Showing results by narrator " Katy Sobey" in All Categories

Cosy up for Christmas with this festive story, starring everyone's favourite Victorian foundling, Hetty Feather!An unexpected gift leads to trouble for Hetty on Christmas Day at the Foundling Hospital, and the dreaded Matron Bottomly is delighted to have an excuse to exclude Hetty from the festive celebrations. Poor Hetty is distraught - but just when it seems that all is lost, a dear friend arrives to whisk her away for a Christmas unlike any other....

Learn how to harness the benefits of mindfulness to take control of your life for the better. With simple breathing exercises, meditation tips, and relaxation techniques, Practical Mindfulness will improve your concentration and help you achieve success. Questionnaires tailor advice to you by enabling you to identify negative patterns of thinking and challenge them using well-respected exercises. Learn how to meditate with step-by-step instructions and gain clarity with expert advice on stress management.

Rob and Emma have made a fresh start, moving away from London and back to her hometown. With their baby daughter Sophie, their family is complete. Until one night, Rob arrives home from a late shift to find baby Sophie crying and on her own. Frantically, he searches the house and surroundings, but Emma has disappeared without a trace. Rob is distraught. Emma couldn’t abandon their child - could she? As rumours spread around the village, Rob uncovers secrets about Emma’s past life that shake his foundations about the woman he thought he married.

Considering herself unsuitable for any other contribution to the war effort, Monica Dickens opts for nursing, imagining herself gliding through the wards, serene in a pure white halo cap. On enrolment, however, she is promptly stripped of all illusions. Intelligent and headstrong, Monica struggles to submit to the iron rule of the Matron and toils over the mountains of menial work that are a trainee's lot. But there are friends among the staff and patients, night-time escapades to dances with dashing army men and her secret writing project to keep her going.

Since having her first child nine years ago, Sarah Ockwell-Smith has worked tirelessly to prepare parents for the birth of their child. An antenatal teacher and a doula, with a background in psychology, she founded an award-winning company Babycalm ™ with one aim in mind—to turn stressed-out new parents and crying babies into happier parents and calmer babies. BabyCalm will help you understand your baby and yourself as a new parent.

When 27-year-old Posy arrives at picture-perfect Oleander House in the Somerset village of Astercombe, she is enchanted. Adopted when she was just a baby, Posy is excited to reconnect with her birth family and help out on the family cider farm with its old stone walls and bees buzzing in the hedgerows. There’s just one tiny problem - her new next-door neighbor. Haughty, handsome vineyard owner Lachlan.

Matriarch Kitty Conlon is missing her son Patrick, proud but fearful of the fate of his Spitfire, while spinster Mavis welcomes a new lodger, WAAF Anna Carswell who is delighted by the Weaver Street welcome after a loveless childhood. At number nine, Maggie Stubbs worries nightly as her daughter Lily patrols the streets to protect the neighbours during air raids in her role as ARP Warden, and when an unexploded bomb is discovered at the allotment, danger comes terrifyingly close to Weaver Street.

In the summer of 1914, vigneron Jerome Méa heads off to war, certain he’ll be home by Christmas. His new bride Sophie, a fifth generation champenoise, is determined to ensure the forthcoming vintages will be testament to their love and the power of the people of Épernay, especially its strong women. But as the years drag on, authorities advise that Jerome is missing, considered dead.

Welcome back to a world where songlight - or telepathy - is either your greatest power or your greatest curse. All four are united by their desire for peace. But peace between the Aylish and Brightland feels more fragile than ever. And there is a new threat, not just to Brightland, but to Ayland and the world beyond. The airship that Rye has discovered is owned by the Sealanders, a race of elite Torches, recently returned to Earth.

How to make potty training stress free for you and your child. The Gentle Potty Training Book is a practical guide to helping your child through one of the most important developmental stages of early childhood. Avoiding strict timelines, rewards and plans that are based solely on a child's gender, Sarah Ockwell-Smith advocates an approach that is based on your child's unique developmental stage - because the gentlest, easiest and most effective potty training happens when you work with your child as a team.

