Showing results by narrator "Alison Larkin" in All Categories

The Adventures of Charlie & Moon by West Australian author and filmmaker, Martin Meader is a fantasy adventure for children about a boy named Charlie Ramsbottom who opens a mysterious birthday present the night before his ninth birthday and the consequences that follow. Moon is a young eagle who needs Charlie’s help to stop an evil toymaker, Skunk Weavel from turning all the eagles and endangered species into stuffed toys.

Audrey Malte is illegitimate, though her beloved father - tailor to King Henry VIII - prefers to call her “merry-begot,” saying there was much joy in her making. Then Audrey visits the royal court with her father, and the whispers start about Audrey’s distinctive Tudor-red hair and the kindness that the king shows her. Did dashing Henry perhaps ask Malte to raise a royal love child? The king’s favor, however, brings Audrey constraint as well as opportunity.

Truth is a powerful marketing tool - and really the only way to promote a message and brand effectively. Truth in advertising has long been something to ignore, or at least downplay. The role of advertising has been to position and manipulate brands to convince consumers that they're imbued with qualities they don't necessarily possess, or presume to tell them which ones matter. It worked when the brand's voice was the only voice, but with the rise of social media that era is over.

After Alison Temple discovers that her husband is cheating on her, she does what any jilted woman would do: She spray-paints a nasty message for him on her wedding dress and takes a job with the detective firm that found him out. Being a researcher at the all-female Fitzgerald’s Bureau of Investigation in London is certainly a change of pace from her previous life, especially considering the characters Alison meets in the line of duty.

To escape her cruel stepfather, seamstress Alexandra Cogsworth envisioned sailing far from England…though not as a captive aboard a pirate’s ship. Pirate captain Nathaniel Kent’s strategy for exacting revenge on his coldhearted father involved taking a valuable hostage…not a seamstress he mistakenly thinks is his half sister. Yet fate has designs of its own, landing them both on board the Royal Vengeance. At sea, Nathaniel intercepts and plunders his father’s ships, all the while tormented by his illicit hunger for the tempting prisoner he thinks is his blood relation.

Twenty-six-year-old Emily Castles is out of work…again. So when famous romance author Morgana Blakely offers her a job helping out at a conference in London, Emily accepts. Just as eagerly, American blogger Winnie Kraster accepts an invitation from Morgana to attend as a guest, not realizing she has, in effect, accepted an invitation to die. As a cast of oddball characters assembles at the conference hotel, grievances, differences, and secrets begin to emerge. When Winnie goes missing, and then is found murdered nearby, Emily begins to suspect that someone involved with the conference is responsible.

Jane Popyncourt was brought to the court as a child to be ward of the king and a companion to his daughters - the princesses Margaret and Mary. With no money of her own, Jane could not hope for a powerful marriage, or perhaps even marriage at all. But as she grows into a lovely young woman, she still receives flattering attention from the young men flocking to serve the handsome new king, Henry VIII, who has recently married Catherine of Aragon. Then a dashing French prisoner of war, cousin to the king of France, is brought to London, and Jane finds she can't help giving her heart to a man she can never marry.

Beautiful Lady Anne Stafford, lady-in-waiting to Queen Catherine of Aragon, is torn between her love for her husband, George, Lord Hastings...and the king’s boon companion, the attentive Sir William Compton. But when King Henry VIII, amorous as always, joins the men clustering around her, Anne realizes she has become perilously enmeshed in the intrigues of the court. Will she be forced to decide between the two men she desires - and the one she doesn’t?

Anxious to secure his own success at the glittering court of Henry VIII, heiress Tamsin Lodge’s ambitious guardian obtains her a position as maid of honor to young Princess Mary Tudor. Tamsin soon comes to love the neglected child, but in the Tudor court, not even a princess is secure. Mary’s father is besotted with the lovely Anne Boleyn, and the girl’s future has grown perilous. Plotting to be Mary’s eyes and ears, Tamsin joins Anne’s service, but the handsome silk worker who is her co-conspirator may be her undoing.

