Showing results by narrator "Sophie Robert" in All Categories

Mary hears on the radio that the British warship her husband is on has sunk, leaving few survivors. Waiting for daybreak to bring news, Mary escapes into memories of her past. Sincere and engaging - a ‘hot-water bottle’ novel - Mariana by Monica Dickens is full of sharply remembered detail...

Claire arrives at her new job as researcher at a grand English country house, nursing a broken heart. But tucked into the back of a long-forgotten drawer she finds a letter written in an elegant hand. It tells of a wartime secret about the beautiful Lady Violet – whose passionate affair with an Italian prisoner of war scandalised the village and ended in tragedy. Captivated, Claire promises to find Violet’s daughter, Tabitha, and reunite her with a priceless piece of her mother’s jewellery. With only the name of an Italian bakery, Pasticceria Mancini, to guide her, and the help of her handsome neighbour Jim, Claire travels to Tabitha’s last known location – Florence.

Brokewood-on-Tandle is a strange and mysterious place. So when Hattie and her brother, Jonathan, arrive to find their granny missing, they suspect something sinister is going on. Hattie knew her family kept secrets. But she had no idea that they were this magical....

When Vale Moonwing returns to Darkwood Forest, he discovers that her old friend, the wizard Yaztromo, has vanished...himself?

A BBC comedy drama set in the world of a 'pile 'em high university'. Karen Poynter is the new head of the Geography Department - renamed Geographical Tourism - at Hayborough University, which is definitely not part of the elite Russell Group of top universities. Ranked 132nd in the UK academic league table; if you have a pulse, you can have a degree.

Is it possible for books to dream? For books to dream within books? Is there a literary subterranean that would facilitate ingress and exit points through these dreams? These are some of the questions posed by David Keenan's masterly fifth novel, Monument Maker, an epic romance of eternal summer and a descent, into history, into the horrors of the past; a novel with a sweep and range that runs from the siege of Khartoum and the conquest of Africa in the 19th century through the Second World War and up to the present day.

Venice, 1717. Before Maddalena arrived at the Ospedale della Pietà, Venice's most illustrious music school, fifteen-year-old orphan Luisa has only wanted one thing: to be the best at violin. Luisa is good at violin, but she is not the best. She has peers, but she does not have friends. Until Maddalena. Sent to the Pietà until her noble family can find her a husband, Maddalena is cunning, passionate, and unlike anyone Luisa has ever met. Maddalena can promise the world to Luisa, and when she does, their fates intertwine.

Can you remember the first time you encountered true darkness? The kind that remains as black and inky whether your eyes are open or closed? Where you can't see your hand in front of your face? Jacqueline Yallop can. It was in an unfamiliar bedroom while holidaying in Yorkshire as a child, and ever since then she has been fascinated by the dark, by our efforts to capture or avoid it, by the meanings we give to it and the way our brains process it.

Ashley Moon is all set for a dream holiday with her daughter in the glittering French Riviera. But nothing can prepare her for the shock of discovering who’s staying in the villa next door.... Ashley got much more than a suntan on her first ever foreign holiday; one whirlwind romance and nine months later she had a daughter, Molly. Too proud to ever contact the father, Ashley made a decision to go it alone and raise her daughter herself.

Once upon a time, Ella had wished for more than her life as a lowly maid. Now forced to work hard under the unforgiving, lecherous gaze of the man she once called stepfather, Ella’s only refuge is in the books she reads by candlelight, secreted away in the library she isn’t permitted to enter. One night, among her beloved books of far-off lands, Ella’s wishes are answered. At the stroke of midnight, a fairy godmother makes her an offer that will change her life.

In Edwardian England, bookish and bespectacled Vita Carew longs to be left to her scientific studies. But she can't avoid the event of the season, a gala at Pemberton Hall. This glamorous concert and sumptuous dinner will mark the Pemberton household’s triumphant return to society after a run of misfortune. But disaster strikes as soon as the seafood is served.

Power and Glory brings us to the dramatic conclusion of Larman's 'Windsors trilogy'. It begins with the fallout from the revelation of the Duke of Windsor's wartime treachery, and ends with the Coronation of Elizabeth II on 2 June 1953. In between, it depicts a monarchy - and a country - struggling to cope with the aftermath of World War Two, in an era where old certainties have been replaced by the rise of a new, uncertain world, and where love, tragedy and modernity battle for supremacy.

The year is 1967. Thirteen-year-old Maisie is at her decaying family home, once a medieval abbey. Lucas, an artist and friend, is painting a portrait of Maisie and her sisters. Maisie embarks on a portrait of her own: telling the story of herself, her sisters and their lovers, and of her friend, Daniel Nunn. Twenty-three years later, Lucas's now-famous portrait features in a retrospective of his work. Daniel, obsessed by the sisters and determined to understand what happened that summer at the abbey, pursues answers.

Heather doesn’t want to remember her childhood, not when her mother’s extreme hoarding cast her family life into disarray. For Heather’s mother, every possession was intimately connected to a memory, so when Heather uncovers a secret about her past that could reveal why her mother never let anything go, she knows there’s only one place she’ll find answers - behind the locked door of her spare room, where the remains of her mother’s hoard lie hidden.

This Barbara Cartland take on a Cinderella story is perfect for anyone looking for a bit of romantic suspense. Raised by her aunt and uncle, Alida lives in the shame that her late father cast upon the family. Always seen as inferior, Alida never thought love was going to be in her future. But her life is turned upside down when she must join her cousin on a trip to Russia to meet the young Prince that her cousin shall marry.

Philip K. Dick was an award-winning giant of American science fiction, right up there with Ray Bradbury and Isaac Asimov. He became the first science fiction writer ever to be included in The Library of America series. Although he died fairly young at 53, he created many incredible sci-fi stories - 44 published novels and over 120 short stories! These 14 selections represent some of his most imaginative work. Included in this collection are: "Adjustment Team", "The Golden Man", "A World of Talent", "The Last of the Masters", "The Crystal Crypt", and more.

Across Europe, a young woman with no name and no fixed appearance hops from empty villa to vacated apartment to dormant summer house under the guise of house sitter. Her agenda? Steal from the rich, and kill anyone who gets in her way. On a stormy night in England, travelling home down narrow country lanes, a fatal car crash leaves Kat’s husband Oliver dead. But as Kat begins to mourn his loss, she discovers something that suggests she never knew her husband at all.

Nora Berend uncovers how el Cid has been transformed across the centuries, confronting the gulf between truth and legend and examining how a military adventurer became a hero to people on opposite ends of the political spectrum. The story of the Cid forces us to confront what makes us human. What is it about this man that appeals to us? And why do we transform the most unsuitable people into heroes?

Declutter every aspect of your life - from your wardrobe, exercise schedule and food budget to your phone, bookshelves and beauty regime - with this realistic guide to getting neat and keeping things that way. Anna Newton is just trying to balance work, her friends, her family, her husband Mark, a growing handbag habit and a love for takeaway pizza. Over the past eight years of running the blog and corresponding YouTube Channel The Anna Edit, she's grown a loyal viewership who tune in for her weekly videos on everything from house renovations to the best summer foundation.

Ginny is about to turn 32. It’s a year she’s been thinking about for a long time. Sixteen years ago she crossed paths with a psychic who made some key predictions about her thirty-second year. Three bad things: A heartbreak, a loss of independence, and a death. Three good things: A life-changing trip, reconnecting with someone, and meeting her soulmate. The issue is that Ginny is due to get married in a month…but it’s all nonsense, obviously. But when some of those pesky predictions start coming true she starts to wonder what might happen next.