Showing results by narrator "Des Powell" in All Categories

More and more people are reassessing their lives as a result of the pandemic. Many have left their jobs or reduced their hours. Others have resolved to work only as long as they must, retiring early to focus on families and friends, hobbies or travel. Meanwhile, employers all over the world are experimenting with a four-day week. Making the most of these choices requires having and growing enough money to enjoy your future life, without needing to worry about it running out. But when it comes to investing in a pension, there is a dizzying number of complex options available.

Helen Rogers has been lying to herself over her feelings for Tom since the moment they met. And for good reason; not only are they colleagues, but her sabbatical is almost over and she'll soon have to return to Bath. Tom Harris knows he's falling in love with Helen. How could he not? She's smart, kind and great with his son Dylan. But with his ex suddenly offering him a chance to spend more time with Dylan, and the staff of Mill Grange about to host a wedding, everything else has to be put to one side. Even his feelings for a certain archaeologist.

Sam Philips' time in the forces changed him forever. Supported by his friends, Sam is keen to help make beautiful Mill Grange a safe retreat for injured army personnel...but his crippling claustrophobia means Sam is living in a tent on the grounds! Enlisting the help of charming village stalwarts Bert and Mabel Hastings, Tina Martins is determined to find a way to help him conquer his fears. But why does she feel like he is keeping a secret?

Ever found yourself staring into the void and wished it would at least tell a good joke? Wonder how a chain-smoking French philosopher with unflattering glasses became an intellectual sex symbol? Want to understand existentialism without developing an addiction to black turtlenecks and cigarettes? "Sartre's No Exit" is the antidote to pretentious philosophical despair you've been waiting for.

Artist Abigail Carey has always dreamed of a life in the country and, when Winfield Hall comes up at auction, she's desperate to make the place her home. The only trouble is that businessman Edward Townsend has exactly the same idea. With its position high on the Sussex Downs, Winfield is a stunning house, but it hasn't been a home for a long time and there's a lot of work to do to restore it to its former glory. It's going to take a lot of time and money, so Edward and Abi decide to take a risk and share the house, each living in their own wing.

Summer, 1945. The nation rejoices as the Second World War comes to an end, but Banbury Street matriarch Eva Parke foresees trouble ahead. Her daughter, Mildred, awaits the return of her fiancé from overseas duty, and doubts begin to seep into her mind about how little she knows of the man she has promised to marry. Meanwhile new neighbour, dancer Cissie Cresswell, hides a terrible secret. Can the two young women unite to face the doubt and uncertainty of the future?

Wendy Tyler’s marriage ended when she discovered her ex-husband, Mike, had got his much younger new partner, Chloe, pregnant. Wendy’s over Mike, but suddenly she fears her own daughters will find a new baby much more exciting that their old mum. But when Wendy bumps into Chloe at St Piran’s, it’s clear something is troubling the fragile young woman. Wendy doesn’t want to be sucked into Chloe and Mike’s relationship, but she can’t help worrying that Chloe needs someone to turn to.

Terrance “Bear” Collins is the Road Captain of the Via Daemonia Motorcycle Club. He’s always had a laidback, jovial outlook on life. He loves his club, his family, his niece and nephew, and his hometown of Mount Grove, PA. Lately he’s been feeling restless—ever since a one-night stand snuck away from him. Bear’s been having trouble getting the little blonde spitfire out of his head. An unexpected event lands Bear in the emergency room.

Plymouth, 1954. The future seems rosy for Plymouth schoolgirl Anna Millington, as she prepares for teacher training college. But Anna's life is not what it seems. Her family is hiding a cruel secret that resulted from the worst night of the Plymouth Blitz. Now, the devastating consequences are about to erupt again. Fearing for her life, Anna leaves her dreams behind and flees to nearby Dartmoor. It isn't long before Anna secures a position as a serving girl at Ashcroft Hall.

August 1883. The future for Ling Southcott, a quarryman’s daughter, seems to be already mapped. Marriage to her childhood sweetheart, Barney, a cluster of children, a life contained to the hamlet of Foggintor Quarry. For Ling, with her sharp, enquiring mind and love of books, it is an accepted, if unwelcome fate. But then the new Princetown Railway opens across Dartmoor, connecting her remote hamlet to the neighbouring town of Tavistock, and even Plymouth.

