Showing results by narrator "Ruth Redman" in All Categories

Take a trip back to Jane Austen's world and the many places she lived as historian Lucy Worsley visits Austen's childhood home, her schools, her holiday accommodations, the houses - both grand and small - of the relations upon whom she was dependent, and the home she shared with her mother and sister towards the end of her life.

In Regency England, marriage is everything. For young widow Sybella Lovatt, the time has come to find a suitable husband for her sister and ward Lucie. Male suitors are scarce near their Wiltshire estate, so the sisters resolve to head to London in time for the Season to begin. Once ensconced at the Mayfair home of Lady Godley, Lucie’s godmother, the whirl of balls, parties and promenades can begin. But the job of finding a husband is fraught with rules and tradition. Jostling for attention are two lords.

First published in 1910, this classic tale of three very different and socially distant families, whose lives intertwine through chance encounter, still has the power to move and entertain us. The passionate and artistic Schlegels, with their idealism and compassion find themselves inextricably linked with the pragmatic and capable Wilcox family, through a series of events which change the course of their lives forever.

It's the end of the summer season in the harbour town of Estepona. The holiday makers are heading home, leaving the British expats to reclaim their little corner of paradise. Among them is art restorer Astrid Swift's estranged father. She's sailed into town to reunite with him but has instead been tasked with catching an internet troll who's been threatening his wife online. Soon Astrid is entwined in the lives of these expats, from the boozy local heckler to the socially awkward beachcomber. And then she discovers a body in the bunker of the golf course.

Ireland, 1891. Happy at first to have given her husband the son he longed for, Rosalind Thornton begins to worry about his increasingly erratic spending and volatile moods. When his body turns up in the woods, her guilt remains in question for 130 years. 2019. Fiona Foley needs to put her husband's betrayal behind her. The disillusioned history teacher travels to the sweeping Wexford coast to assist an eccentric descendant of the Thornton family. Can Fiona figure out what really happened on the fateful night Rosalind disappeared forever?

Tuscany, 1943. Stranded in war-ravaged Italy, Beatrice’s dream of an escapist year teaching English is shattered. Granted shelter at the Villa delle Colombe, she seeks refuge in Francesca and Edoardo’s beautiful walled garden, hidden from the outside world, with an elaborate cypress maze at its heart. But Beatrice is not the only one seeking an escape here. Francesca has brought children to the safety of the house, as well as other adults, all of them seeking sanctuary on the estate with its mysterious maze. 

Ireland, 1895. Polly Brady hopes to escape her oppressive past by accepting the position of governess at Colgrannagh, an old house in the Wicklow mountains. But when she learns her employer’s botanist husband died in unusual circumstances, she is drawn into a poisonous deception that threatens her future.

Mary Tudor watches her elder brother become King of England and wonders what the future holds for her. Born into great privilege, Mary has beauty and intelligence beyond her years and is the most marriageable princess in Europe. Henry plans to use her marriage to build a powerful alliance against his enemies. Will she dare risk his anger by marrying for love? Meticulously researched and based on actual events, this 'sequel' follows Mary's story from book three of the Tudor Trilogy and is set during the reign of King Henry VIII.

It’s 1938, and hard-working Lily Baker’s life turns upside down when she and her family move to a new town. Two jobs leave little free time, yet she becomes involved in a struggle to improve her area. Pushed by the group leader, she undertakes tasks she previously thought impossible and meets the man of her dreams. Amidst homesickness, looming war, and an aggressive father, can she find the strength to win through?

When Lady Catherine gets a look at the Collins’ lovely house guest, steel enters her soul. Darcy must marry Anne and soon! Plans are carefully made. On the appointed day, Darcy disappears. Anne, however, is still at home. Then Lady Catherine learns that Elizabeth Bennet is missing. Merciful heavens! Have those unprincipled ruffians made off with the wrong girl? Abduction, mistaken identity, and romance are waiting for you in this lighthearted Elizabeth and Darcy romantic romp. Come join your friends from Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice in a new adventure.

It's high summer and, with the grisly events at Dorset's Sherborne Hall behind her, Astrid Swift sets sail for the Isle of Wight. She's been asked to value a collection of maritime art owned by a recently deceased millionaire. His surviving daughter has inherited the art along with the family's seafront mansion, The Needle's Eye, and wants to sell up. There are too many memories of her twin sister, a sailing prodigy who went missing at sea three years earlier.

