Showing results by narrator "Antonia Beamish" in All Categories

Detlef Sierck, the self-proclaimed greatest playwright in the world, has declared that his next production will be a recreation of the end of the Great Enchanter Drachenfels - to be staged at the very site of his death, the Fortress of Drachenfels itself. But the castle's dark walls still hide a terrible secret which may make the opening night an evening to remember!

Paris, near the turn of 1933. Three young friends meet over apricot cocktails at the Bec-de-Gaz bar on the rue Montparnasse. They are Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir and their friend Raymond Aron, who opens their eyes to a radical new way of thinking. Pointing to his drink, he says, 'You can make philosophy out of this cocktail!'

The story of a young mother who discovers old buried secrets as she goes through her mother's things, all whilst staying in a cottage that centuries before was a silk factory. A beautiful, eerie story of love and memory. If you try to pick up the pieces, sometimes that's when they fall into place. When young mother Rosie gets the news that her mother has died she decides to leave London and head back to her home village.

Melody Browne can remember nothing before her ninth birthday. Now in her early 30s, Melody lives in the middle of London with her 17-year-old son. She hasn’t seen her parents since she left home at 15, but Melody doesn't mind. She’s better off on her own. And then fragments of her past start to come back. At first her memories mean nothing to her, but slowly, day by day, she begins to piece together the real story of her childhood. But with every mystery she solves, another one materialises; with every question she answers, another appears....

Claire Wilcox has been a curator of fashion at the Victoria and Albert Museum for most of her working life. In Patch Work, she steps into the archive of memory, deftly stitching together her dedicated study of fashion with the story of her own life lived in and through clothes. From her mother's black wedding suit to the swirling patterns of her own silk kimono, her memoir unfolds in spare, luminous prose the spellbinding power of the things we wear. 

English novelist Barbara Pym’s career was defined, in many senses, by rejection. Her first novel Some Tame Gazelle was turned down by every publisher she sent it out in 1935, finally published only 15 years later. Though she picked up a publisher from there and received modest praise, the publishing industry grew restless and her sales spiralled downwards. By her seventh novel, she had been dropped. This brilliant biography, brimming with Pym’s private diaries and intimate letters, offers a first full insight into Barbara Pym’s life and how it informed her writing.

Three women. One will sacrifice her life to stop him. One is his next victim. One must try to put him behind bars. Holly Maguire takes a taxi to a clifftop location. She is determined to make things right. Then the car goes over the edge of the cliff. As Holly falls to her death, she tightens her grip on a rucksack. She will give her life to bring him down. 

Paula has had Robert's back since they got together as drama students. She gave up her dreams so he could make it. Now he's one of the nation's most popular actors. And Paula's just discovered he's having an affair. She's going to remind Robert just what he's sacrificing, and then she's going to break his heart like he broke hers. It will be her greatest acting role ever. Revenge is sweet. Isn't it?

Lullaby Beach takes the listener on a journey through three generations of a complicated, close-knit clan whose joys and misfortunes track many of the most pressing conflicts and concerns of post-war Britain, from the promise and hypocrisies of 1950s London to the political divides and risky freedoms of the present day. 

In the dark and dangerous Warhammer world, the desperate and the depraved live hand in glove. In this anthology of stories, reacquaint yourself with some of its more morally ambiguous denizens, including ‘Filthy’ Harald Kleindeinst and the scryer Rosanna Ophuls, Baron Johann von Mecklenberg, playwright and self-confessed genius Detlef Sierck and, of course, the vampire Genevieve.

Why do you love your child? Is it because they're a straight A student, a talented footballer? Or is it simply because they're yours? Sarah and Phil love both their children, James and Lauren. The couple have the same hopes and aspirations as any parent. But their expectations are shattered when they discover that their perfect baby daughter has been born with a flaw: a tiny but life-changing glitch that is destined to shape her future, and theirs, irrevocably.

When Penelope Kite swaps her humdrum life in Surrey for a picturesque farmhouse in the south of France, she imagines a simple life of long lunches and chilled rosé.... What she doesn't imagine is the dead body floating in her swimming pool. Convinced that the victim suffered more than a drunken accident, Penelope plunges headlong into local intrigue and long-simmering resentments to uncover the truth.

Eighteen months ago, a young boy cowers downstairs as the police try to stop his father from brutally assaulting his mother. Now that man and three other domestic abusers have banded together to get revenge on the people they blame for taking their families away. A ring of brutal men working together against the police. And they have someone on the inside. Can Detective Maddie Ives keep their families safe?

When first published in 2001, it divided female critics and readers. One famous columnist wrote a piece demanding that Cusk's children were taken into care, that was she was unfit to look after them. Oprah Winfrey invited her on the show to defend herself and the book as protests grew about its honest, gritty account of the misery of those early months. It is a seminal, stand-out book on the complications of being an ambivalent mum in an age of white-washed, Annabel Karmel'd new families.

He Will Get You is the new breathtaking thriller from best-selling author Charlie Gallagher. Detective Maddie Ives faces the most twisted serial killer of her career. He’s one step ahead of them. He’s watching their every move. And his next target is one of their own. You might know who the killer is, but can you work out why? The body count is rising, and each murder is more unpredictable than the last. Detective Maddie Ives races against time to work out the killer’s real motive. Full of twists and turns until the fiendish climax.

East Yorkshire: Single mum Alice Lake finds a man on the beach outside her house. He has no name, no jacket, no idea what he is doing there. Against her better judgement, she invites him in to her home. Surrey: 21-year-old Lily Monrose has only been married for three weeks. When her new husband fails to come home from work one night, she is left stranded in a new country where she knows no one. Then the police tell her that her husband never existed....

Anna’s world was shattered three years ago when her husband, Spencer, was killed in a tragic accident. Her friends and family think it’s time she moved on, but how can she when she’s lost her soulmate? On New Year’s Eve, Anna calls Spencer’s old phone just to hear his voicemail greeting. But to her surprise someone picks up. Brody answers and is the first person who truly understands what Anna is going through. 

There are many secrets in the dark places of the Old World. From the cities of the Empire, where men huddle together in defiance of the darkness that sweeps across the land, to the vast, savage forests that house all manner of terrible beasts, everywhere you look there is a dark tale or ancient legend waiting to be unearthed. For the vampire Genevieve Dieudonné, several of these ancient horrors and blood-soaked nightmares are about to come to light, as she is plunged into battles for her life and her very soul across three linked novellas. 

Lisa tells lies. Most of them are small white lies intended to make the life of her daughter, Ava, easier. But her biggest lie of all about to be exposed. Because Lisa is lying to everyone. Lisa isn’t who she says she is. Lisa isn’t even called Lisa at all. Her real name is Charlotte Nevill and as a child she was convicted of the brutal murder of her half-brother, Daniel. Someone out there knows the truth. They’re determined to make Lisa pay. And they won’t stop until everything she loves is destroyed.  

Famous killers have fan clubs. Hamish Wolfe is no different. Locked up for the rest of his life for the abduction and murder of three young women, he gets countless adoring letters every day. He's handsome, charismatic and very persuasive. His admirers are convinced he's innocent and that he's the man of their dreams. Who would join such a club?