When Aidan Lloyd's bleak funeral is followed by a nocturnal ritual in the fog, it becomes all too clear that Aidan, son of a wealthy farmer, will not be resting in peace. Aidan's hidden history has reignited an old feud, and a rural tradition begins to display its sinister side. It's already a fraught time for Merrily Watkins, her future threatened by a bishop committed to restricting her role as diocesan exorcist for Hereford.

Olivia Sheldon has travelled across the world to marry a man she does not love. Reluctant to leave England but coerced into the marriage, Olivia's reward is being reunited with her estranged sister, Clara. Her punishment is falling impossibly and illicitly in love with the enigmatic Captain Edward Bertram. Then one scorching day Clara is abducted from Alexandria's busiest street. Desperate to find her sister - and the truth about her disappearance - Olivia becomes embroiled in Egypt's shadowy underworld, risking both her life and future with Edward.

Boneland is Alan Garner’s continuation of the story thread which began in his first and enduringly popular fantasy children’s novel, The Weirdstone of Brisingamen, published in 1960, it has never been out of print. The Moon of Gomrath followed in 1963 taking the story further with the same two children, Colin and Susan. But Boneland is particularly fascinating because it takes the story into adulthood, with Colin again the main proponent.

Dartmoor, 1875. Rose Maddiford, beautiful, vivacious and intelligent, could have her pick of men across Dartmoor. But she is in no hurry to marry unless it is for true love - and certainly not while she can help her father manage the Cherrybrook Gunpowder Mills. Then tragedy strikes. Rose’s father is injured by an explosion at the mill, and the family is left teetering on the edge of poverty. Rose is left with just two options: accept arrogant, controlling Charles Chadwicks’ proposal and move to London or let her family perish. Rose must choose duty over love.

Two great loves. One shattering betrayal. A war that changes everything. Harriet and Mae Grafton are 20-year-old identical twins born from a scandalous affair. They grew up in India slighted by gossip and ostracised from polite society. They had each other and that was enough. But when their wealthy benefactor sends them to Singapore, they meet the mysterious Alex Blake and their relationship fractures with devastating consequences. Ivy Harcourt is posted to wartime Singapore amid the looming threat of Japanese invasion. Ivy knows the island will be a far cry from war-torn London, but she is totally unprepared for what awaits her....

‘Fabulously festive and sparkly as tinsel – an absolute treat of a book’ Milly Johnson For Bo Grayson, Christmas has always been the most wonderful time of the year. Well, until she had her heart broken last December… When Bo Grayson and her friends meet a mysterious fortune teller, she...

A man's body is found below a waterfall. It looks like suicide or an accidental drowning – until DI Frannie Bliss enters the dead man's home. What he finds there has him consulting Merrily Watkins, the Diocese of Hereford's official advisor on the paranormal.

Elizabeth Thornton has every reason to want to escape from home — a ramshackle farm in the middle of nowhere on the wilds of Dartmoor. Since her father's death, she's been trapped here, in the clutches of her lascivious uncle. When a position opens up at Rosebank Hall, she jumps at the chance. She will be a domestic drudge at the beck and call of the house's cantankerous master.

At the end of the 18th century, the poet William Wordsworth rambled, in a strange visionary haze, from Salisbury Plain up into the Wye Valley. The epic walk changed his life. More than 200 years later, Oxford student David Vaynor followed the same secluded route and still can't explain what happened to him there. Now he's back, as a police detective investigating a suspicious death, and finds that, in this place of cliffs and chasms, it's far from easy to escape the past.

Written by Eusebius, the bishop of Caesarea, The History of the Church is the pioneering fourth-century work which details the chronological history of early Christianity from the time of Christ to Constantine. This monumental work of Christian history stands apart from other contemporary histories as the first full-length record of early Christianity from a Christian point of view. While sometimes criticized as biased and inaccurate, The History of the Church nevertheless provides an indispensable perspective upon the foundations of the Christian church and religion.