Showing results by narrator "Joan Walker" in All Categories

Northumberland, winter 1937. In a remote moorland cottage, Steven Coulter, a young history teacher, is filled with grief at the death of his wife. Through a charismatic colleague, Frank Embleton, and Frank's sister, Diana, he is drawn into the beguiling world of a group of musicians and falls under their spell. But as war approaches a decision is made which calls all their lives shockingly into question.

Our Summer Together is an uplifting story about family, friendship and the happy surprise of finding love later in life. Caro knows how to be a mother - advising her grown-up daughters on career and relationship worries. She knows how to be a grandmother - enjoying the hectic energy of her three-year-old grandson. She knows how to be a daughter - helping her aging mother retain her independence.

Technology is such that 60 really is the new 40 (or even 35).... But for Christa D'Souza, some nagging questions remain: What is the point of us now that we are officially biologically irrelevant? Are hormones safe, even if you've had cancer? Is there a cut-off point for plaits? In this fabulously confessional romp through the menopause, D'Souza tells us what it was like for her and what it will be like for you.

Minnie and her sister, Clara, spinsters both, live in a dilapidated country house in the middle of a housing estate, built when their father sold off the family's land. Now in their 70s, their days follow a well-established routine: long gone are the garden parties, the tennis lessons and their suffocating strict mother. Gone, too, is any mention of what happened when Minnie was 16 and the secret the family buried in the grounds of their estate. Over the course of the summer, both begin to tell their stories....

Alice finds herself suddenly widowed in her early 40s. Laura and Evie, her 20-something daughters, announce their separate and unexpected news, which ploughs Alice straight out of grieving and into the prospect of planning a wedding and becoming a granny to three grandchildren. Frank, an old family friend, returns to give his godchild, Laura, away at her wedding. A whole host of secrets unfold and set Alice free to finally begin a new, exciting chapter of her life.

Dana Catrell wakes from a drunken stupor in time to see an ambulance pull into her neighbour's house a few doors down. Celia Steinhauser has been murdered. But Dana was at her house only a few hours ago. Celia wanted to show her a photo - a photo of Dana's husband with another woman.... Dana has blank spots about what happened to the rest of the afternoon: especially the difference between what actually happened and what she imagines has happened, with dream and reality becoming blurred....

Erykah Macdonald has a nice life - the kind of life you're meant to want. But on her 20th wedding anniversary, she's about to cross a line. Several hundred miles away in the shallow waters of a Hebridean island, a body is found. It's been in the water long enough to make identification tricky, but it's clear this is no accidental death. Erykah knows she's about to make a choice she can't reverse - but she's lived with secrets most of her life. She thinks she's ready.

'I'm good at secrets,' Libby says. Yes, thinks Jessica, I bet you are... Jessica should have everything to make her happy: a loving husband, a growing reputation as a jewellery designer, hope for a family of her own in the future. Then she meets Libby - flattering, attentive - and believes she has found the friendship she missed out on as a child. Until Jessica catches her husband and Libby alone, heads together in whispered collusion. With her life unravelling, Jessica flees home to the seaside town where she grew up.

Very few people ever enter the Shadow Woods, for these woods are like no others. Hidden deep within them is the Gateway to the Shadow Realm – a dark and chaotic world where all kinds of gruesome creatures live…. On her tenth birthday, tomboy Sophie learns she is the Guardian of the magical gateway, and that her destiny is to protect the human world from the goblins, trolls and evil sprites that inhabit the Shadow Woods. Each book sees Sophie having to outwit weird and terrifying creatures from the Shadow Woods, and here, Sophie takes on the Bat Sprites!

The fifth action-packed quest in an exciting new six book character-led series for 7+ girls who love fantasy, adventure, and high-kicking heroines! On her tenth birthday, tomboy Sophie learns she is the Guardian of a magic gateway between our world and the Shadow Woods. She must keep the human world safe from mischievous goblins, sprites and elves. Each book sees Sophie having to outwit weird and terrifying creatures from the Shadow Woods, starting with the gruesome Goblins!

All is quiet on Eppingham Farm.The sheep that live there chew cude and cauliflower. Sometimes they butt fenceposts-until one day a silvery object falls on their heads.Sal, the Southdown Ewe, knows their great Sheep God must be in danger. 'Only we can save him!' she cries. And so the Quest of the Warrior Sheep begins. But who are the men in the yellow car and why are they following? The Warriors will need to hold on to their fleeces!

When a mummy is stolen from the Natural History Museum, Kit and her friends are fast on the heels of a villainous East End mob, an adventure that takes them to the heart of the Western Desert. But as the story reaches its climax in a temple, the villains and Kit finds they have underestimated a stronger force - the terrible power of Ancient Egypt....

Jack's new best friend Picklewitch is still causing mischief at St Immaculate's School for the Gifted. When she receives a letter from her cousin Archie Cuckoo, telling her he's coming to stay, Jack worries that she'll lose interest in him. But this new cousin turns out to be unexpectedly nice, and it's Picklewitch whose nose is put out of joint.

Craft enthusiasts are no doubt already aware of the joys of making and the frustration when you must put aside your project and go back to your day job or to less enticing tasks around the house. But there is more to crafting than the simple enjoyment of a creative hobby. Drawing on the firsthand accounts from everyday crafters, Craftfulness considers the vital well-being effects to be gained from the simple expression of your creativity and investigates the soul cleansing and stress relieving benefits of making things by hand.

Newly married to dashing RAF officer Tom, Irene Farley leaves behind her safe countryside life to move in with his family by the docks in South Shields. Little prepares her for the devastation the Jerry bombers have wreaked on the Sixteen Streets or that they would be living under her mother-in-law's roof, alongside Tom's three brothers and two wives!

In Unfortunately, She was a Nymphomaniac, Smith pieces together the stories of these women, showing how they struggled for control of their lives at a time when both the law and culture were stacked against them. It is not a conventional history but an interpretation of the original texts informed by what we know now about the mechanics of domestic abuse. There are no ‘nymphomaniacs’ here but the picture that emerges is one of spirited, inspiring and sometimes reckless resistance to male authority.

Cassie Morgan needs to earn her Sapling pin to get one step closer to passing her Witch's Licence. To do this, she's set a challenge of training a beginner witch by the Hedgewitch - but the newest member of her coven is not what she expected. Meanwhile, the wicked Erl King is luring witches up and down the country to his side, with promises of unimaginable power. Those who stand against him are running a deadly risk.

Christy Naylor's life is wrenched apart when her mother dies and her father's crazed reaction is to gamble. He wins a fish farm in a game of poker and uproots them from their suburban lives, to live on a couple of watery fields. Unsettled and unsure of himself, Christy is 17, suffocating and suffering.

1928. Agatha Christie leaves England for Baghdad, where two years ago, explorer and writer Gertrude Bell died from a drugs overdose. The authorities believed that Bell had taken her own life, but a letter now unearthed reveals she was afraid someone wanted to kill her. Bell writes that if she were to die, the best place to look for her murderer would be Ur, an archaeological site in Mesopotamia. Looking into Bell's death, Agatha discovers the mission is not without risk. She must use all her skills to try to outwit a killer who hides among the desert sands....

Ipswich, 1923: After an unlucky start in her first role as a nursemaid, sixteen-year-old Elin Odell looks forward to seeing in the New Year at home. Little does she know, her family is changing and she has no idea what lies ahead. Having been offered the role as governess for the Lamberts in Middlesex, Elin quickly accepts, leaving her own family behind in Ipswich. But when tragedy strikes at her new home, Elin steps up to hold everyone together at the expense of her own happiness.