Timeline

An old man wearing a brown robe is found wandering disoriented in the Arizona desert. He is miles from any human habitation and has no memory of how he got there, or who he is. The only clue to his identity is the plan of a medieval monastery.

Under the Tuscan Sun

Frances Mayes, poet, gourmet cook and travel writer, pens the door on a wondrous new world when she buys and restores an abandoned villa in the spectacular Tuscan countryside. From her kitchen and simple garden she creates delicious recipes.

Mystic River

Three young boys and playmates grow up in Southie, a neighbourhood in Boston. Jimmy, and Sean have marked their names in fresh cement, and Davey is just about to write his name when a car drives up and a man says they broke the law.

Cold Mountain

Set against the backdrop of the American Civil War, this is the story of a wounded soldier, Inman, who escapes the army and makes his way home to Cold Mountain.

The Return of the King

Tolkien was a linguist and Oxford scholar of dead languages, with strong ideas about the importance of myth. His epic recounts the Great War of the Ring and the closing of Middle-Earth’s Third Age, a time when magic begins to fade.

Touching the Void

Joe Simpson and Simon Yates set out to climb the west face of the Siula Grande in the Peruvian Andes. It was 1985 and the men were young. The west face had not been climbed before. Following a successful ascent, disaster struck. Simpson fell a short distance.

House of Sand and Fog

When Kathy, a young recovering alcoholic fails to a open a series of tax letters that have been sent to her in error, the State of California seizes the house she and her brother have inherited from her father. The State sells the house at an auction.

The Runaway Jury

Every jury has a leader that the verdict belongs to. In Biloxi, Mississippi, a landmark trial with hundreds of millions of dollars at stake begins routinely, then swerves mysteriously off course. The jury is behaving strangely, and one juror is being watched.

Paycheck

Michael Jennings, a brilliant computer engineer is hired by high-tech corporations for top-secret projects. Once a job is complete, Jennings routinely has his short-term memory erased so as not to divulge any sensitive company information to future clients. Upon completion is handed an envelope filled with random objects.

Master and Commander

Russell Crowe is Lucky Jack Aubrey, the Navy’s greatest fighting captain and Paul Bettany is ship’s doctor Stephen Maturin. The ship, the Surprise, is suddenly attacked by a superior enemy. With the Surprise badly damaged and much of his crew injured, Aubrey — the “Master” of the Surprise and “Commander” of his men — is torn between duty and friendship.