Showing results by narrator "Madeleine Brolly" in All Categories

Gleaned from the author's experiences over many years of yoga and Zen training, as well as from conversations with teachers, folk stories and temple magazines, this is a fascinating and enlightening compendium of tales from the yoga and Zen traditions.

Stories such as these are used in many spiritual schools' teaching - they're the flint or steel that makes the spark which, when nurtured daily, fires the imagination, heralding enlightenment and insight.

London May 1913. Angry about the treatment of suffragettes, and a supporter’s murder, Dr Margaret Demeray’s friend Maude urges their suffrage group towards violent militancy. But Margaret is conflicted when a parcel bomb brings casualties to her hospital. And what is the risk to a fragile peace treaty which is about to be signed, and to Fox who’s tracking down stolen diplomatic documents?

Collected by the author, these stories from the yoga and Zen traditions are the flint and steel that strike a spark that lights up the mind with insights that one should ponder to bring to light ever deeper meaning. They may be similar in intent to Zen koans - but they are rather different in content. In many Zen koans, someone says or does something extraordinarily inappropriate, which catches your attention just because it's extraordinary - but afterwards the light from them has to be applied to daily life.

Charity Baxter is trapped in a cage of her own making. After being the tyrant of society for years, she fell from grace—and fell hard. Now, she is overlooked at the best of times and openly despised at the worst of it. Though troubles have a way of changing a person for the better, no matter how she tries to repair her reputation, no one is willing to believe her change of heart. And matters are only made worse when an irritating naval officer appears in town, determined to pester her. Odious man! Why can he not leave her be?

Matthew Bixby despises social politics. Good manners and small talk weren’t prized in the slums, and despite having freed himself and his family of their poverty, Matthew never saw a need for such frivolous things. Until now. A war between the masters and workers is brewing, and if Matthew isn’t careful, it will destroy everything he’s built. But with so much of the battle being waged in ballrooms and parlors, he needs someone who can help him navigate society without adding to his burdens—a wife who won’t expect anything more than a partnership.

With Lucretia’s family busy arguing about money, any possibility that an old ring bought in the forum might be important is pushed aside until Lucretia’s cousin is poisoned and the local magistrate Amicus starts to raise questions. As the past starts to catch up with the present, Tryssa must help Amicus discover who would kill rather than reveal long-buried truths...and what those truths actually are.

He thinks she's a maid. She thinks he's a penniless poet. ‘Tis the season for a misunderstanding! Julian Knight cannot believe his luck. Meeting his literary hero is a dream come true, but spending a month in the fellow’s home is bliss. A few weeks away from his life of ledgers and finances to bask in their shared love of poetry and hone his skill at the feet of a master. It couldn’t be more perfect…Until he mistakes their eldest daughter for the maid. Now, the lady is determined to make the holidays uncomfortable for him. There must be a way to get back into her good graces!

A widower ought to mourn his wife, yet Hamilton Baxter feels only relief after her passing. After enduring thirty years in a miserable marriage, he is finally free to spend his days hidden in a library. But when his son begs for his help distracting his sweetheart’s diligent chaperone, Baxter can’t help but agree—only to discover that the spinster aunt is too appealing for his good.

The oldest bonds are the hardest severed. When Fabio’s aunt Lucretia flexes her match-making muscles, he seeks escape from a marriage to shy, bored Adriane. Luckily, his friend Petros needs help investigating a possible rebellion in Vademlutra. All Fabio has to do is pretend to be poor and keep his wits about him. Certain there’s nothing to investigate, Fabio settles down for a week in the tavern until a lost young woman in the woods captivates him. Where is she from and why is she so keen to die?

190 AD Pecunia: an insignificant town in west Britain. Romano-Briton Lucretia is determined that her get-rich-quick scheme will not be undermined by minor things like her husband’s death, dubious imposters, or her married daughter’s fascination with a celebrity gladiator. But when the bodies start to mount up, wise-woman Tryssa starts to ask questions. Certain that a forgotten goddess cannot be blamed, Tryssa needs to uncover the truth before another life is lost.

