Showing results by narrator "Jilly Bond" in All Categories

November 1919. A relaxing few weeks by the seaside with her husband, Sidney, could almost convince Verity Kent that life has returned to the pleasant rhythm of pre-war days. Then Verity's beloved great-aunt, Ilse, lands on their doorstep. After years in war-ravaged Germany, Ilse has returned to England to repair her fragile health - and to escape trouble. Someone has been sending her anonymous threats, and Verity's Secret Service contacts can only provide unsettling answers.

When you don't know The Rules it's hard to stay safe. After a traumatic incident, Aster finds that her blood work comes back with some unusual readings. Unsurprising, as she's the last of an alien race called the Kibsu. But Aster doesn't know this. Immediately, Aster finds herself the focus of a hunt, with her mortal enemies, the Trackers, on one side, and the American government on the other. There seems to be nowhere she can run. But help often comes from the most unexpected quarter.

Jason Warwycke, Marquess of Wyckeham, has vowed never to wed again after his disastrous first marriage, which left him with nothing but a tarnished reputation. That is, until he sets eyes on Ianthe Templeton... But can Wyckeham and Ianthe overcome the malicious schemes of spiteful siblings and evil stepmothers to find wedded bliss? Or will Wyckeham discover that the past has come back to bite him for a second time?

In the shadow of Lewes castle lies buried an ancient tablet. Hours after discovering it, dashing local archaeologist Gideon Rivers is dead. Writer Virginia Woolf and her artist sister, Vanessa, both know firsthand that it doesn't take much to cause a stir in town. And when Gideon returned home from a dig in Syria with a glamourous Parisian heiress on his arm, all eyes were on him. But who would have conspired to murder such a charming young man? There are more suspects in his circle than it first seems: an ambitious fiancée, a jealous best friend, and a string of scorned former lovers.

Caro Swanson has taken a job in a remote part of Scotland. She’s answered an ad in The Lady: being a companion to an elderly gentleman who lives in a country estate could be perfect! Surely it is time to make a change and do something different for a while? The fact that she may also see Alec, the young man whom she met some years previously and whom she has always thought of as her ‘one who got away’, is of course purely incidental. Soon Caro is falling in love - not only with Alec but with the stunning house and grounds she is now living in.

From organising the school summer fete - 'Because of our inability to recognise our climatic shortcomings from the outset, arrangements for outdoor jollities get completely out of hand' - to the sometimes rather odd passions of childhood - 'I collect stones with holes in them' - Miss Read captures the essence of rural life, and in particular of village schools, as only she can.

Germany, 1945: The Third Reich has collapsed and MI6 are retiring beautiful but deadly Anna Fehrbach, aka the Countess von Widerstand. But Anna is still wanted by the Russians for an attempt on the life of Stalin, and when they trace her to her Scottish refuge where she's under the care of her MI6 handler and lover Clive Bartley, Anna escapes the only way she knows how: She shoots her way out....

Gina and Sally Makepiece have inherited a stall in the French House - an antiques centre nestled in the heart of the English countryside. Gina is determined to drag the French House and its grumpy owner into the 21st century. Bearing all the attributes of a modern-day Mr Rochester, Matthew Ballinger is less than happy with the whirlwind that has arrived on his doorstep. The last thing either of them want is to fall in love. But will a trip to France change their minds?

Discover the new goals and new rules that are the route to a healthier, better looking and better functioning body. For life. From Gwen Stefani and Cameron Diaz to Jennifer Aniston and Naomi Watts, a new breed of 40- and 50-plus women are redefining not just what an ageless body looks like but what's entailed in achieving it.

A spellbinding collection of 15 stories from multi-million copy internationally best-selling author Rosamunde Pilcher, published posthumously two years after her death. Each of the 15 stories is a perfect slice of romance written with warmth and passion, featuring some wonderfully memorable, smart and feisty female characters that will transport listeners to another time and place.

