British Life

Waking up, she couldn't remember anything. Who she was. Who had taken her. How to escape. Detective Abigail Boone has been missing for four days when she is finally found, confused and broken. Suffering retrograde amnesia, she is a stranger to her despairing husband and bewildered son. Hopelessly lost in her own life, with no leads on her abduction, Boone's only instinct is to revisit the case she was investigating when she vanished: the baffling disappearance of a young woman, Sarah Still.

An immersive anthology of stories examining home and belonging, with an introduction from former Waterstones Children’s Book Prize category winner Sharna Jackson, Happy Here features stories and poems by 10 Black British authors exploring themes of family, friendship, laughter, magic and peril - in different genres and styles, but all about joy.

In an era of increasing digital deception, Peter M. offers a timely guide to recognizing and countering the art of deception in everyday life. Drawing from espionage techniques, historical accounts, and cutting-edge psychology, How to Spot a Fraud like a British Spy provides listeners with invaluable insights into the world of deceit and the tools to navigate it. Whether it's discerning a lie in a conversation, detecting financial scams, or understanding the grander tactics of mass manipulation, this book equips its listeners with skills reminiscent of Britain's finest intelligence agents.

When Anjali finds out that Jack, her boyfriend of 10 years, has been cheating on her, it throws her world into chaos. Heartbroken, she fills the emptiness by embarking on a series of flings that her traditional Sri Lankan mother would (mostly) disapprove of. Yet she can no longer avoid her mother or Shanthi, her distant older sister. And so begins her real journey, one that will make Anjali confront a past she's been desperate to forget. But maybe the past can also be the bridge to her future....

In Jessie Greengrass' dazzlingly brilliant debut novel, our unnamed narrator recounts her progress to motherhood while remembering the death of her own mother 10 years before and the childhood summers she spent with her psychoanalyst grandmother. Woven among these personal recollections are significant events in medical history: Wilhelm Rontgen's discovery of the X-ray; Sigmund Freud's development of psychoanalysis and the work that he did with his daughter, Anna; and the origins of modern surgery and the anatomy of pregnant bodies.

Taking us behind drawing room doors and into high society ballrooms, The Game of Hearts follows six leading ladies and their family, friends, and contemporaries as they move from matchmaking to matrimony and beyond. Candid insights into the competitive world of the marriage mart; real stories of rakish husbands and rich heiresses; and true tales of lost and long-lasting love, reveal not just Regency courtship customs, but truly captivating lives. Author Felicity Day pieces together a rich and intimate view of this most beloved period of British history.

Mary Wollstonecraft is an undisputed icon for women’s rights, and this is not a status she earned lightly. Daring to demand equality at a time when it was incredibly risky to do so, Wollstonecraft developed a long resume of standing up to those that wished to subvert her rights and the rights of those she loved. She stood up to her own father as a teenager when he abused her mother, and she didn’t hesitate to help her sister escape from a similarly tyrannical husband.

Yousef is the golden child to his strict Pakistani parents, overshadowing his younger sister, Rehana. As he finishes his medical degree in London, Yousef’s life appears to be mapped out for him: become a doctor, marry a suitable girl of his parents’ choosing and, above all, make his family proud. Then Yousef meets Jess. A fellow medical student, Jess presents a complication to the plan. Suddenly, Yousef finds himself torn between two worlds – keeping each a secret from the other. Then, as graduation day looms, Yousef’s mother informs him that she’s started looking for his wife.

Despite her best efforts, Livi Starling will probably never make the history books. Her life is far too ordinary. Unless you count her talent for animal noises, her inability to tell the truth, her insatiable desire for a mother, or the fact that her only friend is a painfully shy Jesus-Freak who collects banana stickers. Having been brought up in the sleepy countryside by her older sister, Livi is endlessly curious about the great life she could have had and takes no time in reinventing herself upon their arrival in a new city. However, her quest for greatness is about to be disrupted by ...

