Showing results by narrator "Olivia Dowd" in All Categories

Margo is a solitary live-in nanny for an upper-class Kensingon family. Cora is a promiscuous dancer on the cusp of a big break, living hand-to-mouth in a run-down London flat. Different though they are, an unspeakable incident from childhood haunts them both. When the terrible secret comes to light, their fragile existences shatter, pitting them against each other in a race for survival.

From getting the best out of others, to thinking more creatively about financial problems (even without maths skills), Jo Owen tackles 50 of the most common 'thinking' challenges that can derail the best-laid plans and intentions. Be more decisive in the face of uncertainty, make better decisions for you and your colleagues, and tackle any of the unexpected problems that our busy work lives can throw at us, with Smart Thinking.

At just 20 years old, Tara Tremain has everything: she's a trainee doctor, engaged to the man of her dreams—a passionate American biology student called Alex Carter. But just when life seems perfect, Alex betrays her in the worst way possible. Ten years later, she’s moved on. But when she’s pulled back into her wealthy family’s orbit for an unmissable party in the heart of Costa Rica, she finds herself flung into crisis: a child is desperately ill and the only remedy is several days’ trek into the heart of the jungle.

Westminster in the 2020s, where the business of governing is the last thing on the agenda for anyone worth their salt. In the SW1 bubble, politics moves fast, schemes are hatched and foiled - through both accident and conspiracy - within hours, and sex and power preside. When Bobby Cliveden decides to campaign against the closure of her local mental health unit, she scarcely thought it would take her straight to the heart of the UK's bustling political centre.

People disappear when they most want to be seen. Jess Walker, middle child of a middle class family, has perfected the art of vanishing in plain sight. But when she arrives at a concrete university campus under flat, grey East Anglian skies, her world flares with colour. Drawn into a tightly knit group of rule breakers - led by their maverick teacher, Lorna Clay - Jess begins to experiment with a new version of herself. But the dynamic between the friends begins to darken as they share secrets, lovers and finally a tragedy.

Twenty-one years ago, Dr Richard Carter and his wife, Pamela, were killed in what has become the most infamous double murder of the modern age. Their 10-year-old daughter - nicknamed the Angel of Death - spent eight years in a children’s secure unit and is living quietly under an assumed name with a family of her own. Now, on the anniversary of the trial, a documentary team has tracked down her older sister, compelling her to break two decades of silence.

Maggie is trapped. Dumped on her wedding day, rejected by her family and hounded by a man determined to make her suffer. Charlotte is desperate. Double-crossed by her only friend and facing total ruin, she will go to any lengths to save what matters. Two women, one night. A decision that will change everything.

In CLEAVAGE Prime minister Eric Courteney, fresh from another scandal, realises he has his work cut out when the Labour offensive kicks off with the charismatic Vicky Tennyson and handsome Christian Eccles at the helm, both dead set on an end to Conservative rule. The desperate Tories resort to hiring maverick strategist Callum Gallagher to get them out of a fix. Gallagher's methods are unusual in the extreme and kept from his employers. As he and his data geeks travel deep into the data, sieving the red-hot web searches of the unsuspecting electorate, it becomes clear that sex sells.

London, Burning is a novel about the end of the 1970s and the end of an era. It concerns a nation divided against itself, a government trembling on the verge of collapse, a city fearful of what is to come and a people bitterly suspicious of one another. In other words, it is also a novel about now. Vicky Tress is a young policewoman on the rise who becomes involved in a corruption imbroglio with CID. Hannah Strode is an ambitious young reporter with a speciality for skewering the rich and powerful.

An old house, a secret heartbreak, a second chance at love. Lizzie Greene is about to lose everything when her husband suddenly dies and his debts come to light. To make ends meet she opens up her quirky old house to be used as a set for a film based on a bestselling romance novel. Her life and household are turned upside down when a whole cast of colourful characters enters her family's lives: from an enigmatic author, a handsome location scout, a brooding director, to a heart-throb leading man, never mind her now ex-mother-in-law camped out in her drive.

