Showing results by narrator "Cathleen McCarron" in All Categories

Resurrecting buried scandals, audacious hoaxes and private tragedies, Emma Donoghue has written a sequence of short stories about peculiar moments in the history of the British Isles. Here artists mix with poisoners and countesses rub shoulders with cross-dressers, vicars and revolutionaries; the Second Coming is proclaimed in Scotland; and a miniature girl becomes a tiny skeleton in a London museum.

Ailsa Calder has inherited half a house. The other half belongs to a man who disappeared without a trace 27 years ago. Her father. Leaving London behind to settle her mother's estate, Ailsa returns to her childhood home in the foothills of the Scottish Highlands, accompanied by the half sister she's never taken the time to get to know.

Even perfect mothers have secrets... Meet Leah, the perfect wife and mum with a closet full of skeletons - and if the secret gets out, her carefully crafted world could crumble. Then there's Annie, the gangster's moll with a sharp mind. She's not afraid to get her hands dirty, but no one knows the devastating secret haunting her. And lastly, Terry, the king of Glasgow gangland. He's ruthless when it comes to growing his empire, but his weakness is women.

Shortly after being unceremoniously dumped at a petrol station, Anya Mackie finds a pact she signed with Euan Carrick which promised they'd marry if both are still single the following decade. But Euan hasn't been seen for ten years and there's no trace of him anywhere. After accepting the help of Jamie Kildare - another blast from Anya's past with very mysterious reasons for tracking down Euan - the pair set off to find The Back-Up Man.

When eighteenth-century poet Alison Cockburn accepts a light-hearted challenge from her good friend Katherine Hume to live as a man, in order to infiltrate the infamous Edinburgh Skating Club, little do they both realise how her new identity will shape their futures. Together they navigate their way through the sights, sounds and faces of Enlightenment Edinburgh, from Old Town to New Town and from joyous friendship to a deep affection.

When twelve-year-old Lily moves to the sleepy seaside town of Edge, she’s sure that nothing exciting is ever going to happen to her again. But when she stumbles upon a secret museum hidden in the middle of town, she realises that there might be more to her new home than meets the eye. The Museum of Emily is filled with the belongings of one seemingly ordinary girl who disappeared from the town without a trace. With the help of her new friends, Lily is determined to solve the mystery and find out who Emily was, why she disappeared and who has created the strange, hidden museum.

Lily Crawford and Jeanie Taylor, from very different backgrounds, are firm friends from their childhoods in Kirkcudbright. They share their ambitions for their futures, Lily to be an artist, Jeanie to be a dancer. The two women's eventful lives are intertwined. In the years before the First World War, the girls lose touch when Jeanie runs away from home and joins a dance company, while Lily attends The Mack, Glasgow's famous school of art designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh.

The children of Mivtown have grown up hearing the legend of the monsters of the loch. But it’s only a story - a warning to stay away from the water. Then strange things start happening in the village. Effie’s rabbit Buster escapes from a locked hutch, her mum disappears without trace and slugs start to infest her home. Along with her best friend Finn, Effie begins to hunt for clues to solve the mysteries of Mivtown. Could this all be connected to the legend? Is it really just a story, or is there something lurking in those deep, dark waters?

Hame, n. Scottish form of 'home': a valued place regarded as a refuge or place of origin. In the wake of the breakdown of her relationship, Mhairi McPhail dismantles her life in New York and moves with her nine-year-old daughter, Agnes, to the remote Scottish island of Fascaray. Mhairi has been commissioned to write a biography of the late Bard of Fascaray, Grigor McWatt, a cantankerous poet with an international reputation. But who was Grigor McWatt?

It's hard enough having a baby on your own. But for Imogen, 24 years old and blind since birth, it will be harder than most. Her journey will take her from heartache to hope and back again. But Imogen has never let blindness rule her life, and she isn't going to start now.... Inspired by a real-life story, this is a moving and gripping listen from number-one best seller Amanda Prowse.

To marry him will be to betray her family… Bessie has sacrificed herself for her family’s honour and is at the mercy of the court of King James. She’s enticed not only by her mortal enemy, Lord Thomas Carwell, but also by the opulence of a world far removed from her own. When the King demands her brother’s head, Carwell is the only one to whom she can turn. But she must pay the ultimate price for his protection...

Word in the Royal Court has spread that the Wild Scottish Borders are too unruly. Upon the King’s command, John Brunson must return home to persuade his family to honour the King’s call for peace. To succeed, John knows winning over the daughter of an allied family, Cate Gilnock, holds the key. But this intriguing beauty is beyond the powers of flattery and seduction…

31st August 1997. Rose Wilson is 14, but looks 16. Pimped out by her ‘boyfriend’, she has seen more of the darkness in life than someone twice her age. On the night of Princess Diana's death, Rose snaps and commits two terrible crimes. But a defence lawyer takes pity and sets out to do what he can to save her. Present day. DI Alex Morrow is a witness in the case of Michael Brown – a vicious, nasty arms dealer.

This is a book about memories, love, sex and the power of the imagination to see us through the most difficult times. The women of Reality, Reality are mesmerising, whether in love or in solitude. Jackie Kay’s newest and most luminous of collections is full of compassion, generosity, sorrow, and joy. In 15 extraordinary stories, she celebrates the richness and power of dream-life to inspire, to repair, and to make real.

Charley Lambert has a perfect life. She has The Job. The Wardrobe. And The Flat. Then she breaks her leg in three places and is forced to hand over her job to her nasty deputy while she recovers. Desperate for something to do, she discovers a talent for helping the lovelorn online. Then along comes William.…

Wish I was Here features tales of passion and jealousy, lust and romance from the award-winning author of Red Dust Road. This fierce, funny, and compassionate collection explores every facet of that most overwhelming and complicated of human emotions: love. With winning directness, Jackie Kay captures her characters' greatest joys and greatest vulnerabilities, exposing the moments of tenderness, of shock, of bravery, and of stupidity that accompany the search for love, the discovery of love and, most of all, love's loss.

A hen night in Glasgow leaves the bride-to-be dead on a toilet floor. Her body is twisted, her face wears a terrifying grin. Who would kill a girl just before her wedding?

"You have to bide your time when you live a life of crime. That's what we discovered when we founded The Cherry Sundae Company. It seemed to us there was only so much money in the world, and some people had too much. Others hadn't enough. You could say we were vigilantes."

When Effie Coulstoun drops dead on the floor of her bar in a small Spanish town mid-business meeting, her daughter Daniella feels it’s her duty to return for the funeral. But Daniella has been estranged from her mother for over 20 years. Daniella is soon confronted by a hostile group of expat misfits who, along with Effie, are involved in a multi-million-pound property scam. The expats are threatening to implicate Daniella to save themselves. A Spanish detective is investigating Effie’s death. He’s convinced Daniella knows more than she is telling.

Elizabeth Murray has been condemned to burn at the stake when a strange man visits her. He offers her a deal: her soul in return for immortality. What he offers is not a normal life. To survive, Elizabeth must become Death. Elizabeth must ease the passing of all those who die, using her compassion to guide them. She accepts and, for 500 years, whirls from one death to the next. Until one day, everything changes. She - Death - falls in love. Desperate to escape from her deal, she summons the man who saved her. He agrees to release her the condition that she gives him five lives.