Showing results by narrator "Emma" in All Categories

Midnight. A callout to an isolated farm outside Oxford. A body, shot at point blank range in the kitchen. It looks like a burglary gone wrong, but DC Adam Fawley suspects there's something more to it. Who exactly was the aggressor here? When the police discover a connection to a high-profile case from years ago, involving a child's murder and an alleged miscarriage of justice, the press go wild. Suddenly Fawley's team are under more scrutiny than ever before. And when you dig up the past, you're sure to find a few skeletons....

First published between 1870 and 1893, Émile Zola’s 20-book cycle chronicling four generations of the Rougon-Macquarts was a shocking exposé of the decadence, degradation and moral decay of 19th-century France. It included some of his greatest novels, among them his masterpiece, Germinal. These innovative, ambitious dramas, first broadcast on Radio 4 over 24 hours in 2015-16, are a radical reimagining of Zola’s classic series, introducing us to 104-year-old matriarch, Dide, imprisoned in an asylum in southern France.

April Sinclair, a Hollywood actress whose fame is starting to dry up, has returned to her tiny Scottish hometown on the Isle of Skye, the location of her family's local whisky business, following her grandfather's death. But she hadn't banked on silent and grump Malcolm Macabe being the one in charge. Mal loves his own company, and he doesn't appreciate glamorous film star April's presence – or the way she's trying to take back control of the whisky distillery. But their shared desire to save the struggling family business will mean working a lot closer than either of them might wish.

Midwife Jess knows she’ll never have a baby of her own, but she’s determined to still be a mum. So Jess decides to foster, providing love and support for children who desperately need it - something Jess never had as a child when she was in foster care. Jess loves caring for the precious babies who come into her life, but letting them go again breaks her heart every time - can she really be a mum after all?

For Everly Dalton, it’s a bit like trying to walk in stilettos - while drunk, blindfolded, and wearing the wrong size shoes. She hasn’t exactly been lucky in love. In fact, she just might be cursed. A guy who only dates lookalikes of his ex? Pass. An alpha-male businessman who bolts in a moment of crisis? No, thanks. A date that turns into the creepiest interview in the history of ever? Where does she find these guys? Join Everly as she dishes to her friends about the surprising, unpredictable, and sometimes crazy adventure that is modern dating.

Summer has arrived and it's over a year since strangers Abigail and Edward bought Winfield Hall at auction and restored it together. Now, two new tenants are about to join them at their beautiful Georgian home. Workaholic Harry Freeman has forgotten what it is to relax so when he meets healer, Aura Arden, and learns to meditate with her, he can't believe how good he feels and he soon finds himself falling for her. But, with her bare feet and crystal beads, Aura's not a big hit with Harry's old-fashioned parents, and he finds himself torn between the people he loves most in the world.

Renowned novelist and poet Thomas Hardy is best known for his fatalistic, often tragic novels set in the 'realistic dream-country' of Wessex, in south and south-west England. Drawing on his own life, he created some of the most memorable characters and stories in Victorian literature—many of which are included here. In five dramas taken from Radio 4's 'Hardy's Women' season, we meet a few of Thomas Hardy's most compelling female protagonists.

The Aylward women of Nenagh, Tipperary, are mad about each other, but you wouldn't always think it. You'd have to know them to know—in spite of what the neighbours might say about raised voices and dramatic scenes—that their house is a place of peace, filled with love, a refuge from the sadness and cruelty of the world. Their story begins at an end and ends at a beginning. It involves wives and widows, gunrunners and gougers, sinners and saints. It's a story of terrible betrayals and fierce loyalties, of isolation and togetherness, of transgression, forgiveness, desire and love.

Do you know what it takes to raise well a highly sensitive child? Are you confident that you can help your child reach their maximum potential, while also keeping them healthy and happy? If you are not quite sure about how to do so, then this book is the right choice for you. Highly sensitive children are often misunderstood not just by their peers, but also by their families, teachers, and caretakers.

