Showing results by narrator "Kim Hicks" in All Categories

Fractured skulls. Gas masks. Brain buckets. Vats of acid. Pickled body parts. Not the usual tools of trade, but for chief forensic medical scientist Derek and forensic secretary Pauline they were just part of a normal day in the office inside the world-famous Department of Forensic Medicine at Guy's Hospital in London. Derek has played a pivotal role in investigating some of the UKs most high-profile mass disasters and murder cases. 

This inspiring anthology collects enduring and entertaining stories that have enthralled young and old, by the cherished authors whose tales have captivated children for generations. Perfect for the family car trip or at-home listening, these recordings sparkle with the wit and wonder of time-tested storytelling.

Fran Varady fell into private detective work by accident rather than design. Now she's got a 'real' job at a trendy pizzeria, she's back on track with her acting ambitions and she's even found a nice flat to rent. But things aren't as straightforward as they seem. The job, for a start: there's something rather sinister about the way the pizzeria is run. And the play rehearsals aren't going well. As if all this doesn't bring problems enough, Fran has rashly undertaken to help a young boy, illegally in the country, find an elusive people trafficker called Max.

Hannah is a hotel worker, who struggles with depression after a trauma in her childhood and a toxic ex-boyfriend. Callum is a student, questioning his own sanity since a strange young man appeared on the other side of his mirror. When Hannah disappears, her brother Callum determines to find her. His journey leads him to Epping Forest and a mysterious waterfall. But Hannah has fallen through a portal to another world.

Sisters Connie and Jenny Dalton have always taken it for granted that there will be food on the table and a roof over their heads. In their comfortable house they're sheltered from the deprivation in which their housemaid Molly lives with her family in nearby Rotherhithe. Everything changes in April 1912. As the girls wave their father off on the Titanic's maiden voyage, little do they know that soon he will rest in a watery grave.

Lady Audley is universally adored: Beautiful, kind and charming, she enamors all whom she meets. It is not until the strange disappearance of widower George Talboys that her behavior takes an odd turn. George's friend, Robert Audley, Lady Audley's nephew-in-law, is on the case; an upper-class layabout turned detective, he is determined to get to the bottom of things.

After the West London Museum suffers extensive fire damage, the shop owners on Baker Street come together to hold an afternoon auction tea to raise funds to rebuild it. Cape Cod's cognoscenti file into Mrs. Hudson's Tea Room, but the auction never happens. Before the gavel can fall, museum-board chair Kathy Lamb is found dead in the back room. Wrapped tightly around her neck is a long rope of decorative knotted tea cups. Gemma's boyfriend in blue, Ryan Ashburton, arrives on the scene with Detective Louise Estrada. But the suspect list is long, and the case is far from elementary. 

Legendary stage and movie star Sir Nigel Bellingham arrives on Cape Cod to star in a stage production of The Hound of the Baskervilles put on by the West London Theater Festival. When Sir Nigel, some of the cast, and the director visit the Sherlock Holmes Bookshop at 222 Baker Street, Gemma Doyle realizes that Sir Nigel is not at all suited to the role. He's long past his prime and an old drunk to boot. The cast is not happy, but the show must go on. Before the play opens, Jayne's mother arranges a fundraising afternoon tea to be catered by Mrs. Hudson's Tea Room. The tea is a huge success, but, when it's time to leave, Sir Nigel has gone missing - only to be found at the bottom of the rocky cliff, dead. When the police focus their attention on Jayne's mother despite numerous other suspects, the game is once again afoot, and it's up to Gemma and Jayne to clear Jayne's mother's name.

It is 1919, and for Ruby Jenkins and her family, life isn’t easy. Ever since Ruby’s father returned from the war, shell-shocked and incapable of working, Ruby and her mother have had to sacrifice all comforts. However, amidst the bleak poverty of the Rotherhithe neighbourhood in which they live, Ruby manages to get a paid job at Stone’s Laundry. As things start to look up, Ruby starts dreaming of one day having a husband and children of her own. But sudden tragedy strikes.

