Showing results by narrator "Antonia Beamish" in All Categories

'I relished every page … This is the best book on Jane Austen I have ever read’ Spectator 'Compelling … a delightful and engrossing book … Byrne’s passion is nothing if not persuasive’ Sunday Times Was Jane Austen a woman of prim manners and genteel calm? Or someone who behaved...

A long-serving beat cop in the Met and a teenage girl fall to their deaths from a tower block in London's East End. Left alive on the roof are a five-year-old boy and rookie police officer Lizzie Griffiths. Within hours Lizzie has disappeared, and DPS Officer Sarah Collins sets out to uncover the truth around the grisly deaths in an investigation that takes her into the dark heart of policing in London.

We need to change our attitudes to sleep, to stop obsessing about how much we get and what’s keeping us awake, and get back to a more natural sleep-wake pattern. By explaining the science of sleep and how human sleep habits have changed, this book dispels the paranoia and anxieties that exacerbate or even create problems and helps achieve well-adjusted attitudes towards sleep.

Genteel, passive Ann works for the BBC in London and is engaged to a successful academic, fulfilling her snobbish mother's ambitions – more or less – while the Swinging Sixties happen elsewhere, to other people. Then she meets William: snub-nosed and generous, cunning and protean. She is first seduced, then transfixed, as William's past, present and future swirl around her kaleidoscopically, overwhelmingly, and Ann is herself irrevocably, and irreparably, changed.

When Penelope Kite swaps her humdrum life in Surrey for a picturesque farmhouse in the south of France, she imagines a simple life of long lunches and chilled rosé.... What she doesn't imagine is the dead body floating in her swimming pool. Convinced that the victim suffered more than a drunken accident, Penelope plunges headlong into local intrigue and long-simmering resentments to uncover the truth.

‘Riveting, tragic tale’ New Yorker ‘Anna Pasternak has produced an irresistible account of joy, suffering and passion’ Financial Times The heartbreaking story of the passionate love affair between Boris Pasternak and Olga Ivinskaya – the tragic true story that inspired Doctor Zhivago...

Lily Redman is sure of two things: that she knows good food and that she gets what she wants. And she wants to make a success of her new TV show, Celebrity Chef Swap. Back from a stint in Afghanistan, Kenan Rowse is recovering from a messy divorce, and not looking for love. So when he lands a job as Lily’s driver, he’s not too pleased to find they can’t keep their hands off each other!

When Anna Hunt takes a break from her job to live in Peru, none of her friends take her seriously. With a love of stilettos, chocolate, and Sauvignon Blanc, how will she manage in a developing country? Anna's quest takes her from the wilderness of the Amazon jungle, to a passionate affair with Maximo Morales, a seductive and charismatic shaman who offers her the opportunity to become his apprentice…

Welcome back to a world where songlight - or telepathy - is either your greatest power or your greatest curse. All four are united by their desire for peace. But peace between the Aylish and Brightland feels more fragile than ever. And there is a new threat, not just to Brightland, but to Ayland and the world beyond. The airship that Rye has discovered is owned by the Sealanders, a race of elite Torches, recently returned to Earth.

After more than 20 years of marriage, Fay and Steve are happy enough, though life's become routine and lacks excitement. Fay believes an open relationship could reignite the spark they've lost. But can sex ever just be sex? Steve eventually agrees to the idea of sleeping with other people, but first they must set some ground rules: no sex with friends, no telling the kids and a limit on how many times they can see the same person. Can their marriage survive non-monogamy—even if they have permission?

Every evening Rose Ransom looks in the mirror and marvels that she's even alive. A mere woman, her role in the Leader's death has been miraculously overlooked. She still works at the Culture Ministry, where her work now focuses on the outlawed subject of Poetry, a form of writing that transmits subversive meanings, emotions and signals that cannot be controlled. Therefore all Poetry is banned and Rose is appointed a Poet Hunter.

Magda lives alone in her a huge house by the sea. Bad tempered and elderly, Magda does not need help from anyone, despite being wheelchair bound. With her sharp tongue, she gets through carers at a rate of knots, until Susheela arrives. And Susheela, it turns out, is in even more trouble than Magda. Still reeling from the recent death of her mum and trying to prop up her dad, who is at risk of losing the family business, she finds she is pregnant. The future suddenly looks uncertain and frightening.

Ali Kingston is happily married with three children. She isn't the type to have her head turned - but then it isn't every day that a gorgeous younger man falls at her feet. When Ed, Ali's husband, finds out that she's spent time with another man, he's sure there's more to it than just a minor indiscretion - so in a moment of madness, he kicks Ali out of the house. Their family and friends do all they can to help Ali and Ed reconcile, but nothing seems to work. And then fate intervenes....

When Beth Wakeford takes her eight year-old daughter, Carmel, to a local children's festival, they become separated. Unable to accept the possibility that her daughter might be gone for good, Beth embarks on a mission to find her. Meanwhile Carmel begins an extraordinary and terrifying journey of her own, with a man who believes she is a saviour.

Your Soul Mate is out there! Let a past life lead the way…Rachael Jones is a 'past-life regressionist' and hopes to help her clients find their ‘Soul Mates’ through reconnecting them with their past lives. But when Rachael regresses her best friend, Susie Morris, she is haunted by events of her past life. So when Susie meets George Silbury, she is completely unprepared for the intense mutual attraction. Can George help Susie overcome her hauntings or will history repeat itself?

Everything can change - in just one day. Flora has always adored her brother Billy. Born just 18 months apart, their childhood was spent like two peas in a pod - no one could separate them. Now, as adults, they remain the best of friends. And as Flora is immersed in family life, Billy is always there to lend a hand. But, in just one day, everything changes. In just one day, Flora’s life falls apart. In just one day, Flora has to learn how to live again.

Ella Stuart has worked hard to achieve the perfect work-life balance: a high-flying career as a paediatric doctor, a charming husband, charity fundraiser Jackson Garrett–and in urbane PR consultant William Ashfield, a passionate, worldly lover. William is equally devoted to Ella, his mistress of eight years, and to his faded, troubled wife, Beth. He knows he could never choose between them; and is eternally grateful he’s never been asked. When tragedy strikes out of the blue, Ella’s carefully ordered life is abruptly derailed.

There’s been a death at HM Prison Stainmouth. The corpse in question is one Impetus Stokes, criminal mastermind, found dead in his cell from an overdose. For no obvious reason, Agatha Pleasant's team of squabbling misfits are assigned the task of collecting his coffin, sitting on it for a few days before handing it over to the necessary authorities. It makes no sense whatsoever, but then why break the habit of a lifetime? Besides, how hard can it be to watch over a coffin?

‘I was blown away’ – Jilly Cooper A gripping and chilling debut psychological thriller, The Girlfriend by Michelle Frances is the story of a mother, a son, his girlfriend and an unforgivable lie. She loves your son. She wants your life. How far would you go to protect your son? Laura has...

It's 1987. One morning, 15-year-old Tania Mills kisses her mother, walks out of her front door and disappears. In 2014, when a new lead comes in for Tania's case, DS Sarah Collins is asked to investigate. PC Lizzie Griffiths, the subject of Collins' last investigation, is back on the job and working at a domestic violence unit. When a quirk of fate brings Lizzie and Collins back into contact, each must try to reconcile the claims of the past with the demands of the present.