Showing results by narrator "Sophie Ward" in All Categories

Effie Gray, a Scottish beauty, was the heroine of a great Victorian love story. Married at nineteen to John Ruskin, she found herself trapped in a loveless and unconsummated union. When her husband invited his protégé John Everett Millais away on holiday, Effie and Millais fell in love. She would inspire some of Millais' most haunting images and embody Victorian society's fears about female sexuality.

With her beautiful flat in London, Alice appears to have it all. But beneath the surface, everything is unravelling: she needs money, and fast. Her boss Mina, the wife of a powerful MP, lives a life dripping with luxury – one Alice can only dream of. And she’s about to make Alice an offer she can’t refuse. When Alice agrees to loan Mina her flat for the night – she couldn’t possibly imagine what Mina is planning to use it for. And when she discovers the shocking truth, what starts as a simple favour spirals into a web of desire, secrets and deadly lies that could destroy them both.

Isobel lives an isolated life in North London, working at a nearby library. She feels safe if she keeps to her routines and doesn't let her thoughts stray too far into the past. But a newspaper photograph of a missing local schoolgirl and a letter from her old teacher are all it takes for her ordinary, careful armour to become overwhelmed and the trauma of what happened when she was a pupil at The Schoolhouse to return.

When an undercover assignment for the Bow Street magistrate sees prostitute Lizzie Hardwicke trade Ma Farley’s Bawdy House in Soho for life as a seamstress the theatre on Drury Lane, it becomes clear quite quickly - what goes on in the wings is much more intriguing than the theatrics being played out onstage.... Soon Lizzie is once again thrown together with the handsome Inspector Will Davenport when a high profile investor is brutally hanged at centre stage and Lizzie discovers the body.

For Maria, nothing is certain. Her life is a chain of accidents. Friendship passes her by, and she's unimpressed by the devoted Ronny and his endless proposals of marriage. Maria lives in a world of her own - yet not of her own making. Stumbling through university, work, marriage and motherhood, she finds it hard to see what all the fuss is about. Will she ever be able to control the direction of her life? Or will it end as it began, by accident? What does chance have in store for the accidental woman?

Scandal, intoxication and lies flourish in the silent film studios of Paris. A silent film, destroyed in a fire in 1914 at the Pathé studio, before it was seen even by its director. A lowly seamstress who makes the costumes she should be wearing but believes her talent - and the secret she keeps, too - will soon get her a dressing room of her own. A famous - and dashing - creator of spectacular cinematic illusions, husband to a beautiful, volatile actress, the most adored icon of the Parisian studios.

The 'rules' are still the rules, to be taken seriously, not to be broken...Ryan and Emily appear to have it all, successful jobs, a beautiful house and the secret to a happy marriage. A secret that involves certain 'rules'. Beneath the surface, trouble is brewing in the shape of Ada. Whimsical, free-spirited and beholden to no-one, she represents the freedom Emily's been striving for and the escape that Ryan didn't know he wanted. As they are separately (and secretly) drawn to her, things start to unravel.

A fascinating exploration of the psychology behind the seven deadly sins: Why have we evolved these ugly emotions? What’s going on in the brain and the body when we feel them? And how best can we live alongside them - in ourselves and with others? Becky Ripley and Sophie Ward take a humorous and compelling look at the psychology behind each of the seven deadly sins. Rolling with the order established by Pope Gregory the Great, first up is pride, followed by greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath, and (finally) lazy old sloth.

Originally published in 1928, The Well of Loneliness follows the life of Stephen Gordon, a girl born to parents who wished for a boy in late Victorian England. Through Stephen, Hall explores love, loneliness, and the struggle for self-acceptance in the face of rejection.