Showing results by narrator "Antonia Beamish" in All Categories

Claire Wilcox has been a curator of fashion at the Victoria and Albert Museum for most of her working life. In Patch Work, she steps into the archive of memory, deftly stitching together her dedicated study of fashion with the story of her own life lived in and through clothes. From her mother's black wedding suit to the swirling patterns of her own silk kimono, her memoir unfolds in spare, luminous prose the spellbinding power of the things we wear.

The police officer's voice is steady as he tells me the news. Your husband is in hospital. My heart pounds. I think about my children, safely tucked up in bed. What will happen to us if he loses his life? And more importantly do the police know where I really was tonight? Everybody thinks Michael and I are the perfect couple. But everybody is wrong. Because my dear, lovely husband was at the heart of a scandal at the school where he teaches. He was cleared of any wrongdoing. At first I believed him. Now, I'm sure he's been hiding something terrible.

Charlie Wolfe jumps at the chance to help his uncle renovate a tumbledown cottage overlooking Nomansland Common. Number One Constable’s Cottages was once the home of the man charged with ridding the common of the highwaymen who terrorised travellers. But it’s the story of The Wicked Lady, the notorious female highway robber, that captures Charlie’s imagination, and some long winters’ nights he’s sure he can the hoofbeats of her horse echoing across time.

Home alone on a Friday night, Katherine is anticipating a peaceful evening. But that all changes when she receives a shocking note through her letterbox. The note tells her that she only has one hour left to live, but with no other information, Katherine has no idea who just threatened her or why. But things quickly go from bad to worse when she suspects her tormentor is already in her home and suddenly, her fight for survival begins.

Abigail Jex never expected to see any of the Radleys again. They were extraordinary, captivating creatures transplanted from a bohemian corner of North London to outer suburbia, and the young Abigail found herself drawn into their magic circle: the eccentric Frances, her new best friend; Frances' mother, the liberated, headstrong Lexi; and of course the brilliant, beautiful Rad. Abigail thought she'd banished the ghost of her life with them and the catastrophe that ended it, but 13 years later a chance encounter forces her to acknowledge that the spell is far from broken.

So when mum of two Beth moves out of her beloved marital home and into an unloved and unkempt cottage, she can’t help but feel demoralised. Faced with months of DIY and dust, her children Jacob and Olivia aren’t impressed either. But when Beth finds a box of letters while she’s clearing out the children’s room, things start to look up.

'Did you hear Amy has heartbreak?! What bad luck to catch it right at the end of winter.' When Ziella Bryars was in the midst of heartbreak, a conversation with her neuroscientist best friend changed everything. Frustrated by unhelpful advice from magazines and rom-coms, Ziella began diving deep into the latest scientific research to help her understand the pain of heartbreak and find a route to recovery. This warm and witty self-help book outlines the impact a relationship break-up has on our brains and bodies, and explores how a science-based approach can help us heal.

Elsa is used to hiding the most important parts of herself—her feelings for Rye, her distaste for a world ruled by men, and, most crucially, her gift of songlight. She buries that secret deep inside. In Brightland, those with songlight are called Unhumans and are abhorred. Rye is the only other person Elsa has known with songlight, and their shared bond has brought them together.

Marina and Hugh were once madly in love. But after the loss of their beautiful little daughter, grief has created a distance between them that feels impossible to bridge. Marina knows leaving Italy is the only way they will be able to move on, but Thorncliffe Hall, Hugh's family home in England, is so grey and unwelcoming.

It's 1987. One morning, 15-year-old Tania Mills kisses her mother, walks out of her front door and disappears. In 2014, when a new lead comes in for Tania's case, DS Sarah Collins is asked to investigate. PC Lizzie Griffiths, the subject of Collins' last investigation, is back on the job and working at a domestic violence unit. When a quirk of fate brings Lizzie and Collins back into contact, each must try to reconcile the claims of the past with the demands of the present.

