Showing results by narrator "Gillian Hay" in All Categories

Charged with drama and beauty, this memorable collection by a master storyteller weaves a magical world of possibility and power from female myths of physical renewal, creation and change. It is an extraordinary immersion into the bodies and voices, mindscapes and landscapes, of the shapeshifting women of our native folklore. Drawing on myth and fairy tales found across Europe from Croatia to Sweden, Ireland to Russia, Sharon Blackie brings to life women's remarkable ability to transform themselves in the face of seemingly impossible circumstances.

Twenty years ago, Sophie Nicoll never came home from school. Days later, her body was found in a shallow grave on a remote farm a few miles from her hometown. Two boys from her school were found guilty. The press called the boys evil. Sophie’s family wanted them dead. The judge promised they’d never walk free. Two decades later, schoolgirl Shannon Ross has vanished from a small town in the Scottish Highlands.

When Claire Lucas is woken by her husband asking where their baby son is, she is dazed and confused. When she follows Darren into their child’s bedroom, she hears nothing but silence. No baby cries, no cute gurgles. The only thing left in Finlay’s cot is his beloved teddy bear. Finlay has gone. Detective Jessie Blake rushes to the family’s modern home in the rugged Scottish Highlands.

Jean Angus pours the last of the lukewarm tea into her chipped cup, shivering as she looks outside into the dark night. Her eyes are drawn to a slow movement not far from her cosy farmhouse. She’s not expecting visitors. And as the back door opens with a bang, she doesn’t even have time to shout for help. On a dark winter night, the bodies of Malcolm and Jean Angus lie cold and still in a pool of blood in their kitchen. Detective Jessie Blake is called in to find out what happened to the reclusive pair.

It is 1944 in war-battered London. Freya and Shona are identical twins, close despite their different characters. Freya is a newly qualified doctor treating the injured in an East End hospital, while Shona has been recruited by the SOE. The sisters are so physically alike that they can fool people into thinking that one is the other. It's a game they've played since childhood. But when Shona persuades her twin to swap roles to meet her Polish lover, he is angered at being tricked.

Matt - grief-stricken after his beloved wife's death, he arrives on Seal Island desperate to hide from the world. Grace - the island's doctor believes she's left it too late to find love or have a family. Rose - lying in a coma at a hospital on Seal, a young woman fights for her life, recalling the journey that led to her accident.