Showing results by narrator "Penelope Rawlins" in All Categories

'England? It seemed to be raining the whole time . . . Or maybe it was me' MARILYN MONROE In July 1956, Marilyn Monroe arrived in London, on honeymoon with her husband Arthur Miller, to make The Sleeping Prince (later released as The Prince and the Showgirl) with Laurence Olivier. When the...

Twelve-year-old Scarlett is the star and victim of her mum's popular blog - the butt of school jokes, she's eager to stay firmly out of the spotlight. But one evening, she finds a gorgeous kitchen in the house next door, left empty by an elderly neighbour in hospital. As Scarlett bakes, she starts to transform her life, discovering new friends and forming the Secret Cooking Club.

June 1940. As World War Two rages, Daphne Devine remains in London, performing each night as assistant to stage magician Jonty Trevelyan, aka the Grand Mystique. Then the secret service call. For, aware of Hitler's belief in the occult, the war office has set up a hidden cohort to exploit this quirk in the enemy's chain of command. Daphne and Jonty find themselves far from the glitz and glamour of the theatre, deep inside the lower levels of Wormwood Scrubs prison. Here, they join secret ranks of occultists, surrealists, and other eccentrics co-opted to the war effort.

Harriet Lockwood has never really bonded with her daughter the way she has with her three sons. Then one day, she discovers why. The girl she’s raised for the last fifteen years is not her biological child. As a consequence, two families are plunged into a storm of bitter rivalries and unexpected alliances.

Black Rainbow is the powerful first-person story of one woman's struggle with depression and how she managed to recover from it through the power of poetry. In 1997, Oxford graduate, working mother, and Times journalist Rachel Kelly went from feeling mildly anxious to being completely unable to function within the space of just three days.

Penny and Victoria are about as different as two siblings can be, one with a smart London lifestyle, the other struggling to make ends meet. But they are joined by more than blood, and their shared tragic past is affecting the present more than they realise. When events begin to tug at the fabric beneath which dark secrets are hidden, the resulting chaos threatens to tear the two families apart. Could there be aspects of the past that youngest child Penny doesn't remember? Could the truth of Marge be more complex than the beloved mother the girls choose to perceive?

Charlie Hunter does not like Christmas, especially the lead into it—cooking endless servings of Christmas dinner. So when she is asked by Graeme Strickland, Michelin-starred chef, egomaniac and friend, to help out in a hotel restaurant in Edinburgh’s New Town, for a fortnight, she accepts with alacrity. The Head Chef, David Jenkins, is a very old friend of Strickland’s, and the job entails covering temporarily for a sous chef position, while Strickland provides cover for Charlie, gratis, in the Old Forge Café.

A girl returns from boarding school to her sleepy Merseyside hometown and waits to be reunited with her childhood friend, Harriet, chief architect of all their past mischief. She roams listlessly along the shoreline and the woods still pitted with wartime trenches, and encounters ‘the Tsar’ – almost old, unhappily married, both dangerously fascinating and repulsive. Pretty, malevolent Harriet finally arrives – and over the course of the long holidays draws her friend into a scheme to beguile then humiliate the Tsar, with disastrous, shocking consequences.

Sister Adamanthea is a Repentia redeemed, restored to her beloved Sororitas and hailed as a ‘living miracle’. But behind closed doors she is haunted by a sin she believes can never be forgiven. Paraded in front of the countless pilgrims of the garden-temple of Concordia, how can she speak of faith when her own is so uncertain? When an aeons-old conspiracy finally triggers, Adamanthea must prove herself the legend she is claimed to be, or risk the forces of Chaos pulling back the shroud of lies and shattering the faith of an entire world.

A gripping account of the unsolved death of an Indigenous teenager, the detective determined to find her killer and a country's hidden secrets. On 17 August 2014, the body of 15-year-old Indigenous runaway Tina Fontaine was found weighted down in the Red River in the Canadian city of Winnipeg. The loss of Tina was a tragedy for her family and for the Indigenous community. But it also exposed a national scandal: Indigenous women are vastly more likely than other Canadians to be assaulted and killed.

Following a ferocious battle against Nurgle’s hordes, Lieutenant Quiller and the crew of Titans’ Bane are trapped inside the stricken Shadowsword. With her Cadian unit half-depleted, Quiller is forced to rely upon Paragonian and Mordian replacements. Vicious infighting within the tank soon becomes as dangerous as the enemy outside. In order to survive, Quiller knows she must remind her men that loyalty, camaraderie and self-sacrifice in the name of the Emperor transcends all planetary customs and patriotism.

An exhilarating new series set in the great outdoors, from HOTEL FLAMINGO author Alex Milway Welcome to Big Sky Mountain: a home for everyone! Rosa has come from the city to live with Grandma Nan in the wilds of Big Sky Mountain. And what surprises are in store for her! Grandma Nan is not...

Set off on a voyage from the ethereal world of Asgard to the treacherous depths of Jotunheim. Each of the 15 stories in this collection is rich with drama and packed with pulse-pounding action. Get ready to gasp at the audacity of Loki's fiendish pranks; marvel at the might of the all-female Valkyrie warriors; and tremble in fear of the ferocious Fenrir.

The Chilterns are at their best in May and The Old Forge Cafe is flourishing, which makes Charlie think about furniture that lives up to the standards her menu sets. Which is what persuades her to take on a job for a wealthy local businessman who suspects his daughter has fallen for a man who is not only a gold-digger but also a murderer. To Charlie's surprise, she knows him—he's the Maitre d' at the Michelin-starred restaurant at the other end of the village. Does his charm conceal a killer?

Sarah Lotz's extraordinary, unmissable follow-up to the book that made headlines around the world, The Three - perfect for fans of The Shining Girls, The Passage, and Lost. Four days into a five-day singles cruise on the Gulf of Mexico, the ageing ship Beautiful Dreamer stops dead in the water. With no electricity and no cellular signals, the passengers and crew have no way to call for help. But everyone is certain that rescue teams will come looking for them soon.

* LONGLISTED FOR THE ALLIGATOR'S MOUTH AWARD Welcome to Big Sky Mountain: a home for everyone! There is never a dull day on Big Sky Mountain! Rain or shine, there is always something that needs doing. Rosa and Grandma Nan are busy building a bigger cabin when a storm strikes, and a host of...

Perhaps the most brilliantly successful ghost story ever written, The Turn of the Screw creates a terrifyingly believable impression of innocent children so corrupted by evil that they remain deceptive pictures of innocent beauty. Their governess must struggle alone to confront and exorcise the demons that she believes possess their souls....

When Hannah met David, it was love at first sight. They were married quickly, but she knew it was the right choice. They're always laughing, the passion is unmatched, and they want the same things. Most of all, they both want a family. For David, it's doubly important. He tragically lost his first wife, Katherine, several years before. Hannah is, he says, the person who saved him from his grief. Although his friends worried he was moving on too fast, and Hannah sometimes still feels a strange jealousy towards his first wife, deep down she knows she's meant to be his happily-ever-after.

In Grudova's unforgettably surreal style, these stories expose the absurdities behind contemporary ideas of work, Britishness and art-making, to conjure a singular, startling strangeness that proves the deft skill of a writer at the top of her game.

A woman is accused of killing her husband, but is she guilty? Inspired by a true historical case, this spellbinding novel will keep you guessing until the final heart-stopping revelation....