Showing results by narrator "Louise Brealey" in All Categories

**Now a major motion picture starring Jodie Comer** A startlingly beautiful story of a family's survival, The End We Start From is a haunting but hopeful dystopian vision of a familiar world made dangerous and unstable. 'Engrossing, compelling' - Naomi Alderman, author of The Power 'I was moved...

Born and brought up in the East End of London, Bernard Kops came to fame in the late 1950s as part of British drama’s ‘New Wave’. A lyrical chronicler of Jewish family life, he is often compared to Arnold Wesker and Harold Pinter, though his work is more sentimental and surreal. In a 50-year career, he wrote 10 novels, numerous poetry collections, two autobiographies and over 40 stage, TV and radio plays.

Every year, Tess and Maggie meet up to try a different activity, something they've never done together before. This year, it's baking, and for a few hours each Friday afternoon, they put the rest of their lives on hold to make cakes. And not just ordinary cakes, but spectacular, unique and glorious gateaux, to celebrate special occasions and commemorate landmark events. When they help a neighbour in distress, they create their first showstopper - a dark, sultry bitter chocolate cake.

In Letters of Note: War, Shaun Usher brings together some of the most remarkable letters that encapsulate the human experience of war, from unimaginable feats of courage and compassion, to unthinkable episodes of violence and horror. A star-studded cast of readers brings the letters to life, with contributions from Sanjeev Bhaskar, Louise Brealey, Simon Callow, Benedict Cumberbatch, Adrian Edmondson, Stephen Fry, Neil Gaiman, Danny Huston, Toby Jones, Ferdinand Kingsley, Jude Law, Natascha McElhone, Clarke Peters, Juliet Stevenson and Mark Strong.

Sarah Hargreaves doesn't share her husband Matthew's desire to join the Puritan exiles, but when their son Benjamin is arrested on a trumped-up charge, they have little choice but to go. Things go rapidly from bad to worse and they decide to leave everything behind. Hoping to find peace and like-minded souls in a new religious community in America, they spend everything they have left on a ticket to sail on the Mayflower.

Set between Moscow, Russia and St Andrews, Scotland, it tackles the metaphysics of golf, the mindset of the classic Russian novels and the power of art and music to rewrite reality, as Aneliya comes into contact with an angelic presence named Xstabeth who simultaneously fulfils and disappears both her father and her lover. Written in a tender, mythical key, it is a love letter to the books of Chandler, Nabokov and Dostoevsky and also a musical text, with chord progressions appearing at key points in the action, so that the audiobook may be sung, played or otherwise accompanied.

A brand-new collection from the internationally best-selling author of Letters of Note.

Venture beyond the familiar and discover the fragile line between tranquility and turmoil in 12 gripping and unnerving short stories, masterfully crafted by Tove Jansson. From a professor stranded in a picturesque Spanish village to a holiday in Finland disrupted by an intrusive child, each tale unravels the unsettling facets of journeys that veer off course. Brilliantly evoking the shifting scenes and restlessness of summer, "Travelling Light" is guaranteed to surprise. Finnish-Swedish writer and artist Tove Jansson (1914-2001) is globally cherished for creating the Moomin universe.

Summer is swelling around the village. Heat is surging, people are whispering about a great hungry wave, and in the garden, Anna is kicking her dying dog on the grass. But someone is watching her. The girl. Ava. Outside, the brutal summer blisters on. Inside, over the course of one claustrophobic week, Anna and Ava become caught up in their own world. Become swallowed by each-otherness. But what does Ava really want? As faces fray and secrets splinter, the past casts the present anew, and Anna and Ava are forced to reckon with who they truly are.