A long time ago, Emmie Blue released a red balloon with a secret message hidden inside - and against all odds, across hundreds of miles of ocean, it was found on a beach in France by a boy called Lucas. Fourteen years later, on the eve of her 30th birthday, Emmie hopes that Lucas is finally about to kiss her. She never expected him to announce that he was marrying someone else! Suddenly Emmie's dreams are shattered and the one person in her life she can rely on is slipping through her fingers. But what if Lucas isn't her forever? What if her love story is only just beginning.

Botanical artist Jane Saville is devastated when her manipulative mother banishes her to the countryside to cover up a sin committed by her sibling. Isolated far from home, she is forced to live an impoverished, secretive life to save the family public shame. Set in the picturesque English countryside, in a forgotten orchard and beneath the ancient spire of Salisbury Cathedral, this is a heart-wrenching story about a woman who finds that in her darkest hour she can harness her greatest strength.

Eleven-year-old Shelley only leaves her bedroom for two minutes, but when she gets back, there's a real, true-life, lavender-eyed baby on her bed. It's far too noisy, smelly and heavy to be a ghost baby - so whose is it? It can't be her mum's - Shelley would have noticed - but it's not like she's around for Shelley to ask, anyway. She's too busy trying to get her horrible ex-boyfriend Scott ('the Toadstool') back, who Shelley definitely does NOT like as much as her mum does. But someone's got to look after the baby, and give her a name.

When Isadora is invited to stay at her friend Zoe's house she's so excited - she hasn't been to a sleepover before! There will be midnight feasts, and staying up all night, it's going to be so much fun! And while she's there, Isadora and Zoe are going to work on their cake for a baking competition at school. But will they be able to resist adding a sprinkling of magic to their creation ...?

Isadora and her family are visiting the Frost Festival, a huge celebration of the winter fairies! There's ice skating, fairground rides, gingerbread houses and lots of delicious fairy hot chocolate. It's magical! But in the hustle and bustle Isadora gets separated from both her family and Pink Rabbit. Can she find them before the grand fairy lights are switched on?

London, 1879. Della Rose scans the crowds until she finds her target. A well-dressed gentleman with a fine gold watch. Stealing it will be easy. Everyone knows she has the quickest hands in the notorious Seven Dials. The gentleman’s name is Cole Winthrop and he’s been watching her for a while, waiting to see whether the scandalous things people say about her are true. Because if they are, he needs her help. Something was stolen from him long ago. And only a thief can get it back. But to do so, Della must first learn how to walk, talk, ride and flirt like a lady.

Isadora has been invited to a sleepover, which is always fun, but this time it's even more exciting because she will be staying at her mermaid friend's house under the sea! It's so much fun spending time with her watery friends, but while she's there Isadora meets a mermaid called Emerald who doesn't seem to be having such a nice time.

In Second World War Bath, young, naïve wireless engineer Will meets Austrian refugee Elsa Klein: she is sophisticated, witty and worldly, and at last his life seems to make sense . . . until, soon after, the couple's home is bombed, and Will awakes from the blast to find himself alone. No one has heard of Elsa Klein. They say she never existed.

With little over 12 weeks until race day, three women are trying their hardest to focus on their ultimate goal - to run 26.2 miles. For Hannah, it seems near impossible, her first attempt leaving her pained, sweaty and full of regret. But intent on winning back her husband, Hannah is determined to at least try. Malika signed up to the race after finding a running medal of her friend Abbie's, who died only a few weeks before. She once promised Abbie she would run a race with her and she plans to keep that promise.

Evie, a widow and stationmaster's daughter, helplessly looks out for the weekly visit of the handsome man she and her sister call The Southerner on their train platform in the wilds of Northern England. When polite salutations shift to friendly conversations, they become captivated by each other's reticent manner. After so much sorrow, the childless Evie can't believe love and the chance for her own family has come into her life again.