Yvonne T, Griffin

The bold one, they call her - too bold for most. To her father, the great duke of Poland, Swietoslawa and her two sisters represent three chances for an alliance. Three marriages on which to build his empire. But Swietoslawa refuses to be simply a pawn in her father's schemes; she seeks a throne of her own, with no husband by her side.

In this Audible Exclusive production, Academy Award® nominee Rosamund Pike (Gone Girl) narrates one of Jane Austen’s most beloved works, Sense and Sensibility. In this timeless tale of misguided romance and heartbreak, two teenage heroines must overcome the pitfalls of Georgian England’s high society in order to achieve the love and happiness they seek. The admiration that Pike has for Austen’s work is shown clearly through this passionate delivery of Austen’s first published novel.

Frances Hodgson Burnett published The Making of a Marchioness in 1901. She had written Little Lord Fauntleroy 15 years before and would write The Secret Garden in 10 years' time; it is these two books for which she is best known. Yet Marchioness was one of Nancy Mitford's favourite books, was considered 'the best novel Mrs Hodgson Burnett wrote' by Marghanita Laski, and is taught on a university course in America together with novels such as Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre, and Daisy Miller.

More than a decade has passed since William, Duke of Normandy, defeated the English at the Battle of Hastings and was crowned king of England on Christmas Day 1066. Still faced with insurrection, both here in England and in his native Normandy, a perpetual threat to William’s authority was his half brother, Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, Earl of Kent, and serial plotter against his king. Odo is about to commission a work of art depicting the events leading up to the conquest and the great battle itself.

Katherine Woodville's sister never gave her a choice. A happy girl of modest means, Kate hardly expected to become a maker of kings. But when her sister impulsively marries King Edward IV in secret, Katherine's life is no longer hers to control....

Artist Hans Holbein is summoned to the house of Sir Thomas More to receive the commission of a lifetime. He will leave with a secret that could cost him his life. He will learn the truth about the life of King Richard III, the man that the Tudor dynasty has been at great pains to villify. From his return from exile with his brother, King Edward IV, to his rise to become the king's most loyal, most trusted, and most powerful subject. From his flourishing personal life to his seizure of the throne from his nephew.

At the side of the most famous warlord of history, Matilda worked, not as a quiet, modest wife, but as a leader...as a ruler just as ruthless as her husband. Under her soft mask of beauty and modesty there lay the heart of a woman powered by ambition. A woman who was strong, courageous, and devious.... Through the eyes of one of the most extraordinary women of history unfold the events leading to the invasion of England and the battle that would decide its fate....

King Richard is barely buried when the men who opposed him plot and plan to remove the new King, Henry Bolingbroke! With enemies in the north and the west, the new king and his son, Henry of Monmouth, find themselves besieged on all sides not knowing whom they can trust. William Strongstaff, now a lord, is the only one they can truly rely upon, and any thoughts of hanging up his sword are forgotten as King Henry sends the former royal bodyguard to help his son and quash a Welsh rebellion.

When the Queen of England dies then King Richard suddenly changes. He wreaks vengeance on all those who have slighted him, and only William Strongstaff and John of Gaunt are in a position to curb his excesses. Beginning in the Baltic, where there is a crusade against the Lithuanian pagans, the novel moves to England, Scotland and Ireland before the owner of the crown of England is decided.

Will Strongstaff has achieved far more than he ever thought. He is a gentleman. He has land, a wife and children. Yet he is still a warrior. He still has an oath to honour. King Richard is now under the sway of the evil Earl of Oxford Robert de Vere. When the king’s cousin, Henry Bolingbroke, sends for Will to fight in Galicia for his father, John of Gaunt, then Will has to return to the world in which he grew up, the world of the hired sword. This time he not only has enemies on the battlefield but enemies closer to hand as murderers try to end the life of his new lord.