Showing results by narrator "Helen Lloyd" in All Categories

Women in the War beautifully weaves together the oral histories of 10 remarkable women who dedicated their young adulthood to the war effort. From aiding codebreaking at Bletchley Park to plotting the Battle of the Atlantic and working alongside Churchill in the War Rooms below Whitehall, these are the women who helped to defend the Home Front and kept Britain going. Now with the wisdom of age, they look back at how they coped with danger, trauma and stress, and tell how their spirits were fortified by friendship, fellowship and romance.

Lilith Thorne, forty, rarely sees the light of day. She has spent the past three years in total isolation at Guthrie Hall. She doesn't see anyone, her groceries are delivered to the front gate. She adores her house and takes comfort in her routine, eating the same carefully prepared meals day after day. And yet, she is lonely, and posts an ad on Craigslist for a companion. Eighty-year-old Beverly Smith answers the ad. Fiercer than her age will allow people to believe, the two women couldn't be more different. Where will this extraordinary friendship lead the two women?

Notes from a Summer Cottage by Nina Burton is a beautifully written nature memoir about the time spent renovating a cottage in the Swedish countryside and all the species that she encountered her during her stay. Within the walls, the ceiling and the floor of the cottage and its surrounding garden, she encounters a host of animals—ants, honey bees, foxes, squirrels, blackbirds, badgers, pigeons, deer and many more—all of whom have made her house and garden their home and all of whom cause Nina to reflect on their role within our world.

When the only place you want to be is home.... When Ella's beloved grandmother dies, she comes back to the beautiful Cornish coast to heal her heart. There she finds her home again and discovers a new life and new love...but she also opens a treasure trove of secrets.

Dr. Barnabus Milligan has always felt called to help people, whether that means setting a broken bone or rescuing the impoverished women of London from their desperate lives on the streets, as part of his work with the Dread Penny Society. Three years ago, he helped rescue Gemma Kincaid by secretly marrying her to protect her from her family of notorious grave robbers. But six months after Gemma and Barnabus exchanged vows, she realized her love for her new husband was unrequited. To protect her heart, she left.

Virginia Woolf’s most famous "stream of consciousness" novel, Mrs. Dalloway, records the events of one June day in 1923 - the day on which Clarissa Dalloway is hosting a party in her London home. Mrs. Dalloway continues to fascinate and challenge, hinting at homosexuality, mental illness, racial prejudice, infidelity, and unrequited love. It presents a perfect picture of London between the wars, in an England where the class system is still firmly entrenched while carrying throughout an undercurrent of rage at the resulting inequalities.

Annie, Rose, Pearl and Millie carry on making matches for the British Army, with bombs raining down around them. Inspired by the Dig for Victory campaign, Annie persuades the owners to start Bryant & May allotment in the factory grounds. With plenty of sweat and toil, the girls eventually carve out a corner of the yard into a green plot full of life and colour. In the darkest of times, the girls find their allotment a tranquil, happy escape.

Number one New York Times best-selling author Stephanie Laurens brings you the delights of a long-ago country-village Christmas, featuring a grandmother, her grandchildren, an artifact hunter, the lady who catches his eye, and three ancient coins that draw them all together in a Christmas treasure hunt.

Written in 1913, D H Lawrence's first major novel, Sons and Lovers, was the one of the earliest in the English language to explore a close-knit mining community from the inside. Lawrence's semi-autobiographical novel, set in the Nottinghamshire coal fields, is renowned for its accurate portrayal of working-class life and for its use of local dialect. It traces emotional conflicts through the protagonist, Paul Morel, and his suffocating relationships with his over possessive mother, and the women he falls in love with.

Penelope Lively has always been a keen gardener. This audiobook is partly a memoir of her own life in gardens: the large garden at home in Cairo where she spent most of her childhood, her grandmother's garden in a sloping Somerset field, then two successive Oxfordshire gardens of her own and the smaller urban garden in the North London home she lives in today. It's also a wise, engaging exploration of gardens in literature, from Paradise Lost to Alice in Wonderland.

Love begets madness. Viscount Locksley watched it happen to his father after his cherished wife's death. But when his sire arranges to marry flame-haired fortune hunter Portia Gadstone, Locke is compelled to take drastic measures to stop the stunning beauty from taking advantage of the marquess. A marriage of mutual pleasure could be convenient, indeed, as long as inconvenient feelings don't interfere.

Number one New York Times best-selling author Stephanie Laurens immerses you in the simple joys of a long-ago country-village Christmas, featuring a grandmother, her grandchildren, her unwed son, a determined not-so-young lady, foreign diplomats, undercover guards, and agents of Napoleon.

Few authors can claim to have marked a genre so thoroughly and personally that their words have leaked into every aspect of modern pop culture. Clive Barker is such an author, and the Books of Blood marked his debut - his coming out to the world - in brilliant, unforgettable fashion. Crossroad Press is proud to present Clive Barker's Books of Blood in audiobook format for the first time. The Books of Blood combine the ordinary with the extraordinary while radiating the eroticism that has become Barker's signature.

The East End streets are grimy and brutal, but in one corner of Bethnal Green it's forever Hollywood. Stella and Winnie work in Herbie's studio; their best friend, Kitty, works next door as an apprentice dressmaker. All life passes through the studio, wishing to capture that perfect moment in time. As clouds of war brew on the horizon, danger looms over the East End. Will the wedding girls find their happy ever after?

The previous year, Therese learned the trick to keeping her unexpected guests out of mischief. She casts around and discovers that the new organist, who plays superbly, has a strange failing. He requires the written music in front of him before he can play a piece, and the church's book of Christmas carols has gone missing.

When Rosalind Sharpe gains the attention of the deliciously wicked duke of Avendale, she's torn between her distracting attraction to the notorious rogue and the knowledge that he - rich as Croesus - is the perfect target for a deception that will put her swindling days behind her.

Detective Constable Connie Childs is dragged from her bed to the fire-wrecked property on Cross Farm Lane. Three bodies discovered, a family obliterated, and their deaths all seem to point to one conclusion - one mother, one murderer. But DC Childs realises it is the fourth body, the one they cannot find, that holds the key to the mystery. Her determination to unmask the murderer might cost her the thing she cares about most: her career.

Meet Eve, who has departed from her 30-year career to become a Free Spirit, Sally, who has waved goodbye to her indifferent husband and two grown-up children, and Anastasia: defiantly independent narrow-boat-dweller, suddenly vulnerable as she awaits a life-saving operation. Inexperienced and ill-equipped, Sally and Eve embark upon a journey through the canals of England, guided by the remote and unsympathetic Anastasia.

Born to the street but raised within the aristocracy, Drake Darling can't escape his sordid beginnings. Not when Lady Ophelia Lyttleton snubs him at every turn, a constant reminder he's not truly one of them. But after rescuing her from a mysterious drowning, he realizes she doesn't remember who she is. With plans to bring her to heel, he insists she's his housekeeper - never expecting to fall for the charming beauty.

When Emma Tarrant enters a gambling house to find her brother losing to a gamester, she follows the strange man home and attempts to settle the score. Colin Wareham is intrigued by Emma's offer, and when he wins the first hand, he suggests another game. Should he prevail, Emma would be his prize. But as he's collecting his winnings, Emma's father storms in and demands a marriage. Though forced together, Emma and Colin's passion begins to grow... until a sinister man from Emma's past emerges to raise the stakes.