Showing results by narrator "Barbara Barnes" in All Categories

Father of cyberpunk William Gibson’s original script for Alien III, written in 1987 as a sequel to Aliens, never made it to our screens, although it went on to achieve cult status among fans as the third instalment that might have been after being leaked online. This terrifying, cinematic multicast dramatisation - directed by the multi-award-winning Dirk Maggs - is the chance to experience William Gibson’s untold story and its terrifying, claustrophobic and dark encounters between humans and aliens, as a completely immersive audio experience.

Thornton Wilder is one of America's most important literary figures. He won the Pulitzer Prize three times - for his novel The Bridge of San Luis Rey and the plays Our Town and The Skin of Our Teeth - and is the only person to be awarded the Pulitzer for both fiction and drama. Included here are four of his key works, set in different times and places, but sharing the same fundamental motifs - the universality of human experience and our search for life's meaning.

A Place Like Home is a collection of Rosamunde Pilcher’s most enduring short stories, never before published in audiobook form. The collection contains 15 stories, which range from "The Holiday", in which a wife surprises her husband of 25 years with a holiday full of Mediterranean sunshine, red rocks, and blue seas in an effort to rekindle the romance they had before children; "The Eye of Love", which takes the listener to the bright spring sunshine and sparkling waves of a Northumbrian village where old flames meet again; and more.

Kay and Thea are half-sisters, separated in age by almost twenty years, but deeply attached. When their stern father dies, Thea returns to Nova Scotia for her long-promised marriage to the captain of the Morning Light. But she cannot abandon her orphaned young sister, so Kay too embarks on a life-changing voyage to the other side of the world.

When Anke Evertz is suddenly engulfed in flames in front of her fireplace, she thinks she's going to die. She knows that the worst is about to happen and there's nothing she can do to stop it. But instead of panicking, a deep serenity washes over her. What happens next is astounding. Nine Days of Eternity is an incredible account of an almost unimaginable adventure between life and death, and a wake-up call for everyone who wants to live a fulfilled and connected life.

Learn how to communicate with compassion and choose language that reflects your personal values and aims with this essential guide to Nonviolent Communication (NVC). Judith Hanson Lasater and Ike Lasater, longtime students of yoga and Buddhism, had studied the concepts of satya (truth) and the Buddhist principle of right speech for years, but it was not until they began practicing Marshall Rosenberg’s techniques of NVC that the concept of speech as a spiritual practice became real for them.

In this collection of never-before-published teachings by Charlotte Joko Beck, one of the most influential Western-born Zen teachers, she explores our “core beliefs” - the hidden, negative convictions we hold about ourselves that direct our thoughts and behavior and prevent us from experiencing life as it is. Wryly humorous and relatable, Beck uses powerfully clear language to show how our lives present us with daily opportunities to move from thinking to experiencing, from compulsivity to confidence, and from anguish to peace.

A brand new BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation of a classic Raymond Chandler mystery featuring private eye, Philip Marlowe. Los Angeles PI Philip Marlowe is working for the Sternwood family. Old man Sternwood, crippled and wheelchair-bound, is being given the squeeze by a blackmailer and he wants Marlowe to make the problem go away.

Berlin, 1936: From her beautiful new home Liesel Scholz barely notices the changes to the city around her. Her life is one of privilege and safety thanks to her father’s job working for the new government. But soon a chance encounter with Rosa, the daughter of their Jewish housekeeper, leaves Liesel in no doubt that something isn’t right. Frankfurt, 1946: An idealistic American captain, Sam Houghton, arrives in Germany to interrogate prominent Nazis on trial and to help rebuild a battered country. He hires an enigmatic and damaged woman named Anna as his interpreter.

Thirty-eight-year-old Jeremy Pauling has never left home. He lives on the top floor of a Baltimore row house where he creates collages of little people snipped from wrapping paper. His elderly mother putters in the rooms below, until her death. And it is then that Jeremy is forced to take in Mary Tell and her child as boarders. Mary is unaware of how much courage it takes Jeremy to look her in the eye. For Jeremy, like one of his paper creations, is fragile and easily torn - especially when he's falling in love.

My brother was 13 the first time he tried to kill me. These days, Della is a loving wife, a dedicated teacher, a woman trying to do her best. She has put her past far behind her. But she hasn’t forgotten the lessons she learned. It’s just a regular morning when Della welcomes Zoey to her English class. She treats her like any other new student: assigns her a desk, hands out the work. But then she meets Zoey’s cold, calculating eyes and freezes as terrifying memories threaten to overwhelm her.

Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert are expecting a child...but the skinny, red-haired girl that turns up is not quite what they had in mind. When orphan Anne Shirley first arrives at Green Gables she sets the quiet island community of Nova Scotia talking of little else.

In the summer heat at the Craven County Fair in rural Pennsylvania, Dr. Leah Wright is shocked to find a pregnant woman hiding from view and in labor. Leah manages to deliver the baby safely, but the woman won’t reveal her name. She's terrified, running from someone, and days later both she and her newborn son go missing....

It’s a normal afternoon when I walk out the patio doors of our kitchen to check on Mia, my stepdaughter, who is swimming in our backyard pool. But she’s gone. My heart stops when I see the back gate is open, her pink, fluffy towel lying folded on a chair. I was just feet away. Why didn’t I hear her scream? Who took our little girl?

Before: Olivia knows she is lucky. She has a loving husband, Frank, an adorable son, Jake, and a beautiful new home. It couldn’t be more different from her childhood on the outskirts of Whitaker, dirt poor and dreaming of getting out. But at the end of long days with no one to talk to, always feeling like she’s not quite good enough, she starts to wonder if there’s a better life waiting.... After: Everyone in Whitaker knows who Olivia is. She’s the woman who left her family for no-good Dane Miller - and the one who most likely shot him.

It’s been two years since Ellie and her family left their lives in America behind and moved to a small Welsh village to run her husband’s family inn. Having fought to save it from disrepair, Ellie is shocked when her sister-in-law, Sarah, breaks the news that the inn is facing financial trouble and might have to close after Christmas, a thought that breaks all their hearts.

In the fifth book in the series, Anne's own true love, Gilbert Blythe, is finally a doctor, and, in the sunshine of the old orchard among their dearest friends, they are about to speak their vows. Soon, the happy couple will be bound for a new life together in their own dream house on the misty purple shores of Four Winds Harbor. But a new life means fresh problems to solve - and fresh surprises. As Anne and Gilbert begin to build that new life, some of those problems and surprises come in the form of their new neighbors.

The Little Shadows revolves around three sisters in the world of vaudeville before and during the First World War. We follow the lives of all three in turn: Aurora, the eldest and most beautiful, who is 16 when the book opens; thoughtful Clover, a year younger; and the youngest sister, joyous headstrong sprite Bella, who is 13. The girls, overseen by their fond but barely coping Mama, are forced to make their living as a singing act after the untimely death of their father. They begin with little besides youth and hope, but slowly and steadily evolve into true artists.

When Ellie and her family move to a tiny village in rural Wales, it’s meant to be a new beginning for all of them. They have decided to take over her husband’s family inn, leaving behind their old life and troubles in America.

One month since she lost her husband, Dr Leah Wright knows it’s time to return to her family home. Though the crime scene tape and blood stains are gone, she will never feel safe with her daughter there again. Receiving a call from Detective Luka Jericho to assist with a police investigation is a welcome distraction, until she sees the scene: a wife dead, another family ripped apart. As Leah is the new head of the Crisis Intervention Center, Luka knows she can help him speak to the victim’s traumatized husband, who he suspects might have had something to do with his wife’s death.