Showing results by publisher "Simon & Schuster Audio UK" in All Categories

Dorset, 1876. When young Beatrice Cullen shows up in the local church with her illegitimate child in her arms, Reverend Michael Redfern takes it upon himself to help her. He finds her daughter, Lily, a home with a kindly couple. But when, at the age of nine, Lily loses her adopted parents, she is forced to live with her awful aunt, Doris, and cousin, Jez, who treat her no better than a slave. Lily can only seek solace in her dream of one day escaping her aunt and becoming a seamstress.

Hear Sir Chris Bonington's extraordinary story, read by Gordon Griffin. His memoir, Ascent, charts not only his many triumphs in the climbing world - such as the Eiger and the Himalayas - but also the struggles he has faced in his life bringing up a family and maintaining a successful and loving marriage over the decades of travelling the world to conquer mountains.

DI Ben Kitto needs a second chance. After 10 years working for the murder squad in London, a traumatic event has left him grief-stricken. He’s tried to resign from his job, but his boss has persuaded him to take three months to reconsider. Ben plans to work in his uncle Ray’s boatyard, on the tiny Scilly island of Bryher, where he was born, hoping to mend his shattered nerves. His plans go awry when the body of 16-year-old Laura Trescothick is found on the beach at Hell Bay. Her attacker must still be on the island because no ferries have sailed during a two-day storm.

Ellen Saint is just your average mum. Devoted to her family, she’s no different from any other mother who wants the best for her kids. But when her teenage son Lucas brings a new friend home, cracks start to appear in Ellen’s perfect family life. Kieran Watts isn’t like Lucas. He’s rude, obnoxious and reckless, and Ellen can only watch in despair as her son falls deeper under his influence. Then Ellen’s whole world implodes and she embarks on an obsessive need to get revenge.

What happens to our brain at night? Are we really fully asleep? And if so, how is it that some individuals end up doing what they do? Or can it be the case that perhaps the brain never fully goes to sleep and that in some individuals there is a disconnect between the sleeping part of their brain and the active part of their brain so that the two become confused? Does this happen to all of us in varying degrees, and can the reverse be the case, too - so that some individuals are actually asleep during the day while appearing to be awake?!

When Gozie and Obianuju meet in August 1978, it is nothing short of fate. He is the perfect man: charismatic, handsome, Christian and—most importantly—Igbo. He reminds her of her beloved Uncle Ikenna, her mother’s brother who disappeared fighting in the Civil War that devastated Nigeria less than a decade before. It is why, when Gozie asks her to marry him within months of meeting, she says yes, despite her lingering and uncertain feelings for Akin—a man her mother would never accept, as his tribe fought on the other side of the war.

From the internationally best-selling author of Gorky Park comes a new Arkady Renko story set against the harsh and forbidding landscape of Siberia. Renko must fight against his own demons as well as the larger global threat posed by Russian spies.

The Special Relationship between America and Britain is feted by politicians on both sides of the Atlantic when it suits their purpose and just as frequently dismissed as a myth, not least by the media, which announces its supposed death on a regular basis. Yet the simple truth is that the two countries are bound together more closely than either is to any other ally. Michael Smith reveals how it all began, 80 years ago, when a top-secret visit by four American codebreakers to Bletchley Park in February 1941.

Daily, constant exertion was an integral part of humanity for millennia, but in just a few decades movement was virtually designed out of people’s lives through transformed workplaces, the dominance of the car and a built environment which encourages people to be static. In a world now also infiltrated by ubiquitous screens, app-summoned taxis and shopping delivered to your door, it can be shocking to realise exactly how sedentary many of us are.

Maya Mirza is so convinced she’s unlucky in love and life that she’s come up with a list of laws to explain it. But before long, Maya’s wondering whether she’s just experienced the ultimate in misfortune – finally meeting the right man a few days before she has to marry someone else. But if she’s willing to bend some rules, this detour could take her somewhere wonderfully unexpected.

