Showing results by narrator "Amy Soakes" in All Categories

In the summer of 1839, 26-year-old Louisa Anne Meredith, in the company of her husband, Charles Meredith, sailed from England to the British colony of New South Wales, in what was then New Holland. Four years later, she published a detailed account of the years since she had left England. A fascinating window into the past, Louisa's impressions and experiences cover the four-month ocean voyage; life within the fledgling city of Sydney; travels across the Blue Mountains to Bathurst; and eventual settlement at Homebush in Sydney's west.

Between 1922 and 1923, Katherine Mansfield wrote four volumes of short stories. This recording includes all sixty-three stories from the four collections, including a number of incomplete stories collated after Mansfield’s death.

Maggie Walker has never called Wirra Station home. Orphaned as a child, she spent more time at boarding school and then working in the city than she ever spent on the edge of the outback. But when her great aunt dies, Maggie inherits everything and reluctantly returns to tidy the place up before selling. Ambitious cowboy-next-door Max O’Connor has the means and the desire to buy Wirra Station outright and return it to its former glory. But first, he wants elusive Maggie Walker to know what she’s giving up.

Narissea and her dragon Yimma face an impossible choice. With a map unearthed from a hidden shrine, she is forced to lead Inyene’s heir, Abioye, across the treacherous Plains to claim the Stone Crown—an artifact of unimaginable power. Only the crown’s wearer can command all dragons and claim the High Throne, uniting the fractured kingdoms.

This collection was published in 1901 and contains some of Lawson's best known stories. Most of the stories are set in the Australian bush, and feature many of Lawson's iconic characters, like squatters, swagmen, and struggling selector farmers. A persistent theme is the harshness of rural life and the inevitability of personal tragedy.

Amongst the remnants of the ancient Saidican Empire lies Golias Hollow, an underground community of people who’ve taken refuge from the tainted surface. Completely cutoff from the outside world, the men and women of the Hollow follow the teachings of the prophet Dormiar, sacrificing a select few to the outside each year in a ceremony known as “The Choosing”.

Gertrude Stein's work flourished in a world which was finding bold new ways of expressing itself. Forms like Impressionism, cubism, expressionsism and other non-representational styles were developed that provoked and challenged the observer (as well as the established art world). What avant-garde artists did with paint and ink, Gertrude Stein did with words – dispensing with conventions of grammar and clarity, she gave free rein to word play and the musicality of sounds, without regard to their meaning or relationships.

It always happens when you least suspect it. Love. The chemistry. The pull. Even when you don’t want it to. Timing - it’s a bitch. And then you have to make a choice. Do you regret what is, or what isn’t? Because when love’s involved, there’s always regret. And my story is no exception.

This collection contains a mixture of stories about ghosts and contacts from spirits, some by celebrated authors, together with essays on psychical research. As Joseph French notes in the preface, even for the skeptic, tales of ghostly activity retain a distinct fascination. The widespread interest in psychic phenomena in the early twentieth century proved to be a significant stimulus to literary production.

Bailey Sheppard had loved Nick Heart for as long as she could remember. They had been best friends in school and graduated to a friends-with-benefits arrangement after she left for university. His once-a-month visits, when she would have him all to herself for the weekend, were the highlight of her life. And then he told her he was getting married. Bailey needed Nick in her life. She wanted to be the one he married and lived happily ever after with. So she hatched a plan to stop the wedding and steal the groom. And then she met Hunter.

In the hours just before dawn, blasphemous curses echo throughout the stone manor. A knife clatters to the floor, and a feisty young widow is bound, blindfolded, and led to the marriage altar. The king couldn't possibly have sanctioned this farce of a marriage, could he? After all, she alone transformed a few mud huts and starving serfs into a flourishing town, never once hesitating to pay generous taxes to his royal kingdom.

This collection of 35 short poems was first published in 1927, and is a sequel to When We Were Very Young, which was the first anthology of verse dealing with the domestic adventures of Christopher Robin and Winnie the Pooh.

Gertrude Stein held a unique position at the center of the modernist movement. She was a novelist, poet, playwright, and art collector. Born in America, she moved with her family to Paris where she ran a Paris salon frequented by many famous historical figures, such as Ernest Hemingway, Pablo Picasso, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Henri Matisse, Ezra Pound, Sherwood Anderson, and Sinclair Lewis.

When a mysterious sickness spreads throughout the land and monsters terrorize Alveria, tamer trainee Mari Asadottier and Prince Kai Afkarr-Younger might be the only ones who can stop it. But after three unsuccessful terms at Alveria’s Dragon Akademy, 17-year-old Mari only has one last chance to bond with a dragon. And after two years stuck in his dragon form, Prince Kai’s draconian instincts are growing as powerful and uncontrollable as his magic, leaving him unable to claim his ill father’s throne when Alveria needs him most.

This collection of short stories, by celebrated New Zealand writer Katherine Mansfield, was first published in 1920. Many of Mansfield’s short stories explore New Zealand landscapes and identity, and her work has been a shaping force in the short story genre.

A sinister force rises in the fractured kingdoms of Torvald, where dragons, once revered as symbols of hope, have faded into myth. Lady Inyene, a ruthless noble of the Northern Kingdom, enslaves villagers and pillages resources to fuel her mechanical dragons. Her ambition? To conquer her rivals, seize the High Throne, and unite the realms under her iron rule.

What foul devilry is this? They told her he was dead. After six long years without a word, her knight falls onto his knees and sings poetry. Then he denies their son? Heed this well. She's no longer an innocent who'll giggle and tarry on his every word. The sharp edge of her tongue and knife is the only welcome he'll get. She'll not marry him. Besides, the pain would be too much to bear should he ever leave again.

In the light of the early dawn, Lady Fay traverses her parapet wall and waits with bow drawn taut. Only when she realizes the group of men who exit the Saxon rowboat are tonsured does she allow herself to breathe. She need not shoot another of King Alexander's suitors. At least not today. With a wicked grin, she lets go the bowstring, and the arrow makes a perfect arc to land directly in front of the one in the lead. She isn't so fond of priests, either.

On the outside, Pamela is the perfect lady, spending her days sketching landscapes while waiting for her father to find her a husband, until she meets Ben, the stonemason building her father's new castle, she knows she's found a kindred spirit, with a heart as artistic as her own.

The three kingdoms lie splintered, their dragon riders fading into legends of past victories. But they’re need now more than ever when a new threat rises in the North. Lady Inyene, a cunning noblewoman, fuels her conquest with mechanical dragons forged from stolen resources. Her ambition? Seize the High Throne and wield the Stone Crown, an artifact of untold power said to unite—or destroy—the realms.