Showing results by narrator "Stephanie Racine" in All Categories

The ovens are pre-heating, the prosecco is chilling...and the Sunshine and Biscotti Club is nearly ready to open its doors. But the guests have other things on their minds.... Welcome to Tuscany's newest baking school - where your biscotti is served with a side of love, laughter and ice-cold limoncello!

Before the nineteenth century, the term normal was rarely ever associated with human behaviour. Normal was a term used in maths, for right angles. People weren't normal; triangles were. But from the 1830s, this branch of science really took off across Europe and North America, with a proliferation of IQ tests, sex studies, a census of hallucinations—even a UK beauty map. This audiobook tells the surprising history how the very notion of the normal came about, how it shaped us all, often while entrenching oppressive values.

Six months have passed since Jessica's encounter with the mysterious serial-killing coven of witches and the death of her mentor, Erne. Her nightmares about her mother and the witchcraft that undid her have only gotten worse, but she's doing what she can to stay focused. Her homicide squad, now under new leadership, has been given a murder case and a new series of disappearances to investigate. A young woman's corpse has washed up on an icy beach, and two famous Instagram influencers have gone missing at the same time.

Bella has the perfect life with her husband Jack and their two children – until the ex who stalked her years ago is released from prison. Now Bella is convinced he’s back to hurt her, and sees him everywhere – but no one else can see that anything is wrong. With her family away for the weekend, Bella determines to leave the past in the past – but she’s about to discover the danger is closer to home than she ever imagined.

Jessica Moxham thought she was prepared for the experience of motherhood. Armed with advice from friends and family, parenting books and antenatal classes, she felt ready. But after giving birth, she found herself facing a different, more uncertain reality to the one she had expected. Her son, Ben, was fighting to stay alive. When Jessica could finally take him home from hospital, the challenges were far from over. In this hopeful memoir, Jessica shares her journey in raising Ben, whose life-altering disability means he will never be able to move or communicate without assistance.

Advanced AI technology is now able to create video of people doing things they never did, in places they have never been, saying things they never said. In the hands of rogue states, terrorists, criminals or crazed individuals, they represent a disturbing new threat to democracy and personal liberty. Deep Fakes can be misused to shift public opinion, swing Presidential elections, or blackmail, coerce, and silence individuals.

Our fears and compulsions often feel like part of our deepest selves—yet they're bound up in the currents of the world around us. This thrilling compendium of 99 phobias and manias, rare and familiar, delves into the obsessions that shape us all. Award-winning author Kate Summerscale takes us from the Middle Ages to the present day, using rich and riveting case studies to trace the links between the private and the public, the personal and the political.

When a small child is found wandering alone, the local shopkeepers call the authorities immediately. Twenty minutes later, the girl’s mother turns up, panicked and distraught. It doesn't take long to clear things up, and mother and daughter are soon reunited and sent on their way. Miles away, the body of a man is discovered, floating in a bathtub, but the most surprising discovery of all is that he isn't dead. Two seemingly unrelated events. But as DS Harper begins to investigate, disturbing connections between the two incidents start to surface.

Screenwriter Caroline Byrne is desperate to know why her daughter, Jessica, died, murdered in Stratford when she was supposed to be at a friend’s in Somerset. When Caroline discovers the messages Jessica had been sending a boy named Michael, she realises it’s because of him. Because he failed to meet her that day. He’s the reason why her daughter is dead. And so she makes a choice. He’s the one who’s going to pay. That is her promise. Her price.

When Ellie spent a summer with her mum on a Wiltshire commune in the '90s, it was a bigger disaster than Leo DiCaprio's trip aboard the Titanic - so fleeing to America seemed a perfect plan. But now, with her marriage falling apart, running back to her mum seems like the only option for her and her son, Josh. She wasn't expecting Art, the boy she once had a crush on, to still be working at Willow Tree Farm...and to still be as hot and bothersome as he was when they were teenagers.

The mythical Greek king, Oedipus, is no stranger to tragedy. As a baby, he is left to die on the mountainside of Thebes by his royal parents after the Oracle of Delphi prophesies that he will kill his father and marry his mother. Pitied by the shepherd tasked with leaving him, Oedipus is given to another royal family and grows up ignorant of his past as a foreign prince. Returning to Thebes by chance many years later, he defeats the Sphinx terrorising the city by answering her riddle and becomes king. From here on a series of tragic events begin to unfurl.

From their graves in the field, the oldest part of Paulstadt’s cemetery, the town’s late inhabitants tell stories from their lives. Some recall just a moment, perhaps the one in which they left this world, perhaps the one that they now realise shaped their life for ever. Some remember all the people they’ve been with, or the only person they ever loved. These voices together build a picture of a community, as viewed from below ground instead of from above.

France, 1944. In an old stone cottage, on the edge of a beautiful French village, three sisters long for the end of the war. Hélène, the eldest, is trying her hardest to steer her family to safety, even as the Nazi occupation becomes more threatening. Elise, the rebel, is determined to help the Resistance, whatever the cost. And Florence, the dreamer, just yearns for a world where France is free. Then, one dark night, the Allies come knocking for help.

She thought she was free of the past. She was wrong. Six years ago Isla was the only victim to walk free from Carl Jeffery's vicious murder spree. Now, Isla vows to live her life to the fullest, and from the outside it appears perfect. Determined to finish her book, Isla plans her final trip to Sweden, but after returning from Canada and meeting a man she never thought she would, her life begins to derail. Suddenly Isla is plagued by memories of the man who tried to murder her....

Rachel’s childhood is a mess of fragmented memories and her adult life is no less chaotic. Her mother and daughter are her only concrete links to the past and now they are slipping through her fingers. Fuelled by the fear of losing them both, she delves into her mother’s past, fast becoming entangled in her own tragic history. With eerie friend requests filling Rachel’s phone and shocking flashbacks filling her mind, she heads to County Sligo to discover her past – but is there a killer closer than she thinks?

Two bodies on the beach. One killer out for revenge. Two years ago, a young girl was murdered while playing on the beach, a doll left by her side. DI Bobby 'Marilyn' Simmons failed to catch her killer, and he's been tormented with guilt ever since. So when another dead girl is found in the dunes, another doll, he knows this could be his only chance to silence his demons.

Of the four of us only three remained, and there was no going back from that. Emily and Josephine have always shared everything. They’re sisters, flatmates and best friends. It’s the two of them against the world. When Emily has the perfect wedding and Josephine finds the perfect man, they know things will change forever. But nothing can prepare them for what, or who, one of them is willing to give up for love. Four people. Three couples. Two sisters. One unforgivable betrayal.

From ‘The Manchester Marriage’, in which a husband, supposedly drowned at sea, returns to find his daughter, to the two sisters who are comically adrift after the death of their domineering father in ‘The Daughters of the Late Colonel’, and a young girl who enlists the help of a sorceress to win back her boyfriend in ‘The Goodness of Saint Rocque’, Standing Her Ground showcases nine groundbreaking women writers.

A cheating husband has thrown Ella a curved snowball...and for the first time in years, all she wants is her mum. So she heads back to Greece, where her family's taverna holds all the promise of home. Meanwhile, waitress Maddy's dreams of a white Christmas lead her back to London...and her dad.

‘Have kids, will travel’ is veteran travel journalist Kate’s mantra. Her intrepid spirit is infectious in this warm, engaging account of her family’s adventures and misadventures. She shares the life lessons learnt on their travels, from overcoming disappointment in Thailand to saying sorry in Japan, discovering perseverance in Borneo and learning about conservation in Malaysia.