Showing results by narrator "Joan Walker" in All Categories

In The Tale of Samuel Whiskers, or The Roly-Poly Pudding, Tom Kitten is a young cat who lives with his mother and sisters in a house overrun with rats. When Tom Kitten stumbles into the home of a rat, Samuel Whiskers, and his wife Anna Maria, Tom Kitten faces the unsettling prospect of getting turned into a their dinner pudding.

An orphan poses nervously for a Renaissance maestro in medieval Siena, and an artist's servant girl in seventeenth-century Amsterdam snatches a moment away from her work to lose herself in tales of knights and battles. In a Victorian photography studio, a woman holds a book that she barely acknowledges while she waits for the exposure, and in a Shoreditch bar in 2008 a woman reading catches the eye of a young man who takes her picture.

When little Ella's grandmother dies, she is turned out of her home and forced into a life of cruel labour. Even her own mother won't help, too busy with her new husband. Seeking refuge at the Foundling School for Girls, Ella meets Julia, who has been torn apart from her twin, Ned. They must take matters into their own hands if they're to stay together despite their parents' wishes. In a world of hardship and betrayal, three children begin a search for belonging.

In "The Story of a Fierce Bad Rabbit," a bad rabbit steals a carrot from a good rabbit and scratches him in the process. When a hunter mistakes the bad rabbit for a bird, the bad rabbit inadvertently receives his just desserts.

From the bestselling author of A Woman of Substance, a page-turning epic Victorian historical family saga. London 1889: Victorian London is a place of wealth, privilege and poverty, a city of extremes. For James Falconer, who grew up as a barrow boy on a London market, it is a city of...

Can you remember how photosynthesis works? Well, what about quadratic equations? Or the names of all the Bennet sisters in Pride and Prejudice? How about Henry VIII’s wives, conjunctions, inertia, the continents of the world and the Seven Deadly Sins? And what on earth is the point of pi? Let’s face it, there are an awful lot of half-remembered things floating around in our heads.

Cecily Parsley's Nursery Rhymes includes well-known nursery rhymes such as "Goosey Goosey Gander", "This Little Piggy", and "Three Blind Mice", rewritten to refer to Beatrix Potter's own recurring characters. Cecily Parsley's Nursery Rhymes has delighted children and adults alike since its release in 1922.

Agatha Christie, in London to visit her agent, boards a train preoccupied with the knowledge that her husband Archie is having an affair. She feels a touch on her back, loses her balance but is pulled to safety from the rush of the incoming train. So begins a sequence of terrifying events. Her rescuer is no guardian angel but a blackmailer, and Agatha must use every ounce of her cleverness to thwart an adversary determined to exploit her genius for murder to kill on his behalf.

Three German women are haunted by the past and their secrets in the devastating aftermath of WWII. A mesmerising story of resistance, forgiveness and the complexity of the human heart. A resistance widow. A silent co-conspirator. The only one who survived. Bavaria, Germany. June, 1945. The Third Reich has crumbled. The Russians are coming. Can Marianne von Lingenfels and the women in her care survive and build their ravaged world anew?

Robin Ballantyne is investigating the murder of a British man in Beijing. Is his death linked to a recent series of brutal attacks on women? In a city thick with paranoia and corruption, Robin struggles to separate rumour from reality.

When DS Josie Masters is called out to a house in North Oxford to investigate a serious incident, things take a personal turn. The body is Harry’s - her friend and former colleague. Josie thought Harry lived alone, but evidence suggests he’d had a lodger - a young woman who has fled the scene.

1912, Loughborough. Molly and Queenie are best friends living on the same street, both are in love with Harry Spencer, though he has made his choice in Queenie . . . Molly, with determined spirit, becomes increasingly involved in the Suffragette cause and grows in confidence. She is blamed for...

FROM THE ACCLAIMED AUTHOR OF TRUE CRIME BESTSELLERS HOTEL KEROBOKAN AND SNOWING IN BALI: Kathryn Bonella. Sex. Drugs. Danger. Death. This is the adrenaline-pumping, true crime story of the world's most audacious drug runners and the true life police hunt, 'Operation Playboy', to track them down...

Oli and Joe are identical twins. But they will never be the same. Lizzie Truman gives birth to her sons at thirty-one weeks. From the start, the differences between the twins are clear. Oli is bigger, stronger, healthier. Joe is small and much less robust, his future inexorably altered by the trauma of his premature delivery. As soon as the boys are well enough, Lizzie checks out of the maternity hospital and leaves her old life behind. By the time Oli and Joe are grown, Beth has a new name, a thriving business, and she has successfully raised her sons alone.

The Oxford English Dictionary has long been associated with elite institutions and Victorian men; its longest-serving editor, James Murray, devoted 36 years to the project, as far as the letter T. But the Dictionary didn't just belong to the experts; it relied on contributions from members of the public. By the time it was finished in 1928 its 414,825 entries had been crowdsourced from a surprising and diverse group of people, from archaeologists and astronomers to murderers, naturists, novelists, pornographers, queer couples, suffragists, vicars and vegetarians.

Step into the magical world of Hedgewitch, where the land of Faerie lies just beyond our own . . . The enchanting new series continues. Cassie has settled into life in Hedgely when, out of the blue, her troubled cousin, Sebastian, comes to stay for Hallowe'en. Sneering and scornful, Sebastian...

Benjamim, a young man on the cusp of fatherhood, discovers a disturbing family secret: before his father was born, his paternal grandfather had a child with Benjamim's mother. With both men dead, Benjamim turns to three of their confidantes to piece together his family history: Haroldo, his grandfather's best friend; Isabel, his grandmother; and Raul, a friend from his father's youth. Through their conflicting testimonies, full of blind spots and contradictions, Benjamim will gradually learn of the secrets and conflicts that shattered his wealthy family.

Her wedding day should have been the happiest day of Mavis Kendricks's life. Marrying handsome Sam, the youngest of the Farley boys, means joining the Farley clan, and there's nothing Mavis has ever wanted more than a family of her own. But the appearance of an unexpected guest ruins everything...and brings back painful memories Mavis would rather forget.

We begin with the French Revolution when one woman took on the Fraternite of man, then it's off to America to round up the other rebels who paved the way, fighting side by side for freedom with their men. In Australia we celebrate a mass mooning by female convicts of Queen Victoria's vice-regent and his lady wife, and the dogged, often desperate courage of all the women who dared to think that they could change the world.

Shortlisted for Wales Book of the Year Arrest Me, for I Have Run Away is a stunning short story collection on human nature and identity. Stevie Davies' latest work, it is bound to captivate and charm the listener.