Showing results by narrator "Rachel Bavidge" in All Categories

2014: At a dinner for close friends and colleagues, renowned poet Francis Blundy honors his wife’s birthday by reading aloud a new poem dedicated to her, ‘A Corona for Vivien’. Much wine is drunk as the guests listen, and a delicious meal consumed. Little does anyone gathered around the candlelit table know that for generations to come people will speculate about the message of this poem, a copy of which has never been found, and which remains an enduring mystery.

A rich, penetrating memoir about the author's relationship with a flawed but influential figure—the painter Lucian Freud—and the satisfactions and struggles of a life lived through art.

Brought to you by Penguin. Shortlisted for the 2021 Baillie Gifford prize and the 2021 Costa Biography Award. Lea Ypi grew up in one of the most isolated countries on earth, a place where communist ideals had officially replaced religion. Albania, the last Stalinist outpost in Europe, was almost...

Daisy and Simon’s marriage isn’t what it seems… After years together, the arrival of longed-for daughter Millie sealed everything in place. They’re a happy little family of three. So what if Simon drinks a bit too much sometimes—Daisy’s used to it. She knows he’s just letting off...

From the author People called “a must-read for Philippa Gregory fans,” a “terrifically entertaining” (The Sunday Times, London) novel about two sisters who must survive life in the Tudor court after the execution of their sister Lady Jane Grey who was queen for just nine days. Early in...

The author of the #1 New York Times bestseller and global phenomenon The Girl on the Train returns with Into the Water, her addictive new novel of psychological suspense. A single mother turns up dead at the bottom of the river that runs through town. Earlier in the summer, a vulnerable teenage...

An international bestseller, this powerful memoir by a ninety-eight-year-old Jewish Resistance fighter and Holocaust survivor “shows us how to find hope in hopelessness and light in the darkness” (Edith Eger, author of The Choice and The Gift). Selma van de Perre was seventeen when World War...

Brought to you by Penguin. In a world submerged by rising seas, What We Can Know spans the past, present and future to ask profound questions about who we are and where we are going. 2014: A great poem is read aloud and never heard again. For generations, people speculate about its message, but...

Brought to you by Penguin. An imaginative investigation into historical injustice, dignity and truth, told through the story of a family from the fall of the Ottoman Empire to the dawn of Communism in the Balkans ‘There is something about the human spirit, she would say, that withstands all...

Alfred Lord Tennyson is one of Britain’s greatest and most popular poets. Even during his lifetime, he was considered a national institution: Queen Victoria appointed him Poet Laureate in 1850, a position he held for 42 years, and in 1884 he became the first writer to be granted a baronetcy. In a long and fruitful career, he penned numerous classic works, and this BBC Radio collection showcases some of the very best. We begin with two of his masterpieces, dramatised by award-winning poet Michael Symmons Roberts.

History is rarely kind to women of power, but few have had their reputations quite so brutally shredded as Catherine de’ Medici, Italian-born queen of France and influential mother of three successive French kings during that country’s long sequence of sectarian wars in the second half of the sixteenth century.

The author of the #1 New York Times bestseller and global phenomenon The Girl on the Train returns with Into the Water, her addictive new novel of psychological suspense. A single mother turns up dead at the bottom of the river that runs through town. Earlier in the summer, a vulnerable teenage...

This will be the first authoritative trade book to unpack the concept of a cap on wealth, where to draw the line, how to collect the excess, and what to do with the money. In the process, Robeyns ignites an urgent debate about wealth, one that calls into question the very forces we live by (capitalism and neoliberalism) and invites us to a radical reimagining of our world.

Prayer and ingenuity have kept the remote English convent of St Winifreda in the Fen going for centuries, but now the roof leaks, the bell tower is crumbling, and rats have moved in. The Bishop’s accountant wants to send the retired sisters to a home, disperse the working nuns, pull down the buildings, and sell the land off as a car park. But he has reckoned without the unstoppable force that is Reverend Mother Elizabeth.

Do you struggle to get your child to sleep? Discover the miracle book and reclaim bedtime! Join millions of parents all over the world and embrace a bedtime routine that will help your child to relax and fall fast asleep. Let your child be lulled to sleep with Tractor Alex in a sleep-inducing ride around the farm. Along the way they meet Yawning Carrot, Half-Asleep Leon, Sleeping Apples and other friends, who tell them what they do to fall asleep at night. Your child will have a soothing and relaxing experience and can fall asleep quickly - at naptime and bedtime.

BLACKWELL’S BOOK OF THE YEAR LONGLISTED FOR THE 2026 ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR EXCELLENCE IN FICTION NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER One of Barack Obama’s Favourite Books of 2025 The Atlantic’s Top 10 The Standard’s Best 2025 Titles to Buy for Book Lovers Named a Best...

The author of Free returns with an extraordinary inquiry into historical injustice, dignity, truth, and imagination. When Lea Ypi discovers a photo of her grandmother, Leman, honeymooning in the Alps in 1941 posted by a stranger on social media, she is faced with unsettling questions. Growing up...

Classic Poems for Boys comprises a delightfully varied set of over 20 poems for 5- to 10-year olds. From rousing favorites like Felicia Dorothea Hemans’ "Casabianca" and John Keats’ "A Song About Myself", to dreamy, thoughtful poems by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Rudyard Kipling, this is a collection to be treasured.

We all notice when the poor get poorer: when there are more rough sleepers and food bank queues start to grow. But if the rich become richer, there is nothing much to see in public and, for most of us, daily life doesn't change. Or at least, not immediately. In this astonishing, eye-opening intervention, world-leading philosopher and economist Ingrid Robeyns exposes the true extent of our wealth problem, which has spent the past fifty years silently spiralling out of control.

Brought to you by Penguin. I’ve always been told that if I was good, I’d attract good things. So then, why am I unhappy? From a young age, women are taught to put everyone else first. The result? A society full of ‘Good Girls’, pushing themselves to meet expectations while ignoring their...