Showing results by narrator "Charlotte Strevens" in All Categories

It is 1963, and in her mansion in the foothills of the Pyrenees, Joana idles her days away, banished by her husband and alienated from her family. Meanwhile, in Barcelona, her daughter, Carla, is in trouble. Hating all her parents stand for, Carla has embraced the student movement against the Franco regime, but her father has been watching her, and her beloved fiancé is arrested. Terrified and powerless, pregnant Carla runs to her grandmother Maria, but they know their movements are still being followed. Why did her daughter, Joana, marry into the Franco regime and abandon her family? Maria has never understood.

Sophia James pens historical romances that crackle with passion and intrigue. The third Wellingham brothers novel, One Illicit Night tells the tale of Lord Cristo Wellingham, whose world is forever altered after a salacious evening with the normally chaste Lady Eleanor Bracewell-Lowen. Cristo longs for a return engagement, even as Eleanor swears off such reckless behavior to preserve her image in London’s high society. Yet she’s all too aware that a powerful man such as Cristo could ruin her reputation if she doesn’t yield to his desires.

Cousin to Elizabeth I - and possibly Henry VIII's illegitimate granddaughter - Lettice Knollys had a life of dizzying highs and pitiful lows. Entangled in a love triangle with Robert Dudley and Elizabeth I, banished from court, plagued by scandals, embroiled in treason, Lettice would lose a husband and son to the executioner's ax. In the first ever biography of this remarkable woman, Nicola Tallis takes us through her dramatic life and the grand sweep of the Tudor Age and the events that define it.

A woman is watching a report on television of the death of a mother and daughter; apparently both had died at the mother's hand. Also on the screen is the surviving member of the family, a widower described as Mark Bretherick. Watching with her husband, the woman, Sally, has to bite back the words that spring to her lips: this man is not Mark Bretherick! How does she know?

Living in Snowdonia was always retired detective Frank Marshal’s dream. Until a call for help turned it into his worst nightmare. Retired detective Frank Marshal lives in a remote part of Snowdonia with his wife Rachel who is suffering from dementia. Working as a park ranger, Frank gets a...

Actress Charlotte has it all: a starring role in a West End show, a glittering social life and an equally high-flying boyfriend. But when her perfect existence abruptly falls apart, she retreats to her hometown on the North Yorkshire coast, finding a summer job in the local bookshop. Greg, the grumpy, old-fashioned manager of Seaswept Books, is alarmed by Charlotte's attempts to revitalise the tired-looking bookshop. But when she discovers his secret passion for amateur dramatics, an unlikely friendship blossoms.

Trapped in a burning cabin on a freezing, snow-covered mountain, Selma Falck has no idea where she is or how she got there. She barely makes it out in time as the flames engulf the cabin. With no signs of human habitation nearby, the temperature rapidly dropping and a blizzard approaching, how will she survive? As Selma fights the cold, the hunger and her own wounds, she eventually forms a frightening picture of the past six months. Not only does she have to find a way to stay alive, she needs to make it back to civilization.

What did it feel like to be a woman living in Paris during the years 1939 to 1949? These were years of fear, power, aggression, courage, deprivation and secrets until, finally, there was renewal and retribution. Even at the darkest moments, dogs and cats might be abandoned howling on the street, the swastika flew from the Eiffel Tower and danger lurked on every corner, but glamour was ever present.

Sentenced to death for a simple confidence trick, Mary Jebb escapes the gallows...but her reprieve is harsh: seven years in the unforgiving penal colony of Botany Bay. Yet Mary is determined not to be forgotten, sending two pennies, engraved with a promise, to the two men who sealed her fate.

On a moonlit night in 1903, a mysterious young woman flees alone across the Canadian wilderness. Mary Bouton is 19 years old, half mad and widowed - by her own hand. Tearing through the forest, she is desperate, her nerves burning, and she is certain of only one thing - that two red-headed brothers, rifles across their backs, lurch close behind her. She has murdered their brother and their cold lust for vengeance is unswerving.

