Showing results by publisher "Wavesound from W. F. Howes Ltd" in Literature & Fiction

London, 1991: Alex Johns, trainee art intern at the Courtauld, believes a hidden secret lies within Diego Velázquez's Las Meninas—one of the most written about paintings of all time. Her own mother died in mysterious circumstances while trying to uncover its secrets and Alex is troubled by memories of her own encounter as a child with the girl in the painting—the Infanta Margarita—who continues to haunt her. Alex must take up her mother's work and find evidence to uncover the truths within the canvas

Nazi Germany has been crushed, but is the war really over? Klara, Hitler's personal cook, swears she glimpsed him fleeing the Berlin bunker via a secret tunnel. The world needs undeniable proof of the Fuhrer's death, but it's not that simple. While Allied intelligence agents scour Europe to find such proof, and a Hitler double—"the Wolf"—lays a false trail across two continents, the real Hitler hides out in a Polish monastery, desperate to find his gold train so he can fund the Fourth Reich.

Even before I knew anything about Granddad Les, Wally and me sometimes dared each other to see how close to the knackery we could get. It was way out in the bottom paddock, and Dad had banned us from going further than the dam. Wally said it was because the whole paddock was haunted. He said he could see ghosts wisping in the grass like sheets blown from the washing line. But even then I knew for sure that was a lie. Ten-year-old Cub lives with her parents, older brother Cassie, and twin brother Wally on a lonely property bordering an abandoned cattle farm and knackery.

France, 1673. Desperate to save herself and her only surviving son from an outbreak of plague, the widow Charlotte Picot flees her village. But her son is kidnapped by slavers, and she fears the boy has been taken to Paris, the terrible City of Crows. And so she resorts to witchcraft and summons assistance in the shape of a malevolent man. Meanwhile, a notorious criminal, Lesage, is unexpectedly released from the prison galleys where he has served a brutal sentence for sacrilege....

On beautiful Fraser Island in 1882, the population of the Badtjala people is in sharp decline following a run of brutal massacres. When German man Louis Müller offers to sail 18-year-old Bonny to Europe, along with 22-year-old Jurano and his 15-year-old niece, Donordera, the proud and headstrong Bonny agrees. Accompanied by Müller’s bright and grieving daughter, Hilda, the group begins their journey to perform in Hamburg, Berlin, Paris and eventually London in the hope of seeking help from the Queen of England.

Chris Flood – a married father of two with plummeting self-esteem and questionable guitar skills – suddenly finds himself in the depths of polyamory after years of a near-sexless marriage. His wife, Sarah – a lover of the arts, avid quoter of Rumi, and always oozing confidence – wants to rediscover her sexuality after years of deadening domesticity. Their new life of polyamory features late nights, love affairs and rotating childcare duties. While Sarah enjoys flings with handsome men, Chris, much to his astonishment, falls for a polydactylous actor and musician, Biddy.

Housesitting in rural Burdekin's Gap is not an obvious career move for PR executive Jaime Hanrahan, but retrenchment is a kicker. Soon Jaime is fending off stampeding cows, town ladies wielding clipboards, nude sportsmen and one very neurotic cat. So why does she feel like she's falling in love...with the life, with the breathtaking landscape, and with one very infuriating cowboy?

For nearly 14 years, Rowland has tried to forget, but now the past has returned. A newly discovered gun casts light on a family secret long kept...a murder the Sinclairs would prefer stayed unsolved. As old wounds tear open, the dogged loyalty of Rowland’s inappropriate companions is all that stands between him and the consequences of a brutal murder...one he simply failed to mention.

Helen and John are too preoccupied with making a mess of their marriage to notice the quiet ways in which their daughters are suffering. Junie grows up brittle and defensive, Anna difficult and rebellious. When 15-year-old Anna fails to come home one night, her mother's not too worried; Anna's taken off before but always returned. Helen waits three days to report her disappearance. But this time Anna doesn't come back....

Based on interviews across Australia, Heartland guides listeners through the intimate world of love, dating, and sex among millennials. From hard and fast hook-ups to loneliness, deep love and even climate change stress, I want to understand the whole gamut of modern love. I want to know the heartland.

