Audiobooks narrated by Mark Elstob

This Sovereign Isle: Britain In and Out of Europe

Brought to you by Penguin. Geography comes before history. Islands cannot have the same history as continental plains. The United Kingdom is a European country, but not the same kind of European country as Germany, Poland or Hungary. For most of the 150 centuries during which Britain has been inhabited it has been on the edge, culturally and literally, of mainland Europe. In this succinct book, Tombs shows that the decision to leave the EU is historically explicable - though not made historically inevitable - by Britain's very different historical experience, especially in the twentieth century, and because of our more extensive and deeper ties outside Europe. He challenges the orthodox view that Brexit was due solely to British or English exceptionalism: in choosing to leave the EU, the British, he argues, were in many ways voting as typical Europeans. © Robert Tombs 2021 (P) Penguin Audio 2021

Robert Tombs (Author), Mark Elstob (Narrator)

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Thinking Better: The Art of the Shortcut

How do you remember more and forget less? How can you earn more and become more creative just by moving house? And how do you pack a car boot most efficiently? This is your shortcut to the art of the shortcut. Mathematics is full of better ways of thinking, and with over 2,000 years of knowledge to draw on, Oxford mathematician Marcus du Sautoy interrogates his passion for shortcuts in this fresh and fascinating guide. After all, shortcuts have enabled so much of human progress, whether in constructing the first cities around the Euphrates 5,000 years ago, using calculus to determine the scale of the universe or in writing today’s algorithms that help us find a new life partner. As well as looking at the most useful shortcuts in history – such as measuring the circumference of the earth in 240 BC to diagrams that illustrate how modern GPS works – Marcus also looks at how you can use shortcuts in investing or how to learn a musical instrument to memory techniques. He talks to, among many, the writer Robert MacFarlane, cellist Natalie Clein and the psychologist Suzie Orbach, asking whether shortcuts are always the best idea and, if so, when they use them. With engaging puzzles and conundrums throughout to illustrate the shortcut’s ability to find solutions with speed, Thinking Better offers many clever strategies for daily complex problems.

Marcus Du Sautoy (Author), Mark Elstob (Narrator)

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The Year the World Went Mad

In this astonishing book Mark Woolhouse recounts the history of the COVID-19 pandemic through the eyes of a scientist at the very centre of the action. He explores the failures and successes of the United Kingdom's, and the world's, response to the virus, shows how he briefed both the British and Scottish governments on the scale of the fight ahead, and candidly describes the challenges scientists faced when working with politicians. THIS AUDIOBOOK MAY INCLUDE INFORMATION REGARDING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC. INFORMATION RELATED TO COVID-19 CONTINUES TO EVOLVE. AUDIOBOOKS.COM ENCOURAGES YOU TO SEEK UP-TO-DATE INFORMATION AND GUIDANCE FROM YOUR LOCAL PUBLIC HEALTH UNIT.

Mark Woolhouse (Author), Mark Elstob (Narrator)

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The Western Front: A History of the First World War

Brought to you by Penguin. In the annals of military history, the Western Front stands as an enduring symbol of the folly and futility of war. However, The Western Front, by bestselling military historian Nick Lloyd, reveals that the story is not, as so many assume, one of pointlessness and stupidity. Rather, it is an epic triumph against the odds. With a cast of hundreds and a huge canvas of places and events, Lloyd tells the whole tale, revealing what happened in France and Belgium between August 1914 and November 1918 from the perspective of all the main combatants - including French, British, Belgian, US and, most importantly, German forces. Drawing upon the latest scholarship on the war, wrongly overlooked first-person accounts, and archival material from every angle, Lloyd examines the most decisive campaigns of the Great War and explains the achievements that have been too long obscured by legends of mud, blood and futility. Far from being an arena of static, stale attrition - and despite mistakes and wrong turns along the way - the Western Front was a 'cauldron of war' that saw unprecedented innovation, adaptation and tactical development. Lloyd conveys the visceral assault of the battlefield, and skilfully moves the focus in and out, giving both the bigger picture and telling detail. He recreates the decision-making and experiences of the war as it was at the time as well as with hindsight, and in doing so redefines our understanding of this crucial theatre in this monumental tragedy. © Nick Lloyd 2021 (P) Penguin Audio 2021

