Showing results by narrator "Arianwen Parkes-Lockwood" in All Categories

At the end of summer 2017, Anna Funder found herself at a moment of peak overload. Family obligations and household responsibilities were crushing her soul and taking her away from her writing deadlines. She needed help, and George Orwell came to her rescue. "I’ve always loved Orwell," Funder writes, "his self-deprecating humor, his laser vision about how power works, and who it works on." So after rereading and savoring books Orwell had written, she devoured six major biographies tracing his life and work. But then she read about his forgotten wife, and it was a revelation.

When childhood sweethearts Justine (Sagittarius and serious skeptic) and Nick (Aquarius and true believer) bump into each other as adults, a life-changing love affair seems inevitable. To Justine, anyway. Especially when she learns Nick is an astrological devotee, whose decisions are guided by the stars, and more specifically, by the horoscopes in his favorite magazine. The same magazine Justine happens to write for. As Nick continues to not fall headlong in love with her, Justine decides to take Nick’s horoscope, and Fate itself, into her own hands.

The incredible account of Sister Betty Jeffrey OAM and the Australian war nurses who survived the bombing of evacuation ship SS Vyner Brooke in February 1942, and subsequently spent three years in Japanese prison camps in Sumatra. During those perilous years surviving in squalid conditions, Sister Jeffrey kept a secret diary of day-to-day events which, after the war, was turned into a hugely successful book and radio serial: White Coolies. Sisters in Captivity builds on those diaries.

1951. Esther Durrant, a young mother, is committed to an isolated mental asylum by her husband. Run by a pioneering psychiatrist, the hospital is at first Esther's prison but soon surprisingly becomes her refuge. 2018. Free-spirited marine scientist Rachel Parker embarks on a research posting in the Isles of Scilly, off the Cornish coast. When a violent storm forces her to take shelter on a far-flung island, she discovers a collection of hidden love letters.

Calabria, Italy, 1936. In a remote farming village nestled in the mountains that descend into the sparkling Ionian Sea, young and spirited Giulia Tallariti longs for something more. While she loves her home and her lively family, she would much rather follow in her nonna’s footsteps and pursue her dream of becoming a healer. But as Mussolini’s focus shifts to the war in Europe, civil unrest looms. Whispers of war are at every corner and her beloved village, once safe from the fascist agenda of the North, is now in very real danger.

Stella Miles Franklin’s autobiographical novel My Brilliant Career launched one of the most famous names in Australian letters. Funny, bold, often biting about its characters, the novel and its young author had a lot in common. Miles went on to live a large, fiercely independent and bohemian life of travel, art and freedom. Not so her beloved sister Linda. Quiet, contained, conventional, Linda was an inversion of Stella. A family peacemaker who married the man Stella would not, bore a son and died of pneumonia at 25. In this reflective, witty and revealing novel, Amy Brown rescues Linda.

On Shirley Hazzard is a vibrant and personal tribute in which the Miles Franklin Award-winning novelist Michelle de Kretser offers a masterclass in writing and reading. She celebrates the precision and musicality of Hazzard’s prose and illuminates the humour and humanity in her work. This exhilarating book is both a brilliant introduction to Hazzard and a gift for her longtime readers. On Shirley Hazzard reveals Michelle de Kretser’s lively intelligence at work and her distinctive wit.

How the City of Lights gave her lessons in life and love: an Australian beauty journalist shares her obsession with Paris - a city which has been her guide through a lifelong journey of self-discovery. Katrina Lawrence first fell in love with Paris at the age of five, and since then her roads have continually led her back to this most beautiful city, the City of Lights. Telling us the story of why Paris continually fascinates her, Katrina also gives us a mesmerising journey around Paris' most spectacular sights.

Concert pianist Diana is finally ready to marry her longtime fiance, Arie; she’s even composing a beautiful love song for him and finishes it while on tour. Before she can play it for him, though, tragedy strikes - and Diana is lost to Arie forever. But her song might not be.