After a run-in with the scariest street cat in the Big City, fox cub siblings Ted and Nancy flee for Grimwood, expecting to find refuge in the peaceful countryside. Instead, they are met with thieving eagles, dramatic ducks, riotous rabbits and an absurd game called Treebonk! While Ted quickly falls in love with his wacky new neighbours, Nancy thinks they’re all bonkers. But she soon discovers that, as kooky they are, the animals of Grimwood always look out for each other. Now Nancy must ask herself an important question: yes, Grimwood may be weird, but could it also be...home?

Charlie might work at her dad’s company but that doesn’t make her life easy. She’s the kind of person who always goes the extra mile for a client, remembers colleagues’ birthdays and arranges the cake. And yet her dad still favours her sister. So Charlie shouldn’t be surprised when her dad brings someone in to manage her and the team. But what does surprise her is that the new boss is her guy. The man who she went out with years ago and could never stop thinking about.

When Elsie Pickles offers to house-sit the mysterious home of local witch Magenta Sharp, she has no idea what she's getting herself into. Left with a talking raven and a scruffy dog for company, a magical tower that has a mind of its own and a book of instruction called Everything You Need to Know, what could possibly go wrong? With an assortment of weird and wonderful neighbours banging at the door and a box of volatile magical ingredients that must be used immediately, Elsie finds out that looking after Magenta's home might not be as easy as she first thought....

A woman begins work on a novel about Mary Shelley while pregnant for the first time. Recently married, she has just moved from New York to Montana. As the woman writes, fragments of Shelley’s story begin to detach themselves from the page. Moving through her reproductive years, Shelley endured a catalogue of losses painful beyond comprehension. Still, she wrote, conceiving Frankenstein in 1818. The woman’s experiences of pregnancy, miscarriage and labour are traumatic and disorienting, especially in the context of political upheaval, climate crisis, and an ongoing pandemic.

Hello, ageing parents. Hello, dementia. Goodbye, vitamin.... Ruth is 30, and her life is falling apart: she and her fiancé are moving house, but he's moving out to live with another woman; her career is going nowhere; and then she learns that her father, a history professor beloved by his students, has Alzheimer's. At Christmas her mother begs her to stay on and help. For a year.

If Bao Nguyen had to describe himself, he’d say he was a rock. Steady and strong, but not particularly interesting. His grades are average; his social status unremarkable. He works at his parents’ pho restaurant, and even there, he is his parents’ fifth favorite employee. If Linh Mai had to describe herself, she’d say she was a firecracker. Stable when unlit, but full of potential for joy and spark and fire. She loves art, and she dreams of making a career of it one day.

Climate change is the defining issue of our time - we know, beyond reasonable doubt, what that science now tells us. Just as climate change is accelerating, so too must we - summoning up a greater sense of urgency, courage and shared endeavour than humankind has ever seen before. The Age of Climate Change is an age of superlatives, but Porritt is optimistic. He believes we have time to do what needs to be done, but only if we move now - and move together.

Poppy, Lily and Belladonna would do anything to protect their best friend, Raven. So when they discovered he was suffering abuse at the hands of his stepmother, they came up with a lethal plan: petals of poppy, belladonna and lily in her evening tea so she’d never be able to hurt Raven again. But someone got cold feet, the plot faded to a secret of the past and the group fell apart. Three years later, on the eve of Raven’s 17th birthday, his stepmother turns up dead. But it’s only belladonna found in her tea, and it’s only Belladonna who’s carted off to jail.

Liz and Jess have been friends for 10 years, ever since they both started a family. But how well do they really know each other? When Jess arrives at hospital with a story that doesn’t add up, Liz is the doctor on call. Jess has devoted her life to family and home. But she is holding so many secrets. As the truth begins to emerge, Liz is forced to question everything she thought she knew: about Jess and about herself. When something feels so personal, how do you stay professional?

Three South Yorkshire friends, all on the cusp of 40, fall pregnant at the same time following a visit to an ancient fertility symbol. For Helen, it's a dream come true, although her husband is not as thrilled about it as she had hoped. Not only wrestling with painful ghosts of the past, Helen has to deal with the fact that her outwardly perfect marriage is crumbling before her eyes. For Janey, it is an unmitigated disaster as she has just been offered the career break of a life-time.