Showing results by narrator "Antonia Beamish" in All Categories

Alexandra Ludd is an actress playing Nora in Ibsen’s A Doll’s House. In the eyes of the world she has everything a woman could want: husband, home, child, income, good looks, good friends, the plaudits of the crowd and the affection of neighbours. But Alexandra inspires envy as well as love: she was unwise to forget it, she was complacent, perhaps a little vain - and all fate has to do to bring her down is to snip a single strand....

When Rachel Cusk decides to travel to Italy for a summer with her husband and two young children, she has no idea of the trials and wonders that lie in store. Their journey leads them to both the expected and the surprising, all seen through Cusk's sharp and humane perspective.

A scholar pursues an elusive biographer, stumbling upon buried fragments of distant lives; a woman walks out of her previous existence and encounters an ice-blond stranger from a secretive world; a schoolgirl draws a blood-filled picture of Jael; a swimming pool reveals a beauteous monster in its depths. The settings range from the heat of Provence in summer to the cold forests of Scandinavia, from chalk-strewn classrooms to herb-scented hillsides, from suburban streets to rocky wilds.

The official companion to the BBC's hit magazine show, The One Show Book is a compilation of the quirkiest, strangest, most random and most fascinating stories pulled from the brains of Icon Films' The One Show research desk. Did you know that Michael Jackson was once made an honorary director of Exeter City football team? Or that Muhammad Ali owed a chunk of his fortune to his love of Ovaltine?

When the breakdown of her marriage leaves Sadie Turner a single mum, she vows that she will make it on her own. After all, why would a smart businesswoman with a PhD and the prospect of a life-changing deal on the horizon need a man? But Sadie's man-ban is tested to the limit when she travels to Monaco to meet her potential investor. There she encounters Mac, a rough and ready playboy billionaire who lives life in the fast lane. But Sadie's heart isn't the only thing on the line....

A gritty drama that will appeal to fans of The Throwaway Children and authors Nadine Dorries and Kitty Neale. When little Terry and Nancy arrive at the door of St Saviour's Children's Home, they seem shell-shocked after being orphaned in the fire that killed their parents. Terry is terribly damaged by his experiences, though the concerned staff, especially Angela Morton, suspect that there is something more sinister behind his disturbing behaviour.

In this no-holds-barred collection of essays, prominent women authors, journalists and TV personalities explore the truth about becoming mothers. Covering topics from labour to the breastapo, twins to IVF, weaning to post-birth sex, and with writers including Cathy Kelly, Adele Parks, Kathy Lette and Lucy Porter and many more, Things I Wish I’d Known is a reassuring, moving and often hilarious collection that will speak to mothers - and mothers-to-be - everywhere.

When Ailsa Field uproots her family to Norfolk, she's determined a change of scene will fix all their problems. Then the Fairports move in next door, and Ailsa is terrified their influence will damage her family's new start. But for teenagers Romy and Jay, none of that matters. But when Romy decides to help Jay, what starts as an innocent plan quickly threatens to destroy the Field family forever....

If you love to curl up with Miranda Dickinson or The Mystery of Mercy Close by Marian Keyes was your favourite, The Last Honeytrap will delight you with its rapidfire, irreverent humour. He's the man every woman wants. Private Investigator Florence Love is out to get him. Florence has ten days to meet, charm and entrap Scott 'Scat' Delaney. Whilst sticking to THE Cardinal Entrapment Rule:One kiss, with tongues, five seconds - case closed.

The story of a young mother who discovers old buried secrets as she goes through her mother's things, all whilst staying in a cottage that centuries before was a silk factory. A beautiful, eerie story of love and memory. If you try to pick up the pieces, sometimes that's when they fall into place. When young mother Rosie gets the news that her mother has died she decides to leave London and head back to her home village.

Victoria Noble has pulled the plug on romance. As director of social networking site, EweSpeak, and single mother to four-year-old Seth, she wrestles with her work-life balance. Enter Chris Frampton, Hollywood action hero and Victoria’s first love. His return from LA has sparked the media’s attention, and he’s desperate to escape. But finding a way forward is never simple. Has he been adrift too long to know how to move on? With the risk of them breaking, will either follow their heart?

When war photographer Jo returns from her latest assignment in Afghanistan and moves into the Brighton flat she's just inherited, she hopes to restore equilibrium to her chaotic life. But images and events of her recent past and the reading of her great-grandmother Elizabeth's diary haunt her night and day, forcing Jo to come to terms with demons she thought she could leave behind.

Lily Redman is sure of two things: that she knows good food and that she gets what she wants. And she wants to make a success of her new TV show, Celebrity Chef Swap. Back from a stint in Afghanistan, Kenan Rowse is recovering from a messy divorce, and not looking for love. So when he lands a job as Lily’s driver, he’s not too pleased to find they can’t keep their hands off each other!

Stefan Ziakas might be her father’s most hated business rival, but he’s the only man who has ever made Selene Antaxos feel beautiful. So, needing to make a new life for herself, Selene apprehensively turns to Stefan for help. Except the dark-hearted tycoon is nothing like the white knight she remembers! Selene realises it’s not always better the devil you know… She’s sold her soul - and her heart - to the enemy!

Nicola Barker's readers and listeners are primed to expect surprises, but her 10th novel delivers mind-meld on a metaphysical scale. From quiet beginnings in the picturesque English seaside enclave of Pett Level, In The Approaches ultimately constructs its own anarchic city-state on the previously undiscovered common ground between G.K. Chesterton and Philip K. Dick.

A comedy of ambition, dreams, blackmail and daytime TV… Bella’s career as a TV presenter is ‘on hold’. To fill her days, she sits in a coffee shop and obsesses about a wedding dress in the neighbouring shop. Her luck changes when she gets the call from her old boss to present a pilot for a new food and chat show. But her revived TV career is short-lived when one of the celebrity guests threatens to steal the show…

Adam and Rachel are getting married at last. Childhood sweethearts whose lives and families have been intertwined for years; theirs is set to be the wedding of the year. But then Rachel's cousin Ellie makes an unexpected return to the family fold. As the long-awaited wedding approaches, Adam is torn between duty and temptation, security and freedom, and must make a choice that will break either one heart, or many.

For the thousands of people who struggle with poor literacy, words can be scary things. Worlds Beyond Words is a selection of inspirational real life stories from people who have improved their lives through better literacy. From successful businessmen and sports stars, redundant factory workers and refugees, their stories offer the key for others to unlock new worlds.

As a dark evening draws in, the lives of three women are changed forever. The worlds they have been living in, the people they thought they knew - in an instant it all changes. But when everything seems to shatter around them, could three little words be enough to help put the pieces back together again?

Finding it hard to meet Mr. Right? Try looking for Mr. Wrong instead.... After 11 years of coupled-up domesticity, Rory Carmichael is single for the first time in her adult life. When she discovers that Martin, her supposedly reliable Mr. Right, is a distinctly unreliable cheater, she’s forced to consider the possibility that everything she knows about relationships is wrong. In an effort to reinvigorate her love life, she sets herself a mission to date as many unsuitable men as possible.