Van Diemen's Land, 1826. Bridget Crack, a desperate convict, flees the cruelty of her master into the impenetrable Tasmanian wilderness. Saved from certain death by Matt Sheedy and his fellow bushrangers, her precarious existence among the volatile and murderous men is a different kind of hell. Hunted by soldiers, at the mercy of killers, and surrounded by roaring river and towering columns of rock, what will she have to do to survive?

When Lucy Francis arrives at Charlotte's Creek, she finds a family in crisis. To make matters worse, the four children she's been charged with educating are dismally behind in their schooling. The only person who seems to be keeping Charlotte's Creek afloat is the family's gruff stockman, Ted. But even he seems to have his own issues. As the family divisions at the ranch prove insurmountable, can Lucy help the family face their problems and save Charlotte’s Creek?

London, 1942. When art school graduate Eleanor Roy is recruited by the War Artists Advisory Committee, she comes one step closer to realising her dream of becoming one of the few female war artists. But breaking into the art establishment proves difficult until Eleanor meets painter Jack Valante, only to be separated by his sudden posting overseas. Melbourne, 2010. Although reluctant to leave her family at home, Kathryn can't refuse her grandmother Eleanor's request to travel to London to help her return a precious painting to its artist.

Ross Grant has always felt like the black sheep of his wealthy Scottish family. An explorer at heart, he dreams of life on Waybell, their remote cattle station in Australia’s last remaining wilderness, the Northern Territory. Then his brother Alastair is branded a deserter after going missing during the Great War, and Ross is coerced into marrying Darcey Thomas, a woman he has never met, to save the family name. Disgusted with his manipulative family, he turns his back on his unwanted wife just hours after the ceremony and heads to Waybell with no plans to return.

On the frozen landscape of Northern Russia, four figures dressed in arctic camouflage uniforms, break into the Polyarny Naval Base near Murmansk–Home of Russia's Northern Fleet. Their mission, to steal 60kg of highly enriched Uranium-235 and hand it over to the Russian Mafia. Rogue nations and despots–North Korea, Libya, Iran, Al-Qa'Ida, Hamas and Hezbollah, all want their hands on this lethal cargo… Let the bidding begin!

Meet Dorcas, a spirited 12-year-old struggling to contain her irrepressible humour and naughty streak in a family of Christadelphians in 1960s Adelaide. She is her mother's least favourite child and always at the bottom of the order on the family's string of beads that she and her younger siblings Ruthy and Caleb reorder according to their mother's ever-changing moods.

On a hot morning in 1991 in the regional town of Clarke, Barney Clarke (no relation) is woken by the unexpected arrival of many policemen: they are going to search his backyard for the body of a missing woman. Next door, Leonie Wallace and little Joe watch the police cars through their kitchen window. Leonie has been waiting for this day for six years. She is certain that her friend—Ginny Lawson—is buried in that backyard under a slab of suspicious concrete. But the fate of Ginny Lawson is not the only mystery in Clarke.

Widowed matriarch Maggie remembers a time when the Italian prisoners of war came to work on their land, changing her heart and her home forever. Single mum Toni has been tied to the place for as long as she can recall, although farming was never her dream. And Flick is as passionate about the farm as a girl could be, despite the limited opportunities for love. When a letter from 1946 is unearthed, the Sunnyvale girls find themselves on a journey into their own hearts and across the world.

Preservation, based on the true story of the wreck of the Sydney Cove, sees master storyteller Jock Serong turn his talents to historical narrative. On a beach not far from the isolated settlement of Sydney in 1797, a fishing boat picks up three shipwreck survivors, distressed and terribly injured. They have walked hundreds of miles across a landscape whose features - and inhabitants - they have no way of comprehending. They have lost 14 companions along the way. Their accounts of the ordeal are evasive.

Raised by her severe parents in a punitive and authoritarian church, Ellen Wells is entirely unprepared for life in the modern world. When things become intolerable at home, she escapes and, striking out on her own, makes a completely new start. Ellen lands a job as a teacher in a girls' school and gradually finds peace in that community and in her solitary life. To begin with, she is painfully shy, but when she meets Gordon, a fellow teacher, she responds with curiosity and, before long, pleasure. Three years later, a knock on the door changes everything.