Showing results by narrator "Jilly Bond" in All Categories

For the first time in audio, a collection of Carys Davies’ iconic novel West and her award-winning short story collection The Redemption of Galen Pike. West: Cy Bellman, American settler and widowed father of Bess, reads in the newspaper that huge ancient bones have been discovered in a Kentucky swamp. He leaves his small Pennsylvania farm and young daughter to find out if the rumours are true: that the giant monsters are still alive and roam the uncharted wilderness beyond the Mississippi River.

As the Weyrs and Holds prepare for the first pass since the loss of Landing and the knowledge of their ancestors, one Lord Holder is refusing to co-operate - denying the existing in thread and damning his people to ignorance and, ultimately, death.

When the phone rings in Judy McVee’s Languedoc farmhouse, she knows her past has finally caught up with her. It’s her daughter, frantically asking why there are journalists on her London doorstep making terrible accusations. Decades earlier, Judy was a girl with big plans – to ensnare a rich husband, to make something of herself, to rise above her upbringing and leave behind past tragedies. Wealthy young widower Rory Harrington seemed the perfect target – but Judy hadn’t reckoned on actually falling in love with him.

Each month best friends Claudia, Sal, Ella and Laura meet for drinks, celebrating 45 years of friendship. Sal had spent a lifetime building her career, but she hadn't banked on the one thing over which she had no control. Claudia loved her urban existence. But, as many women will know, other people's needs always seem to come first. Ella is ready to try something different. But she hadn't bargained on quite such a radical change. And Laura succumbed to the oldest cliché in the book.

Taran, the evil mermaid Queen, is determined to get her hands on the silver pearl that will make her more powerful than ever. Only Lizzy, Kes, and their friends from the undersea world can stop her. But when Taran takes a very special hostage, Lizzy and Kes are faced with a terrible choice. Must they give up the precious pearl!? Or do they have the courage to challenge Taran and defeat her?

London, 1938. Bookseller Gertie Bingham is facing difficult times, having just lost her beloved husband, Harry, and with a lingering sadness at never having been able to have a child of her own. Struggling to face running the bookshop she and Harry opened together, Gertie is preparing to sell up and move away when she is asked if she would be willing to take in a young Jewish refugee from Germany. Gertie is unsure and when sullen teenager Hedy Fischer arrives, Gertie fears she has nothing left to give the troubled girl.

A coming of age story about self-discovery and independence from the Queen of Tween, Jean Ure.‘I’ve always been the quiet one in my dramatic family. Not a drama queen, or a genius composer, or a twin, but Just Peachy. Mum says I’ve got my own thing going on… I just wish I knew what that was! When I decide I want to attend Sacred Heart school rather than Summerville where my family have always gone everyone finally stops to listen! Stepping out on my own is scary...

The news of Henry III's death reached his son Edward on the long road home from the Holy Land. Now he was England's king and a man fit for his destiny. Through all the years of his reign, through stark personal tragedy and chill forebodings as his son grew into a weak, corrupted price, Edward I strove to weld a nation united from England, Scotland and Wales.

Over 100 generations, Mia's family has shaped Earth's history to push humanity to the stars, making brutal, wrenching choices along the way. And now Mia finds herself about to help launch the first people into space. She can't take them to the stars, not quite yet. But with her adversary almost upon her, and with the future of the planet at stake, it's becoming clearer that obeying the first rule is no longer an option.

March 1920: Life has turned unsettlingly quiet for former British Intelligence agent Verity Kent and her husband, Sidney. But even that false calm is about to end. As threats remain, the French authorities soon request Sidney's help with a suspect who claims to have proof of treason--shortly before she is assassinated. And Verity, too, is called to investigate a mystery. The murder of a Belgian lawyer aboard a train seems at first to be a simple case of revenge. But the victim was connected to British Intelligence.

Malaya, 1941: As the glamorous wife of a plantation owner, Connie Hadley appears to lead a pampered and comfortable life. But she is hiding devastating secrets that could destroy her marriage. Life is changed forever on the day of the infamous attack on Pearl Harbour. As Japanese Zero aircraft attack the town of Palur, Connie makes the decision to flee to Singapore on the family's boat, the White Pearl

In the shadow of Lewes castle lies buried an ancient tablet. Hours after discovering it, dashing local archaeologist Gideon Rivers is dead. Writer Virginia Woolf and her artist sister, Vanessa, both know firsthand that it doesn't take much to cause a stir in town. And when Gideon returned home from a dig in Syria with a glamourous Parisian heiress on his arm, all eyes were on him. But who would have conspired to murder such a charming young man? There are more suspects in his circle than it first seems: an ambitious fiancée, a jealous best friend, and a string of scorned former lovers.

In 1421, Henry V and his young bride, Catherine de Valois, are blessed with the birth of a son - but their happiness is short-lived. Catherine is widowed, and when her father, the French king, also dies, her son inherits the crowns of France and England.

Diana and Julian Denver have the world at their feet. With a blissful marriage, a darling son and beautiful homes, Diana’s life, to the outside world, is perfect. But when Julian dies suddenly, Diana is convinced there is more to it than meets the eye. She calls on the one person she had never wanted to see again - her sister, Rachel. A former tabloid reporter, Rachel appears to be living the dream as a diving instructor on a Thai island. The truth is she’s in exile, driven from her career by Fleet Street’s phone-hacking scandal. For Rachel, Diana’s request opens old wounds.

The five children have grown up, and World War I has begun in earnest. The sand fairy has become a creature of stories...until, for the first time in 10 years, he suddenly reappears. Before this last adventure ends, all will be changed; the two younger children will have seen the Great War from every possible viewpoint, and the war's impact will be felt right at the heart of their family.

At just 18, Lucrezia Borgia, the alluring daughter of the Pope, has already had her life touched by dishonour and tragic loss. In the decadent society of 15th-century Rome, violence is commonplace and scandal is never far from the infamous Borgia family. In the aftermath of her brother Giovanni’s brutal murder, Lucrezia knows she must build a life for herself if she is to break away from the corrupt world her family is tied to.

Constance Harding's comfortable corner of the Home Counties is her own little piece of heaven. Her time is spent party-planning (disastrous) and matchmaking for her son Rupert (catastrophic). But she's about to learn that her perfect home conceals scandal that would make the vicar blush. As her family falls apart, Constance embarks on an extraordinary journey. From Ibiza to Argentina, Constance discovers a wider world she thought it was too late to find....

On the morning of 20 June 1837, an 18-year-old girl is called from her bed to be told that she is Queen of England. The young queen’s first few years are beset with court scandal and malicious gossip: There is the unsavoury Flora Hastings affair, a source of extreme embarrassment to the queen; the eternal conflict between Victoria and her mother; and the young queen’s hatred for Sir John Conroy, her mother’s close friend. Then there is the Prime Minster, Lord Melbourne - "Lord M" - worldly cynic and constant companion to the queen, himself a veteran of many a latter-day scandal.

Fifteenth-century Spain is rent with intrigue and threatened by civil war. Here, the young Isabella becomes the pawn of her half-crazed mother and a virtual prisoner at the licentious court of her half-brother, Henry IV. At just sixteen years old, is she already fated to be the victim of the Queen's revenge, the Archbishop's ambition and the lust of lecherous Don Pedro Girón?

Owen Ithell’s sense of self is rooted in his long, vivid visits to his grandparents’ small farm in the Welsh hills. As an adult he moves away from the country and meets Mel, with whom he has children. He believes he has found happiness. But following a car accident, in which his daughter is killed and he loses a hand, the course of his life is changed for ever. In his despair, he resolves to reconnect with both his past and the natural world.