Showing results by narrator "Gemma Lawrence" in All Categories

One Girl Began entwines the stories of three women, separated by history but connected by the same building. For Ellen in 1909, it is a box factory where she finds work and a transformative circle of friendship when her family fall on hard times. For Frances in 1984, it is a derelict ruin, where she joins a group of squatters and is drawn into a coercive relationship. And for Amanda in 2020, it is a gentrified conversion, where she finds herself trapped in a tiny flat and grappling with new motherhood as the pandemic looms into view.

A spellbinding new middle grade series crackling with magic and adventure, perfect for fans of Starfell, Nevermoor and A Pinch of Magic. I am Spel. Daughter of witches. The only one who can step between worlds. The only one who can save my sister. If I can find her before the witch hunt begins...

When a sudden reassignment gives Lily Baker only three days to report to mysterious Bletchley Park, she’s confused but excitedly answers duty’s call. Learning the reputed madhouse is actually the clandestine home of Allied codebreakers, Lily walks a fine line between guarding British secrets and protecting her heart. But when she overhears that a spy could be hidden among the eclectic mix of codebreakers, she is determined to uncover which of her new friends is the traitor.

Twin sisters Lily and Daisy Kennedy live a life ruled by their controlling father, Des. Desperate to salvage his own shattered dreams, he forces his girls to perform in seedy London club, Eden's, in the hopes they will finally hit the big time. Their double act instantly pulls in the punters, but in the shadow of the spotlights, danger lurks. Lily, the golden girl, is stressed out by their new life, but rebellious Daisy relishes the freedom and excitement it brings.

England, 1941. Reunited briefly with her husband-to-be before he returns to fighting, Lily Baker now finds her mundane army office work dreary. But when her boss asks her to keep watch on the happenings at the depot, she quickly suspects a new weapons supplier of fraud. As she trains her sharp eye on the potential cheat, she agrees to help an unmarried colleague with an unexpected pregnancy. But when, without evidence, she is accused of being the one with child, she faces hard decisions.

Lexi is already an oscar winning documentary director at just 30-years-old. But when she is asked to ditch her current project in exchange to film Rebel Heart - a reunited boy band - she is disappointed to say the least. She didn't work this hard to follow a boy group on tour and document their every manufactured move. But after meeting Aidan, the unofficial 'head' of the band, something new stirs inside her. She thinks he's egotistical, entitled, and impulsive. Equally, Aidan thinks Lexi is high-strung, secretive, and emotionally devoid.

Mia is telling me a story. It’s about a princess, who lives in a castle, on a street that bears a remarkable resemblance to ours. About a kind old lady who’s the queen. I’m distracted for a moment by her little hand softly slipping into mine. My daughter. My angel. But then she says something that pulls me from my reverie. She says that the queen doesn’t treat the princess well. She punishes her and doesn’t let her eat anything…Helen, my neighbour, has been so good to me. And more importantly, she’s so good with the children. Surely this is just another story of Mia’s, just make believe.

Daisy’s hero is Florence Nightingale, and she hopes to one day become a nurse just like her. But as a girl growing up in the East End of London in 1912, it seems like all her future holds is dropping out of school to work a tough job in a factory for very little money.

Helen Macdonald is a falconer and poet. She keeps a goshawk called Mabel. As a child she fell in love with a rare book of intense nature writing, J.A. Baker's The Peregrine, which records a winter watching wild peregrines on the Essex coast. Her new play brings her birds and his together. Baker...

Sophy Pemberton is struggling to cope with the pressures of becoming a new mother. Her nine-month-old son never settles in her arms, and the unrelenting tiredness from late-night feeds is all consuming. So, when Liv Granger from the mother and baby group offers her services as a nanny, Sophy is overcome with relief. Now she can finally get some sleep. She can stop failing at being a mother. But Liv has a secret. She didn’t become Sophy’s nanny by accident.

