Showing results by narrator "Charlotte Strevens" in All Categories

Trapped in a burning cabin on a freezing, snow-covered mountain, Selma Falck has no idea where she is or how she got there. She barely makes it out in time as the flames engulf the cabin. With no signs of human habitation nearby, the temperature rapidly dropping and a blizzard approaching, how will she survive? As Selma fights the cold, the hunger and her own wounds, she eventually forms a frightening picture of the past six months. Not only does she have to find a way to stay alive, she needs to make it back to civilization.

Best friends Lisa and Felicity think - maybe, just maybe - they finally have everything sorted out in their lives. Lisa is in a happy relationship with her old flame, and busy mum Felicity has managed to reignite the passion with her husband, Pete, after a romantic getaway. But when Lisa walks in on a half-naked woman in her boyfriend’s flat and Felicity is left reeling from a shocking discovery, it becomes clear that life is nothing but full of surprises....

It’s 1803, and widowed aristocrat Sophy De Browarec must flee France after being exposed as an undercover British agent. Fearing for her life, she returns to Cornwall to seek help from the only living link to her past, Fitzwilliam 'Fitz' Ravensbourne. Lord Ravensbourne has suffered his own share of misfortune, and it has left its mark in more ways than one. He has become a near recluse at the Ravensbourne Estate but still reluctantly accepts Sophy into his home. Sophy and Fitz’s relationship is strained, and her return could bring danger to Ravensbourne....

When Olivia's beloved Aunt Grace passes, she leaves everything to her niece, with one condition: Olivia must travel to Prague and deliver a message to Grace's long-lost true love, Marek. The trouble is, Olivia's world is getting smaller. Since her husband left her one heartbreaking Christmas Eve, she has found even getting into town a challenge, let alone travelling by herself to a different country. But this is one adventure she has to take, if she is to honour Grace.

Vita longs to write plays and poetry - but as a high-born girl in Roman Londinium, her fate is sealed: marriage and children. Then her father is murdered, her mother and brother disappear, and Vita flees from a shadowy enemy. Disguised as a slave at the gladiators' arena, she forges an unlikely bond with Brea, a native Briton gladiatrix - and her wolf. Together, they resolve to discover and bring the killer to justice before Vita's identity is revealed.

Shortlisted for Wales Book of the Year Arrest Me, for I Have Run Away is a stunning short story collection on human nature and identity. Stevie Davies' latest work, it is bound to captivate and charm the listener.

Following the death of her beloved mother Jennifer Worth in 2011, Suzannah Worth discovered amongst her manuscripts a folder simply labelled 'Fifth Book'. Imagine her excitement when she sat down to read and her mother's distinctive voice came flooding back. She found herself once again immersed in the world of the 1950s East End of London. The voices of much loved, familiar characters spoke loud and clear, particularly that of Fred the boiler man, who features extensively in this joyful collection.

Inge was German, half-Jewish, and a Holocaust survivor, all of which she chose to deny. Talented and able, charismatic and infuriating, she surged through life constantly reinventing herself. Sent out of Nazi Germany to the souks of Meknès, she fled a freezing attic in war-torn Brussels to land in a council estate in Birkenhead. London offered the escapee a new start...until her past caught up with her. Triumph finally came in France where nobody knew who she was—least of all the friends who adored her.

What did it feel like to be a woman living in Paris during the years 1939 to 1949? These were years of fear, power, aggression, courage, deprivation and secrets until, finally, there was renewal and retribution. Even at the darkest moments, dogs and cats might be abandoned howling on the street, the swastika flew from the Eiffel Tower and danger lurked on every corner, but glamour was ever present.

Covering nearly 2500 years, from 480 BC to 11 September 2001, Days that Changed the World tells the stories of 50 days that truly made history. Included are the Crucifixion, the Battle of Waterloo, the Apollo 11 Moon landing, and the fall of the Berlin Wall. For each, Days that Changed the World explains the events of the day and their causes, providing an insight into the era and an understanding of wider themes of world history.

1842. Stranded on Deception Island in the South Atlantic, her whaling captain husband lost at sea, Karina is destitute and desperate. Disguised as a cabin boy, she stows away on a British ship. But Karina is about to get a nasty surprise. As she grows closer to ship's surgeon Joseph Hooker, Karina and the rest of the crew find themselves pushed to the limits both physically and emotionally as conditions worsen on board.

