Showing results by narrator "Rachel Atkins" in All Categories

A symbol of liberated womanhood, Simone de Beauvoir’s unconventional relationships inspired and scandalised her generation. A philosopher, writer, and feminist icon, she won prestigious literary prizes and transformed the way we think about gender with The Second Sex. But despite her successes, she wondered if she had sold herself short. This ground-breaking biography draws on never-before-published diaries and letters to tell the fascinating story of how Simone de Beauvoir became herself.

Preparing a midwinter's feast for all hundred residents of the little Yorkshire village of Scrafton Busk is exactly the kind of challenge Prudence Bulstrode adores. A chance to show off her braised-neck of Moorland mutton, Wensleydale tart—and, of course, her famous figgy pudding—is just the thing to shake off the winter blues. But on the night of the feast, local vagabond Terry Chandler is found dead—his body entombed in the pristine snowman standing pride of place on the village green. 

When Vale Moonwing returns to Darkwood Forest, he discovers that her old friend, the wizard Yaztromo, has vanished...himself?

Eliza is angry. Very angry and very, very hot. Late for work and dodging traffic, Eliza's still reeling from the latest row with her husband, Paddy. Twenty-something years ago, their eyes met over the class divide in oh-so-cool Britpop London, but these days, their eyes only meet to bicker over the three-seat sofa. Paddy seems content filling his downtime with canal boats and cricket, but Eliza craves the freedom and excitement of her youth. 

During an eventful season at Bath, young, naive Catherine Morland experiences the joys of fashionable society for the first time. She is delighted to make new acquaintances, including flirtatious Isabella, who shares her love of Gothic romance and horror, and the sophisticated Henry and Eleanor Tilney. When the Tilneys invite her to their family's mysterious home, Northanger Abbey, she's eager to visit. But once there, her imagination, which has been influenced by gothic novels of sensation and intrigue, makes her suspect their father, General Tilney, of committing terrible crimes.

Tina Devino makes more money teaching people to write than writing herself. A middling romance novelist who dreams of penning a best seller, she’s increasingly forced to compete with younger, blonder debut authors for her publisher and agent’s attention. Feeling forgotten, Tina realises the only way up is to take her career and destiny in hand and build her own happy ending - which is perfect because, for a romance writer, Tina isn’t the most traditional of women....

Gangland Queen Nell has the perfect life of crime as a top shoplifter by day and glamorous club owner by night. But a betrayal and botched robbery suddenly reverse her fortunes...and her old rival, Alice Diamond, is hell-bent on taking her down. After escaping a poverty-stricken childhood, nightclub dancer Zoe has more on her mind than settling scores for Alice. But the life of luxury Zoe craves comes at a terrible price. And when a vicious gang tightens its grip on Soho, all three women realise it pays to keep your friends close and your enemies closer.

You lost your daughter. You will never forgive yourself. And now someone is determined to make you pay.... Seventeen years ago, something happened to Jess' daughter, Beth. The memory of it still makes her blood run cold. Jess has tried everything to make peace with that day, and the part she played in what happened. It was only a brief moment of desire...but she'll pay for it with a lifetime of guilt.

Mary has been nursing a secret. Forty years ago, she made a choice that would change her world for ever, and alter the path of someone she holds dear. Beth is searching for answers. She has never known the truth about her parentage, but finding out could be the lifeline her sick child so desperately needs. When Beth finds a faded newspaper cutting amongst her mother's things, she realises the key to her son's future lies in her own past. She must go back to where it all began to unlock...the Secret.

Winter 1939: Danusha and her family are forced to flee their home when the Nazis invade Poland. Danusha’s mother, Anna, changes her name and secures a position as a housekeeper in a German doctor’s mansion in Kraków where Gestapo meetings are hosted in the kitchen. Her secret is their salvation, but what Danusha remembers most is the solitude, with only her baby brother and the girl in the mirror for company.

