Showing results by narrator "Charlie Sanderson" in All Categories

From the Waterstones Book Prize shortlisted author of A Boy Called Hope and The Boy Who Sailed the Ocean in an Armchair. Mabel has a suitcase full of worries - it turned up just after her dad disappeared and before her mum started dating Gavin. She worries about big things and little things and shoves them into her suitcase until it’s so full it might explode....  

1850. When Opal Sharp finds herself and her younger siblings suddenly orphaned and destitute, she thinks things can get no worse. But soon three of them - including Opal - are struck down with the illness that took their father from them, and her brother Charlie is forced to make an impossible decision. Unable to afford a doctor, he knows the younger children will not survive. So, unbeknownst to Opal, Charlie takes their younger siblings to the workhouse, where he knows they will at least be fed and have a roof over their heads. Opal is heartbroken and struggles to forgive him.

Bea's favourite customer, Julie, hasn't been seen for weeks. Her abusive husband, Dave, claims she's left him, but Bea can't shake the feeling something worse has happened. When a body is found, it seems to confirm her fears - until it comes out that the corpse is 15 years old. Where is Julie? Who is the dead girl? And what was her connection to Bea's late father? Ant and Bea are back with their most personal case yet.

Camberwell, 1910. Just when things are going right for aspiring artist Daisy, a dramatic change of family fortune means she must leave the job she loves at theatrical scenery company and head to Devon. Only the silver bangle she wears on her wrist brings comfort, reminding her of Harry, who once promised her his heart. In Devon, life is very different. Lodging with her uncle, she finds herself thrust into life at his busy tavern, scrubbing and washing. And when he catches her sketching, her uncle is furious and forbids her to draw.

Georgie and Jem aren't just best friends anymore; now Georgie's mum and Jem's dad are together, they're going to be sisters! School is a bit more challenging. Miss Eagle wants the whole class to start a self-esteem project. They'll write their biggest secrets on pieces of paper and then float them up into the sky on balloons, and their worries will disappear. Then disaster! The ball of secrets disappears instead, and suddenly no one's secrets are safe.

It's 1884, and 14-year-old Sunday Small has been in the Nuneaton workhouse since she was abandoned at birth. The regime is cruel, and if it were not for her dear little friend Daisy, Sunday's life would barely be worth living. And now she's attracted the unwelcome attention of the seedy workhouse master, who will stop at nothing to get her alone. It's time for Sunday to strike out alone in the world, but the brutal world of the workhouse will not let her go without a fight....

One unforgettable night in 1785, in a theatre in Drury Lane, the heady alchemy of love and murder suddenly fuses the lives of Mimosina Dolcezza, a Venetian actress, and Valentine Greatrakes, prince of London's medical underworld. The Remedy is a ravishing love story that seamlessly weaves fiction with historical fact in rich and detailed prose.

Warwickshire, 1840s: boys are destined for the pit and girls for the mill. Despite this, Maryann is happy there - until her mother dies. Her family collapses, leaving Maryann exhausted, and Toby, the boy she is set on marrying, insists they wait. Then Maryann is offered a position as nanny to the daughter of the mill owner, Wesley Marshall, who Maryann grows unexpectedly close to. But their relationship doesn’t go unnoticed, threatening to unleash a world of problems on them all....

Penny is hell-bent on revenge on the man who caused her to flee France as a fourteen-year-old with little more than the clothes on her back. She lost everything, her friends, her home and her family. Stifled by the restrictions of her father's family, she aches to contribute more to the war effort. A brush with death puts her face all over the newspapers and almost breaks her heart in the process.

As I stare at the girl, I feel my heart pound inside my chest. There she is, my daughter, right in front of me after all this time. I have to reach her, to hold her, before I lose her all over again. I have experienced what no mother should: I have lost my child. Many years ago, after my divorce, my daughter moved in with her father, and then went missing. For years, I searched everywhere for my darling girl, but she had vanished without a trace. But even on my darkest days, when my heart felt truly broken, I kept a hope alive inside—a hope that my little girl would find her way back to me.

