Showing results by narrator "Katy Sobey" in All Categories

Dad's taking Holly on one of his travel-writing trips - to Malaysia! Holly can't wait to explore all the new sights, sounds and smells Asia has to offer. But Dad has other things in mind.... Instead of exploring the jungles, he's busy making the most of the free spa and sticking Holly in the dreaded Adventure Club. If Holly wants a real adventure, she's going to have to find it herself.

The East End, 1939. When war comes to London, the bright and irrepressible Georgia Smith is torn from her tight-knit family and packed off as an evacuee. She moves in with Phoebe Bliss, whose cheerful smile masks a dark past that 10-year-old Georgia couldn't possibly understand. Georgia soon finds herself involved in the small town's complicated love lives. But some secrets aren't meant for little girls, and she finds herself in danger. Can a good heart keep a mischievous girl out of trouble?

A shared story can last forever. Hannah's grandad loves telling stories from his past, but there's one that he can't remember…one that Hannah knows is important. When a whale appears off the coast, clues to Grandad's secret begin to surface. Hannah is determined to solve the mystery but, as she gets closer to the truth, Grandad's story is more extraordinary than she imagined.

Sixteen-year-old Bessie works long hours as a weaver in Blackburn, helping to support her family. Meanwhile, her older sister, Peggy, works as an apprentice at the Girls' School, hoping for a more prosperous future as a schoolteacher. Jennet and Titus Eastwood have always made decisions for their daughters' futures. But as the sisters near adulthood, they are determined to make their own choices. And with temptation in the way, will the girls find love - or infatuation - leads them astray?

When the parish guardians send Lydia, daughter of convict James Knowles, to apprentice in the cotton mill at Caton, she is distraught at being parted from her younger siblings and mother, Betty, but she has no choice. At the mill, Lydia is bullied by some of the other girls and things do not go well when she stands up to the ringleader. Fearing she has killed someone and with the word murderess ringing in her ears, Lydia runs for her life.

With Mindful Leadership for Dummies, you'll find accessible and authoritative guidance for cultivating focus, clarity, and insight, becoming the best leader you can be. Packed full of useful tips, this friendly how-to guide will help you use mindfulness as a foundation for your leadership and reap the benefits of a more attentive working life that reduces your risk of burnout while increasing your productivity.

After her husband Jack is transported to Australia as a convict, Hannah and her children are sent to the workhouse. Hearing nothing from Jack and believing he's dead, Hannah reluctantly agrees to marry widower Ellis Duxbury. But her children must remain in the workhouse, and when they are sent away as apprentices, it's up to Hannah to track them down. On Christmas Eve, Hannah is blessed with a miracle when Jack returns to the village. Yet more trouble lies ahead as Hannah is arrested, accused of bigamy and threatened with deportation herself.

London, 1601. Honesty, a storyteller seeking fame and fortune, befriends Alice, a maid to Queen Elizabeth I. But can Alice be trusted? A tale of intrigue, scheming and plots, set in the spellbinding world of the Elizabethan court, leads to a thrilling adventure where nothing is as it seems.

Poplar, 1890. Hester Stainsby grew up in Poplar, in London's East End. Living with her father, Fred, her younger twin siblings, Harry and Polly, and self-centred Granny Garter, Hester toils day and night in the laundry room of Poplar Hospital to help put food on the family table. But when Fred is badly injured in an accident at the East India Docks, Hester finds herself the sole breadwinner, with the weight of the world on her shoulders. So as to make a better life for herself and her family, Hester trains to be a nurse and throws herself into her work.

Are you stuck in a rut? Do you feel plagued by negative thoughts and emotions every day? Gill Hasson, the best-selling author of Mindfulness and Emotional Intelligence, is back to help you move on from those pesky negative emotions and focus on the positive instead. Gill's practical and reassuring approach to the benefits of positive thinking will have you applying it to your own life every day.