Even princesses have problems. That line doesn’t exactly invite sympathy, does it? I was a fairly ersatz princess anyway, although you should try convincing my mother of that. And when I ran away from my family, my tech-bro groom, my almost-Stanford degree, and our fabulous future and right back to my trailer-living, hard-hatted life? Even I couldn’t explain it to anybody’s satisfaction.

Lio Aetos is the Young Aristocrat and heir apparent to a legendary Greek sect, a prodigious talent born and bred for glory. Solus is a slave, a disgraced patrician from the fallen city of Rome with nothing to his name. They're as different as the East is from the West. Yet both of them hunger—to cast off the threads of Fate they’ve been given. To reach for a higher purpose. In this world of ruined empires and long-forgotten gods, the Young Aristocrat and the Son of Rome share an unyielding conviction.

When introverted cartoonist Remi Stephenson dumps her cheating ex and goes on their Hawaiian vacation solo, even her creative mind can’t imagine being purposely stranded in the ocean…with a handsome, muscular, brave Navy SEAL. Even more unbelievable is the spark between them. Surely this is just rebound hormones. Right? Because who finds their soulmate in the middle of a life-or-death situation? And what would a SEAL want with a curvy, nerdy artist, anyway? Of course, none of those doubts stop Remi and Vincent from making plans to get together back in California, even before they’re rescued.

In 2020, Emma Holten read an article stating that women were a net ‘deficit’ to society. Women apparently took more than they gave: they took more parental leave, frequently worked part-time, and typically worked lower paying jobs in the public sector. How did we get here? How are the contributions of half the population seen as a loss? In Deficit, Emma Holten traces how economic thinkers – from the Enlightenment onwards – created a value framework that left out ‘women’s work’ and acts of care.

Friends with benefits. That’s all Ashlyn wanted with Slate. They were certainly combustible in the bedroom, and that was sufficient...wasn’t it? Yes, definitely. He was too bossy. Too protective. She didn’t want someone hovering, wanting to know her every move and telling her she was too reckless. But then again, knowing someone cared enough to worry about her felt kind of nice. Not to mention the more she was around Slate, and the more she learned about him, the harder it was to ignore her feelings.

Only true love can survive a journey through heaven and hell. My name is Evan, and I’m a Soldier of Death. For centuries I’ve killed mortals in order to ferry their souls to the other side. Until I met her. Her fate is sealed - I must take her soul. What never occurred to me was that I would fall in love with her. If I don't kill her, the forces of heaven and hell will be unleashed, and others will come to take her.... Will I be able to protect her?

A month ago, I was a rookie with the best stats in the league. I was traveling the world, playing hockey, and making more money than I ever dreamed. Then my sister showed up on my doorstep with nowhere else to go. I don’t know the first thing about being responsible for a troubled teen, and the team jet isn’t exactly kid-friendly. Enter Piper. My sister’s new teacher and nanny. Smart, nurturing, and just as beautiful as I remember. Too bad she hates my guts. We need her. And this time, I’m not letting her go.

Baggit is a fast-talking ratling sniper with a greedy eye and loose morals. Clodde is an ogryn, a brute with a core of decency and a desire for a better life. Two abhuman deserters turned thieves, at large in the monolithic city of Varangantua, where only the tough or the ruthless survive. Having landed in debt to a savage crime lord, Baggit and Clodde end up in the crosshairs of the meanest, most puritanical sanctioner in the city.

He has it together. I’m falling apart. Two broken souls, one emotional book.

An elderly woman of striking beauty is found murdered in Orleans, France. Her identity has been cleverly erased, but the method of her death is very specific: she has been killed in the manner of traitors to the Resistance in World War Two. Tracking down her murderer leads police inspector Inès Picaut back to 1940s France, where the men and women of the Resistance were engaged in a desperate fight for survival against the Nazi invaders.

It’s the moment single-mum Kate has been dreading. With her only daughter, Chloe, about to leave home, she’s terrified by the prospect of an empty nest. That is until she meets charming lawyer Adam. He could be the perfect catch - if it wasn’t for his clingy son. Because Ben has a crush on Chloe. A crush that is fast becoming an obsession. Flattered by the attention, Chloe is happy to string him along - for now at least. But Kate can see the danger signs, even if her daughter can't.