Showing results by narrator "Penelope Rawlins" in All Categories

Nine-year-old Tooly is spirited away from Bangkok by a seductive group of outsiders who take her from city to city across the globe. At 20, she is wandering the streets of Manhattan with a scribbled-on map, scamming strangers for her shadowy protector, Venn. Now, aged 31, she runs a secondhand bookshop on the Welsh borders and has found peace with her strange upbringing - until she's called to return to New York to see her dying father. Warm, hilarious and fizzing with intelligence, The Rise and Fall of Great Powers is a masterpiece about the search for identity.

When Arch turns up at St Grizzle’s, Dani is delighted to introduce her best friend to her new classmates. But she soon discovers that mixing her old life with her new one isn’t quite as easy as she’d imagined. And Arch isn’t the only new pupil - there’s also super-smart Boudicca, who barely says a word to anyone. It’s only when she meets Arch that she perks up and takes to following him everywhere he goes. Then she disappears. With the help of Granny Viv, it’s up to Dani and Arch to find Boudicca...and unravel the truth about this shy tag-along zombie.

Autumn 1940, World War Two: Bombs are raining down, destroying the cities of Britain. The evacuations begin, and soon children are being taken to the country for safety. Teacher Eve Parkins is in charge of one such group. The children are scared and Eve does her best to calm them, but the truth is that she too is haunted by a personal tragedy she cannot put behind her. Their destination is Eel Marsh House. Desolate and forlorn, it is situated on a causeway and is sinking into the treacherous tidal marshes that surround it. Far from home and with no alternative, Eve and the children move in.

When Sheikh Zahir Ra’if Quarishi took a Western woman as his wife, it caused outrage amongst his people. And marrying Sapphire Marshall turned out to be the biggest mistake of Zahir’s life. Cold and untouchable as her jeweled namesake, Sapphire fled the kingdom before sharing the marriage bed, leaving Zahir to face the shame alone – and his bank account five million dollars lighter….

Paul and Elaine have two boys and a beautiful home, yet they find themselves thoroughly, inexplicably stuck. Obsessed with 'making things good again', they spin the quiet terrors of family life into a fantastical frenzy that careens well and truly out of control. From a hilarious encounter in the pantry with a Stepford Wife neighbour, to a hostage situation at the school, Homes lays bare the foundations of marriage and family life.

The first in a new crime series from M. B. Shaw, pen name of best-selling author Tilly Bagshawe. Murder at the Mill introduces listeners to portrait painter and amateur sleuth Iris Grey, who sees the truths of others while struggling to find her own way. Grey arrives at The Mill in Hampshire, commissioned to paint a portrait of Dominic Wetherby, a celebrated author. She quickly finds herself drawn into a world of village gossip, romantic intrigue, buried secrets and murder.

Lord Guy Carlton, late of His Majesty's Regiment and weary from the war in France, has only wine, women and song in mind when he rents No. 67 Clarges Street for the season. He certainly has no desire for a serious attachment - and as for marriage: never!

In a small Kent town in the 1950s, a bewildered little girl is growing up. Ostracised because of her colour, she tries her best to fit in, but nobody wants anything to do with her. A nanny climbs the steps of a smart London address. She’s convinced that her connection to the family behind the door is more than professional. And on the walls of an English stately home, amongst the family portraits, hangs an eighteenth-century oil painting of a mysterious black woman in a silk gown.

Leni loves birds. So when two feather-brained professors visit her island home on a mission to bring back the dodo, she jumps at the chance to help them. But the famous bird has been extinct for more than 300 years - and Sugar King Benny Shuster will stop at nothing to keep it that way. Can Leni and the squabbling professors achieve the impossible?

When she was just fourteen, Jill’s family moved to Walney Island. Initially intoxicated by the freedom of the seaside setting—and fifteen-year-old Andrew Brownstone—she came to learn that her first impressions were very wrong. After making a shocking discovery in Seaview House, Jill fled the scene—a guilty secret she’s carried with her ever since. Now, thirty years later, when the decrepit Seaview House is being demolished, a body is found buried in the garden. But who is the deceased?

Max Walker is the golden boy. He's attractive, intelligent, athletic. He's even nice to his little brother. Max is going to pass his exams with flying colours; he’s going to make his parents proud.

Luca Mazza (38), who was taken ill during a food demonstration at the Fenn House Food and Wine Festival two days ago, is now known to have ingested poison. Lady Beatrice (36), the king's niece, who is working on a refurbishment project at Fenn House with her business partner Perry Juke (34), is believed to be comforting Luca's boss and close friend Sebastiano Marchetti (38), who she began dating last month.

The architect of treachery has been revealed...and Sister Adamanthea is in his clutches. The arch-heretic believes he can bend the devout Battle Sister to his cause, and will stop at nothing to turn one of the Adepta Sororitas away from the Emperor's light and into the embrace of Chaos. Adamanthea must set aside her doubts and fears and marshal her faith in the Emperor if she is to resist temptation and defeat the traitors in her midst.

Infinity "Finn" Blackstone is the 17-year-old daughter of Blackstone's reclusive CEO - but she's never even met him. When disturbing dreams about a past she doesn't remember begin to torment her, Finn knows there's only one person who can provide answers: her father.

1962, Cornwall: Tara Jupp - vicar’s daughter, occasional thief, expert horse-rider and second fiddle to her sister ‘the beauty’ Lucy - sings at a wedding and is spotted by a record producer. With the spotlight suddenly, thrillingly shining on her alone, the roots of Tara’s country existence are shaken free and she is propelled to swinging-'60s London. Plunged into a dazzling new world of fashion, music and heartache, in a city where skirts are being hitched up as fast as the past is being pulled down, can Tara hold the limelight and hold on to who she really is?

Perhaps the most brilliantly successful ghost story ever written, The Turn of the Screw creates a terrifyingly believable impression of innocent children so corrupted by evil that they remain deceptive pictures of innocent beauty. Their governess must struggle alone to confront and exorcise the demons that she believes possess their souls....

Caught between boorish Detective Chief Inspector Richard Fitzwilliam and a killer wedding party, Lady Beatrice must solve the murder to save the big day.

Young theatre nurse Clare Maitland is devastated when her fiancé calls off their dream wedding because he wants to marry someone else. Her friendship with charming surgeon Andrew Darvie provides comfort, but is it enough to mend a broken heart? Meanwhile, Clare's feelings are hurt by the harsh comments of moody but talented Dr. Hugh Sanders. The chance of a nursing job in Scotland seems the answer to all of Clare's problems. But she soon discovers that escaping the men in her life won't be as easy as she imagined.

Bella's new next-door neighbour is Magda. Magda is lots of fun, and soon they are best friends. But Magda is also trouble! She breaks Bella's mum's best tea set, wrecks Bella's room and covers the living room in soot. And in Trouble at School, on Bella's first day at her new school she already has a best friend - or frenemy! - Magda! Bella wants to make a good impression, but with Magda around, things don't always go according to plan.

Maisie Mae's life is complete and utter chaos! She has five stinky brothers, and has to share a bedroom with the terrible twins. They think it's funny to put snails under her duvet, fish-food in her sandwiches and hide her favourite things in the rabbit hutch. What Maisie really, really, really wants is a room where there are No Boys Allowed! And she'll do anything to get it...