Showing results by narrator "Fiona Hampton" in All Categories

Beatrice Steele has none of the accomplishments of a true lady: she is terrible at needlework, has no musical ability, and her artwork is so bad it frightens people. Little does anyone know that Beatrice also harbours a dark secret: an obsession with the true crime cases she reads about in the newspaper. For her family's sake, she's vowed to put this most unladylike obsession behind her. Eligible bachelor Edmund Croaksworth is set to attend the autumnal ball, and the Steele family hopes that Louisa will steal his heart.

For fans of The Crown—which surgically removed the Queen Mother’s sense of humour, and Craig Brown’s bestseller Ma’am Darling which hilariously captured Princess Margaret and the rest of the royal roost—this biography is part-joke book, part-skimming stone biography, and part-travel guide to a world that doesn’t exist anymore. In a journey of 101 vignettes—one for every year of her life—Gareth Russell captures the incredibly dry, incredibly popular personality of the Queen Mother, whose public life neatly spanned the entire twentieth century.

Why Women Grow is a much-needed exploration of why women turn to the earth, as gardeners, growers and custodians. This book emerged from a deeply rooted desire to share the stories of women who are silenced and overlooked. In doing so, Alice fosters connections with gardeners that unfurl into a tender exploration of women's lives, their gardens and what the ground has offered them, with conversations spanning creation and loss, celebration and grief, power, protest, identity and renaissance.

Novelist JB Blackwood is on a cruise with her husband, Patrick, to celebrate their wedding anniversary. Her one-time professor, Patrick is much older than JB. A maverick when they met, he seemed somehow ageless, as all new gods appear in the eyes of those who worship them. He is a film director. A cult figure. But now his success is starting to wane and JB is on the cusp of winning a major literary prize. Her art, that has been forever overseen by Patrick, is starting to overshadow his.

When she was a girl, Alice Vincent loved her grandfather's garden - the freedom, the calm, the beauty of it. When she suddenly finds herself uprooted, heartbroken, living out of a suitcase and yearning for the comfort of home, Alice starts to plant seeds. Mixing memoir, botanical history and biography, Rootbound examines how bringing a little bit of the outside in can help us find our feet in a world spinning far too fast.

We’re told women are good at listening, but we rarely examine what they’re listening to, what their worlds sound like, or how it feels to be expected to listen in a world of noise made by men. Like so many of us, Alice Vincent had become overwhelmed by the sensory overload punctuating our every moment. And then, a baby’s heartbeat arrived. A rapid, pulsing whoosh of white noise. An undeniable rhythm. Once again, Alice’s life became cacophonous – both with a new child, but also with the societal pressures that motherhood holds.

On her eighteenth birthday, Honor Harris meets Sir Richard Grenvile: he is proud, reckless—and utterly captivating. They have a rare connection, and with her beauty and sharp wit, she intrigues him too. But days before their wedding, tragedy strikes and Honor must reconcile herself to a life alone. Fifteen years later, war forces Honor to shelter with her sister at the Cornish estate of Menabilly. There, she meets Richard, who has risen through the ranks to become a general in the king's army.

What value can be put on a human mind? How Joe Roberts does what he does is a mystery. He has a brain that seems able to outperform a computer. To a games company like Venstrom that promises big profits if his abilities can be properly exploited. So they send Nicole Nevinson to track him down and make him an offer too good to refuse.

After achieving her lifelong dream of solving a murder, Beatrice Steele feels like everything is finally falling into place. Accompanied by her ever-trusty chaperone, Miss Bolton, she's traded her small town for London and opened a new office with prickly, annoyingly logical Inspector Drake to solve the city's brutally thrilling crimes. However, nothing is turning out how Beatrice imagined it would. Famed gentleman inspector Sir Huxley is considered the real investigator in London, so the only cases left for Beatrice and Drake are lost pets and spectacles.

How to Go to Work is a practical guide to equip you with everything you need to know to choose and achieve the career you want. The world of work is changing faster than ever before and it can feel overwhelmingly competitive out there. That's why Lucy Clayton, a founding CEO, and Steve Haines, an education policy advisor, have compiled and distilled the most valuable advice you can get on how to jump-start your career and shortcut the competition.

Marina Spicer is stuck. Her boyfriend of fifteen years dumped her on her birthday, she's living with her best friend and new husband (who are politely waiting for her to leave.), she's working at a start-up she's not sure she believes in, and she is absolutely tired of wasting her time dating men who seem like a good match but turn out to be anything but. At thirty-two she hasn't got any more time to waste so she creates an overlay for dating apps, called Dealbreakers, where women submit feedback on the men they date so that other women can learn from their experiences.