Audiobooks narrated by John Hopkins

Operation Pedestal: The Fleet that Battled to Malta 1942

The Sunday Times bestseller 'One of the most dramatic forgotten chapters of the war, as told in a new book by the incomparable Max Hastings' DAILY MAIL In August 1942, beleaguered Malta was within weeks of surrender to the Axis, because its 300,000 people could no longer be fed. Churchill made a personal decision that at all costs, the 'island fortress' must be saved. This was not merely a matter of strategy, but of national prestige, when Britain's fortunes and morale had fallen to their lowest ebb. The largest fleet the Royal Navy committed to any operation of the western war was assembled to escort fourteen fast merchantmen across a thousand of miles of sea defended by six hundred German and Italian aircraft, together with packs of U-boats and torpedo craft. The Mediterranean battles that ensued between 11 and 15 August were the most brutal of Britain's war at sea, embracing four aircraft-carriers, two battleships, seven cruisers, scores of destroyers and smaller craft. The losses were appalling: defeat seemed to beckon. This is the saga Max Hastings unfolds in his first full length narrative of the Royal Navy, which he believes was the most successful of Britain's wartime services. As always, he blends the 'big picture' of statesmen and admirals with human stories of German U-boat men, Italian torpedo-plane crews, Hurricane pilots, destroyer and merchant-ship captains, ordinary but extraordinary seamen. Operation Pedestal describes catastrophic ship sinkings, including that of the aircraft-carrier Eagle, together with struggles to rescue survivors and salvage stricken ships. Most moving of all is the story of the tanker Ohio, indispensable to Malta's survival, victim of countless Axis attacks. In the last days of the battle, the ravaged hulk was kept under way only by two destroyers, lashed to her sides. Max Hastings describes this as one of the most extraordinary tales he has ever recounted. Until the very last hours, no participant on either side could tell what would be the outcome of an epic of wartime suspense and courage.

Max Hastings (Author), John Hopkins (Narrator)

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This is the Night They Come For You: Bestselling author of The Fine Art of Invisible Detection

Brought to you by Penguin. On a stifling afternoon at Police HQ in Algiers, Superintendent Taleb, coasting towards retirement, with not even an air-conditioned office to show for his long years of service, is handed a ticking time bomb of a case which will take him deep into Algeria's troubled past and its fraught relationship with France. To his dismay, he is assigned to work with Agent Hidouchi, an intimidating representative of the country's feared secret service, who makes it clear she intends to call the shots. They are instructed to pursue a former agent, now on the run after twenty years in prison for his part in a high-level corruption scandal. But their search will lead them inexorably towards a greater mystery, surrounding a murder that took place in Paris more than fifty years ago. Uncovering the truth may be his responsibility, but Taleb is well aware that no-one in Algeria wants to be reminded of the dark deeds carried out in the struggle for independence - or in the violence that has racked the nation since. Before long, he will face a choice he has long sought to avoid, between self-preservation and doing the right thing. And, ultimately, the choice may not even be his to make. 'The world's greatest storyteller' THE GUARDIAN 'One of the finest crime writers of any generation' DAILY MAIL © Robert Goddard (P) Penguin Audio 2022

Robert Goddard (Author), John Hopkins, Philip Arditti (Narrator)

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She Lies in Wait

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of She Lies in Wait by Gytha Lodge, read by John Hopkins, Aimee-Ffion Edwards, Joe Coen and Gytha Lodge. Six friends. One killer. Who do you trust? On a hot July night in 1983, six school friends go camping in the forest. Bright and brilliant, they are destined for great things, and young Aurora Jackson is dazzled to be allowed to tag along. Thirty years later, a body is discovered. DCI Sheens is called to the scene, but he already knows what's waiting for him: Aurora Jackson, found at long last. But that's not all. The friends have all maintained their innocence, but the body is found in a hideaway only the six of them knew about. It seems the killer has always lurked very close to home...