These are the chronicles of the Old and New Testament - from Genesis to the Crucifixion - recounted exclusively through the eyes of a teen in a way that is fresh and highly original.

Kate Hardy really doesn't like change. She's lived in the gorgeous coastal town of Seabury all her life—well, apart from that three-month blip in London—but she doesn't like to think about that. Now she's back where she belongs—running her tiny seafront cafe, The Sardine, with her rescue dog Stanley at her side, and the occasional romantic visit from a certain gorgeous French fisherman. But when the local gossip-vine starts buzzing with the news that New York Froth is coming to town, it's not just the super-snazzy coffee chain that's got Kate on the hop....

Birdie dreams of becoming a professional artist, but the constraints of society demand she marries well. In order to fulfil her dreams, she makes a deal with her parents: to let her spend a year at the St. Agnes School of Art in Cornwall, after which she will return home and marry the insufferable but influential and wealthy Charles Bonham, as per her parents' wishes. Birdie however, has no intention of ever going back. Free of responsibility for the first time, she finds herself surrounded by a crew of bohemian artists who show her just how dizzying independence can be.

Rosie is ready for her life to begin, because nothing says new life like going to university. After years of waiting and working hard, she's finally on the road that will secure her future. Except university turns out to be not what she hoped or imagined, and although she's not exactly unhappy--really--she might be a little bit worried that she doesn't really like her course much. Or her flatmates. Or, really...anything? But it's normal to be homesick (right?) and everything will have settled in a month or two.

When Edie's dad, head of London Underground's Lost Property Office, is invited to Paris's Bureau of Found Things, Edie and her friends jump at the chance to join him. But to her horror, Edie discovers that the Flits who live in Paris are in danger. A collector is capturing them to create decorative scenes and putting them up for sale! Can Edie and her friends rescue the glasshouse flits before it's too late?

When 11-year-old Edie Winter finds a mysterious box on the London Underground, she's amazed to discover that it's home to a family of Flits—tiny winged people. But Impy, Speckle and Nid need Edie's help. Not only do they need supplies (rice crispies, sugar sprinkles, digestive biscuits and raisins) and someone to look after them, but their brother Jot has run away and they need Edie's help to find him.

Life is going well for Sophie. She’s getting by at school, has some pretty awesome friends and their band have made it through to the semifinals of the Battle of the Bands competition. But when Sophie wakes up completely deaf one morning, the life she once knew seems like a distant memory. With lessons replaced by endless hospital appointments, and conversations now an exercise in lip-reading, Sophie grows quieter and quieter. Until she discovers the vibrations of sound through an old set of drums and wonders whether life onstage is actually still within reach.

Kate Hardy's back from London after reaching a stalemate in the battle to save her little seafront café, The Sardine. Her ex is busy playing the pantomime villain—and he's holding her whole future hostage while he's at it. The perfect distraction arrives when a disaster befalls the not-so-happy couple about to celebrate their wedding at The Pebble Street Hotel.

Tinder, Hinge, Bumble – thirty-something journalist Saffie has tried them all but now she's wondering whether it's time to throw in the towel and give up on love for good – and she's not alone... Saffie's boss Tamara has been single since her divorce four years ago, but at forty-five, running her own magazine and with three kids at home, she doesn't feel she has the time, energy or confidence to go through the dating mill again. Meanwhile, Saffie's best friend Milo has just been dumped – again. A hopeless romantic with terrible taste in men, this is his fourth break-up in six months.

Nina has the most magical job in the world, matching customers with their perfect Christmas tree. Working at Christmas Tree Farm is always fun and full of laughter but the weight of past tragedy bears down on her. Her admirer is a great distraction, but is he the right man for her? Holly is just trying to be a normal teenager, having to deal with the mean girls in her class. But then the most handsome boy at school takes an interest in her. Have all her Christmases come at once?