Written by a recognized trainer for both LinkedIn and Meta, Smart Social Media is grounded in the insights gained from hands-on consultancy work, plus hours of personal research, observations, and in-depth reviews of the platforms themselves. Both practical and informative, Smart Social Media is full of actionable insights and valuable guidance that will emphasize the importance of using social media strategically, to enhance brand awareness, boost engagement, build relationships with your customers, and keep up with ever-changing consumer behaviour.

Marguerite Demers is 24 when she leaves Paris for the sleepy southern village of Saint-Sulpice, to take up a job as a live-in nurse. Her charge is Jerome Lanvier, once one of the most powerful men in the village, and now dying alone in his large and secluded house, surrounded by rambling gardens. Manipulative and tyrannical, Jerome has scared away all his previous nurses.

Frances’ parents were not prepared for her birth: they had a blanket and an easel and some paint, but not anything useful, like a car or a phone. So it’s no wonder Frankie has always had a temper. She was born on a beach, in a storm. What Frances was not prepared for was dying in a freak natural disaster that wiped out her whole town. Waking up 100 years later, Frances finds a whole load of new things to be angry about. And that’s before the visitors start turning up, treating her home like it’s a tourist attraction. Which it is.

Dismissed for misconduct from the Met’s Homicide Command after refusing to follow orders, unable to pay her bills (or hold down a relationship), Detective Inspector Robin Lyons has no choice but to take her teenage daughter Lennie and move back in with her parents in the city she thought she’d escaped forever at 18. In Birmingham, sharing a bunkbed with Lennie and navigating the stormy relationship with her mother, Robin works as a benefit-fraud investigator - to the delight of those wanting to see her cut down to size.

Bettina and Bart have grown up as best friends, so surely they will end up together? After all, Bettina is young, rich, headstrong...and gay. Bart is young, rich, charismatic...and also, definitely, gay. Any doubts are dispelled by, in short order: that ghastly kiss; a torrid encounter for Bettina in the school boiler-rooms; and an eye-opening Parisian visit for Bart. Society will never stand for it. What else can they do but enter into a ‘lavender marriage’ and carry on indulging their true natures in secret?

The river can take you home. The river can take you under.... In their ramshackle Somerset home, its gardens running down to the river, the Sorrells have gathered for a last-minute wedding. Lucy is desperate to reunite her fractured family. Eve is fighting to keep her perfect life together. Their father hovers at the edge of events with his second wife. Their mother, Kit, a famous author whose stories have run dry, still seethes with resentment towards her youngest child. And Margot, who left home eight years ago under a black cloud, is forced to come face to face with her darkness.

Having access to natural, green spaces is vital to our physical and mental wellbeing. But, as urban development spreads, grey has become the new green. Already, concrete outweighs every tree, bush and shrub on Earth. Nature deprivation is a fast-growing epidemic, harming the health and happiness of hundreds of millions of people worldwide - especially vulnerable and marginalized groups. To combat this, Nature Is a Human Right, founded by Ellen Miles in 2020, is working to make access to green space a recognised right for all, not a privilege.

When a dead body is found in the Thames, caught in the chains of HMS Belfast, it begins a search for a missing woman and confirms a sense that in London a person can become invisible once outside their community - and that assumes they even have a community. A policeman, a documentary film maker and an Irish nurse named Chrissie all respond to the death of the unknown woman in their own ways. London is a place of random meetings, shifting relationships - and some, like Chrissie intersect with many. The filmmaker and the policeman meanwhile have safe homes with wives - or do they?

On 20 November 1974, British Labour MP and Privy Counsellor John Stonehouse faked his death in Miami and, using a forged identity, entered Australia hoping to escape his old life and start anew. One month later, his identity was uncovered and he was cautioned: the start of years of legal proceedings. In a tale that involves spies from the communist Czechoslovak secret service, a three-way love affair and the Old Bailey, John’s daughter examines previously unseen evidence, telling the dramatic true story for the first time.

Jonathan Coulter planned for his death meticulously, leaving nothing to chance. His will states that his three adult children must decide between them how to dispose of his estate. If they cannot come together over their inheritance, then they risk losing it. But Liv, Noah and Chloe never agree on anything. And now, with only one weekend to overcome their rivalry, tensions begin to rise.