Showing results by narrator "Charlie Sanderson" in All Categories

Left an orphan, five-year-old Rosie Harris is found and raised by Maria, a Romany gypsy. Life on the road is hard, but the little girl soon feels one of the tribe with the travelers. As she grows older, Rosie realises she has 'second sight' and is able to read people's palms and see into their futures. Needing to make a living of her own, she befriends the canal folk, known as the 'cut-rats' traversing the Black Country waterways with their cargo, and so offers readings to anyone who can pay. Pursued by Jake Harding, Rosie instead finds herself falling in love with a married man.

The very last thing 17-year-old Emmott Syddall wants is to turn out like her dad. She’s descended from 10 generations who never left their dull English village, and there’s no way she’s going to waste a perfectly good life that way. She’s moving to London and she swears she is never coming back. But when the unexplained deaths of her neighbors force the government to quarantine the village, Em learns what it truly means to be trapped. Now, she must choose.

In the early '90s, newlywed Ruth Flint arrives at Echo Hall to find an unhappy house full of mysteries that its occupants won't discuss. When her husband, Adam, is called up to the Gulf War, her shaky marriage is tested to the core. During World War II Elsie Flint is living at Echo Hall with her unsympathetic in-laws. While her husband, Jack, is away with the RAF, his cousin Daniel is her only support. But Daniel is hiding a secret that will threaten their friendship forever.   

The Fitch children are finally safe, after they and their friends were rescued from the grim orphanage, Reed House, by Minnie and Billy Marshall. Their children’s home, Marshall’s, is full of love and laughter and a world away from their terrible ordeal of being sold to Una Reed for five shillings. There are many more children who still need a home, especially in a world where the workhouse is the last option for desperate families and so Minnie makes it her mission to build Marshall’s into a refuge for all the waifs and strays.

Short-listed for the Man Booker Prize 2018. Words are important to Gretel, always have been. As a child, she lived on a canal boat with her mother, and together they invented a language that was just their own. She hasn’t seen her mother since the age of 16, though - almost a lifetime ago - and those memories have faded. Now Gretel works as a lexicographer, updating dictionary entries, which suits her solitary nature. A phone call from the hospital interrupts Gretel’s isolation and throws up questions from long ago....

Izzy is used to feeling invisible. So when she wakes up to find she actually is, she's not that upset. In fact, she finds she has a new lease of life: good-bye to street harassment! Farewell to worrying about what to wear! Good riddance to her oblivious boyfriend! Things only improve when her gorgeous colleague discovers her predicament. But inevitably, things get complicated. Could Izzy be in over her head?

A Richard and Judy Book Club bestseller, Debbie Howells' The Bones of You is a gripping psychological thriller about the dark side of suburban England. I have a gardener's inherent belief in the natural order of things. Soft-petalled flowers that go to seed. The resolute passage of the seasons...

Ten-year-old Jack Larkin has seen more than his fair share of shocking sights, growing up in the notorious Crown Saloon. Broken hearts and broken bones are just a fact of life in a Gin Palace, but for orphan Dolly, the Crown is her last hope. After the death of her mother, Dolly ran away from her sleazy stepfather, Arthur, only to find herself living on the streets. When Jack discovers her hiding in the back yard of the Crown, he persuades his mother, Nellie Larkin, to take Dolly in.

1765: Lady Isabella Gerard asks her maid to take her new golden gown and destroy it. Its shimmering beauty has been tainted by the actions of her husband the night before. Three months later: Lord Eustace Gerard stands beside the lake looking down at the woman in the golden gown. As the body slowly rolls over to reveal her face, it’s clear this is not his intended victim....

University is supposed to be the best time of your life. But Imo’s first week is quickly going from bad to worse. A stalker is watching her flat, following her every move, and Imo suspects that her new roommates are hiding dark secrets. When one of them suddenly disappears, the trauma of Imo’s recent past comes hurtling back to haunt her. And she begins to realise just how little she knows about the people she lives with....

