Showing results by narrator "Daphne Kouma" in All Categories

A story of friendship, family, love and loss set against the grimy and glittering streets of '50s Soho. For fans of Kate Furnivall and Rachel Rhys. In a city of strangers, who can you trust? London, 1952. Dina Demetriou has travelled from Cyprus for a better life. She's certain that excitement, adventure and opportunity are out there, waiting - if only she knew where to look. Her passion for clothes and flair for sewing land her a job repairing the glittering costumes at the notorious Pelican Revue. It's here that she befriends the mysterious and beautiful Bebba.

"I would do anything for you to get well again, baby girl." It’s a promise. Even though I know it means asking her father for help, going back there, risking everything. Whatever the cost, there’s no hesitation in my mind. Because that’s what you do when you’re a mother. You put your child’s life before your own.

Italy, 1938: When Stella arrives in Florence, it’s love at first sight. She is wowed by the rolling hills dotted with olive trees, the buttermilk villas with shuttered windows and terracotta roofs that glow gloriously in the sunlight. Even the breeze holds the scent of freedom - freedom from England, where the shadow of her past haunted her.

When an asteroid miner comes to Station 35 looking to sell her cargo and get back to the solitude she craves, she gets swept up in a three-way standoff with gangs and crooked cops. Faced with either taking sides or cleaning out the Augean Stables, she breaks out the flamethrower.

Paris, 1941: Going against her mother’s orders, spirited Maggie devotes herself to the Resistance. Her life is a whirlwind of forged passports and secret midnight runs, helping Jews escape. Much to her high-society mother’s disapproval, she has fallen in love with Emil, a Jewish Resistance fighter who is wanted by the Nazis.

When I was young, my friend Sarah and I did a terrible thing - but it was only me who paid the price. Now, just when I thought no one from my old life would ever find me, a note slides under my door: "I haven’t forgotten. I haven’t forgiven. FOUND YOU."

East Prussia, 1944. When the war comes to 12-year-old Agnes’ village, she finds herself stuck between two terrifying armies. Every man she’s ever known has been forced to fight for the Nazis, and as the Red Army approaches every innocent woman and child is made to leave their home. Then tragedy strikes and she and her brother, Dieter, find themselves alone in vast, isolated woodland, and Agnes must protect Dieter at all costs....

Abridged and retold in modern English by respected children's authors, this collection of sixteen classic stories makes them accessible to listeners as young as six, while retaining all the charm, atmosphere, and sense of adventure that made the original tales world-famous.

Freya Scott is getting married. Her wedding to Matthew, her long-term boyfriend, is the first of eight in her calendar this year, and as someone who prides herself on being meticulously organized, Freya is intent on making it the perfect day to remember. But when Matthew calls things off hours before they walk down the aisle, Freya’s entire life plan goes up in smoke. Humiliated and heartbroken, the last thing she wants is to attend a summer of other peoples’ nuptials on her own.

Melodie Pelletier is drawn back to the idyllic island of Corfu, a place bursting with wonderful family memories. She visits the popular fishing village of Agios Stefanos, a place with an outpouring of warm welcomes and even warmer seas and sand. While travelling, Melodie meets a handsome man with an intriguing young daughter. But Melodie doesn't want a holiday fling; it's not in her nature. After deciding to avoid the intriguing pair, their paths collide once more. But there's something else going on, a secret that Melodie could never have expected to uncover.

Alice Samuel might be old and sharp-tongued, but she's no fool. Visiting her new neighbours in her Fenland village, she suspects Squire Throckmorton's household is not as God-fearing as it seems and finds the children troubled. What she cannot foresee is that all five daughters will succumb in turn to a terrifying affliction and accuse her of witchcraft—who else to blame than an ugly, black-capped woman with mysterious healing skills?

France, 1942: When Kasia is told she will be smuggled out of Poland to work as a radio operator with a French Resistance group, she plans to make the dangerous journey across the border alone. But when she meets a mute girl who she names Elodie, in a ghetto in Warsaw on the eve of her departure, she reminds Kasia so strongly of someone she loved–with one brown eye, and one green–that she knows she can’t leave her behind, no matter the risk....

Oliver Twist is the story of workhouse orphan Oliver, who must survive the harsh streets of Victorian London. Featuring famous villains such as the Artful Dodger and Fagin, this classic tale has been retold and adapted for ages 6 and up.

Chief Inspector Lolita Lobosco, returns to her hometown, Bari, to direct a male only team. In a world stubbornly ruled by men, she chooses to remain herself against all odds, and uses her skills, courage and devotion to fight prejudices. But on this Christmas Eve, things get terribly complicated with a case where the past crashes into the present and Lolita realises that, in addition to cracking the case, she will also have to defend herself.

A hot summer is approaching and not much will stir up the Levantine rhythm of the city of Bari. However, a disappearance of a local fisherman and the arrival of two characters to the police station leads Chief Inspector Lolita Lobosco deep into a far reaching and darkly disturbing criminal network.

Clinical scientist Laila has no time to date. Cooped up in a hospital lab all day, she's busy working towards her five-year plan. But when her carefully structured world starts to crumble, her friends stage an intervention – a love intervention. Their plan: remind Laila there’s more to life than work and reconnect her with the three men who stole her heart while she was studying in the States ten years ago – Austin, Edoardo and Mateo. From California to Puerto Rico and Costa Rica, Laila reunites with her past and reignites passions she thought were long dormant.

They call him the Jackdaw. On each body, he leaves a chilling signature: five scratches. And each time he kills, he takes a trophy, an eerie collection that grows with every strike. No one knows what he looks like, where he'll strike next, or why. He could be your neighbour, your boss… your husband. There’s only a paralysing fear that, whoever he is, he's out there: watching, waiting.

Cognitive psychology is at the heart of the human experience and helps explain why we perceive the world as we do. In this book, Shona Saul draws on the latest scientific research to present this hugely important subject in a new and exciting manner and brings the subject to life for the general listener.

I didn’t plan to fall pregnant, but when I found out, I was overjoyed. Even though I’d be going it alone, I swore I’d give my baby everything they needed. But I didn’t know who the man I met on that sweltering summer night, the father of my child, really was. I decided to keep his secret to protect the innocent…but then my beautiful baby was born with a rare illness, desperately needing a transplant.

Piano teacher Marina Meyer is delighted when her mother offers to help buy her own place in London, even though it means returning to Spain to sell the family holiday home. Cala Turquesa may be beautiful, but it also holds painful memories of Marina's father, who tragically died there in a boating accident. When Marina befriends turtle-saving vet Mati, it's hard to believe she could have stayed away so long. And then there's handsome property developer Agustín, who has set his sights on more than just the real estate.