Showing results by narrator "Imogen Church" in All Categories

Maggie has everything her sister Rose always wanted. A handsome husband and two adorable children, Emily and Elliot. But what Rose doesn’t see is that Maggie is struggling. Every day is a fog of sleep loss and mess made by two tiny children. Left alone in her distress by husband Stephen, Maggie drifts ever closer to the edge. When Maggie finally cracks, walking out one day and not returning, Rose is right there to step into the breach.

From enchanting cliff tops and white sandy bays to the pretty cobbled streets of St Helier, Jersey is known as the land of milk and honey. But for best friends Bea Rose (the local postwoman) and Grace Le Motte (who works in the island's only library) it becomes the frontline to everyday resistance when their beloved island is occupied by German forces in 1940.

The man Clemency loves belongs to someone else. She has to hide her true feelings - but when she ropes in an unsuspecting friend to help, wires start to get crossed. For the first time in Ronan's life his charm has failed him in winning over the woman he wants. Loving her from afar appears to be his only option. Belle seems to have the perfect boyfriend, but something isn't quite right. And now a long-buried secret is slowly rising to the surface. The truth has a funny way of revealing itself, and when it does St Carys will be a very different place indeed....

When a terrified, bloodied man staggers from a boarded-up shop in broad daylight in the small Suffolk village of Evernam, police are called to the scene. What they find inside the derelict building sends the community into shock: four bodies, their throats savagely cut, arranged in a bizarre formation with objects surrounding them. The survivor, Mark Lingham, insists that the deaths are his fault and is immediately arrested for murder. But police specialist Dr Cora Lael - a woman with the ability to sense emotional echoes from objects - hears a different story...

Beth Haldane is gazing at enchanting paintings of the rolling English countryside when her daydream is rudely interrupted—by the discovery of a teenage girl unconscious on a marble bench. Shocked, Beth realizes this is no snoozing schoolchild. Someone dastardly has carefully crossed the girls’ hands across her white dress, as if she’s in a painting herself. And the girl’s discarded red backpack, found in a corner of the museum, is totally empty. Is someone suspicious hiding evidence? And who would want to harm this innocent soul?

Having lost everything after a failed marriage, Beverley Sanders now lodges in the basement flat of a house owned by her best friend Sophie and husband, Tim. With her former glittering marketing career in the gutter, she begins to do investigative work for other wronged women (gathering dirt on philanderers, bosses and exes). Beverley takes on the case of Sophie's friend, Angela who is seeking to uncover grounds for divorce from her husband, Jerry, the shadow Science Minister, who is knee-deep in corruption, sleeping around and leeching off her money.

As a mother, I imagined myself somewhere between Mary Poppins and Jules Oliver. You know - growing my own courgettes, laughing whilst covered in mud, possibly having my own kiddie clothing range...that sort of thing. But unforeseen circumstances have thrown me far from vegetable patches and spoonfuls of sugar. I am currently a single mother, living with my parents. And this New Year, I am in need of a major detox. What am I detoxing? Daisy’s father, Nick.

In this comprehensive anthology, former Poet Laureate Andrew Motion has gathered together exceptional poems from the 14th century through to the present day, creating an extraordinary poetic journey for the listener. From the love poems of Shelley and Keats to the grim war elegies of Owen and Sassoon, there is a poem here for every sentiment, each with something different to offer.

Sophie is bored with her perfectly nice but deathly dull boyfriend, Matthew. Sensing he’s about to lose her, Matthew takes her on a last-ditch attempt trip to the seaside, hoping to rekindle their dying flames. But things take a dark turn when Sophie visits Mr Sandman, a Haitian priest, who claims that he can change Matthew into the boyfriend that she wants. But does Sophie really know what she wants? Never has the phrase ‘be careful what you wish for’ been more apt. Because Matthew does change...just not in the way that anyone could’ve predicted.

Having recently split up from the father of her baby, Lilly is not in a happy place, matters being complicated further by the arrival of her ex-husband, needing a sofa to crash out on, having been thrown out by his girlfriend. In the midst of all this Lilly is asked by a child psychologist if she will help one of her patients: a girl currently sectioned having stolen a car while extremely drunk. While Lilly visits her she is introduced to Chloe, another unstable teenager who slips Lilly a note saying: "Help us". And then Lilly's client is killed and Chloe accused of her murder. Her case is not helped by the fact that the words "Help us" have been carved on the dead girl's stomach....

