Showing results by narrator "Emma Fenney" in All Categories

In The Princess and the Pea, a prince who wants to marry a princess finds it difficult to ascertain whether a princess is authentically noble. On a stormy night, a bedraggled young woman claiming to be a princess seeks shelter in the prince's castle. The Prince’s mother tests the girl’s claim by placing three peas underneath the 20 mattresses laid out for her. A humorous tale about the absurdities of the noble.

In The Story of a Mother, a mother, watching over her sick child, briefly closes her eyes, and Death comes. Rushing outside to pursue Death, she encounters various spirits who offer conditional advice. When she finally finds her child, Death offers her a terrible choice. First published in 1847, this story has been adapted for film several times.

In The Naughty Boy, an old poet welcomes a wet and shivering boy into his home to warm up, not realizing that the boy has an ulterior motive - and a bow and arrow. This short tale ruminates on the naughtiness and ubiquity of Cupid.

In this fable about what happens to liars and boasters, a gentleman’s collar decides to marry and proposes to various female objects, embroidering his accomplishments and good qualities at every turn.

In The Shoes of Fortune, a series of people who are dissatisfied with their lives put on a pair of magic shoes that grants them wishes. A civil servant who idealizes the middle ages experiences all its inconveniences. A watchman lives the lonely life of his superior and endures a terrifying visit to the moon. The shoes pass from owner to owner until one exhausted wearer who wishes for rest and spiritual freedom dies. Andersen concludes with a quote by Solon: Call no man happy until he rests in his grave.

In The Red Shoes, a peasant girl named Karen is adopted by a rich old lady and grows up vain and spoiled. She is so enamored of a new pair of red shoes that she wears them to church in spite of a warning to only wear black shoes there. She soon learns that ignoring that warning was a bad idea: a mysterious old soldier at the church charms the red shoes with a tap of his hand. This cautionary tale has been adapted for various media including film.

In The Happy Family, a pair of snails live inside a burdock forest near an old manor house. They remember the old days when their kinfolk were served on platters in the old house and suspect the house has since been abandoned. Deciding to grow their family, they adopt a common snail and must arrange a marriage for their new child.

In The Swineherd, a fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen, a prince who disguises himself as a swineherd woos an arrogant princess. Sending her a nightingale and a rose, the princess rejects the humble gifts preferring the man-made over the real. The prince/swineherd creates a musical pot and charges the princess 10 kisses for it. The princess trudges through the mud to pay 100 kisses for his next creation, a musical rattle. A parable about the shallowness of earthly things.

In The Old House, a boy is invited to meet the old man across the street, and he offers the old man a gift of a toy soldier. The toy soldier, unhappy with his new surroundings, flings himself through a hole in the floor and disappears. After the old man dies, the old house is torn down, and a new one is built, but the toy soldier remains to be rediscovered.

In "The Elderbush", a boy arrives home with a cold. His mother whisks him off to bed and prepares some elderflower tea to warm him up. A kindly older neighbor stops by to visit the boy, who asks for a fairy tale. The old man struggles to think of one, but becomes inspired by the aroma of the elderflower tea. A story about how real life can provide subjects for some of the most wonderful fairy tales.

In "The Dream of Little Tuk", a little boy named Tuk interrupts his studying to help an old woman carry water. Later, when he goes to sleep, he puts his geography book under his pillow in the hopes that its knowledge will be magically transmitted into his brain. In his dreams, the old woman appears and repays his earlier kindness.

In this parable about the transience of earthly things, a mysterious bell is heard by the inhabitants of a village. They search the forest but are unable to find the source. When a prince and a child eventually discover it, they realize that it is as mysterious and old as nature itself.

Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales, which have been translated into more than 125 languages, have become culturally embedded in the West's collective consciousness. Readily accessible by children, they present lessons of virtue and resilience in the face of adversity that appeal to mature listeners as well. This collection of 18 tales includes "The Emperor's New Clothes", "The Princess and the Pea", and "The Snow Queen".

Published in January 1922, The Secret Adversary is the second detective fiction novel by British crime novelist Agatha Christie. The book introduces the characters of Tommy Beresford and Prudence Tuppence Cowley, two out-of-work 20-somethings in post-war London. The two agree to form The Young Adventurers, Ltd, hiring themselves out with the slogan no reasonable offer refused. They are quickly enlisted to solve the mysterious disappearance of a young woman who was entrusted with sensitive diplomatic documents amid the sinking of the RMS Lusitania.

Karen Bloom is not the coddling mother type. She believes that tough discipline is the true art of parenting. She expects her husband and her children to perform at 200 percent, no matter the cost. But her unending quest for excellence causes her seemingly flawless family to rebel against her. When tragedy strikes the Blooms, Karen's carefully constructed facade begins to fall apart - and once the deadly cracks appear, they are impossible to stop.

When Anna Broinowski learned that fracking had invaded downtown Sydney, she had a brilliant idea: she would seek guidance for a kryptonite-powerful, anti-fracking movie from the world's greatest propaganda factory - apart from Hollywood. After two years of trying, she was allowed to make her case in Pyongyang and was granted full permission to film. She worked closely with the leading lights of North Korean cinema, even playing an American in a military thriller.

The wonderful first novel from the critically acclaimed author of The Sleeper and The Sisterhood. It's New Year's Day and the year isn't kicking off well for Tansy: her mother's dead, she's a cocaine addict and her boyfriend has just left her. A trip around the world seems like the only option except that she's not interested in seeing the world, just escaping from it, and the last people she wants to hang out with are backpackers.

Katy Carter knows she's no domestic goddess: she's scatterbrained, she needs a fire extinguisher at the ready when she's cooking and she daily falls off the diet wagon. But that doesn't stop her fantasising about a hero to call her own. And Katy thinks she's found him in fiancé James, a charming, high-flying city banker.

On the eve of her 27th birthday, Josie Goodwin is feeling harassed. Her boyfriend, Will, has become a donkey-loving hippy, and her best friend, Lara, has baby brain. She desperately needs to find the perfect location for a film shoot, or her career may implode. Her eccentric grandma has always said that Josie will inherit a book of spells on her birthday, but since she doesn’t believe in magic, nothing will improve; or will it?

By the Sunday Times best-selling author of The Lie. Forbidden love, intimate betrayal and the devastating power of exposure drive Helen Dunmore's remarkable new title. London, November 1960: the Cold War is at its height. Spy fever fills the newspapers, and the political establishment knows how and where to bury its secrets. When a highly sensitive file goes missing, Simon Callington is accused of passing information to the Soviets and arrested.