Autumn, 1839. As the London nights darken, rumours spread about the devil's chariot, which preys on young women walking alone at night. Novice private investigator Liberty Lane has no time for such horror stories, so when a poetic young man begs her to find his missing fiancee, she accepts, suspecting there is a more prosaic explanation. Meanwhile, she is engaged to help prevent a royal scandal involving Prince Albert's worldlier brother, Prince Ernest.

At the age of 21, Edith Chaplin married one of the most eligible bachelors of the day, the eldest son of the sixth Marquess of Londonderry. Her husband served in the Ulster cabinet and was Air Minister in the National Government of 1934-5. Edith founded the Women's Legion during the First World War and was also an early campaigner for women's suffrage. She created the renowned Mount Stewart Gardens in County Down that are now owned by the National Trust.

A best-selling novelist since 1921, Georgette Heyer is known across the world for her historical romances set in Regency England. This is the ultimate, definitive guide to Georgette Heyer's novels, her heroines, her villains and dashing heroes, the shops, clubs and towns they frequented, the parties and seasons they celebrated, how they ate, drank and dressed, socialised, shopped and drove. An utterly delightful and fun read, compelling in its historical detail, this is a must-hear for any Georgette Heyer fan.

Minty is the kind of girl who notices things. Pockets of cold air on a stairway. Cries on the wind. Ghosts. On night-time jaunts from the house where she's staying while her mother recovers from an accident, Minty stumbles upon a moondial that takes her back in time. She finds Tom, a sickly kitchen boy, and Sarah, a girl with a birthmark who is only allowed out at night because her family think she has the mark of the devil.

At the time of his death Eric Hobsbawm was the most famous historian in the world. He not only wrote history was also witness to it, from the Communist uprising in Europe to revolution in Cuba where he was Che Guevara's interpreter. He was instrumental in the birth of New Labour and was also a jazz journalist for The New Statesman.

Amy Carter is determined to make Bellefontaine, her farmhouse hotel in the French countryside, a success. Of course, there’s the time and money she’s put in to making it beautiful, but she also has something to prove - particularly to people like Fabien Coste. Fabien is the owner of the nearby château, and he might just be the most arrogant, patronising man Amy has ever met...unfortunately, he’s also the most handsome. But as rumours circulate in the local community, Amy quickly sees the less idyllic side of life at Bellefontaine.

The moving true story of an ordinary Welsh woman who dreamed of breeding a race horse, and Dream Alliance, who defied the odds to become a champion and brought a community together. Janet Vokes was running the bar in her local working men’s club in the small Welsh mining community of Cefn...

Frank isn't much looking forward to the school visit to a local stately home. Still, not even in his worst nightmares did he expect anything like what actually happens! When "Not-Sheba", the servant girl from the picture, just walks out of her frame and demands Frank's help to find out her true identity, Frank realises that there is no escape. Charlie the celebrity-mad mummy doesn't help much either and nor do the Indian statues.

Rosie Bunting has spent her life caring for others, often at the expense of her own hopes and dreams. But when she overhears somebody describing her as ‘boring’, she decides it’s time for a change. Little does she realise that the outdoor pursuits weekend brochure handed to her at the local Art Café will kick start a summer that will see her abseiling down a Welsh cliff face in ‘eye watering’ leggings, rediscovering her artistic side and unexpectedly inheriting an old fire engine.

Rosalie Heart is a well-known face in Irlwick - well, if you drive a bright pink taxi and your signature style is a pink anorak, you’re going to draw a bit of attention! But Rosalie’s company, Love Taxis, is more than just a gimmick - for many people in the remote Scottish village, it’s a lifeline. Which is something that Marc Petersen will never understand. Marc’s ruthless approach to business doesn’t extend to pink taxi companies running at a loss. On the face of it Marc and Rosalie should loathe each other, but what they didn’t count on was somebody playing cupid....