Tim Vicary

A level 1 Oxford Bookworms Library graded readers. Written for Learners of English by Tim Vicary, Sarah Harland is nineteen, and she is in prison. At the airport, they find heroin in her bag. So, now she is waiting to go to court. If the court decides that it was her heroin, then she must die. She says she did not do it. But if she did not, who did? Only two people can help Sarah: her mother, and an old boyfriend who does not love her now. Can they work together? Can they find the real...

A level 1 Oxford Bookworms Library graded reader. Written for Learners of English by Tim Vicary. A woman finds a man on a beach. He is very cold, his clothes are wet, and he cannot speak. The woman phones for help, and an ambulance comes and takes the man to hospital. In hospital they ask the man questions, but he does not answer. He still cannot speak – or does not want to speak. Who is he, this strange man from the sea? What is his name? Where did he come from? And why do they call him the...

A level 3 Oxford Bookworms Library graded reader. Written for Learners of English by Tim Vicary. Charles Bravo died from the poison antimony. He took three days to die, and the doctors could do nothing to help him. There were three people who had reasons for wanting Charles Bravo dead – Florence Bravo herself, Charles Bravo's new young wife; Dr James Gully, Florence's former lover; and Mrs Jane Cox, Florence's friend and companion. But the enquiry into the death in 1876 could not decide who...

A level 1 Oxford Bookworms Library graded reader. Written for Learners of English by Tim Vicary. At the start of this play, the court room is full for today's trial. Two young men, Simon Clark and Dan Smith, stand up. The clerk asks, 'Are you guilty of the murder of Mary Jones?' 'Not guilty!' they reply. But perhaps they are guilty. The police found the murder weapon in their stolen car, and there was blood on Simon's face. If the court finds them guilty, they will go to prison for a very long...

A level 1 Oxford Bookworms Library graded reader. Written for Learners of English by Tim Vicary. He is not beautiful. His mother does not want him, children run away from him. People laugh at him, and call him 'The Elephant Man'. Then someone speaks to him – and listens to him! At the age of 27, Joseph Merrick finds a friend for the first time in his life. This is a true and tragic story. It is also a famous film.

A level 1 Oxford Bookworms Library graded reader. Written for Learners of English by Tim Vicary. In the summer of 1910, a race began. A race to be the first man at the South Pole, in Antarctica. Robert Falcon Scott, an Englishman, left London in his ship, the Terra Nova, and began the long journey south. Five days later, another ship also began to travel south. And on this ship was Roald Amundsen, a Norwegian. But Antarctica is the coldest place on earth, and it is a long, hard journey over...

A level 3 Oxford Bookworms Library graded reader. Retold for Learners of English by Tim Vicary. On a September day in 1821, in the church of a Yorkshire village, a man and six children stood around a grave. They were burying a woman: the man’s wife, the children’s mother. The children were all very young, and within a few years the two oldest were dead, too. Close to the wild beauty of the Yorkshire moors, the father brought up his young family. Who had heard of the Brontës of Haworth then?...

A level 3 Oxford Bookworms Library graded reader. Written for Learners of English by Tim Vicary. Is there anyone who has not looked at the dark sky, and the shining points of light above us, and asked themselves questions about what is out there? Where did our planet come from? When did the universe begin? Could we live on another planet? And one question above all – is there life anywhere else in space? Begin a journey into space – where spacecraft travel at thousands of kilometres an hour,...

A level 3 Oxford Bookworms Library graded readers. Written for Learners of English by Tim Vicary. When a large plane is hijacked, the Prime Minister looks at the list of passengers and suddenly becomes very, very frightened. There is a name on the list that the Prime Minister knows very well – too well. There is someone on that plane who will soon be dead – if the hijackers can find out who he is! And there isn’t much time. One man lies dead on the runway. In a few minutes the hijackers will...

A Starter level Oxford Bookworms Library graded reader. Written for Learners of English by Tim Vicary. 'Every day someone steals money from people near the shops. We must stop this,' says Dan, a police officer. The police use TV cameras but it is not easy because there are so many suspects – who is the robber?

A level 1 Oxford Bookworms Library graded reader. Written for Learners of English by Tim Vicary. A beautiful young Indian girl, and a brave Englishman. Black eyes, and blue eyes. A friendly smile, a laugh, a look of love… But this is North America in 1607, and love is not easy. The girl is the daughter of King Powhatan, and the Englishman is a white man. And the Indians of Virginia do not want the white men in their beautiful country. This is the famous story of Pocahontas, and her love for...

A level 1 Oxford Bookworms Library graded readers. Written for Learners of English by Tim Vicary. England and Scotland in the 1500s. Two famous queens – Mary, the Catholic Queen of Scots, and Elizabeth I, the Protestant Queen of England. It was an exciting and a dangerous time to be alive, and to be a queen. Mary was Queen of Scotland when she was one week old. At sixteen, she was also Queen of France. She was tall and beautiful, with red-gold hair. Many men loved her and died for her. But...

A level 3 Oxford Bookworms Library graded readers. Written for Learners of English by Tim Vicary. London: November. Terrorists blow up the Queen’s coach outside Parliament. The Queen escapes, but five people are killed, and forty others badly hurt – ordinary, innocent people, like Alan Cole, the Queen’s coachman, who loses his leg in the bombing. And for Alan and his daughter Jane there is more terror to come, in the search for the truth behind the bombing. Will the terrorists be caught and...

A level 2 Oxford Bookworms Library graded readers. Written for Learners of English by Tim Vicary. All they could hear was the wind, and the waves crashing on to the rocks. All they could see was the night. They could not see the ship, broken in two. They could not see the people holding on to the dark wet rock, slowly dying of cold. And they could not hear the cries for help – only the wind. How could they save the people on the rock? Was their wooden boat stronger than the iron ship? Were a...

A level 2 Oxford Bookworms Library graded readers. Written for Learners of English by Tim Vicary. Ellen Shore’s family is an ordinary American family, and Ellen is six years old when her brother Al is born. Her parents are very pleased to have a son, but Ellen is not pleased, because now baby Al comes first. And when they are adults, Al still comes first. He begins a rock band and makes records. Soon he is rich and famous – very rich, but he gives nothing to his sister Ellen. She has a...

A level 3 Oxford Bookworms Library graded readers. Written for Learners of English by Tim Vicary. The job was too good. There had to be a problem – and there was. John Duncan was an honest man, but he needed money. He had children to look after. He was ready to do anything, and his bosses knew it. They gave him the job because he couldn’t say no; he couldn’t afford to be honest. And the job was like a poison inside him. It changed him and blinded him, so that he couldn’t see the real...