Showing results by narrator "Clare Corbett" in All Categories

The unicorn lived in a lilac wood, and she lived all alone...so she ventured out from the safety of the enchanted forest on a quest for others of her kind. Joined along the way by the bumbling magician Schmendrick and the indomitable Molly Grue, the unicorn learns all about the joys and sorrows of life and love before meeting her destiny in the castle of a despondent monarch-and confronting the creature that would drive her kind to extinction.

Celia Fremlin's classic Gothic story collection is a masterpiece of psychological horror, mining the darkest elements of marriage, childhood, and ageing; probing paranoia, grief and toxic relationships; inviting the ghosts of the past into our present; and exploring the nightmarish secret impulses and supernatural forces lurking beneath suburban Britain.

Budapest, 1963. Special Investigator Bertalan Lázár and his wife, spymaster Franciska Lázár, face formidable challenges as they try to navigate a path through the dangerous underworld of Cold War-era Hungary. Catching the criminals is difficult enough, but there are other more threatening battles raging in higher places.

The World My Wilderness was published in 1955 and follows the story of Barbary Deniston, a 17-year-old girl growing up in London during World War II. Barbary’s parents are divorced, and she divides her time between her mother’s bohemian lifestyle and her father’s more conventional life. The novel explores themes of identity, family, and the impact of war on individuals and society. It is considered one of Macaulay’s most personal and autobiographical works.

In the spring of 1938 Elise Landau arrives at Tyneford, the great house on the bay. A bright young thing from Vienna forced to become a parlourmaid, she knows nothing about England except that she won't like it. As servants polish silver and serve drinks on the lawn, Elise wears her mother's pearls beneath her uniform and causes outrage by dancing with a boy called Kit. But war is coming, and the world is changing. And Elise must change with it. At Tyneford she learns that you can be more than one person. And that you can love more than once.

When her grandma goes into a retirement home, Scarlet must sort through her belongings in the cramped flat above a shop in London. Here Scarlet comes across a real treasure: a novel that Gran wrote, about the life of a girl just like Scarlet, who lived in the flat and worked in a cake shop downstairs. But as Scarlet reads about Ruby's life in Victorian London, she realises this is not a piece of fiction - Ruby was real, facing real danger and a mystery that unravels to the present day.

The past is like a foreign country: nice to visit, but you really wouldn’t want to live there. In 2003, Rebecca Whitaker died in a road accident. Her husband, Mark, is still grieving. He receives a battered envelope, posted eight years ago, containing a set of instructions with a simple message: "You can save her." As Mark is given the chance to save Rebecca, it’s up to the Doctor, Amy, and Rory to save the whole world. Because this time the Weeping Angels are using history itself as a weapon.

When Maggie accepts one last commission before retiring from journalism, she’s given twenty-four hours on a remote tropical island to interview former Hollywood heart-throb Ed Cavanagh. There are just two problems: firstly, Ed doesn’t want anything to do with Maggie’s exclusive, and secondly, he’s the only man who ever broke her heart…

Whatever happened to British protest? For a nation that brought the world Chartism, the Suffragettes, the Tolpuddle Martyrs and so many other grassroots social movements, Britain rarely celebrates its long, great tradition of people power. In this timely and evocative collection, 20 authors have assembled to reimagine key moments of British protest, from the Peasants' Revolt of 1381 to the anti-Iraq War demo of 2003.

Despite his early death from tuberculosis at the age of 44, Chekhov was a prolific writer and produced more than 250 short stories in addition to several novellas and a novel. The Russian was also a practicing doctor. A celebrated playwright, Anton Chekhov is often recognised as an influential figure of early modernism of the theatre in addition to being held in high esteem by the likes of George Bernard Shaw and Virginia Woolf, although much praise was not as forthcoming until after his death in 1904.

The first time I meet Madison Shore, I’m greeted by her knickers. She’s upside down and trying to untangle herself from my chair at a wedding. I get to see a whole lot more of her later that night. The second time I meet Madison Shore is in my London office. Turns out she’s a journalist writing an article about me. To keep control of my company, I need to convince people I’m more serious about business than my playboy reputation suggests. Madison holds my future in her hands.

Nine remarkable men produced inventions that changed the world. The printing press, the telephone, powered flight, recording and others have made the modern world what it is. But who were the men who had these ideas and made reality of them? As David Angus shows, they were very different - quiet, boisterous, confident, withdrawn - but all had a moment of vision allied to single-minded determination to battle through numerous prototypes and produced something that really worked. This is a fascinating account for younger listeners.

Elise loves the farm that is her home; she loves playing with beetles and chameleons in the garden, buying sweets from the village shop and listening to the stories of spirits and charms told by her nanny, Beauty. As a young white girl in 1990s Zimbabwe, her life is idyllic. Her clothes are always clean and ironed, there is always tea in the silver teapot, gin and tonics are served on the veranda, and, in theory at least, black and white live in harmony.

Scarlett's aunt lived—and was brutally murdered—in the flat upstairs. But Scarlett is determined that life return to some kind of normal, even if that means living with just a ceiling between her and the scene of this devastating crime. After all, this is her home. She's safe here. Isn't she? Dee is busy balancing her job as a funeral director with organising an event to mark the disappearance of her best friend, 10 years ago. So she's got enough on her plate without worrying about the threatening messages that are appearing on her company's Facebook page.

A baby is abandoned in the middle of the night at Royal Surrey County Hospital. DI Bobby 'Marilyn' Simmons suspects the father is planning to take his own life following the violent suicide of his eldest son Danny a year earlier. The race is on to find him. Captain Ben Callan is investigating a suspicious death. Just 16 years old, Stephen Foster has been stabbed in the neck and abandoned in the woods. Someone tried to save his life - but who? And why haven't they come forward?

Lucy and Jake live in a house by a field where the sun burns like a ball of fire. Lucy works from home but devotes her life to the children, to their finely tuned routine and to the house itself, which comforts her like an old, sly friend. But then a man calls one afternoon with a shattering message: his wife has been having an affair with Lucy’s husband, he wants her to know. The revelation marks a turning point: Lucy and Jake decide to stay together, but in a special arrangement designed to even the score and save their marriage, she will hurt him three times.

Anna has waited a long time to fall in love and now that she has, she's not going to let her boyfriend Charlie's mother stand in her way. Meredith Granger is frighteningly well-cultured and impossible to impress. So far, Anna hasn't even been allowed to meet her. But when Charlie leaves the country on business for the summer, Anna decides to take matters into her own hands. Reinventing herself from top to toe, Anna embraces a whole new life.

The exodite world of Ephraeleon is under attack by a deadly tyranid horde. Can the Ranger Una Belphoebe complete her rescue mission on time?

Hannah Riley and her musician husband, Will, hope that a move to the Suffolk countryside will promise a fresh start. Hannah, a human rights worker, is desperate for a child and she hopes that this new life will realise her dream. Yet when the snow comes, Will is working in London and Hannah is cut off in their remote village. Life in Tornley turns out to be far from idyllic: Who are the threatening figures who lurk near their property at night? And why is her neighbour so keen to see them leave?

The Snow Queen is one of Andersen's most affecting stories. Little Kay is enticed away from his home by the Snow Queen who traps him in her palace in the cold far north. His loyal friend Gerda goes on a long and dangerous journey, overcoming many obstacles to rescue him. With this classic children's story are other entertaining and moving tales from the imagination of Hans Christian - the story of a cunning frog, an old house and a snowman who is unaware of the effects of the coming spring.