Staff wanted. Prospects excellent. Death - or worse - a certainty. When fourteen year old Rosie is knocked down one foggy evening, Dr Margaret Demeray suspects she had been escaping procurers masquerading as an employment agency. But the police are more interested in the cold blooded murder of a respectable man than the procurement of naive, impoverished girls, and Rosie won’t talk, other than to beg Margaret to stop her friend Violet being caught by the same people. Then the discovery of a dead boy during one of Fox’s missions raises more questions than it answers.

Amy Hill, a 19-year-old student, is strangled and her body dumped on open ground in the city. New police partners, DI Jim Neal and DS Ava Merry are called in to investigate this brutal crime. The last person to see Amy alive was Simon, the son of a family friend, but before he can be properly questioned he disappears. Detectives Neal and Merry are led on a trail of shocking family secrets and crimes. Can this duo track down the murderer before anyone else dies? Stopping this tragic cycle of violence will put DS Merry’s life at risk in a thrilling and heart-stopping finale.

Everyone in town knows Nancy Jones. She loves her cats. She loves her tumbledown house by the sea. She loves her job in the local school where she tries to help the children who need help the most. Nancy tries hard not to think about her past loves and where those led her.... Nancy never shares her secrets - because some doors are better kept locked. But one day she accepts a cat-sitting request from a local woman, and at the woman’s house Nancy sees a photograph in a bright-red frame. A photograph that opens the door to her painful past....

Juliette always thought she’d have more time. But as her 40th birthday approaches she is dealt the deadliest of blows - she has just weeks to live. As the terrible news sinks in, Juliette’s only concern is for her 15-year-old daughter, Rosie. Who will take care of her precious child? Who will love her daughter with the same fierce love? The answer lies in a secret Juliette hoped never to reveal....

In the sleepy town of Lost Maidens Loch, people sometimes disappear.... Down a quiet lane in town sits a little shop full of oddities you’d probably miss if you weren’t looking for it. This is Love’s Curiosities Inc., and its owner, Temerity Love, is sought by experts all over the world for her rare and magical gift: The ability to find lost things and learn their stories. When Lost Maidens’ pretty local school teacher is found murdered by a poisoned cup of tea, a strange antique hand mirror is discovered nearby.

Natasha is a woman with a problem. The party lifestyle that she enjoyed with her partner, Helen, is about to come crashing to an abrupt end. While she battles with her addiction, she meets the charismatic Caroline who has the way of life that she yearns for. As Helen resists all change, Natasha searches for the bridge to a better life and finds herself facing hard choices.

Rosie Lee's owner, Abby, is a woman without a plan...and her beloved little cafe is a business with a serious lack of customers. The Rosie Lee's fry-up is legendary, but cooked breakfasts alone - however perfectly sizzled the bacon - aren't going to pay the bills. Fast approaching 40 and fighting a serious case of empty nest syndrome, Abby realises it's not just her menu that needs a makeover. And when Jack Chance, her 'The One That Got Away', saunters through the cafe doors and back into her life things definitely look set to change....

1941. Hitler unleashes Operation Barbarossa, taking the German forces to the outskirts of Moscow. Fearful of Lenin’s mausoleum falling into enemy hands, Stalin orders Lenin to be moved a 1,000 miles behind the Urals. Caught up the web of intrigue is beautiful Allied spy Eva Molenaar. She uncovers a plot involving a Hollywood mogul, Hitler’s propaganda machine, and a Nazi spy ring to bring Lenin’s body out of Russia for a propaganda coup.

When a factory girl and a Jewish businessman fall in love it seems that the whole world is against them. Manchester, 1939. On the eve of war Gracie Earnshaw is working in Rosenberg's Raincoat factory - a job she hates - but her life is about to be turned upside down when she falls in love with Jacob, the boss' charismatic nephew. Through Jacob, with his ambitions to be a writer, Gracie glimpses another world: theatre, music and prejudice. But their forbidden romance is cut short when Jacob is arrested and tragedy unfolds.

Marcus isn’t an ordinary 13-year-old. He’s a half vampire, with incredible special powers. And together with his friends, Tallulah and Gracie, he hunts and fights a totally evil enemy: the deadly vampires, who are out to destroy all humans and half vampires. But something strange has happened to Marcus. He’s lost his memory and can’t remember anything about his previous life as a vampire hunter. Tallulah and Gracie are seriously worried.