It's that week between Christmas and New Year, and sisters Kate and Selena, and their friend Paisley, are meeting for an all-girls mini-break - no men allowed. But Affie, Carlos and Joseph have a similar idea, involving a sports channel, plenty of beer, and absolutely no women. Somehow, there's been a double booking. Can the six of them find a way to navigate nearly a week together? Can the past be left behind and a new future found?

Grace has returned to London after twenty years abroad to manage her dying mother's affairs. When she receives a blank Mother's Day card in the post, she is confused and unsettled. Another Mother's Day card arrives. Then come the silent phone calls. Haunted by disturbing flashbacks, Grace starts to unravel. Someone is out to get her. Someone who knows what she has done. Someone who will make her face the past she has run from for so long.

England, 1940. Only given two days leave after barely escaping Nazi troops in Paris, Lily Baker visits her fiancé’s family and is dismayed to learn he’s still missing in action. And going from an exciting overseas telephonist post to a routine office assignment leaves her bored… until the Blitz begins. Joining the Air Raid Protection service, Lily’s perilous new role puts her on the chaotic frontlines of deadly shelling and scared crowds turning hostile. But despite her heroism, she is plagued by guilt when she starts feeling attracted to a fellow A.R.P. member.

With her twin sister still missing, Daisy Kennedy is determined to do all she can to bring her sister home. She’s sure she knows who’s to blame – her old boos and renowned nightclub owner, Samson Fox - but she’s going to need help if she’s going to make Samson pay. And so Daisy joins forces with Samson’s biggest rival – Roscoe Allen – a man who has seen and done things that makes Daisy shiver. But if she wants Lily back safe, she’s going to have to make a deal…even if it is with the devil himself.

For the courageous Bletchley Park girls, the fourth Christmas of the war is approaching fast. It should be a happy time, yet life throws them challenges they could never have imagined. Lily's heart is torn in two when her boyfriend, Grant, is badly injured in an air raid. As he spirals into despair, she must find a way to give him hope again. Bronwyn has a new romance on the horizon. But will the widower's young daughter accept her, or will she jeopardise Bronwyn's hopes for love?

A man is accidentally knocked down outside 221B Baker Street by a carriage. His dying words are he has seen a man rise from the grave. At the same time a visitor arrives with a mystery of unparalleled international importance. The Viscount Wrexham is missing, presumed dead, in strange circumstances. In the North, rumours stir of a dead man haunting the moors. Broomheath Hall is beset by ghostly lights and spectres. What does it all mean? Can arcane knowledge bring people back from the dead?

It's summer in London, and things are quiet. But while Holmes and Watson chafe at their inactivity, a train, carrying a vital encoded communication, is entering a tunnel in an obscure region of the Balkans – never to be seen again. The case of the disappearing train is only the beginning of the nation's difficulties. The missing message must be found and decoded, and a diplomat's wife must be rescued from the clutches of a pernicious blackmailer.

It's 2013. You're a teenager squinting at your laptop in the dead of night, flicking between iTunes and YouTube and PirateBay. Endless reams of artists unspool at the click of a button. New forms of musical discovery open up before your very eyes. This evolving digital landscape exists beyond...

I’ve spent years running from my past. After what happened to my parents, I needed to start fresh, far away from the whispers and stares. Now, as a struggling university student, I barely scrape by, living in a new town where no one knows me or the tragedy I’ve tried to forget. To make ends meet, I take on a ghostwriting job for a high-profile client. But the deal comes with one strange condition: their identity must remain a secret. Their only communication is through a distorted voice on an app.

Aspiring writer Mab has hit rock bottom. She's stuck in a dead-end job, her landlord's on the warpath and her love life is in tatters. But just as she makes a life-changing decision, fate chooses to deliver the man she's been waiting for. Leo has inherited a crumbling old shop in the heart of their sleepy market town and plans to turn it into a cosy haven of books and chocolate – and he wants Mab's help. Soon, Mab finds herself swept up by gorgeous Leo's enthusiasm for the renovation, despite his disapproving, glamorous fiancée.