Cousin to Elizabeth I - and possibly Henry VIII's illegitimate granddaughter - Lettice Knollys had a life of dizzying highs and pitiful lows. Entangled in a love triangle with Robert Dudley and Elizabeth I, banished from court, plagued by scandals, embroiled in treason, Lettice would lose a husband and son to the executioner's ax. In the first ever biography of this remarkable woman, Nicola Tallis takes us through her dramatic life and the grand sweep of the Tudor Age and the events that define it.

It's 1969, and the summer of love still lingers in London, but Gilda is haunted by her wartime past. She walked out on her son, Reuben, when he was just a boy and fears he'll never forgive her. When he marries a small, blonde gentile, she takes it as the ultimate rejection. Her cold, distant son seems transformed by love. What does his new wife have that she doesn't? As Gilda's obsession builds, she starts to follow her daughter-in-law, copies her hairstyle and breaks into the newlyweds' home.

When Arlette Blaise sees a German plane fly over the family farm in 1940, she’s comforted by the fact that the occupying forces are far away in the north of the country. Surely the war will not reach her family in the idyllic French countryside near to the small town of Oradour-sur-Glane? But then Saul Epstein, a young Jewish man driven from his home by the Nazis, arrives at the farm, and Arlette begins to realise that her peaceful existence might be gone for good....

The year is 1126. Heulwen, daughter of Welsh Marcher baron Guyon FitzMiles, has grown up with her father's ward, Adam de Lacey. There has always been a spark between them, but when Heulwen marries Ralf le Chevalier, a devastated Adam absents himself on various diplomatic missions. When Ralf is killed, Heulwen's father considers a new marriage for her with his neighbour's son, Warrin de Mortimer. Adam, recently returned to England, is determined not to lose Heulwen a second time....

Renard, heir to Ravenstow, is a crusader in Antioch. Summoned home to his ailing father, Renard brings Olwen with him, an exotic dancing girl whose sensuous beauty has ensnared him. Yet Renard is already betrothed to the innocent Elene. Torn between Olwen and Elene, Renard's personal dilemma is set against a background of increasing civil strife as Ranulf of Chester, his greedy neighbour, strives to snatch his lands.

Jude Shelley, the daughter of a prominent cabinet minister, was assaulted and left for dead in the river Thames. Her attacker was never caught. A year later forensic psychologist Alice Quentin is asked to reexamine the case. Then another body is found: an elderly priest, washed up at Westminster Pier. An ancient glass bead is tied to his wrist. Alice is certain that the Shelleys are hiding something - and that there will be more victims unless she can persuade them to share what they know.

It was meant to be the perfect romantic holiday. But then Flora Bexton’s boyfriend does the unthinkable, and she responds in the only logical way: she steals his motorbike and escapes for a holiday by herself on the Welsh coast. Far from the lonely trip she imagined, Flora soon finds comfort at the friendly local Art Café, where the legendary hot chocolate and cake help to ease her troubled mind. And when Aussie Welsh lifeguard Jake Foley steps in just when Flora needs help the most, she realises that her ‘holiday’ feels more like home with every passing day.

In 1935 Evelyn Shillington started a diary, little knowing the years of turmoil it would cover. Eve joined her beloved husband, Captain Rex Shillington, whenever she could on his postings, giving her a unique view into army life. Through the abdication crisis to the turbulent years of the Second World War, Eve documented it all with an inimitable spirit and brave humour. The diaries lay forgotten in an attic for years until an enterprising antiques dealer discovered them by chance. Published 70 years later, they offer a new perspective into life on the home front, a firsthand account that was almost lost forever.

Sentenced to death for a simple confidence trick, Mary Jebb escapes the gallows...but her reprieve is harsh: seven years in the unforgiving penal colony of Botany Bay. Yet Mary is determined not to be forgotten, sending two pennies, engraved with a promise, to the two men who sealed her fate. Timid artist Grace Moore jumps at the opportunity to marry handsome gentleman Michael Croxon - happy if only to get away from her drunken father.