Showing results by narrator "Joan Walker" in All Categories

An orphan poses nervously for a Renaissance maestro in medieval Siena, and an artist's servant girl in seventeenth-century Amsterdam snatches a moment away from her work to lose herself in tales of knights and battles. In a Victorian photography studio, a woman holds a book that she barely acknowledges while she waits for the exposure, and in a Shoreditch bar in 2008 a woman reading catches the eye of a young man who takes her picture.

A year after she separated from her husband, Gianni, on Christmas day, Chloe’s heart is finally on the mend as she unpacks the decorations for her first ever festive holiday alone. That is, until the phone rings...It’s the manager of Gianni’s new seaside restaurant in Appledore, begging for Chloe’s help. Equally famous for his gold-leaf Christmas puddings and his explosive temper, Gianni has been really stirring up a sensation with the locals – and not in a good way! It’s the last thing she wants to do, but Chloe knows she is the only one that can help.

The third action-packed quest in an exciting new six book character-led series for 7+ girls who love fantasy, adventure, and high-kicking heroines! On her tenth birthday, tomboy Sophie learns she is the Guardian of a magic gateway between our world and the Shadow Woods. She must keep the human world safe from mischievous goblins, sprites and elves. Each book sees Sophie having to outwit weird and terrifying creatures from the Shadow Woods, starting with the gruesome Goblins!

Ever wondered why your cat won't sit on your lap? Why she would suddenly watch the football on television, how she sees the world and what she thinks of you and your family? Prepare to enter the mind of your cat and revolutionise the way you see the world and your enigmatic pet. Bestselling cat author Celia Haddon and veterinary expert Dr Daniel Mills take you into the mind of your feline and, drawing on the latest scientific research, describe how your cat experiences the world.

100 Ways to Be Kind is a road map of practical, simple, and immediately actionable ways to be kind including how to be kinder to yourself, to others, and to nature. Theresa debunks the damaging myth that being kind is a weakness and shows that it is not anger or aggression that brings out our true inner grit, but kindness. Science has proven that there are powerful, potentially lifesaving, reasons to be kind. The kinder you are, the more likely you are to experience happiness. Kindness is the simple and scientifically proven remedy that everyone needs to administer right now.

Alice finds herself suddenly widowed in her early 40s. Laura and Evie, her 20-something daughters, announce their separate and unexpected news, which ploughs Alice straight out of grieving and into the prospect of planning a wedding and becoming a granny to three grandchildren. Frank, an old family friend, returns to give his godchild, Laura, away at her wedding. A whole host of secrets unfold and set Alice free to finally begin a new, exciting chapter of her life.

We begin with the French Revolution when one woman took on the Fraternite of man, then it's off to America to round up the other rebels who paved the way, fighting side by side for freedom with their men. In Australia we celebrate a mass mooning by female convicts of Queen Victoria's vice-regent and his lady wife, and the dogged, often desperate courage of all the women who dared to think that they could change the world.

In "The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin", a naughty squirrel and his many cousins sail to Owl Island on a mission to collect nuts. While obtaining permission from old Owl Brown, naughty Squirrel Nutkin disrespectfully dances around, singing a nonsensical song. As the collecting continues, Squirrel Nutkin's naughty antics only increase. Will old Owl Brown notice?

Full-cast performance with comprehensive commentary and analysis for any student to fully understand and appreciate the novel. Dickens' tale of Pip, a young man "removed from his present sphere of life" and cast into a Victorian nightmare, is a powerful audio drama to be enjoyed and appreciated as an important piece of social criticism.

Technology is such that 60 really is the new 40 (or even 35).... But for Christa D'Souza, some nagging questions remain: What is the point of us now that we are officially biologically irrelevant? Are hormones safe, even if you've had cancer? Is there a cut-off point for plaits? In this fabulously confessional romp through the menopause, D'Souza tells us what it was like for her and what it will be like for you.