Berlin, 1943. As the Allied forces edge closer, the Third Reich tightens its grip on its people. For 18-year-old Susanna Göttmann, this means her adopted family including the man she loves, Leo, are at risk. Desperate to protect her loved ones any way she can, Susie accepts the help of an influential Nazi officer. But it comes at a terrible cost - she must abandon any hope of a future with Leo and enter the frightening world of the Nazi elite.

After enduring the horror and chaos of postwar Germany, Lotte Drescher and her family arrive in Australia full of hope for a new life. It’s a land of opportunity, where Lotte and husband Erich hope to give their children the future they have always dreamed of. After years of struggling to find their feet as ‘New Australians’, Erich turns his skill as a wood carver into a successful business, and Lotte makes a career out of her lifelong passion, photography.

1941, Estonia. As Stalin’s brutal Red Army crushes everything in its path, Katarina battles to protect her grandmother’s precious legacy - the weaving of gossamer lace shawls stitched with intricate patterns that tell the stories passed down through generations. Meanwhile Lydia is suffocating in her prison of privilege in Moscow. Yearning for freedom and to discover her beloved mother’s Baltic heritage, she escapes to Estonia. Soon these two young women find themselves in a fight for life, liberty and love.

You don’t become a notorious British comedian without rubbing a few people the wrong way. Ben Martindale has decamped to Australia until the media frenzy surrounding his latest scandal dies down.

When he meets Amy, a perky blonde barber who dresses like a 1950s pin-up, he knows he’s hit gold in terms of material for his weekly London column. Little does it occur to him that Amy might be just a little bit upset when she finds out what he’s been writing....

Germany, 1943. The choices she makes will change her life forever. Growing up in Hitler's Germany, Charlotte von Klein has big dreams for the future. Her mind is full of plans for a sumptuous wedding to her childhood sweetheart, Heinrich, while working for the Luftwaffe, proudly giving her all for the Fatherland. But in 1943, the tide of the war is turning against Germany, and Lotte's life of privilege and comfort begins to collapse around her.

Michele Connolly loves food. She loves burgers and pizza, waffles and chocolate. She likes to dine out, and if there are two desserts that sound great, she will order both. She regularly has wine and cheese for dinner. She is not someone who would willingly dine on salad. She doesn't count calories or exclude food groups or go on fad diets. She is not Paleo. She doesn't exercise four hours a day or go to bootcamps. She is not gifted with great genes or extra willpower. So how does she eat this way and still stay thin?

Gwen Hill adores Green Valley Avenue. So when the house next door is sold, Gwen wonders how the new family will settle into this cosy community. More than a new home, it's a clean slate for Frankie, who has moved her brood in a bid to save her marriage. To maintain privacy and corral her children, Frankie proposes a fence between the properties, destroying Gwen's picture-perfect front yard. To Gwen, this is an act of war.

Bennelong and Phillip were leaders of their two sides in the first encounters between Britain and Indigenous Australians, Phillip the colony’s first governor, and Bennelong the Yiyura leader. The pair have come to represent the conflict that flared and has never settled. Fullagar’s account is also the first full biography of Bennelong of any kind and it challenges many misconceptions, among them that he became alienated from his people and that Phillip was a paragon of Enlightenment benevolence.

There is much that heavily pregnant Grace still doesn't know about her new husband King's background. So, when word comes that King's father is dying, Grace is eager to accompany him to his childhood home, Blackwater, located in a remote part of Tasmania. Things go badly from the start. The house is in terrible repair, King's dying father yells at Grace to leave and King's twin sister, Ruth, seems disturbed by Grace's presence. After his father's death, King convinces Grace they must stay and help Ruth settle the estate, but as time stretches on he grows strange and distant.

When Jess accepts an offer to caretake a luxury property in the Australian outback, the isolated, all-inclusive solo trip is just what she needs. But Jess isn't as alone as she thinks. As bushfires rage in the distance, strangers start showing up to seek refuge. And as the fires start closing in, tensions in the group begin to rise. Then, the phones stop working. All exits are cut off. There's no way out. Quickly, Jess's guests begin to panic. And when the first person goes missing, she realises that someone in the house isn't who they say they are.