Among the creatures that find the food, water, and shelter they need in our gardens, birds are the ones we notice the most, partly because the majority are active in the daytime. Of course, they can be a welcome distraction for us, as they go about their lives and we briefly escape from ours. From the Robin to the Blackbird, Starling and Chaffinch, this illuminating publication helps you identify common garden birds and reveals fascinating facts about them.

Last spring, the otters' home flooded. Now the water is high again. Young otter Sedge believes he can save his holt from another flood - but he has to be brave enough travel downstream for help. Downriver, the beaver lodge is also at risk. Silken—who is too small and weak to do the work needed to strengthen the beavers' dam—feels something calling her up the river. As the two animals unknowingly swim towards each other, they are drawn to the spirit of Greenriver, who takes the form of a snow-white otter, Lady River. But will Lady River hear their plea for safety?

The young Walter Miller was a product of his time. Growing up Black in the Jim Crow American South, he was in trouble with the police before his 14th birthday. And, like so many young Black men, once he'd landed in the criminal justice system it was hard to find a way out. Soon enough, he was facing a 30-year prison sentence. But Walter was smarter than his jailers. He escaped prison and fled to New York with a hundred dollars in his pocket. He changed his name to Bobby Love and began again—living a crime-free life for nearly 40 years.

Born in 1955 to a poor family in Devon Thomas refused to conform. His fierce independence, recklessness and contrariness led not only to scrapes and self-inflicted dangers but to a life enriched by the love of women. Catrina Davies came to know him in his last years and has given his life and times in his own words, creating a rich, pungent language in a knowing, poetic and poignant voice. We learn of his accumulation of engines, tools and guns, the complexity of his connection to nature, the animals he loved and his desire to hunt them.

More than eight million people live in the sprawling metropolis that is London. This vast area is also home to a wide variety of wild animals, from birds and mammals to amphibians and insects. From renowned spectacles such as the Red Deer rut in Richmond Park to more everyday sights and sounds, such as Red Foxes patrolling our streets after dark, London offers a diverse range of potential wildlife encounters.

Ró finds school impossible. She knows people think she's shy - and stupid. But when she goes to the bay each afternoon to watch the dolphin leap through the water, she finds the strength to keep going. Then the dolphin disappears, and everything starts falling apart. How much is Ró willing to risk to find him?

.Embark upon an underwater adventure with this new download of wildlife recordings from the British Library Sound Archive. Experience the haunting song of the Humpback Whale as it travels through winter breeding grounds in search of a mate, and marvel at the humming courtship calls of the male Haddock. Encounter Dusky Dolphins in the Pacific, Harp Seals in the Arctic and a host of other species including the lovable Bottlenose Dolphin and the mighty Blue Whale.

In this addictive short story collection, 24 very different women reach a pivotal moment in their lives. A widow is liberated by a new job but keeps it secret from her family. A date in suburbia has dramatic results. A seamstress takes revenge on an unsuspecting customer while in France, a mother is promised 'fantastic news' - and lets her imagination run away with her.

Debut author Vashti Harrison tells the stories of both iconic and lesser-known female figures of black history - from nurse Mary Seacole to politician Diane Abbott, mathematician Katherine Johnson and singer Shirley Bassey. Among these biographies listeners will find heroes, role models and everyday women who did extraordinary things.

Every traveller to Scotland is enthralled not only by the spectacular scenery, but also the wealth of wildlife in the country and its surrounding islands. Wild Scotland brings together a selection of 30 of the most vocal and representative species of this region, some of which can only be found in this area of the British Isles.

Based on the true story of Diane Sutton, 28, the former model and heiress who died after apparent suicide by train at Surbiton station, leaving behind a five-year-old son. The story of Diane Sutton and her son, Byron, is narrated by journalist Mathew Taylor, who was commissioned to write a 2,000-piece for a national daily, focusing on winter suicides.