Anna and Louise could be sisters, but they don’t know each other. They are both married with children, and for the most part, they are happy. On almost the same day, Anna, a psychiatrist, crosses paths with Yves, a writer, while Louise, a lawyer, meets Anna’s analyst, Thomas. Love at first sight is still possible for those into their 40s and long-married. But when you have already mapped out a life path, a passionate affair can come at a high price. For our four characters, their lives are unexpectedly turned upside down by the deliciously inconvenient arrival of love

Victorian England is a country of sharp divides between rich and poor, but James Lionel Falconer, who spends his days working at his father’s market stall, is determined to become a merchant prince. James quickly rises through the ranks, proving himself both hardworking and trustworthy and catching the eye of Henry Malvern, head of the most prestigious shipping company in London. But when threats against his reputation - and his life - begin to emerge, James will have to prove he truly is the master of his fate.

Letters, postcards, notes and telegraphs from the great and the good, the notorious and the downright wicked, shine a spotlight on a range of historical events and movements providing an immediate link to the immediate and much more distant past. This audiobook includes letters from: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Mikhail Gorbachev, Lucien Freud, Barbara Hepworth, Nelson Mandela, Caitlin Thomas, Mary Whitehouse, Gandhi, George Washington among many others.

Picklewitch lives in a tree at the bottom of the garden. She has a nose for naughtiness, a mind for mischief and a weakness for cake. And unluckily for brainbox and all-round-goody-two-shoes Jack (who's just moved in) - she's about to choose him as her new best friend....

Very few people ever enter the Shadow Woods, for these woods are like no others. Hidden deep within them is the Gateway to the Shadow Realm – a dark and chaotic world where all kinds of gruesome creatures live…. On her tenth birthday, tomboy Sophie learns she is the Guardian of the magical gateway, and that her destiny is to protect the human world from the goblins, trolls and evil sprites that inhabit the Shadow Woods. Each book sees Sophie having to outwit weird and terrifying creatures from the Shadow Woods, and here, Sophie takes on the Bat Sprites!

Christy Naylor's life is wrenched apart when her mother dies and her father's crazed reaction is to gamble. He wins a fish farm in a game of poker and uproots them from their suburban lives, to live on a couple of watery fields. Unsettled and unsure of himself, Christy is 17, suffocating and suffering.

Ramona Koval has been praised as a master of the interview genre, renowned for engaging writers in conversations that are incisive, provocative, and often funny.In this new collection, Speaking Volumes: Conversations with Remarkable Writers, she shares the most fascinating interviews from her 2005 book Tasting Life Twice, along with brand-new ones with some of the most important writers of our times.

An unnamed Visitor travels to Berlin with a camera looking for reckonings of her own. The city itself is a character - vibrant and post-apocalyptic, flat and featureless except for its rivers, its lakes, its legions of bicyclists. Here in Berlin, she encounters a people's history: the Cuban teen taken as a POW on a German submarine only to return home to a family who doesn't believe him, the young Jewish scholar hidden in a sarcophagus until safe passage to England is found, the female lawyer haunted by a childhood of deprivation, and more.

'I'm good at secrets,' Libby says. Yes, thinks Jessica, I bet you are... Jessica should have everything to make her happy: a loving husband, a growing reputation as a jewellery designer, hope for a family of her own in the future. Then she meets Libby - flattering, attentive - and believes she has found the friendship she missed out on as a child. Until Jessica catches her husband and Libby alone, heads together in whispered collusion. With her life unravelling, Jessica flees home to the seaside town where she grew up.

In "The Tale of Mr. Tod", the Flopsy Bunnies have been kidnapped by Tommy Brock the Badger and removed to a house owned by Mr. Tod, a fox and Tommy's archenemy. Benjamin Bunny and his cousin Peter Rabbit set out to rescue them, but when Mr. Tod arrives home to find Tommy asleep in his bed, a fight ensues. Will the Flopsy bunnies be rescued?