Nick Lloyd (Author), Mark Elstob (Narrator)

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The Vinyl Frontier: The Story of NASA's Interstellar Mixtape

In 1977 a group of scientists, artists and writers gathered in a house in Ithaca, New York to work on the most important mixtape ever conceived. It wasn't from one person to another - it was from Earth to the cosmos. When NASA sent Voyagers 1 and 2 on a Grand Tour of the outer planets, they knew the ultimate fate of these plucky probes would be to drift forever in the unimaginable void of interstellar space. With this gloomy outcome in mind, NASA did something optimistic: they commissioned astronomer Carl Sagan to create a message to be fixed to the side of the spacecraft, should they ever be found by aliens. So Carl Sagan made a record. A metal record. The Vinyl Frontier tells the story of Voyager Golden Record, from first phone call to final launch, when Voyager 1 and 2 left our planet bearing their hopeful message from the Summer of '77 to a distant future. "Bursts with gloriously geeky detail." THE TELEGRAPH "A vital addition to the library of anyone with an interest in the Voyager missions, extraterrestrial contact, or Carl Sagan." ASTRONOMY NOW

Jonathan Scott (Author), Mark Elstob (Narrator)

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The Tolls of Death

After their gruelling journeys to Galicia and Scilly, Baldwin and Simon are at last back on the English mainland. Eager to get home, they set off on horseback but only get as far as Cardinham on Bodmin Moor. Here, they are detained by the castellan who requires their help to solve two murders on the estate. The first victim is a widow, found dead with her two children. The second is Serlo, the miller, who has recently been discovered embezzling castle money taken in tolls. As Baldwin and Simon begin a double investigation, they must look beneath the village friendships and family loyalties to find an evil killer and secure Cardinham's safety.

Michael Jecks (Author), Mark Elstob (Narrator)

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The Templar's Penance

Baldwin Furnshill and Bailiff Simon Puttock have been granted leave to go on pilgrimage. Together they travel across Europe to Portugal, but danger seems to follow them, as they are among the first on the scene when a beautiful young girl is found brutally raped and murdered on the hillside of Santiago de Compostela. Baldwin and Simon lend their investigative skills to the ensuing enquiry headed by the local pesquisidore, Munio. With so many keen minds on the case it can only be a matter of time before the culprit is found. But they are reckoning without the unexpected appearance of a face from Baldwin's past – a face which looks set to threaten both the investigation and Baldwin's very future.

Michael Jecks (Author), Mark Elstob (Narrator)

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The Outlaws of Ennor

On their return home from their pilgrimage, Baldwin and Simon's ship is attacked off the coast of the Scilly Isles by pirates and Simon looks on in horror as Baldwin is swept overboard. Washed ashore on the tiny island of Ennor, Simon is distraught to think that his closest friend is dead, but he has to put aside his grief when the master of the castle orders him to investigate a murder. Meanwhile, Baldwin himself has been washed up on St Nicholas and is nursed back to health by the beautiful Tedia. He uncovers a different picture of the island as he too begins to investigate the murder. Can Baldwin and Simon's parallel investigations uncover the truth?

