Showing results by narrator "Nicola Barber" in All Categories

The image is instant. It whirs out of the camera, and they all watch it develop in silence. "Here." He gives the photograph to the perfect, flawless woman without looking at it, by way of apology. When everyone gathers around Luciana to admire it, Gustav clicks again. The unloved look brave. The unloved look heavier than the loved. Their eyes are sadder, but their thoughts are clearer. They are not concerned with pleasing or affirming their loved one's point of view. The unloved look preoccupied.

Dive deep into the world of medieval legends and disentangle reality from fear in this powerful series from the internationally renowned author of historical fiction Philippa Gregory. Luca Vero is a member of the secret Order of Darkness, tasked by his master to uncover the truth behind strange happenings. Together with Lady Isolde, her friend and confidant Ishraq, Luca's manservant Freize, and Brother Peter, Luca travels across medieval Europe - seeking out the signs of the end of days, judging the supernatural and testing the new science.

London, the Empire of Albion. The Great Dragons of old are long-gone. Now the world is governed by the science of Celestial Physicists, and everyone's life is foretold by the track on their wrist. When 13-year-old Paisley discovers from her track that she is destined to die, the race is on to protect her dragon-touched brother and find her missing mother. But an ancient power stalks the sewers of London, and the Dark Dragon is rising, intent on restoring the Great Dragons and destroying Paisley's family and her world forever.

Meet Anita Thompson: she's young, she's lovely, she's clever, and she's a witch. A real one. Anita lives in two worlds: the modern world of supermarkets and sports cars, radio and rock-and-roll, where she is a thoroughly modern girl with a thoroughly modern interest in boys and fast living and her own independence. But she also lives in the ancient and rustic world of traditions, cauldrons, and familiars.

Selling rare books has its moments, but few are anything close to thrilling - except when Dido Hoare's scoundrel of an ex-husband suddenly reappears and puts a pulse of excitement in the air. But events go from interesting to intense when someone ends up murdered and the culprit seems to think Dido has something worth killing for, too. With the help of her father, Barnabas, a retired academic with a penchant for mysteries, Dido may be able to divert the killer long enough to figure out who wants her dead and why.

Malin has always been different, and when her father dies, leaving her alone, her choice is clear: stay and remain an outsider forever or leave in search of the mythical inheritance she is certain awaits her. Apprenticed to a series of strange and wonderful characters, Malin embarks on a grueling journey that crosses oceans and continents - from the high seas to desert plains - and leads to a discovery that she could never have expected.

Paisley Fitzwilliam is not supposed to be alive. Her stars told her she was going to die, and she did-stabbed by the Dark Dragon. Against all logic, she has come back through the Veil and now has to deal with the wreck that was left behind. Her mother is dead and her brother, Dax, has been taken by the fierce and mysterious dragon riders, the Krigare. To make matters more complicated, Paisley receives a message that the Chief Designer wants to gift her a second set of stars.

The novel opens in England in 1915, at the deathbed of Dorothy Townsend, a suffragist and one of the first women to integrate Cambridge University. Her decision to starve herself for the cause informs and echoes in the later, overlapping narratives of her descendants.

Summer, 1936. In England, an assassin is loose. Someone is killing young people who possess Talents. As terror overtakes Britain, Kim Tavistock, now officially employed by England's Secret Intelligence Service, is sent on her first mission: to the remote Sulcliffe Castle in Wales, to use her cover as a journalist to infiltrate a spiritualist cult that may have ties to the murders. Meanwhile, Kim's father, trained spy Julian Tavistock, runs his own parallel investigation - and discovers the terrifying Nazi plot behind the serial killings.

Lord Oliver Stonenden gets whatever he wants - except the beautiful and headstrong Katharine Daltry. Katharine is the only woman who has ever denied him, and he cannot forget her. When he sees a chance to aid her cause by seducing a troublesome countess who is threatening Katharine's family, he rises to the occasion.

This is a true story about Frances, age 9, who saw fairies by the waterfall behind her house. Nobody but Frances saw them, but when she told her cousin Elsie and their parents, the adults teased them. Why not take a photograph? Elsie (who was fifteen) had the idea. She would paint paper fairies and take their picture with Frances, and none would be the wiser. The girls never meant to fool the world. Who could have imagined that Elsie’s photograph would fall into the hands of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of the world’s most famous detective, Sherlock Holmes?