Twelve years ago, Grace Kitto was a successful TV producer, wife and mother. She was also clinically obese and on the path to Type 2 diabetes. Until one day when she left work determined to stick to one of her serial diets, but soon found herself eating an ice cream, as if on autopilot. It sparked an epiphany - she realised the solution to her many failed diets lay in her unconscious. In the powerful, instinctual part of her brain.   

In 1940, as the shadows are lengthening over Europe, painter Louis Duval decides to leave his studio in Brittany and, in his small motor boat, make the short but perilous journey to England. His aim is not to flee from the enemy, but to join the Resistance to fight for his beloved France

An Apple a Day turns the spotlight on sayings that we take for granted, examining their often surprising or fascinating origins, their use, and why they are true – or sometimes aren’t... From wise words originating with the Old Testament and other ancient texts, by way of practical sayings that have gone into the language, to relatively modern gems often coined by poets, writers or philosophers, An Apple a Day shows that most proverbs are as useful today as they ever were when they were newly minted.

Eileen Wells' daughters mean the world to her, and her husband Reg is just as proud of his beautiful, confident girls. Twenty-two-year-old Ann has secured a position as a secretary, eighteen-year-old Lucy works in the same office as Ann, and sixteen-year-old Shirley enjoys her job at Woolworths. For three sisters, the family home in Rotherhithe is a place of stability and love. But when war is announced, Eileen knows everything is about to change...

The 6th of January is Sherlock Holmes’s birthday, and lucky for Gemma Doyle, January is also the slowest time of the year at both the Sherlock Holmes Bookshop and Emporium and Mrs. Hudson’s Tea Room. It’s a good time for Gemma and her friends to travel to England for a Holmes Convention. For Gemma, the trip provides an opportunity to visit her parents. Jayne Wilson is excited about seeing all the sites London has to offer, and Ryan Ashburton just wants to spend some time with Gemma. But the trip is immediately derailed when Gemma’s father Henry recognizes his brother-in-law.

Rose loves watching videos and is sat in front of the telly all the time. So when the video player breaks, it's a total nightmare! But then a very mysterious repair man comes to fix it. He gives Rose the power to forward and rewind her life and then Rose sees what really happens to someone who spends all their time in front of the TV ...

For many years Colette has avoided returning to her homeland - the magical island of Belle-Île-en-Mer in Southern Brittany - afraid to confront the painful memories she left behind. She is living on the Cornish coast when she hears about her mother Thea's failing health and realises that the time has come for her to go home. But can Colette ever forgive Thea for what she has done?

In August 2014 Jenny Diski was diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer and given 'two or three years' to live. She didn't know how to react. All responses felt scripted, laden with cliché. Being a writer, she decided to write about it (grappling with the unoriginality even of this) and to tell a story she had not yet told: that of being taken in, aged 15, by the author Doris Lessing and the subsequent 50 years of their complex relationship.

I am not a consulting detective, Gemma Doyle reluctantly tells 10-year-old Lauren Tierney, when the little girl comes to the Sherlock Holmes Bookshop and Emporium to beg Gemma to find her missing cat, Snowball. Gemma might not be able to follow the clues to find the cat, but her dog, Violet, follows her nose to locate the missing kitten in a neighbor's garden shed. Gemma and Violet proudly return Snowball to her grateful owner, and Gemma basks in praise for a job well done. But a few days later, Lauren is back with $10 in hand, wanting to once again hire a consulting detective.

Once again Anthony Quinn shows himself a master at writing fiction that works on every level. London, May 1945. Freya Wyley, 20, meets Nancy Holdaway, 18, amid the wild celebrations of VE Day, the prelude to a devoted and competitive friendship that will endure on and off for the next two decades.

Lauren is adopted and keen to know more about her mysterious past. But when she discovers that she may have been snatched from an American family as a baby, her life suddenly feels like a sham. Why will no one answer her questions? How can she find her biological mum and dad? And are her adoptive parents really responsible for kidnapping her?