Showing results by narrator "Judy Bennett" in All Categories

Renowned biographer Andrew Morton takes an in-depth look at Britain’s longest reigning monarch, exploring the influence Queen Elizabeth has had on both Britain and the rest of the world for much of the last century. From leading a nation struggling to restore itself after the devastation of the second World War to navigating the divisive political landscape of the present day, Queen Elizabeth has been a reluctant but resolute queen. This is the story of a woman of unflagging self-discipline who will long be remembered as mother and grandmother to Great Britain.

Here is a novel, set in Tokyo, of mysterious and intriguing chance encounters. The midnight hour approaches in an almost empty all-night diner. Mari sips her coffee and glances up from a book as a young man, a musician, intrudes on her solitude. Both have missed the last train home. The musician plans to rehearse with his jazz band all night; Mari is equally unconcerned and content to read, smoke, and drink coffee until dawn. Then they realise they've met before through Eri, Mari's beautiful sister.

"The moment I first met you, I noticed your pride, your sense of superiority, and your selfish disdain for the feelings of others. You are the last man in the world whom I could ever be persuaded to marry," said Elizabeth Bennet. And so Elizabeth rejects the proud Mr Darcy. Can nothing overcome her prejudice against him? This famous novel by Jane Austen is full of wise and humorous observation of the people and manners of her times.

During the Second World War, Eastenders Miranda and Ted are sent to the country with another young evacuee, Roberta (Bobbie), to live with two unmarried sisters in their idyllic rectory. The time they spend with Aunt Sophie and Aunt Prudence turns their underprivileged lives into something very near to heaven: gathering wool from hedgerows, initiating do and mend campaigns, and trotting about the countryside with Tom Kitten, Aunt Prudence's pony.

When Hitler seizes power in 1933, a tight-knit group of friends and lovers suddenly become hunted outlaws overnight. Dora, liberated and fearless; her lover, the great playwright Ernst Toller; Ruth; and Ruth's journalist husband, Hans, find refuge in London. There, using secret contacts deep inside the Nazi regime, they take breathtaking risks to warn the world of Hitler's plans for war. But England is not the safe haven they think it will be, and a single, chilling act of betrayal will tear them apart.... Based on true events, All That I Am is testament to some of the earliest - now forgotten - heroes of the resistance to Hitler.

One day, a farmer tells a farm boy to take everything out of an old building and throw it away. ’It’s all rubbish,’ he says.In the middle of all the rubbish, the boy finds a beautiful old piano. He has never played before, but now, when his fingers touch the piano, he begins to play. He closes his eyes and the music comes to him - and the music moves his fingers.When he opens his eyes again, he knows that his life is changed for ever.

Here is the second audio volume of an eclectic, eccentric, and altogether brain-bending new collection of short stories from the best-selling Japanese author. Included are "Hunting Knife", "Birthday Girl", "A Perfect Day for Kangaroos", "Man-Eating Cats", "The Rise and Fall of Sharpie Cakes", "Firefly", "A 'Poor Aunt' Story", "Nausea 1979", "Dabchick", "Tony Takitani", "New York Mining Disaster" and "Where I'm Likely to Find It".

A housewife, a tramp, a lawyer, a waitress, an actress – ordinary people living ordinary lives in New York at the beginning of this century. The city has changed greatly since that time, but its people are much the same. Some are rich, some are poor, some are happy, some are sad, some have found love, some are looking for love.O. Henry’s famous short stories – sensitive, funny, sympathetic – give us vivid pictures of the everyday lives of these New Yorkers.

Some children can waggle their toes, some can waggle their ears, but Lucy King has extra-special powers. She shimmers, she crackles and she zooms through the air like a streak of lightning! When Lucy's parents discover that she can fly, they try to keep it secret. But wherever she is at the Christmas play, on a school outing, filming a TV commercial Lightning Lucy always ends up in the limelight. As her fame grows, Lucy begins to wonder if it might be better to be just a little more ordinary.

Portia and Emily meet to launch their daughters on an unsuspecting society for the London Season of 1913. Both are determined that their offspring will catch the eye of their friend May's son, a future duke.

At the beginning of the last century, that three women determine on making their own way at a time when to be independent was to risk social ostracism, or even tragedy, is partly due to the influence each comes to have on the others’ lives. The love knots that they face in their relationships finally unravel, but not before hearts have been broken, and scandals risked.

A thrilling tale and powerful love story that tells the heroic and tragic true story of the German resistance in World War II. When Hitler comes to power in 1933, a tight-knit group of friends and lovers become hunted outlaws overnight. United in their resistance to the madness and tyranny of Nazism, they must flee the country. Dora, passionate and fearless, her lover, the great playwright Ernst Toller, her younger cousin Ruth and Ruth's husband, Hans, find refuge in London.

It is Molly Clarkson’s 50th birthday. She is having a party. She is rich, but it's a small party - only four people. Four people, however, who all need the same thing: they need her money. She will not give them the money, so they are waiting for her to die. And there are other people who are also waiting for her to die. But one person can’t wait. And so, on her 50th birthday, Molly Clarkson is going to die.

As children, George Dashwood and Amelia Dennison were friends, just as their two very different families were. But in 1914, the now mature George realises the way he feels about Amelia has changed, and the declaration of war cuts across any romantic plans that the two might have. But when, miraculously, George returns safely from the front after four years, Amelia finds that the boy she loved has gone…

Beneath the majestic towers of the Alhambra, Granada's cobbled streets resonate with music and secrets. Sonia Cameron knows nothing of the city's shocking past; she is here to dance. But in a quiet café, a chance conversation and an intriguing collection of old photographs draw her into the extraordinary tale of Spain's devastating civil war. Seventy years earlier, the café is home to the close-knit Ramírez family.

"We have to leave our house in London," Mother said to the children. "We’re going to live in the country, in a little house near a railway line." And so begins a new life for Roberta, Peter, and Phyllis. They become the railway children - they know all the trains, Perks the station porter is their best friend, and they have many adventures on the railway line. But why has their father had to go away? Where is he, and will he ever come back?

A hot summer's day, a crowded motorway, a split second that changed a group of people's lives forever. Jonathan, the successful, charismatic surgeon returning from a liaison with his mistress Abi. His wife thinks he's somewhere else... Georgia, the young actress desperate to get to London for an audition for the part that could make her career; and Linda, her agent, dynamic, ambitious - but lonely, and with a failed marriage behind her.

Hope Merriott has always thought of herself as truly blessed; her three daughters bring her much joy. But when Hope’s fourth daughter arrives, her birth coincides with the failure of her husband Alexander’s newest business venture. And although Alexander’s Great Aunt Rosabel offers to solve the family’s financial worries by gifting Alexander her large, elegant house in Wiltshire, Hope is full of seemingly unreasonable foreboding...

For years she prayed for her mother to give birth to a son. She longed to be spared her destiny as Britain's future Queen. Her dream was to live in the country surrounded by children, dogs and horses. But Elizabeth did her duty, the young princess pledging before her people that she would dedicate her whole life to the service of Britain and the Commonwealth. She hoped that that day would be a long way off. It was not to be. Only 25 when she became Queen after the premature death of her father, King George Vl, Elizabeth has become the stuff of superlatives.

The unabridged, downloadable audiobook edition of Anna Funder's All That I Am, a powerful love story that tells the heroic and tragic true story of the German resistance. read by Judy Bennett and Saul Reichlin. One September morning, elderly Ruth Wesemann wakes to the sound of a parcel being delivered to her door. Inside she finds a tattered little notebook. Opening its delicate pages she meets with a flood of memories...