Emmy and her little sister Dani are sleeping in their bedroom upstairs. Their parents are in the kitchen. A knife is jammed to their mother’s throat. Their father has a stack of kitchen plates balanced on his back. The intruder rasps, ‘Don’t be breathing too hard now. I reckon smashing plates is the sort of noise that’ll wake a child. Have them coming down to see what’s going on. There can’t be witnesses ...’ What Detective Maddie Ives will find in that nice family kitchen will horrify even this most hardened cop. And she knows the victim ...

Laura is watching the world go by without her. Unable to leave her house since suffering a trauma, Laura is stuck gazing out of her window at Willow Crescent, relying on husband Jim and best friend Debbie for help. Then one day, Jim doesn’t come home. A day becomes two, days become a week, and still no sign of Jim. And with the police half-hearted in their efforts to look for him, Laura is forced into a decision. She’s going to have to face the world outside and find her husband herself. But what Laura hasn’t realised is that Willow Crescent is a community, eager to help.

The menopause is a completely natural, normal life event, but a lack of information exists around how best to manage it. Using the latest evidence and her own experience, GP and menopause specialist Dr Louise Newson has created a one-stop guide to give you the facts, bust the myths and help make choices on how to have your best possible menopause.

Meet Detective Maddie Ives in this absolutely gripping, race-against-time series opener from best-selling author Charlie Gallagher. A young woman’s body is left in a metal container in a remote location. The killer is careful to position her under a camera that links to his smartphone. He likes to look back at his work. He is watching her. But she isn’t dead. So he will return to finish the job. He can barely contain his excitement at the thought of getting to do it all over again. But he must be careful. He cannot rush. Rushing makes you careless....

As a young civil servant, Caroline Slocock became the first ever female private secretary to any British Prime Minister and was at Margaret Thatcher's side for the final 18 months of her premiership. A left-wing feminist, Slocock was no natural ally, and yet she became fascinated by the woman behind the Iron Lady façade and by how she dealt with a world dominated by men. As events inexorably led to Margaret Thatcher's downfall, Slocock observed the vulnerabilities and contradictions of the woman considered by many to be the ultimate anti-feminist.

Heed now three tales of the Champions of the Eternal War.... 'The Calculus of Battle' by David Guymer. As the defenders of Varasine battle a tyranid invasion, Warleader Kardan Stronos and the Iron Hands come to their aid, measuring the Chapter's cold logic and strategy against the cost in human lives. 'The Embrace of Pain' by Ian St Martin. When blademaster Lucius the Eternal is challenged by a champion of the Death Guard, he accepts without hesitation...but could a daemonhost of Nurgle, or the voices inside his own head, be the undoing of his Slaaneshi curse?

A long-serving beat cop in the Met and a teenage girl fall to their deaths from a tower block in London's East End. Left alive on the roof are a five-year-old boy and rookie police officer Lizzie Griffiths. Within hours Lizzie has disappeared, and DPS Officer Sarah Collins sets out to uncover the truth around the grisly deaths in an investigation that takes her into the dark heart of policing in London.

Daisy-Mae is now sure she’s awake. It’s not the cutting breeze or the musty smell that has her convinced, it’s the pain. You can’t dream pain. She is being held down, something tight over her arms, her chest too. She turns her head for a different view: a whitewashed wall, faded by time, scuffed to add to the impression of a building deserted in a hurry. But there is something in the room that looks fresh: graffiti. The letters spell out three words that are enough to have her retching again: DON’T WAKE UP. The next day Daisy-Mae’s friend also disappears.

Grace Hughes: kicked to the bathroom floor by her partner, her back and side aching from where he slammed the door on her frail body, fighting to regain her breath, she can no longer ignore a simple truth: she must leave or he will kill her. Grace is a prisoner in her own home but she has a plan to get free. Detective Sergeant Maddie Ives is going to help her. Maddie now works with a team specialising in getting abused women to safety. She tells Grace to keep a diary, to write everything down so it forms part of the compelling evidence needed to send her abuser to prison.

Bella and Kate. Kate and Bella. From childhood they were bosom friends, Bella sensible and cautious, Kate gregarious and just a little dangerous. Yet in spite of their intimacy, their trust is fragile. Men came into their lives and things changed: a black seed was set in the heart of their relationship. Over decades, acts of both cruelty and love ferment until one shocking event tests them more than ever. Neither will escape unscathed.