Gytha Lodge (Author), Aimee-Ffion Edwards, Gytha Lodge, Joe Coen, John Hopkins (Narrator)

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SBS – Silent Warriors: The Authorised Wartime History

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER ‘A terrific book … It really is one of the most enjoyable histories I’ve read in many a year’ JAMES HOLLAND ‘An absolute must-read if you are a fan of derring-do and Andy McNab. I am going to be telling everyone to buy it’ ROB RINDER, TALK RADIO THE FIRST AUTHORISED HISTORY OF THE SBS. Britain’s SBS – or Special Boat Service – was the world’s first maritime special operations unit. Founded in the dark days of 1940, it started as a small and inexperienced outfit that leaned heavily on volunteers’ raw courage and boyish enthusiasm. It went on to change the course of the Second World War – and has served as a model for special forces ever since. The fledgling unit’s first mission was a daring beach reconnaissance of Rhodes in the spring of 1941. Over the next four years, the SBS and its affiliates would carry out many more spectacular operations in the Mediterranean, the Atlantic, the Channel and the Far East. These missions – including Operation Frankton, the daredevil attempt by the ‘Cockleshell Heroes’ to paddle up the Garonne river and sink Axis ships in Bordeaux harbour – were some of the most audacious and legendary of the war. Paddling flimsy canoes, and armed only with knives, pistols and a few sub-machine guns, this handful of brave and determined men operated deep behind enemy lines in the full knowledge that if caught they might be executed. Many were. Yet their many improbable achievements – destroying enemy ships and infrastructure, landing secret agents, tying up enemy forces, spreading fear and uncertainty, and, most importantly, preparing the ground for D-Day – helped to make an Allied victory possible. Written with the full cooperation of the modern SBS – the first time this ultra-secretive unit has given its seal of approval to any book – and exclusive access to its archives, SBS: Silent Warriors allows Britain’s original special forces to emerge from the shadows and take their proper and deserved place in our island story.

Saul David (Author), John Hopkins (Narrator)

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Watching from the Dark

Brought to you by Penguin. Aidan Poole logs on to his laptop late at night to Skype his girlfriend, Zoe. To his horror, he realises that there is someone else in her flat, and Aidan can only listen to the sounds of a violent struggle - and then the chilling sound of silence. Aidan is desperate to find out if Zoe is OK. But then why is he so hesitant to call the police? When his messages finally reach them, DCI Jonah Sheen's and his team take the case - and discover the body. They soon find that no-one has a bad word to say about Zoe, a big-hearted young woman at the centre of a curious web of waifs and strays, every one relying on her for support. Each of these so-called friends is hiding dark secrets and buried resentments: has one of them been driven to do something unspeakable? Or might Aidan have the biggest secret of them all? © Gytha Lodge 2020 (P) Penguin Audio 2020

Gytha Lodge (Author), John Hopkins, Vinette Robinson (Narrator)

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OK, Mr. Field

Mr. Field wants a new life, a life cleansed of the old one's disappointments. A concert pianist on the London scene, his career is upended when the train he is travelling on crashes into the wall at the end of a tunnel. On a whim, he uses his compensation pay-out to buy a house he has seen only once in a newspaper photograph. Together with his wife, Mim, Mr. Field sets out in the hope that the house will make him happier, or at least less unhappy.

Katharine Kilalea (Author), John Hopkins (Narrator)

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The Missing of the Somme

Geoff Dyer (Author), John Hopkins (Narrator)

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Envy

'Compulsive reading' JANE CORRY 'Full of tension' KAREN HAMILTON She wants your life - and she'll do anything to get it... Erica has always wanted to be exactly like her neighbour, Faye: beautiful, thin, and a mother. But Faye's life isn't as perfect as it seems - she has a terrible secret, and slowly but surely, it is threatening to destroy her and everything she holds dear. When Faye's daughter Tamsin goes missing after school, the police turn to Erica. But is Erica the only one who has been enviously watching Faye? Or is there another threat hiding in the shadows...? An unsettling, claustrophobic thriller about jealousy, greed and desire from Sunday Times bestseller Amanda Robson.

Amanda Robson (Author), Emma Fenney, Gloria Sanders, Gloria Saunders, John Hopkins, Simon Bubb (Narrator)

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Fabulous

Not since Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber have old stories been made to feel so electrically new. Not since Wim Winders' Wings of Desire have the numinous and the everyday been so magically combined. It's in the nature of myth to be infinitely adaptable. Each of these startlingly original stories is set in modern Britain. Their characters include a people-trafficking gang-master and a prostitute, a migrant worker and a cocksure estate agent, an elderly musician doubly befuddled by dementia and the death of his wife, a pest-controller suspected of paedophilia and a librarian so well-behaved that her parents wonder anxiously whether she'll ever find love. They're ordinary people, preoccupied, as we all are now, by the deficiencies of the health service, by criminal gangs and homelessness, by the pitfalls of dating in the age of #metoo. All of their stories, though, are inspired by ones drawn from Graeco-Roman myth, from the Bible or from folk-lore. The ancients invented myths to express what they didn't understand. These witty fables, elegantly written and full of sharp-eyed observation of modern life, are also visionary explorations of potent mysteries and strange passions, charged with the hallucinatory beauty and horror of their originals.

