOKEDWOOD by Liza Costello, read by Aoife McMahon - audiobook extract

One person's banished memory is another's unfinished business. Crookedwood, quiet Irish midlands town, place of secrets, past and present. Sarah left it behind years ago for life in the city, where she's now a rising star of the Dublin culinary scene. She's home to help her mother sell the family farm. One evening, while out walking in the nearby woods, Sarah is chased by a man and his vicious dog, narrowly escaping injury. In the days to follow—as painful memories resurface of another dark night in the woods years before—further unsettling events unfold, and Sarah becomes convinced that she is under threat, despite the reassurances of those close to her. What might she have stumbled upon on her walk? Who could be after her, and why? As Sarah closes in on hidden agendas at work in the town, dangerous forces close in on her. It soon becomes clear that, in order to survive, Sarah must return to the dark place where it all began. Crookedwood is a compulsive psychological thriller about buried trauma, small-town vendettas and how, in the dark woods, the only person who can save you is yourself.