Shipwrecks are part of life in the remote village of Porthmorvoren, Cornwall. And as the sea washes the bodies of the drowned onto the beach, it also brings treasures: barrels of liquor, exotic fruit, the chance to lift a fine pair of boots from a corpse, maybe even a jewel or two. When, after a fierce storm, Mary Blight rescues a man half dead from the sea, she ignores the whispers of her neighbours and carries him home to nurse better. Gideon Stone is a Methodist minister from Newlyn, a married man.

Eleanor, Richard and their two young daughters recently stretched themselves to the limit to buy their dream home, a four-bedroom Victorian townhouse in East London. But the cracks are already starting to show. Eleanor is unnerved by the eerie atmosphere in the house and becomes convinced it is making her ill. Whilst Richard remains preoccupied with Zoe, their mercurial 27-year-old lodger, Eleanor becomes determined to unravel the mystery of the house's previous owners....

The night after her father's funeral, Claire meets Lucas in a bar. Lucas doesn't know it, but it's not a chance meeting. One thoughtless mistyped email has put him in the crosshairs of an extremely put-out serial killer. But before they make eye contact, before Claire lets him buy her a drink, even before she takes him home and carves him up into little pieces, something about that night is very wrong. Because someone is watching Claire. Someone who is about to discover her murderous little hobby.

On the one hand, if Essie hadn't written that letter - the one that only her best friend was meant to see - then she'd still be living like an actual proper grown-up, tucked up with Paul in his picture-perfect cottage, maybe even planning their wedding.... On the other hand (if her true feelings hadn't accidentally taken the Internet by storm, that is), she never would have met Zillah and Conor - not to mention Lucas. And she'd never have found out just how much life there is to be lived....

In this entertaining collection, dogs of all kinds are brought to life. Working dogs, dogs who are mistreated by humans, dogs who save lives and the ones that make us laugh; they all leap and bound in stories by our most accomplished writers, including Mark Twain, Virginia Woolf, Jack London and Jerome K. Jerome.

Imogen should be nice to her little sister Marie. She should be nice to her mum’s boyfriend, too. And she certainly shouldn’t follow a strange silver moth through a door in a tree. But then...who does what they’re told. Followed by Marie, Imogen finds herself falling into a magical kingdom where the two sisters are swept up in a thrilling race against time - helped by the spoiled prince of the kingdom, a dancing bear, a very grumpy hunter...and even the stars above them.

It’s not the first time Laurel Nightingale has found a dead body, but this one - discovered alone in a locked room with a dagger in his back - was a journalist staying in the village of Elderwick for the purpose of profiling famous author Hugh Quintrell. Hugh is her latest client at her small psychology practice, not to mention her number one suspect. Hugh's determined to use his skills to help the police, but for Laurel it's a huge conflict of interest. She ditches Hugh and starts her own sleuthing.

Jamie and her son, Bo, have learnt never to take anything for granted. They had had a lovely home, Jamie had had a good job and all had been well in their little world. Until COVID hit. Now, Jamie finds herself scratching to make ends meet, working in a job she hates, living in a rented flat with a dodgy landlord and reliant on the local food bank. She’s not proud, but she finds it hard to admit she needs some help. And so when she meets an unlikely and colourful group of people in the queue at the food bank, she finds she’s not as alone as she thought.

In peaceful Dulwich Village, a group of elderly residents meet every week for Bridge Club. Green cloths are laid over square tables, the deck is carefully dealt, and every beady eye is on the lookout for cheating. Amateur sleuth Beth Haldane has never understood the rules, but she’s drawn into the drama when her mother’s bridge partner Alfie Poole is found dead. He was last seen heading out for a breath of fresh air after a particularly tricky hand. Beth knows poor Alfie was a sweet old man, but when she learns he was poisoned it’s clear someone wanted him gone.

Classic Cat Stories is an anthology that includes fairy tales and fables from the likes of Rudyard Kipling and Charles Perrault as well as comic tales from Saki and E. F. Benson. Cats, of course, have always had a dark and mysterious side, which is explored to chilling effect by the likes of Edgar Allan Poe in 'The Black Cat'. But above all, we love them, and you’ll find here stories about all kinds of cats that tug at the heartstrings like 'The Man of the House' by Ethel Colburn Mayne and other stories that celebrate their curious ways.