Lucy Hughes-Hallett (Author), John Hopkins, John Hopkinson (Narrator)

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Their Darkest Hour: People Tested to the Extreme in WWII

Brought to you by Penguin. Award-winning writer and filmmaker Laurence Rees has spent nearly 20 years meeting people who were tested to the extreme during World War II. He has come face-to-face with rapists, mass murderers, even cannibals, but he has also met courageous individuals who are an inspiration to us all. His quest has taken him from the Baltic States to Japan, from Poland to America, and from Germany to China. Here he presents 35 of his most electrifying encounters. Meet Estera Frenkiel, a young Jewish woman given the chance to save ten fellow Jews from deportation and death; Peter Lee, a British officer brutally treated by his Japanese captors; Zinaida Pytkina, a female member of the Soviet Union's infamous SMERSH organisation, who took pleasure in killing a German Prisoner; Hiroo Onoda, a Japanese soldier so fanatical that he refused to surrender until 29 years after the end of the war; and Petras Zelionka, a Lithuanian who shot Jewish men, women and children for the Nazis. The devastating first-hand testimony in Their Darkest Hour is both a lasting contribution to our understanding of the war and a powerful insight into the behaviour of human beings in crisis. © Laurence Rees 2007 (P) Penguin Audio 2020

Laurence Rees (Author), John Hopkins (Narrator)

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The Stationmaster’s Daughter

‘Absolutely broke my heart… I didn’t emerge for breath until I’d tearfully finished the last page. Wonderful.’ Being Anne, 5 stars Dorset, 1935. Stationmaster Ted has never cared much for romance. Occupied with ensuring England’s most beautiful railway runs on time, love has always felt like a comparatively trivial matter. Yet when he meets Annie Galbraith on the 8.42 train to Lynford, he can’t help but instantly fall for her. But when the railway is forced to close and a terrible accident occurs within the station grounds, Ted finds his job and any hope of a relationship with Annie hanging in the balance… Present day. Recovering from heartbreak after a disastrous marriage, Tilly decides to escape from the bustling capital and move to Dorset to stay with her dad, Ken. When Ken convinces Tilly to help with the restoration of the old railway, she discovers a diary hidden in the old ticket office. Tilly is soon swept up in Ted’s story, and the fateful accident that changed his life forever. But an encounter with an enigmatic stranger takes Tilly by surprise, and she can’t help but feel a connection with Ted’s story in the past… Don’t miss this haunting and evocative timeslip novel. Readers LOVE The Stationmaster’s Daughter: ‘A MUST READ in my book!!’ NetGalley reviewer, 5 stars ‘Utterly perfect… A timeslip tale that leaves you wanting more… I loved it.’ Goodreads reviewer, 5 stars ‘I may have shed a tear or two!… A definite emotional rollercoaster of a read that will make you both cry and smile.’ Debbie’s Book Reviews, 5 stars ‘Oh my goodness… The pages turned increasingly quickly as my desperation to find out what happened steadily grew and grew.’ Ginger Book Geek, 5 stars ‘Very special… I loved every minute of it.’ Jessica Belmont, 5 stars ‘Brilliant… Very highly recommended!!’ Donnasbookblog, 5 stars ‘Touched my heart! A real page turner… The perfect read for cosying up. I can’t recommend this gorgeous book enough.’ Dash Fan Book reviews, 5 stars

Kathleen Mcgurl (Author), John Hopkins, Sarah Cullum (Narrator)

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The Jaguar Smile

Brought to you by Penguin. An extraordinary and vivid introduction to the country of Nicaragua and its politics from the Booker-winning author of Midnight's Children. In this brilliantly focused and haunting portrait of the people, the politics, the land, and the poetry of Nicaragua, Salman Rushdie brings to the forefront the palpable human facts of a country in the midst of revolution. Rushdie went to Nicaragua in 1986. What he discovered was overwhelming: a land of difficult, often beautiful contradictions, of strange heroes and warrior-poets. Rushdie came to know an enormous range of people, from the foreign minister, a priest, to the midwife who kept a pet cow in her living room. His perceptions always heightened by his sensitivity and his unique flair for language, in The Jaguar Smile, Rushdie brings us the true Nicaragua, where nothing is simple, everything is contested, and life-or-death struggles are an everyday occurrence. 'Stirring and original' New York Times 'A masterpiece of sympathetic yet critical reporting' Edward Said © Salman Rushdie 1987 (P) Penguin Audio 2020

Salman Rushdie (Author), John Hopkins (Narrator)

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Audiobooks Narrated by John Hopkins