Showing results by narrator "Kim Hicks" in All Categories

In August 2014 Jenny Diski was diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer and given 'two or three years' to live. She didn't know how to react. All responses felt scripted, laden with cliché. Being a writer, she decided to write about it (grappling with the unoriginality even of this) and to tell a story she had not yet told: that of being taken in, aged 15, by the author Doris Lessing and the subsequent 50 years of their complex relationship.

Summoned to the riverside by the desperate, scribbled note of an old friend, Jem Flockhart and Will Quartermain find themselves on board the seamen's floating hospital, an old hulk known only as The Blood, where prejudice, ambition and murder seethe beneath a veneer of medical respectability. Onshore, a young woman, a known prostitute, is found drowned in a derelict boatyard. A man leaps to his death into the Thames, driven mad by poison and fear. The events are linked - but how?

When Juliet Porter’s mother dies, she leaves Juliet some old letters and a photograph which shatter all her previously-held beliefs. They show that her real father was an American bomber pilot in the second world war, some 40 years before, and that he had met her mother while serving in England. Armed only with this photo, Juliet sets out to trace her real father, and eventually finds the airfield where he served.

Sunny's mundane country life is changed overnight when handsome, stylish Gray's Bentley breaks down outside her parents' cottage in Rushington. It seems that he may have fallen in love with her. Sunny herself remains unconvinced.

Four short murder mysteries, three featuring Detective Sergeant Christina Kenton, set in the Cambridgeshire countryside... In "Kill Me Tomorrow", a serial murderer is killing according to the position of the numbers on a clock face. The police think they can mark on the map the place where the fifth murder will occur: In Christina Kenton's own village of Foxfield.

Something wicked has happened on court eighteen... When a double grand slam winner is found dead, newly promoted Detective Inspector Angela Costello finds herself uncovering a trail through the complicated life of the beloved victim. While she has no way of proving her many suspicions, she gets closer to the truth when a prime suspect overlooks a vital detail... A classic murder mystery in the Christie tradition, Game, Set and Murder is ideal for fans of that genre, tennis lovers, and anyone seeking a light but satisfying read.

Mark is scared of the dark, but when he thinks his Great Gran is in trouble, nothing is going to stop him from coming to her rescue.

Young Angela is obsessed with Jimmy Jelly, her favourite TV personality, though the rest of the family can't stand him - that is, until he comes to open a shop in the local shopping mall!

Twistleton is a village untouched by time. Daisy, Jean, Freddie and their friends Aurelia and Laura are devoted to the place, so that when war breaks out Twistleton becomes the embodiment of everything for which they are fighting. For the previous generation the new conflict causes private despair, increased when Twistleton is requisitioned by the Army. Turfed out of their houses, the villagers take refuge at the Hall.

There's consternation among the villagers of Prior's Ford when a firm is interested in re-opening an old granite quarry. It'll be disruptive, noisy and dusty, despite bringing in some new jobs. Publican Glen organises a protest group - but when a local newspaper takes an interest in him and the story, he begins to feel nervous. And when Jenny Forsyth attends a protest meeting, she is shocked to discover the quarry surveyor is an unwelcome face from her past.

Who is about to disturb the peace in Prior's Ford? Actress Meredith Whitelaw, axed from a popular television soap, has descended upon Prior's Ford to 'rest' - but instead she creates havoc for the local dramatic society. Clarissa Ramsay, travelling the world, keeps in contact with her friend Alastair Marshall, who finds himself missing her more with each letter that arrives.

When famous artist Napier Todd stumbles across Edith Hanson scrubbing floors, he is immediately struck by her beauty. Within weeks Napier and Edith are married, and she moves into his large country house. However, the marriage is troubled from the start, and Edith falls ill. Napier takes her to the idyllic Cornish fishing village of Newbourne to convalesce, and there Edith meets Celandine, a struggling artist, and her husband, Sheridan, another painter.

1941. England is at its lowest ebb. At Eden Park, where Poppy, Kate, Lily, Marjorie, and her adopted brother Billy are part of the espionage unit, the authorities have discovered there is a double agent operating in their midst. Lily volunteers to be dropped into France, only to discover that her partner is Scott, Poppy's fiance.

Beneath the blooms of Chelsea Flower Show, danger lurks behind every petal... When a suspicious death occurs at the high-profile book launch party of Welsh TV chef Griff Madoc, DI Angela Costello finds herself entangled in yet another tantalizing web of intrigue. With cyanide-laced champagne and a long list of suspects, DI Costello and her team must unravel the truth behind the deadly incident before it's lights out for another victim...

Florence Fontaine has still not recovered from a family tragedy when she discovers a strangely dressed young man asleep in her guest cottage at the Old Rectory. Against her better judgement, she offers him breakfast, only to rue the day as she finds herself caught up in the resulting drama of his life. Against everyone's advice, Florence enlists friends and neighbours to help restore Edward's missing memories. But can they discover who he might be?

As the top model for the Ivano King fashion house and girlfriend of the label's founder, Ian King, Kirsty was destined for stardom. But when she is found dead in her flat, D.I. Angela Costello is called to the scene. D.I. Costello's investigation leads her to the local gym, and as she delves deeper, she discovers a seedy underworld of theft, addiction, and prostitution lurking behind the glamorous façade of the fashion world.

You wouldn’t be ‘barking mad’ if, when asked the definition of certain phrases, ‘the cat got your tongue’ and you ‘clammed up’. Let’s not ‘beat around the bush’; the English language is littered with linguistic quirks that, on closer examination, seem utterly fantastical. In Spilling the Beans on the Cat’s Pyjamas, Judy Parkinson explores the many colourful – but rather incomprehensible – phrases that enhance our language, describing their origins and defining their true meanings.

Before the Second World War breaks out, Chevrons, the idyllic country house where the Garlands have lived for centuries, has already been touched by events in Europe. To the horror of her family, Katherine, the eldest daughter, has run off to join the Nazis. On the outbreak of war, Caro, her younger sister, her friend Robyn, and the maids, Trixie and Betty, leave Chevrons to help the war effort, and the old house is left to be managed by men too old to fight.

A killer riff that hits a deadly note. When a member of rock star Brendan Phelan's road crew turns up dead, all fingers point to the colourful cast of characters on stage - including front man Phelan. With guns, whips, and a trail of suspects, DI Angela Costello and her team must race against time to catch the killer before the show's over for good. But with a web of secrets to unravel, the truth may be harder to find than a backstage pass...

In 1960s Bristol, a family is overshadowed by tragedy. While Susan, a typically feisty seven-year-old, is busy being brave, her mother, Eddress, is struggling for courage. Though bound by an indestructible love, their journey through a world that is darkening with tragedy is fraught with the kind of misunderstandings that bring as much laughter as pain, and as many dreams as nightmares. How does a child cope when faced with a wall of adult secrets?

Hannah is a hotel worker, who struggles with depression after a trauma in her childhood and a toxic ex-boyfriend. Callum is a student, questioning his own sanity since a strange young man appeared on the other side of his mirror. When Hannah disappears, her brother Callum determines to find her. His journey leads him to Epping Forest and a mysterious waterfall. But Hannah has fallen through a portal to another world.