Charming. Desirable. Forbidden. Brought to court with other eligible young noblewomen by the decree of King Henry VIII, lovely Elizabeth “Bess” Brooke realizes for the first time that beauty can be hazardous. Although Bess has no desire to wed the aging king, she and her family would have little choice if Henry’s eye were to fall on her. And other dangers exist as well, for Bess has caught the interest of dashing courtier Will Parr. Bess finds Will’s kisses as sweet as honey, but marriage between them may be impossible....

When her old friend Hannah doesn’t show up at her house in the south of France, everyone assumes that Claudia, who has known Hannah since their shared years at boarding school, will know where she is and what has happened. But as Claudia travels from the United States to France to help her friend’s husband and children conduct their search, she is forced to deal with her old jealousy of Hannah, as well as her own relationship in the present with her French lover, Alexandre.

Dr. Ruth Westheimer's grandson, Ben, is afraid to join the soccer team. To help out, she tells him the story of Leopold the Turtle, who always stays on the shore. It terrifies him to go join the other turtles and play in the water and sun on the rocks. Leopold just can't get out of his shell, and the longer he waits, the more he starts to doubt. Even though Leopold feels quite alone, he stays on the riverbank where it's safe. But Freddy the Frog is a little concerned about Leopold and asks him to join them in the river.

At the heart of each of these great classic stories is an adoptee with an indomitable spirit who becomes the heroine (or hero) of her own life. "The bravery it takes for an unwanted orphan to forge their own path in life was as great when these stories were written as it is today," says narrator Alison Larkin, who draws on her own adoption experience to bring these stories to authentic new life.

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde grew out of a horrifying nightmare Robert Louis Stevenson had one night in Bournemouth, England, in 1886. "The Yellow Wallpaper" sprang from a catastrophic nervous breakdown Charlotte Perkins Gilman had six years later on the other side of the Atlantic following the birth of her daughter. Now these two haunting, iconic tales are brought together for the first time in this powerful classic audio exploration of madness and the duality of the human soul.

It was an accident. It was dark, it was raining, Alison had only had two drinks. And the other car ran the stop sign. But Alison finds herself trapped under the crushing weight of grief and guilt, feeling increasingly estranged from her husband, Charlie, who has his own burdens. He's in a job he doesn't love so that Alison can stay at home with the kids (and why isn't she more grateful for that?); he has a house in the suburbs and a long commute to and from the city.

Based on the theme ‘The Art of Listening’, the fifth year of the Jane Austen Literacy Foundation short story writing competition attracted a record number of entries. Three finalist stories were chosen by the special Jane Austen Literacy Foundation judging panel including Caroline Jane Knight (Jane Austen’s fifth great niece and the Founder of the Jane Austen Literacy Foundation), Susannah Harker (Jane Bennet, BBC Television Pride & Prejudice 1995) and Natalie Jenner (International bestselling author of The Jane Austen Society) and published online for a public vote to choose the winner.

Nora seems to have it all – a loving husband, children and a comfortable life. But when a secret from her past threatens her carefully constructed world, she is forced to confront the stark realities of her marriage and the issues of her gender in society. The recording is followed by a fascinating conversation in which the actors talk how powerful and relevant the play still is today and how this unique project came to be. Exclusively for Audible the interview is followed by reviews of A Doll’s House, written between 1879 and 1900.

Are you ready for a deep, peaceful night's sleep? Then curl up, get comfortable, and listen to Alison's soothing voice as she lulls you into a deep and calm sleep with slowly told stories.

Jane Austen Literacy Foundation judges selected 10 stories, which were read by a panel including Justin Young (Lead Writer, Sanditon Seasons 2 & 3), Susannah Harker (Jane Bennet, BBC Television Pride & Prejudice 1995), Natalie Jenner (International bestselling author of The Jane Austen Society and The Bloomsbury Girls), and Helena Kelly (Writer, academic and author of Jane Austen – The Secret Radical) to choose the final three short stories.

Soulmate Dog tells the brave, moving story of Michelle Slater’s extraordinary relationship with her German Shepherd, Brady. Narrated by Alison Larkin in an easy-to-listen-to, conversational style, it “charts the nature of love and the inevitability of loss that accompanies it,” while showcasing the telepathic language that can exist between dogs and humans.