Showing results by narrator "Patience Tomlinson" in All Categories

Mrs Paschal, the heroine of Revelations of a Lady Detective, is regularly consulted by the police and serves as an undercover agent as well as investigating her own cases. But even though she is 'verging on 40', she throws herself into cases with verve and gusto and has no hesitation in infiltrating a deadly secret society or casting off her crinolines in order to plummet into a sewer on the trail of a criminal.

“The end of the old world”, people said about the long, hot summer of 1914. That summer Aunt Tilly comes to stay with her brother, the Rector, and his four lively daughters in the sleepy Sussex village of Ashden. Aunt Tilly’s visit sparks off a chain of events which threatens to split Ashden apart. Agnes Pilbeam, the Rectory palourmaid, and her sweetheart, Jamie, find themselves bewilderingly caught up. Then, in August, the lamps go out all over Europe, and war bursts open the straitjacket of rural village life.

From the summer of 1938, British women from all walks of life joined the Women's Voluntary Services (WVS). This disparate band of women came together for the common good - to help serve and protect their communities. By 1941 a million women had enrolled. These brave and dutiful women played a vital role in Britain's victory. The positive impact of the WVS on wartime society was universally acknowledged. They were instrumental in implementing the large-scale evacuation of children from bomb-targeted cities, in the care of the wounded, and in keeping those in war service fed.

When sleuth-come-pantomime director Libby Serjeant learns of threatening letters sent to Cy, a friend of her friend Harry, she is furious, but assumes this anti-gay prejudice won't escalate. Despite her anger, Libby is reluctant to get involved—there's a lot going on as she tries to juggle the stress of directing a pantomime at the same time as suddenly having a full house. Her partner Ben has just moved in, and her son Adam has come home with a broken leg.

Middle-aged artist-come-investigator Libby Sarjeant can't ever seem to have a quiet moment. Her son, Adam, has uncovered a body within Creekmarsh Place, where he is working as a gardener for TV personality Lewis Osbourne-Walker. The police seem to think there is no connection with the current owner, but Libby, naturally, can't just leave it at that. With her psychic friend Fran's mind on other things, Libby has to go it alone. A murder in London inspires the police to dig deeper, and Libby, determined to help her new friend Lewis, stirs up more trouble.

Amateur sleuth Libby Sarjeant and psychic investigator Fran find themselves in the middle of another investigation when a member of a local Morris Dancing side is unfortunately found dead on May Day. Driven in part by her interest in Morris lore and in part by her insatiable appetite for detecting, Libby leaves her comfort zone in Kent and travels to Cornwall. Here she sees the darker side of Morris and its surprising links to Satanism.

Nobody wants to be 'a nuisance to a killer', but is it too late? Psychic investigator Fran Castle gets a request from the police to help when a body discovered on a rocky island in the middle of Nethergate Bay thoroughly stumps them. Libby Sarjeant, Fran's sleuthing partner, is on the case too, refusing to abandon Fran to solve the case alone. Together they delve into the shameful world of the exploitation of illegal immigrants.

Edmund, a fine artist and restorer of oil paintings, had sought out finance to set up business: his very own art gallery. Eager to impress his friends, the young man signed on the dotted line. Now, his debt was spiraling out of control. He had just about given up when an invitation arrived on his mat. This was an offer he could hardly refuse.

Negotiating their way through Stalinist terrors, Nazi slavery, and British colonial brutality, Pasha Zayky and his wife, Tanya, tell firsthand how a loving family fight for survival during the hell of the 20th century. Listeners follow this family from a war-torn Berlin to a forbidding postwar London, with flashbacks to 1930s Soviet Russia along the way, until they arrive in Africa, where nationalist forces are challenging British rule.

Following adventures she would sooner forget in the newly renamed New York, Mercia Blakewood is hopeful that she has gained the leverage with the king she needs to reclaim her family's home back in England. The breathtaking new world piques her curiosity, and a burgeoning friendship with Clemency Carter, a local medicine woman, prompts Mercia to delay her return.