Oh no! The zoo is going to close! And all of the animals will be sent back to where they came from. Lin the Bad Panda is happy about the idea of being returned to the panda sanctuary from where she came. She can't wait to be reunited with her beloved brother, Face-Like-A-Bag-Of-Potatoes. But Lin is definitely NOT happy about being separated from her new-found zoo family. Surely all the animals should be kept together?

In a tumbledown Cornish cottage, with an alcoholic father, Colenso Carne works with the Serpentine stone from the local mine. When she catches the eye of the new factory manager, her father insists she rejects her beloved Kitto in order to marry Fenton. Forced to flee the village when Fenton turns nasty, she is taken under the wing of wise woman Mara and travels to local fairs, learning to make bonbons to pay her way. But she never gives up hope of being reunited with Kitto....

Dani hasn't had an easy life. She's made some bad choices, and now she's paying the ultimate price: prison. With her young daughter, Bethany, growing up in foster care, Dani is determined to be free and reunited with her. There's only one problem: Dani can't stay out of trouble. Dani's new cellmate, Martha, is quiet and unassuming. There's something about her that doesn't add up. When Martha offers Dani one last chance at freedom, she doesn't hesitate.

Growing up on a canal boat has meant life for young Saffie Doyle has been hard. Her mother, Olivia, was cast out by her well-to-do family when she fell in love with Saffie's father, a lowly boatman named Reuben. But as the years have passed, Reuben has become a bitter and cruel drunk, forced to work for the local crook, Seth Black, to keep their family afloat. Saffie always dreamed of becoming a teacher, despite her father's insistence that she had no need to read and write.

Whitby, 1845. Amber Ainsley works for the wealthy Greenwoods. But when Amber falls pregnant with Mr Barnaby Greenwood's illegitimate child, he casts her out, leaving her homeless and without an income. Amber flees to Whitby where she stays with her uncle until her child is born. Upon discovering this, Barnaby offers to find a family to raise Amber's daughter, to save her going to the workhouse. Broken-hearted but wanting the best for her child, Amber hands her daughter over.

Brandon is a boaster - he says he is brilliant at lots of things. Then he is challenged to count up to 10 million. So Brandon starts - one, two, three...and before long, he is up to 1,000. Everyone around him is bewildered and annoyed - his friend Waris, his teachers and Miss Hexx, the head. But Brandon can’t stop counting. And then strange, impossible things start happening. The numbers are taking over everything....

Fierce Fragile Hearts is the stunning companion novel to Sara Barnard's YA bestseller Beautiful Broken Things. It is about leaving the past behind, the friends who form your future, and learning to find love, in all its forms. Two years after a downward spiral took her as low as you can possibly...

Nessie Carson will do anything to keep her family together after her mother is killed, her father abandons them and they are evicted from their cosy little Nuneaton home. She and her brothers and sisters take on jobs as live-in assistants to a local undertaker. She is soon entwined in fortunes of her employer, Andre, who is forced to live a lie, and the local doctor - someone she's attracted to but can never have.  

From minor matters (tidiness, homework, sleep) to big and important ones (relationships, mental ill health, drugs and alcohol), teenagers and their parents often struggle to talk to each other—and talking is key if your young person is facing new challenges as they leave childhood behind. A well-timed conversation, a listening ear, a non-judgmental and receptive attitude—all these can make an enormous and lasting impact on how safely and happily a teenager navigates this crucial stage of their development. Oh, if only it were that easy.

Nell is 26 and has never been to Paris. She's never even been on a romantic weekend away before. Travelling abroad isn't really her thing. But when Nell's boyfriend fails to show up, she has the chance to prove to everyone, including herself, that she can be independent and intrepid. Alone in Paris, Nell finds a version of herself she never knew existed. In this collection of 11 unmissable short stories, Jojo Moyes introduces us to a cast of strong, relatable women in the midst of their everyday lives.