It's 1915, and Ada, Jessie and Beatrice Saward live in a small Norfolk village with their parents. Their father, Harry, is the station master at Wolferton, the local stop for the Sandringham Estate. With members of the royal family and their guests passing through the train station on their way to Sandringham, the Saward family have a unique position within their small community.

Ireland, 1948. The potato famine has left the Cavanagh family destitute. Kitty and Peter manage to secure tickets for America - seeking hope in an unknown land. But still fortune will not favour them. On a terrifying crossing of the Irish Sea, Peter vanishes, and with him their tickets. Now, Kitty and her young family are stranded in Liverpool - with not a penny to their name. Facing prejudice and distrust, they move to Blackburn, where the welcome is no warmer, but Kitty at least can gather rags and scraps to exchange for a coin or two.

When Sasha meets Elliot a month before her wedding to Pete, the news he brings seems incredible. He claims to have arrived from the future, explaining that their timeline was knocked off course in 2010, preventing them from meeting, and begs her to find him in the present day. But Sasha’s wedding plans are underway, and though she’s curious, Elliot turns out to be feckless, rebellious, and engaged to a glamorous and pregnant Belle.

Summer, 2022. When Meg and Cat are forced to take a dangerous shortcut home one night, they notice two men silently following them. Suddenly running for their lives, they scramble into an abandoned building to hide and wait for help. One year later. Attempting to escape the horrors of that fateful night, Meg barricades herself into a safehouse at the edge of a crumbling sea cliff. As a storm rages outside, a blackout plunges the house into darkness. But Meg’s not alone.

In a field outside Bromsgrove, two elderly brothers live in adjoining railway carriages. No one visits, and they never speak to each other. Until the day Zohra Dasgupta, a young postwoman, delivers an extraordinary letter - from a woman claiming to be the sister they thought had been murdered 50 years earlier.

A boy. A girl. A bump. Trouble. A smart, touching and funny contemporary young adult book from an extraordinary new talent. Hannah's smart and funny.... She's also 15 and pregnant. Aaron is new at school and doesn't want to attract attention. So why does he offer to be the pretend dad to Hannah's unborn baby? Growing up can be trouble, but that’s how you find out what really matters.

Gabriela, a senior negotiator in the FCO’s Counter-Terrorism Unit, runs a small and powerful team based in Whitehall. She is tenacious, hard-working and the family breadwinner. Her husband, Tom - a freelance architect - looks after their two small children. When Gabriela returns from a seven-month stint in Moscow, something doesn’t seem right. Isobel is a journalist working for the local paper in Camden. Walking home from a party one night, she witnesses a horrific attack. But someone has seen her and is making themselves known in increasingly frightening ways.

Rob and Emma have made a fresh start, moving away from London and back to her hometown. With their baby daughter Sophie, their family is complete. Until one night, Rob arrives home from a late shift to find baby Sophie crying and on her own. Frantically, he searches the house and surroundings, but Emma has disappeared without a trace. Rob is distraught. Emma couldn’t abandon their child - could she? As rumours spread around the village, Rob uncovers secrets about Emma’s past life that shake his foundations about the woman he thought he married.

A miraculous new Christmas story from award-winning author Sally Nicholls about hope and heartbreak, wartime romance and the power of love. 17-year-old Margot Allan was a respectable vicar’s daughter and madly in love with her fiancé Harry. But when Harry was reported missing in action from the Western Front, and Margot realised she was expecting his child, there was only one solution she and her family could think of in order to keep that respectability. She gave up James, her baby son, to be adopted by her parents and brought up as her younger brother.

Agnes Cavanaugh has watched her mother, Kitty struggle to put food on the table ever since they crossed the sea from Ireland. So when she sees an opportunity to help earn some money by selling cheese at the local market she begins to work with the local farm to maximise on sales. Much to her mother, Kitty’s, disappointment, Agnes is immediately drawn to the farmer’s son, Jonas. And Jonas can’t help but be enchanted by Agnes. But their love faces many challenges