Showing results by narrator "Phyllida Nash" in All Categories

Amid the sun-soaked hills of southern Italy lies the Romano family olive grove, where Lara lives with her daughter Rose and her granddaughter Bea. Lara has spent a lifetime trying to forget the traumatic events that led to her desperate escape from Dorset seventy years ago. But when she sees Bea—a passionate horticulturalist most at home in nature—being swept off her feet by Matteo, a handsome and charismatic restaurateur, Lara fears her granddaughter is in danger of making the same mistake as Lara did all those years ago.

The Eden sisters are used to looking after themselves, but when a trip to the funfair turns nasty, they’re relieved to be rescued by their brand-new step-mama. Little do they know she’s really a wicked witch who only likes children baked in pies (with extra gravy...)Will the Eden sisters ever get safely out of the woods?

Throughout her career prize-winning novelist Jane Gardam has been writing glorious short stories, each one hallmarked with all the originality, poignancy, wry comedy, and narrative brilliance of her longer fiction. Passion and longing, metamorphosis and enchantment are Gardam's themes, and like a magician she plucks them from the quietest of corners: from Wimbledon gardens and cold churches, from London buses and industrial backstreets.

Mrs Gladden uses similar methods to her male counterparts - she enters scenes of crime incognito, tracking down killers while trying to conceal her own tracks and her identity from others. She does much physical detective work, examining scenes of crime, looking for clues and employing all manner of skill, subterfuge, observation and charm to achieve her ends. Characteristic of the casebooks of the time, Forrester's book features various cases narrated by Mrs Gladden, including murder, fraud and the sale of a baby.

A collection of heart-warming short stories from best-selling author Holly Webb. A scruffy pup eagerly awaits a new home just in time for Christmas, a little girl discovers an adorable kitten in her garden, a dog makes an unlikely new friend, a hamster makes a daring escape and a girl tries to help a family of fluffy ducklings. Perfect for sharing at bedtime, this beautiful treasury features 11 delightful animal stories from best-selling author Holly Webb.

Sophie often sees old Mr Jenkins walking his Labrador puppy, Buttons, and wishes she could have a dog of her own just like her. Buttons loves the outdoors and is always running off even though she knows she shouldn’t. Then one day, Sophie sees Buttons climb out of the window. She thinks she’s running away again, but Buttons isn’t playing around this time - something at home is very wrong. But how can she let Sophie know...? A moving animal story from best-selling author Holly Webb.

Sir Clement Carnell was the most domineering and strait-laced of fathers, and his death has left his grown children, Louisa and Valentine, with a sense of release. While Valentine throws open the Devonshire estate of Pennacombe to their fashionable cousins from London, Louisa feels free at last to reject the man her father chose as her prospective husband - Pearce Lynley.

When Jodie Fook goes missing from a sleepy Dorset village, the repercussions that reverberate through the small community are as far-reaching as they are devastating. Will she turn up safe and sound - or will she be one of the unlucky ones?

Ellie’s family have just adopted a beautiful Jack Russell puppy, whom Ellie names Rascal. But she doesn’t realise how right she is! Rascal is so naughty, and he’s soon getting himself and Ellie into all sorts of trouble. Will she ever be able to keep up with him?

Rosie loves visiting the stray cats that live on the farm near her gran’s house. Her favourite is a tiny kitten who she calls Ginger, because of the gorgeous colour of his fur. At first Ginger is very shy, then slowly he learns to trust Rosie. But when the farm is sold to developers and the builders start work, the little kitten is terrified - all the other cats have disappeared and he’s all alone. Suddenly the world is a very scary place...A moving animal story from bestselling author Holly Webb.

Jasmine is thrilled when the neighbours ask her to cat-sit while they go away for Christmas. Now she’ll be able to spend her whole holiday with the beautiful Star. Star loves playing with Jasmine and soon the pair are inseparable. But what Jasmine doesn’t know is that Star has a secret. Although it is cold and dark outside, the time has come for Star to leave Jasmine and her warm, safe home and find a place to hide. But where should she go? Another touching animal story from best-selling author Holly Webb.

On a normal day, in a normal house, on a normal street, wife and mother Fran has had enough. She packs a case, leaves a note for her bullying husband, Pete, and one for her beloved 21-year-old son, Harry, and heads to the airport - and freedom. In another house, on another street, Helena is desperately baiting her husband, Jack, into a fight. These days it feels like the only way to get Jack to take notice of her. Passionate, volatile, increasingly fragile, Helena is fast running out of hope.

Playtime for Rascal: School Sports Day is coming up and Ellie is worried she’ll be last at everything. But then she comes up with an excellent idea - she can practise for the events with Rascal! After all, the playful puppy is better at running and catching things than she is. Can Rascal save the day? Rascal’s Sleepover Fun: It’s Ellie’s birthday soon, and she’d love to have a sleepover party. She knows that Rascal would love one too!

Step outdoors and let your outside space nourish all of your senses and settle a busy mind. Discover how to garden to enliven all five senses - touch, sight, hearing, smell, and taste - to build a connection with the world around you and bring joy and wonder into the everyday. Find out how simply being outside can help to ground and calm you, and learn what plants to grow to nourish both your mental and physical wellbeing.

A group of notable writers - including UK poet laureate Simon Armitage, Julian Barnes, Margaret MacMillan, and Jenny Uglow - celebrate our fascination with the houses of famous literary figures, artists, composers, and politicians of the past.

Landskipping is a ravishing celebration of landscape, its iridescent beauty and its potential to comfort, awe and mesmerise. In spirit as romantic as rational, Anna Pavord explores the different ways in which we have, throughout the ages, responded to the land. In the 18th century, artists first started to paint English scenery, and the lakes, as well as Snowdon, began to attract a new kind of visitor: the landscape tourist.

When the enigmatic Sarah Tanner re-opens her Dining and Coffee Rooms soon after a disastrous fire, the gossips of Leather Lane grudgingly admit she has ‘the luck of the devil’. Yet when a local butcher is falsely accused of a heinous offence, selling horse-meat, it seems her luck has run out… Drawn into an ever more dangerous series of confrontations with a gang of youths who seem determined to put an innocent man out of business, Sarah Tanner’s own livelihood looks set for ruin into the bargain.

Acclaimed Swedish author Camilla Grebe makes her solo American debut with a psychological thriller as cunning in its twists as it is captivating in its storytelling. A young woman is found beheaded in a business tycoon's marble-lined hallway. Jesper Orre, the scandal-ridden CEO of the retail chain Clothes&More, has vanished. Who is the dead woman? And who is the brutal killer who wielded the machete?

When Daisy arrives at the farm campsite where her family are spending her summer holiday, she knows she's going to have the best time ever. Especially when she finds out the farm dog has just had puppies! Daisy can't help falling in love with Barney, the smallest of the litter of German Shepherd pups. Barney takes to the friendly new girl who sneaks him food and smuggles him into her sleeping bag at night, and soon the pair are inseparable.

Among the cobbled streets of the Somerset town of Frome, Lou is embarking on the start of something new. After the death of her beloved mother, she takes a deep breath into the unknown and is opening her own vintage clothes shop. In Upstate New York, Donna has just found out some news about her family that has called into question her whole upbringing. The only clue she has to unlock her past is a picture of a yellow dress and the fact it is currently on display in a shop in England.