Showing results by narrator "Ruth Lass" in All Categories

Work—who does what tasks in society, and what they get in return—is at the heart of social justice. Even today, the gender system brings about a gendered division of labour that is both cause and consequence of men's greater status and power. These dynamics limit what we can do and be, unfairly tip the scales when it comes to what we get in return, create gendered distortions of competence and productivity, and irrational resistance to reforms that would make our workplaces more productive and fairer.

Gail is in trouble at school. Saint Saviours, the exclusive private girls school that she attends on a scholarship, cannot contain her. Impulsive, bored and looking for someone to adore, she is at that dangerous age when you want to be picked up by men and then driven home by your mother. Ezra is rich, powerful and at the top of his game. His comfortable middle age is tainted only by the knowledge that, in his heady youth, he'd loved new wave music and had people killed - and by his crushing anxieties about his teenage daughter, Agata.

June, and as Copenhagen swelters under record temperatures, a headless corpse surfaces in the murky harbour, landing a new case on the desk of DI Henrik Jungersen, just as his holiday is about to start. Elsewhere in the city, Syrian refugee Aziz Almasi, driver to Esben Nørregaard MP has vanished. Fearing a link to shady contacts from his past, Nørregaard appeals to crime reporter Jensen to investigate.

Matilde Clausen, 9, vanishes from a crowded playground in the middle of Copenhagen, triggering a frantic search across the city. When a possible link emerges to the disappearance of Lea Høgh, 10, six years ago, DI Henrik Jungersen is thrown back into the nightmare that almost finished his career. Desperate for redemption, but barred from reopening the old case, Henrik turns to his estranged lover, Dagbladet chief crime reporter Jensen, for help.

A young English biographer is researching a book about the late South African writer John Coetzee, focusing on Coetzee in his 30s, at a time when he was living in a rundown cottage in the Cape Town suburbs with his widowed father - a time, the biographer is convinced, when Coetzee was finding himself as a writer. Never having met the man himself, the biographer interviews five people who knew Coetzee well, including a married woman with whom he had an affair, his cousin Margot, and a Brazilian dancer whose daughter took English lessons with him.

Perhaps we shall not see each other again. I will write to you, though, and tell you, as best I can, the story of your family. A glass-blower, remember, breathes life into a vessel, giving it shape and form and sometimes beauty; but he can with that same breath, shatter and destroy it.

Despite Catherine of Braganza's crucial place in British history, and that of its Empire, she has since been overshadowed by stories of the king's many mistresses and forgotten as Charles' boring, powerless wife. This could not be further from the truth. In an absorbing narrative, historian Sophie Shorland not only tells the full story of this long-overlooked figure and her difficult relationship with Charles II, but also reveals how Catherine changed the country in ways both large and small.

In 1952, in a peaceful corner of Provence, a farmer's son stumbled upon a terrible scene. Three bodies. They were all British. So begins one of the most notorious murder cases in French history. Sir Jack Drummond was a senior advisor to the British government, a household name who was respected and admired. His fame made the case a cause celebre in France and resulted in the swift conviction of a local farmer, but questions about Drummond's life and death remain unanswered.

It's a beautiful day in Como, and the Caswell-Jones family are surrounded their nearest and dearest in their Villa Janus. But when Jonty Caswell-Jones is found dead in his study, it is clear the only suspects are the guests and the family. It seems all this time, tensions have been brewing, guests seething, and rivalries have reared their ugly head....

When Lucy’s childhood sweetheart stands her up on their wedding day, leaving her alone on a plane eloping to the tropical location of his choosing, their dream—now feeling like just her dream—of their bairn filled future disappears in a heartbeat (or the time it takes for her to listen to the rambling drunken voicemail he left calling off the wedding).

The Chalice men are used to ruling the world—until Geri Chalice usurps her brother in the sprawling family business. Geri is as ruthless as her father, and far more effective than her brother. Everyone assumes that she will go on forever, but on the eve of her seventieth birthday celebrations at a luxury retreat she announces that she is stepping down as CEO. The news sets off a frenzy of back-stabbing and plotting as Geri chooses her successor. But just how far is she prepared to go to get to the black heart of her own family?