Antiquarian bookshop owner Dido Hoare has a lot on her mind these days. In her second appearance, Dido is trying to run her store, juggling single motherhood with her infant son Ben, worrying about her aging father, Barnabas, and her on-again, off-again relationship with a married police officer. The last thing she needs is to find Tom Ashe, a homeless man with whom she has struck up an odd friendship, apparently deathly ill on her doorstop.

From the winner of the Lucy Cavendish Fiction Prize, a brilliantly haunting and suspenseful debut set in modern-day Britain where water is running out everywhere except at The Well - the farm of one seemingly ordinary family whose mysterious good fortune leads to suspicion, chaos, and ultimately a shocking act of violence.

As a journalist for the Independent, Emma Bamford is swept along with the London rat race, lost amongst the egos of Fleet Street. Surrounded by budget cuts and bullies, the thrill of a breaking news story is no longer enough. And at 31, still struggling to get to a fourth date and surrounded by friends settling down to married life and babies, Emma decides to grasp her life by the roots and reclaim her freedom...by running away to sea and joining a complete stranger (and his cat) on a yacht in Borneo.

Wren is in the last place she ever wanted to be: backinside the dome. Held as a prisoner of her father, the Master General Enforcer,she is completely cut off from the outside. After a harrowing escape attempt,and finding Levi trapped in a cell, Wren's world is further turned upside downby what could be Pace's ultimate betrayal. Only Pace's whispered words keepher from losing all hope. "Things are not always what they seem." Those words,along with the sight of yellow-feathered Pip keep Wren fighting for what sheknows in her heart is right for everyone. She must break the glass.

When Wren's father realizes that his rebellious daughterand her friends are not falling into his plan of complacency, he turns themover to an even darker enemy. While Levi is certain his uncle will save them,the Quest and all their friends outside the dome seem to have disappeared.

The outside world is a brutal place, but Wren will not bebeaten. She holds strong to her belief that outside the glass there is thepromise of freedom and the hope for love. Wren must battle the forces that wantto enslave her, and the foolish whims of her own heart to free her world andfinally find where she belongs.

Wren’s world has changed. The thing that she fought for - escaping the dome - has come to fruition, but it’s not the paradise she thought it would be. Most of the shiners have died, and according to James she is to blame for many of the deaths, a burden which sits heavy on her shoulders. Still some have survived and Wren is determined to keep them safe as they fight to establish a home outside while hiding from the rovers who have weapons that can kill from far away. But as long as she has Pace she knows everything will be fine.

Wisden comes to life as we relive the finest, the strangest and the most dramatic moments of cricketing history in this entertaining portrait of the English game. Take your seat on the boundary as we enjoy some of the most colourful and intriguing English cricket matches in the history of the game, as King George VI takes a hat-trick in the grounds of Windsor Castle, a cricket-loving vicar escapes death on the high seas, Denis Compton scores 18 centuries in one glorious summer and while a wartime bomb stops play at Lord's, Harold Wilson has an adventure in Moscow.

Cricket's legends play again as we join WG Grace, Jack Hobbs, Denis Compton, Geoffrey Boycott and other great cricketers. We relive Len Hutton's 13-hour stand against Australia in the summer of '38, marvel at Ian Botham's 1981 tour de force at Old Trafford, accompany Ted Dexter as he stands for Parliament and join Wilfred Rhodes, aged 49, taking 6 wickets for 79 as he saves England from defeat in 1926.

Travel around the world in the company of some of cricket's most notable personalities, from Australia to Trinidad and the Antarctic to Cambodia, as they witness both triumph and disaster during the game's unpredictable adventures abroad. We join a cricket match in a Japanese POW camp, we are with Don Bradman as England's bowlers adopt the 'fast leg theory' of bowling and we celebrate Garfield Sobers as he surpasses Hutton's record test innings, and then there is the English wicket-keeper who gets arrested in Australia.

There once was a fisherman who sold all his catches to the king. One day, the fisherman caught a golden crab, which he set aside instead of selling it to the king. Much to the surprise of the fisherman and his wife, the golden crab could talk! He requested that the fisherman go to the king and tell him that he wished to marry his youngest daughter.