Showing results by narrator "Susie Riddell" in All Categories

When the eight-year-old daughter of an Oxford College Master vanishes in the middle of the night, police turn to the Scottish nanny, Dee, for answers. As Dee looks back over her time in the Master's Lodging - an eerie and ancient house - a picture of a high achieving but dysfunctional family emerges: Nick, the fiercely intelligent and powerful father; his beautiful Danish wife Mariah, pregnant with their child; and the lost little girl, Felicity, almost mute, seeing ghosts, grieving her dead mother.

This is not the happy family you think. The fire crackles, my son smiles, the man jokes whilst I pour drinks. But my husband has disappeared. The man is a stranger. My skin crawls every time he brushes my hand. He says if I don’t play along, he has photos that will destroy my family. What happened the night before my husband disappeared - the night I don’t remember?

Liverpool, 1956. With the shadow of the war looming over them and bomb craters littering the surrounding streets, hope feels far away for the residents of Victory Street. When they learn that the queen has chosen to visit them on a tour of Liverpool, the delighted neighbors bring back the wartime spirit. Can they possibly get the street ready in time?

In the face of hardship, Bella Harrison is determined to see the bright side. She is back recording songs with her singing trio The Bryant Sisters, and against all odds, Bella and her husband Bobby are finding ways to muddle through life as newlyweds whilst raising little Levi; Bella’s child with black American pilot Earl Franklin Junior.

Liverpool, 1943. For Bella Rogers, life is looking up. She loves performing with The Bryant Sisters, the trio of singers who have become the country’s sweethearts, putting a smile on the faces of the brave boys fighting the Nazis. But then tragedy strikes when a telegram arrives: Bella’s beloved father has been killed in France.

Liverpool, 1939. Bella Rogers thought her life was just starting; she can’t wait to get married to her childhood sweetheart, Bobby. But when war is declared and Bobby is called up, his letters stop, leaving Bella heartbroken and alone. Then her family is torn apart by tragedy when her angelic 5-year-old sister dies from a terrible illness. They can barely afford a funeral, but the church is packed with the entire community, devastated for their loss. Grieving for her sister and lost love, Bella finds a job at the Bryant and May factory, making matches.

Silver Screen presents an enjoyably different, subversive slant on the science fiction themes of AI and cyberspace. Insecure and overweight heroine Anjuli O’Connell is one of a group of friends who have been hot-housed from an early age to perform in genius-level jobs. But Anjuli worries that her eidetic memory and her friendship with genuine smart boy Roy Croft has been her ticket to success, rather than any real intelligence of her own.

In the wake of an apocalyptic war against the alien tau, the White Scars take to their bikes and hunt the fleeing commander of the xenos forces across the plains of Voltoris. As they chase down their quarry, the Brotherhood of the Running Star begin to realise one inescapable truth: that this will be their final hunt. But if Suljuq Khan and Stormseer Checheg are to die this day, they will ensure that they take the alien Shadowsun into oblivion with them....

1946, Liverpool. Bella Harrison cannot believe the devastating war that stole the lives of her father and sister is truly over at last. She wonders how they will ever rebuild Victory Street with the city in ruins, and half their neighbors gone. But for now, she and her childhood sweetheart, Bobby, are happy newlyweds, doting on Bella’s little son, her child with Black American pilot Earl Franklin Junior.

Gwen and Rhys are on the run. Rhys was hoping this meant a windswept cottage on a cliff top, but he’s had to settle for a miserable caravan in the isolated village of Rawbone. With the locals taking an unhealthy interest in their daughter, Gwen and Rhys start to realise that something is very wrong. As they uncover the village’s terrible past, Gwen discovers that Torchwood will never leave her behind, and now she and Rhys stand alone in defence of the Earth. And the children of Rawbone can only bring her closer to the secret forces that want her out of the way.

Philip Marlowe’s on a case: his client, a dried-up husk of a woman, wants him to recover a rare gold coin called a Brasher Doubloon, missing from her late husband’s collection. That’s the simple part. It becomes more complicated when Marlowe finds that everyone who handles the coin suffers a run of very bad luck: they always end up dead.

England, 1941. After three nights of relentless bombing from German aircraft, trained nurse Jo Brooks is told to report to the basement theater of Mill Road Hospital. She goes with a heavy heart, not wanting to leave behind her best friend Moira, who is desperately soothing new mothers on the maternity ward. As Jo arrives safely underground, the ward takes a direct hit.

Beloved author Mary Stewart's long-lost novella, now available again for the first time in 40 years. In 1879 a wealthy young woman elopes with an impoverished fisherman, leaving her family, who live on the volcanic island of Lanzarote, distraught. In 1968, 23-year-old Perdita West, secretary to the famous author Cora Gresham, visits Lanzarote, the strangest and wildest of the Canary Isles, on a research trip. They meet Cora's estranged son, Mike, and fall in love with the unusual, beautiful little island.

Fed up of friends claiming to care about the provenance of their food, Louise Gray decides to follow the argument to its logical extreme. Starting small, Louise shucks oysters and catches fish. Gradually she gets to know countrymen and women who teach her how to shoot pigeons and rabbits. As she begins to reconnect with nature and her own upbringing in the countryside, Louise starts to question modern attitudes to the meat we eat.

Despite a childhood in the care system, Anna Price has beaten the odds and built for herself the perfect life, complete with beautiful seaside home, devoted husband and a job she loves. Then a policeman appears at Anna’s door: her estranged brother Henry is a wanted serial killer, and the police need Anna’s help to catch him before he strikes again. When an envelope turns up on her doorstep, Anna suddenly finds herself caught in a sick game. One that she remembers all too well from childhood – one that, this time, she must win at all costs.

Beatrice Halliday has turned her life around since arriving in in the Scottish Highlands six months ago. Not only has she found love with her boyfriend Atholl Fergusson, but she is now successfully running The Princess and the Pea Inn, and welcoming visitors from all over the world to the beautiful village of Port Willow. Life seems perfect - until a surprise discovery threatens to derail the happiness, she has worked so hard for. In an attempt to distract herself, she takes over the role of cupid and tries her hand at matchmaking.

In Polite, Louise shows how the unseen science of politeness governs everything we do, from what we say to how we act, and reveals how a better understanding of the rules and norms of politeness can help us in all aspects of our work, leisure and home lives. And, in doing so, she answers the age-old question... are politeness standards really declining?

The Howling Banshees of Biel-Tan wage war in the depths of a Chaos-tainted craftworld. Blood Runs. Anger Rises. Death Wakes. War Calls. And failure is unthinkable....

Across land, sea and time, the stones will summon them home . . . 'Unputdownable . . . This book moved me, profoundly' SANTA MONTEFIORE It all begins with The Sea Stone Sisters. In this spellbinding series Eleanor Buchanan intricately weaves together the stories of four sisters and their...

Carrying just a suitcase and an old laundry bag filled with clothes, Kasienka and her mother are immigrating to England from Poland. Kasienka isn't the happiest girl in the world. At home, her mother is suffering from a broken heart as she searches for Kasienka's father. And at school, Kasienka is having trouble being the new girl and making friends. The only time she feels comforted is when she's swimming at the pool. But she can't quite shake the feeling that she's sinking. Until a new boy swims into her life....