On the day the comet came, a girl named Heloise was born. She would live a fine life and inherit a fortune but would meet a cruel, untimely death. Years later, strange dreams plague Katya Nemcová, a teenager burdened with a rare and curious gift. Memories come to Katya in her dreams - images and stories from a past that isn't her own. Are these ghosts real? And what of the memory she seems to have of Heloise's treasures, two centuries old? 

When 12-year-old Mira stumbles across a white stallion in a forest in Berlin, she doesn’t realise that this horse will take her on an incredible journey. Together, they’re going to ascend the starry heights of Grand Prix show jumping and sweep back in time to Poland in 1939, where another young girl is risking everything to save the horse that she loves.... 

Maybe it's the weirdness of the weather. Maybe it's another way to pour scorn on politicians. Maybe the steady stream of headlines about fires, floods and droughts is finally starting to get to us. Whatever it is, for more and more of us, climate change is shifting from a shadowy fear in the backs of our minds to something we feel we need to get a handle on. Climate change may be a horror story, but, as Our Biggest Experiment shows, the tale of how we discovered it isn't. 

Derek Flint is a loner. He lives with his mother and spends his evenings watching his clients on the CCTV cameras he has installed inside their homes. He likes their companionship - even if it’s through a screen. When a series of crimes hits Derek's neighbourhood, DC Beth Mayes begins to suspect he's involved. How does he know so much about the victims' lives? Why won’t he let anyone into his office? And what is his mother hiding in that strange, lonely house? 

Pre-war debutantes were members of the most protected, not to say isolated, stratum of 20th-century society: the young (17-20) unmarried daughters of the British upper classes. For most of them, the war changed all that for ever. It meant independence and the shock of the new, and daily exposure to customs and attitudes that must have seemed completely alien to them. For many, the almost military regime of an upper class childhood meant they were well suited for the no-nonsense approach needed in wartime. 

Working for a winemaker in France is the opportunity of a lifetime for Emmy. Even if she doesn't know a thing about wine beyond what's on offer at the local supermarket. There's plenty to get to grips with in the rustic town of Petit Frère. Emmy's new work friends need more than a little winning over. Then there's her infuriatingly brash tutor, Isaac, and the enigmatic Madame Beaumont tucked away in her vineyard of secrets. But Emmy will soon realise that in life - just as in winemaking - the best things happen when you let go and trust your instincts.

Never make a promise you can’t afford to keep.... This is a story about Charlotte - a mother and a wife with the perfect job, the perfect life...at least, that’s how it looks from the outside. But behind closed doors, the marriage is breaking, and Charlotte’s husband, Tris, doesn’t even know how much. He has no idea what Charlotte has planned for him, who she has found, why she has hired someone to pretend to be her. But he doesn’t have long to wait to find out.... 

Davinsky Labour Camp, Siberia, 1933: Sofia Morozova knows she has to escape. Only two things have sustained her through the bitter cold, aching hunger and hard labour: the prospect of one day walking free; and the stories told by her friend Anna, beguiling tales of a charmed upbringing in Petrograd - and of Anna’s fervent love for a passionate revolutionary, Vasily. So, when Anna falls gravely ill, Sofia makes a promise to escape the camp and find Vasily....

I would like to make myself the heroine of this story and my character to be noble - an innocent victim led astray. But alas, sir, I would be lying.... Tully Truegood: orphan. Magician's apprentice. Whore. In prison, accused of murder, Tully begins to write her life story. A story that takes her from a young daughter-skivvy in the back streets of 18th-century London to her stepmother Queenie's fairy house - a place where decadent excess is a must....

We all recognise them. Those who exist just on the fringes of society. Who send prickles up the back of our necks. The charmers. The liars. The manipulators. Those who have the potential to go that one step too far. And then take another step. Jessamine Gooch makes a living from these people. Each week she broadcasts a radio show looking into the past lives of convicted killers, asking if there was more that could have been done to prevent their terrible crimes.