Showing results by narrator "Penny McDonald" in All Categories

Eve Williams is about to discover just how the other half really live. Above stairs: Lord Netherwood keeps his considerable fortune ticking over with the profits from his three coal mines in the vicinity. It's just as well the coal is of the highest quality as the upkeep of Netherwood Hall, his splendid estate on the outskirts of town, doesn't come cheap. Below stairs: Eve Williams, is the wife of one of Lord Netherwood's most stalwart employees. Suddenly, her ordered existence amid the terraced rows of the miners' houses is brought crashing down....

Tales of Hardship, Love and Happiness in Tate & Lyle’s East End Factories. On an autumn day in 1944, Ethel Alleyne walked the short distance from her house to Tate & Lyle’s refinery on the shining curve of the Thames. Looking up at the giant gates, Ethel felt like she had been preparing for this moment all her life. She smoothed down her frizzy hair, scraped a bit of dirt off the corner of her shoe and strode through. She was quite unprepared for the sight that met her eyes …

A deliciously black satirical comedy about the dinner party from hell. The fastidious host, Paige, decides to throw a dinner party in honour of her husband, Lars, who is celebrating the success of his pop psychology book, Beyond Belief. She carefully plans a surprise menu that will mark the occasion and anxiously checks with the waiter she has employed to make sure that everything is perfectly prepared. Her lucky guests include a postfeminist vegetarian artist, a distinguished microbiologist, a TV journalist and an uninvited guest who ends up staying for dinner. But it soon becomes apparent that the meal may contain some rather nasty surprises....

Yesterday was Alice’s wedding day. She is thousands of miles away from home when she wakes to see a wave on the horizon,taller than her guest house on Kanyakumari beach. Her husband is nowhere to be seen. On the other side of the world is Alice’s mother, Violet. Forced to leave the idyllic Wiltshire village, Imber, after it was requisitioned by the army, Violet is haunted by the shadow of the man she loved and the home that lies in ruins.

Probation officer Cate Austin has moved for a fresh start along with her daughter, Amelia, to live with her police detective boyfriend, Olivier Massard. But when she realises just how casually he is taking the disappearance of a young girl, Ellie, Cate decides to investigate matters for herself. She discovers Luxembourg has a dark heart. As Cate comes closer to discovering Ellie's whereabouts, she uncovers a hidden world, placing herself in danger not just from traffickers but from a source much closer to home.

The third show-stopping adventure set in the wonderful world of the Pepper twins. The Pepper twins Esme and Monty are spending the summer with their Uncle Potty - a professional magician - and summers with Potty are rarely dull…Join the irrepressible Pepper twins in another colourful adventure. The book includes real magic tricks and tips which listeners can try at home!

They came for me, just like I knew they would. Luke had been dead for just three days. Rose Wilks’ life is shattered when her newborn baby Joel is admitted to intensive care. Emma Hatcher has all that Rose lacks. Beauty. A loving husband. A healthy son. Until tragedy strikes and Rose is the only suspect. Now, having spent nearly five years behind bars, Rose is just weeks away from freedom. Her probation officer Cate must decide whether Rose is remorseful for Luke s death, or whether she remains a threat to society.

The Pepper twins, Esmé and Monty and their uncle Potty have been summoned to the Sea Spray Theatre on the end of Crab Pie Pier. They’re on a mission to keep the old theatre from closing and must perform the show of a lifetime to reel in the crowds. But not everyone wants the theatre to survive, and a certain someone is determined to sabotage the show, whatever the cost.... Add a strange island hideaway full of zany inventions (including the Great Crab Pie Flytrap and the Banana-Powered Test Your Strength machine), a hair-raising helicopter rescue-mission, and some dodgy fortune-telling, and the Peppers are in for an unforgettable summer.

When Probation Officer Cate Austin is given her new assignment, she faces the highest-profile case of her career. Alice Mariani is charged with assisted suicide, and Cate must recommend a sentence. Alice insists her story is one of misinterpreted love, forcing those around her to analyse their own lives. Who is to decide what is normal, and when does loyalty turn to obsession?

Take a peek behind the scenes at the wonderful world of The Peppers! A show-stopping adventure starring an unbeatable double act: the Pepper twins, Monty & Esme. The Pepper twins are spending the summer holidays with their bumbling Uncle Potty. Potty is an enthusiastic member of the International Magic Guys organisation so when it is threatened with closure the twins must use every trick in the book to save it… But no one can find the book, the escapologist is all tied up and the human cannonball has put Potty’s assistant out of action. an the twins still pull off the performance of a lifetime?

Anna hasn’t been back to Oxford since her last summer at university. She tries not to think about her time there or the tightly knit group of friends she once thought would be hers forever. She has almost forgotten the sting of betrayal, the secret she carries around, the last night she spent with them all. Then a chance meeting on a rainy day in London brings her past tumbling back into her present.... Can Anna finally face up to the memories of that summer and the people she left behind?

Lacey Carmichael leads a solitary life. To her neighbours she is the mad old woman who lives at the end of the lane, crazy but harmless. Until she is arrested on suspicion of murder. When Rachel Moore arrives in the village, escaping her own demons, the two women form an unlikely bond. Unravelling in each other's tales of loss and heartache, they become friends.

A child is killed after falling from the Humber Bridge. Two young brothers are found guilty and sent to prison. Upon their release they are granted anonymity. Probation officer Cate Austin is responsible for Humber Boy B's reintegration into society. But the general public's anger is steadily growing, and those around her wonder if he deserves to keep the secret of his identity. Cate's loyalty is challenged when she begins to discover the truth of the crime.

selling author of Last Christmas.

With four children, a Christmas cookbook to write, and her mum suffering from dementia, Cat Tinsall has plenty to juggle. When her eldest daughter, Mel, starts going off the rails, Cat has even more on her plate. Pippa Holliday adores her family, although often finds her hands full. When Dan is involved in a terrible accident, Pippa’s world is suddenly turned upside down. Balancing her job as a school teacher with twins and her step-son, Steven, isn’t easy for Marianne North. With her husband’s ex causing trouble, life is getting even trickier.