When a local man is found murdered in an English Trust stately home, the community is shaken to its core. None more so than newcomer Astrid Swift, who finds the body. When she moved from London to the sleepy Dorset village and got a job at the house as an art restorer, she thought she was heading for a quieter life. Far from it. Because it turns out that rather than being the genteel organisation it seems on the surface, the Trust is a hotbed of politics and intrigue. As Astrid's new friend Kath from the village says: 'It's like the mafia, but with scones.'

What causes a woman to murder her family? Jo's idyllic life would make most people jealous. Until one day her daughter is abducted, and the only way to find her is to unravel her dark past. Ellie is a devoted wife...until she discovers the pain of betrayal. Now vengeance is all she can think about. Party girl Shayla knows how to hide her demons. But when she's confronted with a life-shattering choice, it will cost her everything. June knows suffering intimately, though the smile she wears keeps it hidden. Soon, the lives of these four women intersect, and one of them is about to snap.

Drifting Away is a seven-year story of my journey with my partner on an old Nicholson yacht through the Mediterranean, across the Atlantic, through the Caribbean, and down to the very remote islands of the South Pacific, New Zealand, and then eventually living a further four years in a small island in Greece.

Attractive, wealthy, and influential, Katherine Willoughby is one of the most unusual ladies of the Tudor court. A favourite of King Henry VIII, Katherine knows all his six wives, his daughters Mary and Elizabeth, and his son Edward, as well as being related by marriage to Lady Jane Grey. She marries Tudor knight, Sir Charles Brandon, and becomes Duchess of Suffolk at the age of 14. Her Spanish mother, Maria de Salinas, is Queen Catherine of Aragon’s lady in waiting, so it is a challenging time for them all when King Henry marries the enigmatic Anne Boleyn.

Abigail Accused steps into life in a small New England colony and reveals the callous truth of what has become one of many landmark cases against injustice during the Salem Witch Trials. Abigail Dane Faulkner, daughter of the town’s respected minister, was convicted of witchcraft in 1692 and condemned to die. Her story is based on eyewitness accounts and 17th-century documents. How did the people of Massachusetts Bay Colony become victims of the fear and religious fanaticism that led to the arrests of nearly 200 citizens and the executions of countless innocents?

Eighteen years ago, teenage Amy fled England, pregnant and heartbroken, to start over in New Zealand with her parents. Now Chris, the love she left behind, has walked into her beloved café by the beach and thrown her life into turmoil. As far as Amy’s concerned, Chris chose to ignore the child she was carrying when they last met. She brought up their daughter alone and created a happy home for them both on the other side of the world. But with Chris suddenly back in her life, she can no longer ignore the past and begins to wonder what really happened all those years ago.

Newly escaped from a loathsome engagement of convenience, Charlotte has no interest in romance. More than ever, she is convinced that no man would—or could—love her. As companion to an aging aunt, Charlotte’s new life is as predictable as it is circumspect. But on Christmas Eve she is rescued from a robbery by her uncle’s heir, a masterful man who is disastrously handsome. Why has he remained as a guest in the house? Why is he so determined to draw Charlotte out and make her talk? It isn't as if he likes her!

From minor matters (tidiness, homework, sleep) to big and important ones (relationships, mental ill health, drugs and alcohol), teenagers and their parents often struggle to talk to each other—and talking is key if your young person is facing new challenges as they leave childhood behind. A well-timed conversation, a listening ear, a non-judgmental and receptive attitude—all these can make an enormous and lasting impact on how safely and happily a teenager navigates this crucial stage of their development. Oh, if only it were that easy.

With a relaxing and peaceful winter behind her, Ellen is looking forward to the promise of summer - but her peace doesn’t last. An earthquake rips fatally through her friends’ home, and Ellen is left with the grief from their loss. The Lianthem, a sacred ruling group, is profiting from her brother’s lunacy, and her little sister is in danger. While her companions come within a breath of freezing to death, battles between rival factions break out, killing hundreds. And it’s all her fault. Ellen knows she must make it right, but how?