Each month best friends Claudia, Sal, Ella and Laura meet for drinks, celebrating 45 years of friendship. Sal had spent a lifetime building her career, but she hadn't banked on the one thing over which she had no control. Claudia loved her urban existence. But, as many women will know, other people's needs always seem to come first. Ella is ready to try something different. But she hadn't bargained on quite such a radical change. And Laura succumbed to the oldest cliché in the book.

Another thrilling adventure for Anna Fehrbach. 1953: Anna Fehrbach, now happily married, is enjoying her Bahamian hideaway. Its been three years since the Russians last attempted to arrest her for her attempt on the life of Joseph Stalin, and she's beginning to believe that her archenemy, Lavrenty Beria, has abandoned the chase. But when Anna is lured into one last job for the CIA, she is plunged back into the Russian orbit....

Diana and Julian Denver have the world at their feet. With a blissful marriage, a darling son and beautiful homes, Diana’s life, to the outside world, is perfect. But when Julian dies suddenly, Diana is convinced there is more to it than meets the eye. She calls on the one person she had never wanted to see again - her sister, Rachel. A former tabloid reporter, Rachel appears to be living the dream as a diving instructor on a Thai island. The truth is she’s in exile, driven from her career by Fleet Street’s phone-hacking scandal. For Rachel, Diana’s request opens old wounds.

The end of the war has not allowed beautiful but deadly Anna Fehrbach to retire. Working for the SS her principal antagonist was the Soviet Union, and to Joseph Stalin and his henchman Lavrenty Beria she remains the most wanted of all war criminals. Although under the aegis of the CIA, the Russians remain on her trail and elaborate plans are being laid for her capture and execution....

Albert is dead and the queen is preparing to spend the rest of her life in mourning. Yet the last years of her reign are to be momentous ones. Palmerston, then Gladstone and Disraeli, govern her empire through the high noon of its heyday. However, the court at Windsor, Balmoral, Osborne at Buckingham Palace is perpetually shocked by the actions of the queen’s son, the Prince of Wales. Forever in pursuit of horses, women and scandal, this is the heady harbinger of Edwardian years to come.

Victoria and Albert have been destined for one another since birth. However, the passive Albert is well aware that marriage to a quick-tempered, demonstrative woman like Victoria could result in unnecessary scenes and stormy court feuds. And he is right. The young queen, as well as having to endure her constant pregnancies, is in perpetual revolt against anyone encroaching on her position – and Albert is doing just that. Despite attempts on her life and political crises

The young Princess Victoria, strictly confined within the boundaries of Kensington Palace, is being moulded for her awesome future as Queen of England. Surrounded by her dolls and closely guarded by her domineering mother and faithful governess, she slowly becomes aware of the bitter conflicts that surround her. The jealous and scheming Duke of Cumberland is a constant threat to her rightful accession …her mother’s sinister friend, Sir John Conroy, makes her uneasy … and the bickering between her mother and the king seems never-ending.

The first time Annie Sweet sees 43 Stanley Road, the house is so perfect she feels almost as if it has chosen her. She longs to move in, but with her husband increasingly distant, and her daughter wrapped up in childhood, Annie is left alone to mull over the past.

March 1920: Life has turned unsettlingly quiet for former British Intelligence agent Verity Kent and her husband, Sidney. But even that false calm is about to end. As threats remain, the French authorities soon request Sidney's help with a suspect who claims to have proof of treason--shortly before she is assassinated. And Verity, too, is called to investigate a mystery. The murder of a Belgian lawyer aboard a train seems at first to be a simple case of revenge. But the victim was connected to British Intelligence.

Each week, six women meet at The Bluebell Inn. They form an unlikely and occasionally triumphant ladies darts team. They banter and jibe, they laugh. But their hidden stories of love and loss are what, in the end, will bind them. There is Mary, full of it but cradling her dark secret; Lena - young and bold, she has made her choice; the cat woman who must return to the place of her birth before it's too late. There's Maggie, still laying out the place for her husband; and Pegs, the dark-eyed girl from the travellers' site bringing her strangeness and first love....