Michael Jecks (Author), Mark Elstob (Narrator)

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The Nazi Conspiracy: The Secret Plot to Kill Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin

A major international bestseller. The little-known true story of a Nazi plot to kill Winston Churchill, President Franklin Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin at the height of World War II, and how it was averted. In 1943 only three men stood in Hitler's way; Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin. As the war against Nazi Germany raged, the Allied leaders desperately needed to meet face-to-face and discuss their strategy. Facing extreme danger, they travelled to Tehran to meet in secret. Yet when the Nazis found out about the meeting, their own covert plan took shape-an assassination plot. A true story filled with daring rescues, body doubles, and political intrigue, The Nazi Conspiracy details this pivotal meeting of the Big Three and the deadly Nazi scheme that could've changed history. In page-turning detail, it shows the greatest political minds of the twentieth century at work and reveals how they strategized to defeat the enemy, all whilst coming close to world-shattering disaster.

Brad Meltzer, Josh Mensch (Author), Mark Elstob (Narrator)

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The Mathematics of the Gods and the Algorithms of Men: A Cultural History

Brought to you by Penguin. The complexity of mathematics - its abstract rules and obscure symbols - can seem very distant from the everyday. There are those things that are real and present, it is supposed, and then there are mathematical concepts: creations of our mind, mysterious tools for those unengaged with the world. Yet, from its most remote history and deepest purpose, mathematics has served not just as a way to understand and order, but also as a foundation for the reality it describes. In this elegant book, mathematician and philosopher Paolo Zellini offers a brief cultural and intellectual history of mathematics, ranging widely from the paradoxes of ancient Greece to the sacred altars of India, from Mesopotamian calculus to our own contemporary obsession with algorithms. Masterful and illuminating, The Mathematics of the Gods and the Algorithms of Men transforms our understanding of mathematical thinking, showing that it is inextricably linked with the philosophical and the religious as well as the mundane - and, indeed, with our own very human experience of the universe. © Paolo Zellini 2020 (P) Penguin Audio 2020

Paolo Zellini (Author), Mark Elstob (Narrator)

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The Mad Monk of Gidleigh

As the winter of 1323 descends upon a windswept chapel on the edge of Dartmoor, who could blame the young priest, Father Mark, for seeking affection from Mary, the miller's daughter? But when Mary, and her unborn child, are found dead, Mark is the obvious suspect. Called to investigate, Sir Baldwin de Furnshill and his friend Bailiff Simon Puttock soon begin to have their doubts. Could one of Mary's many admirers have murdered her in a fit of jealousy? Or might it be someone even closer to home? By the time their search is over, life for Baldwin and Simon, and their families, will never be quite the same again.

Michael Jecks (Author), Mark Elstob (Narrator)

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The History of England Volume 1: From the Invasion of Julius Caesar to King John

Though David Hume (1711-1776) is now best known for his role as a prominent philosopher of the Enlightenment rather than an historian, it was his momentous six-volume The History of England that really brought him national attention during his lifetime. It came out in instalments between 1754 and 1762 and proved an instant success. As it covers the ground from Julius Caesar to James II and the Glorious Revolution, it may not be so surprising that it is now overshadowed by A Treatise on Human Nature and An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding. Surely its limited purview – taking English history only to 1688, virtually a century before Hume – would seem of limited interest to 21st century readers? This is not the case. Hume undertook widespread and careful research in his preparation for his History, as is evidenced by the voluminous references underpinning his information. Furthermore, he was relatively close to many key events in English history – not least the periods of the Stuarts, Cromwell and the Interregnum. This underpins the sense of authority which pervades his history – for Hume's purpose is not just to present the facts, but to dress them colourfully with character and opinion. For example, the account of each monarch closes with a vivid assessment of the reign and personality. In conjunction with Hume's lively, even challenging literary style, The History of England is entertaining and thoughtful as well as informative. This is shown from the opening book. Not surprisingly, this volume covers the greatest number of years; the increasing availability of historical record allows for far greater detail. But Hume is still fascinating as he discusses the passage of time from Julius Caesar, through the advent of William the Conqueror and the Normans, to the death of King John in 1216. Starting the story here sets up the listener for what is unquestionably a varied and exciting journey.

David Hume (Author), Mark Elstob (Narrator)

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Audiobooks Narrated by Mark Elstob