Showing results by narrator "Madeleine Brolly" in All Categories

June 1910. Fighting her corner in a man’s world, Dr. Margaret Demeray works as a pathologist in a London hospital for the poor. Suppressing her worry that she’s breaching confidentiality, Margaret gives a stranger called Fox information about a dead down-and-out, in the hope he’ll use it to raise awareness of bad working conditions. But when a second man appears to die the same way, Margaret starts to wonder why the enigmatic Fox keeps turning up to ask ever more complex questions. She decides to work alone, uncertain of his motives and wary of her attraction to him.

Juliette always thought she’d have more time. But as her 40th birthday approaches she is dealt the deadliest of blows - she has just weeks to live. As the terrible news sinks in, Juliette’s only concern is for her 15-year-old daughter, Rosie. Who will take care of her precious child? Who will love her daughter with the same fierce love? The answer lies in a secret Juliette hoped never to reveal....

Irish Luck, Chinese Medicine is about improbable allies: an Irish single mother and a Chinese physician. Set against the backdrop of the Catholic Church in 19th Century America, it’s the story of how entrepreneurship and strength become a gateway for family survival despite injustice, tragedy, and ill-fated love. Follow the journey of a woman finding her strength as she rescues her sons from child labor and saves her family’s inheritance, only to risk everything for the man she loves.

From Life tells the story of the greatest portrait photographer of the Victorian age, Julia Margaret Cameron. Born in Calcutta in 1815, she married and settled down to the life of a typical Victorian colonial matron; but, beneath this conventional exterior, she was increasingly interested in photography. After moving to England, Cameron acquired her first camera in 1863, ultimately emerging as the leading portrait photographer of the Victorian art world.

Everyone in town knows Nancy Jones. She loves her cats. She loves her tumbledown house by the sea. She loves her job in the local school where she tries to help the children who need help the most. Nancy tries hard not to think about her past loves and where those led her.... Nancy never shares her secrets - because some doors are better kept locked. But one day she accepts a cat-sitting request from a local woman, and at the woman’s house Nancy sees a photograph in a bright-red frame. A photograph that opens the door to her painful past....

London May 1913. Angry about the treatment of suffragettes, and a supporter’s murder, Dr Margaret Demeray’s friend Maude urges their suffrage group towards violent militancy. But Margaret is conflicted when a parcel bomb brings casualties to her hospital. And what is the risk to a fragile peace treaty which is about to be signed, and to Fox who’s tracking down stolen diplomatic documents?

Natasha is a woman with a problem. The party lifestyle that she enjoyed with her partner, Helen, is about to come crashing to an abrupt end. While she battles with her addiction, she meets the charismatic Caroline who has the way of life that she yearns for. As Helen resists all change, Natasha searches for the bridge to a better life and finds herself facing hard choices.

In the sleepy town of Lost Maidens Loch, people sometimes disappear.... Down a quiet lane in town sits a little shop full of oddities you’d probably miss if you weren’t looking for it. This is Love’s Curiosities Inc., and its owner, Temerity Love, is sought by experts all over the world for her rare and magical gift: The ability to find lost things and learn their stories. When Lost Maidens’ pretty local school teacher is found murdered by a poisoned cup of tea, a strange antique hand mirror is discovered nearby.

1911: After the violent murder of three policemen in the line of duty, tensions between London constabulary and Whitechapel anarchists simmer. Meanwhile accusations and counter accusations of espionage further weaken relations between Germany and Britain. Can Margaret Demeray and Fox find out which potential enemy is behind a threat to the capital before it’s too late?

London, summer 1912. Busy with the pressures of work and new motherhood, Margaret Demeray wonders if she will ever be free to help Fox again. When she hears of an unlikely spy plot, she expects Fox to be incredulous, but something reminds him of a case from 1902, and he decides to investigate.

Gleaned from the author's experiences over many years of yoga and Zen training, as well as from conversations with teachers, folk stories and temple magazines, this is a fascinating and enlightening compendium of tales from the yoga and Zen traditions.

Stories such as these are used in many spiritual schools' teaching - they're the flint or steel that makes the spark which, when nurtured daily, fires the imagination, heralding enlightenment and insight.

190 AD Pecunia: an insignificant town in west Britain. Romano-Briton Lucretia is determined that her get-rich-quick scheme will not be undermined by minor things like her husband’s death, dubious imposters, or her married daughter’s fascination with a celebrity gladiator. But when the bodies start to mount up, wise-woman Tryssa starts to ask questions. Certain that a forgotten goddess cannot be blamed, Tryssa needs to uncover the truth before another life is lost.

Collected by the author, these stories from the yoga and Zen traditions are the flint and steel that strike a spark that lights up the mind with insights that one should ponder to bring to light ever deeper meaning. They may be similar in intent to Zen koans - but they are rather different in content. In many Zen koans, someone says or does something extraordinarily inappropriate, which catches your attention just because it's extraordinary - but afterwards the light from them has to be applied to daily life.

Rosie Lee's owner, Abby, is a woman without a plan...and her beloved little cafe is a business with a serious lack of customers. The Rosie Lee's fry-up is legendary, but cooked breakfasts alone - however perfectly sizzled the bacon - aren't going to pay the bills. Fast approaching 40 and fighting a serious case of empty nest syndrome, Abby realises it's not just her menu that needs a makeover. And when Jack Chance, her 'The One That Got Away', saunters through the cafe doors and back into her life things definitely look set to change....

When a factory girl and a Jewish businessman fall in love it seems that the whole world is against them. Manchester, 1939. On the eve of war Gracie Earnshaw is working in Rosenberg's Raincoat factory - a job she hates - but her life is about to be turned upside down when she falls in love with Jacob, the boss' charismatic nephew. Through Jacob, with his ambitions to be a writer, Gracie glimpses another world: theatre, music and prejudice. But their forbidden romance is cut short when Jacob is arrested and tragedy unfolds.

With Lucretia’s family busy arguing about money, any possibility that an old ring bought in the forum might be important is pushed aside until Lucretia’s cousin is poisoned and the local magistrate Amicus starts to raise questions. As the past starts to catch up with the present, Tryssa must help Amicus discover who would kill rather than reveal long-buried truths...and what those truths actually are.

1941. Hitler unleashes Operation Barbarossa, taking the German forces to the outskirts of Moscow. Fearful of Lenin’s mausoleum falling into enemy hands, Stalin orders Lenin to be moved a 1,000 miles behind the Urals. Caught up the web of intrigue is beautiful Allied spy Eva Molenaar. She uncovers a plot involving a Hollywood mogul, Hitler’s propaganda machine, and a Nazi spy ring to bring Lenin’s body out of Russia for a propaganda coup.

Marcus isn’t an ordinary 13-year-old. He’s a half vampire, with incredible special powers. And together with his friends, Tallulah and Gracie, he hunts and fights a totally evil enemy: the deadly vampires, who are out to destroy all humans and half vampires. But something strange has happened to Marcus. He’s lost his memory and can’t remember anything about his previous life as a vampire hunter. Tallulah and Gracie are seriously worried.

She is a girl three inches tall with eyes like drops of dew. Her clothes are cut from handkerchiefs and stitched with spider silk. For half of her life, she has been trapped in a birdcage while her giant kidnapper sits beside her, writing a leather-bound book the size of a house. Her name is Lily, and tonight she is escaping. She is going home. To Lilliput. Inspired by Gulliver’s Travels, Lilliput is an exhilarating adventure filled with cunning escape plans, evil clockmakers and very talkative parrots.