In this definitive guide, Dr. Rosemary Leonard debunks some of the myths surrounding the menopause, including why perimenopause is a layman's term, and the pros and cons of HRT. Rosemary discusses the best approaches to the menopause and whether drugs, holistic remedies or other forms of treatment will work best for the individual. Covering everything from hot flushes, changes to your menstrual bleeding pattern, and how to tackle sex after menopause to advice on alternative remedies.

By the summer of 1916, there is still no end to the war in sight and in the Sussex village of Ashden, optimism has given way to stoicism. While George Lilley leaves the Rectory to join the Royal Flying Corps, each of his four sisters finds her own way of contributing to the war effort. Gradually coming to terms with her broken engagement, Caroline Lilley numbly continues with her agricultural work at home, until tragedy forces her into leaving Ashden.

Christmas 1917, and as the Lilley family gathers at the Rectory in the Sussex village of Ashden, the mood is far from festive. But while the sisters face heartache and the new year brings fresh tragedy, the Rectory opens its doors to a new world, its inhabitants strengthened by the grief and happiness shared during the long years of war.

Slavers burst into Grace Winslow's life with guns blazing and tear her family apart forever. She watches in anguish as her husband is led in chains aboard a tightly packed slave ship bound for America. An old enemy has a more sinister plan for Grace and prepares her for a different kind of servitude in London. But Grace will not be enslaved. And she will not give up on the man she loves. In her determination to be reunited with her husband, she finds God reaching out to her.

Henriette d'Entragues isn't satisfied with simply being mistress of Henry IV of France, she wants a crown too. Despite his promises to marry her, the King is obliged by political necessity to ally himself with Marie de Medici, an Italian princess who will bring riches to the treasury. But Henriette isn't one for giving up easily. She has a written promise of marriage which she intends to use to declare the royal marriage illegal. All she has to do to achieve her ambition is to give Henry a son.

1812. Clever, strong-willed Vivienne Fox is unexpectedly endowed with riches beyond her wildest dreams when a distant cousin dies, leaving her his fortune. Unwed at 24, Vivienne still hopes the right man is out there, but she despairs of ever finding him, and she is determined that rumours of her new-found wealth be quashed, lest she be courted for her purse rather than her heart. Renowned rake Lord Alex LeSayres comes to an unpleasant decision after the death of his father.

March 1915. Caroline Lilley's fiancé, Reggie, is away at the front, and Caroline gives up her job and returns home at his request. Frustrated in her desire to help the war effort, she throws herself into saving the harvest by organising the village women - and runs up against Reggie's mother, the formidable Lady Hunney. Caroline's sister, Felicia, departs to become an ambulance driver on the Western Front, and Phoebe and George eagerly await their chance to leave the village.

Do not stand at my grave and weep; I am not there. I do not sleep. There is nothing more powerful than a mother's love. Five years ago Molly Gabriel lost her twenty-year-old son, Joey, to a terrible sailing accident. His empty boat was washed ashore on the rocks, but his body was never found. Now Molly has returned to the sands of Cornwall, haunted by his disappearance, unable to accept he is gone. Joey was an experienced sailor and died on a calm sea--things just don't add up, and Molly cannot let it go.

The 13th book in Lesley Cookman's best-selling Libby Sarjeant murder mystery series follows Libby and the gang as they visit the Isle of Wight for the funeral of an old friend. For once there is nothing suspicious about the death, but their invitation to the funeral comes from elderly cousins who do have an unexplained death in the family. As her best friend, Harry, seems to be involved somehow, Libby is determined to ignore the growing reluctance of the cousins to help as she investigates.

On 6 June, 1944, Britain woke up to a profound silence. Overnight, 160,000 Allied troops had vanished and an eerie emptiness settled over the country. The majority of those men would never return. This is the story of that extraordinary 24 hours. Using a wealth of first-person testimonies, renowned historian Max Arthur recounts a remarkable new oral history of D-Day, beginning with the two years leading up to the silent day that saw the UK transformed by the arrival of thousands of American and Canadian troops.