Showing results by narrator "Katy Sobey" in All Categories

Pregnant Victoria Valbon was brutally murdered in an alley three weeks ago - and her killer hasn’t been caught. Tonight is Stella McKeever’s final radio show. The theme is secrets. You tell her yours, and she’ll share some of hers. Stella might tell you about Tom, a boyfriend who likes to play games, about the mother who abandoned her, now back after 14 years. She might tell you about the perfume bottle with the star-shaped stopper, or about her father....

When Sasha meets Elliot a month before her wedding to Pete, the news he brings seems incredible. He claims to have arrived from the future, explaining that their timeline was knocked off course in 2010, preventing them from meeting, and begs her to find him in the present day. But Sasha’s wedding plans are underway, and though she’s curious, Elliot turns out to be feckless, rebellious, and engaged to a glamorous and pregnant Belle.

When six-year-old Clementine Knight loses her mother to malaria during the 1870s diamond rush in southern Africa, she is left to be raised by her destitute, alcoholic father, James. Much of Clementine's care falls to their trusty Zulu companion, Joseph One-Shoe, and the unlikely pair form an unbreakable bond. When the two men uncover a large, flawless diamond, James believes he has finally secured their future, but the discovery of the priceless gem comes at a huge cost.

When Fern and Paul move into the large old house on Crenellation Lane, with beautiful high ceilings and a luscious garden, they think they’ve found their dream home. After the devastating loss of Fern’s twin sister, it will be a fresh start and somewhere to raise their first baby. But as soon as they arrive, Fern starts having terrifying nightmares about the woman who lived there before. When the woman showed Fern around, they bonded over their pregnancies. Now, Fern can’t let her go. Paul fears his wife has relapsed, obsessing in the same way she did after her twin’s death.

This collection of narratives from autistic adults is structured around their decades of experience of life, covering 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60 and 70s+. These are varied and diverse, spanning different continents, genders, sexualities and ethnicities, yet the author highlights the common themes that unite them and skilfully draws out these threads. Each chapter is based on accounts from one age group and includes accounts from people of that age, giving an insight into the history of autism and signifying how gaining a diagnosis (or not) has changed people's lives over time.

Ottilie Oakcroft can’t imagine living anywhere but the village of Thimblebury. Since moving there after her husband’s death, the villagers have welcomed her with open arms, and it’s been a long time since she’s felt this happy. Another reason for the sparkle in her eyes is her blossoming romance with Heath, who showed her that second chances at love can happen. But when a chance meeting with Heath’s glamorous ex-wife Mila sparks a terrible argument between the pair, and with Ottilie’s patients keeping her too busy to repair the cracks in their relationship, things begin to feel a little shaky.

When Emma’s useless fiancé tells her a lie she cannot forgive, she decides enough is enough. She leaves him, quits her dead-end job, and travels hundreds of miles away to Honeymoon in the Dorset countryside, to help her friend Tia turn the old train station into a boutique hotel. Tia has told Emma that it will be a project, but when Emma arrives in Honeymoon and sees a weed-choked crumbling ruin, her vision of an idyllic life in Dorset begins to disintegrate. But when she meets twinkly-eyed builder Aiden, she can’t help but feel that the stars have for once aligned.

Harriet Manners knows that the hottest observed place on earth is Furnace Creek in Death Valley. She knows that dolphins shed the top layer of their skin every two hours. And she knows just how badly auditions can go, especially when you’re a model. But she has no idea how to get herself out of the extreme embarrassment of the school play or what to do when arch-nemesis Alexa decides it’s the perfect opportunity to humiliate her.

When Annie Trebarwith unexpectedly inherits Tregavara House, her much-loved family home atop the cliffs of Salt Bay, she begins to wonder: with all the good friends and warm memories she’s made in the village, could it be her forever home? Luckily her gorgeous Poldark-lookalike boyfriend, Josh Pasco, has exactly the same idea. High on the Cornish cliffs he gets down on one knee, and Annie has everything she’s ever dreamed of.

Alex Mullins knows she is one of the lucky ones. When a fatal coach crash at her school reunion killed several of her classmates, she was saved from a grisly fate. She is haunted by what she thinks she saw that night - a vision of a skeletal woman, known by the locals as the Bonehead - a woman who brings bad luck to all that see her. Now a police officer in Gloucestershire, Alex fights to overcome the past by helping other people. But when her path crosses with someone who was there that fateful night, her new life begins to unravel at the seams.

Maude is the daughter of witches. She spent her childhood running wild with her best friend, Odette, weaving stories of girls who slayed dragons and saved princes. Then Maude grew up and lost her magic—and her best friend. These days, magic is toothless, reduced to glamour patches and psychic energy drinks found in supermarkets and shopping malls. Odette has always hungered for forbidden, dangerous magic, and two weeks ago she went searching for it. Now she’s missing, and everyone says she’s dead. Everyone except Maude.

After a whirlwind romance, Clara is excitedly planning her wedding to her handsome fiancé Logan in the picture-perfect Cornish village of Port Promise, with her mother and three sisters at her side.

Gabriela is a senior negotiator in the Foreign Office. When she returns to her young family after a seven-month stint in Moscow, something doesn’t seem right. Isobel is a journalist on the local paper in Camden. After witnessing a violent attack, she starts to investigate. But someone saw her watching, and is making themselves known in increasingly frightening ways. As Gabriela’s life begins to unravel, Isobel gets closer to the truth, and the two women’s lives converge in this deeply chilling examination of deceit.

Dr Isla Fenwick has a life that most modern women of 1933 might envy - her career gives her status, her pedigree adds freedom and her oldest crush, Jovian Mandeville, has reappeared in her life with a marriage proposal. Her life is beginning to feel complete. However, she insists on keeping a private promise she made to her late mother to work at the coalface of medicine in India before committing to life as a dutiful wife.

The First World War was the defining event of the last century. It claimed the lives of more than 16 million people across the globe and had an enormous impact on all who experienced it. No nation in Europe was left untouched and even neutral states felt its devastating impact. Yet it was the ordinary men and women who were affected the most. This gripping, revealing and poignant collection of stories tells the First World War from the perspective of those who were there, using letters, diaries and memoirs from Imperial War Museum's unparalleled archives.

Surrounded by beautiful gardens in the glorious Sussex countryside, Summerhayes House seems like a true hidden paradise, but behind its polished floors and perfect green lawns is a family divided. The Summer family’s beloved home is under threat, and 19-year-old Elizabeth Summer finds herself caught in the heart of the crisis.

Harriet Manners knows almost every fact there is. She knows duck-billed platypuses don't have stomachs. She knows that 14 squirrels were once detained as spies. She knows that both chess and Snakes and Ladders were invented in the same country. And for once, Harriet knows exactly how her life should go. She's got it all planned out. Though her friends seem less than happy, Harriet is determined to Make Things Happen! If only everyone else would stick to the script....

Cosy up for Christmas with this festive story, starring everyone's favourite Victorian foundling, Hetty Feather!An unexpected gift leads to trouble for Hetty on Christmas Day at the Foundling Hospital, and the dreaded Matron Bottomly is delighted to have an excuse to exclude Hetty from the festive celebrations. Poor Hetty is distraught - but just when it seems that all is lost, a dear friend arrives to whisk her away for a Christmas unlike any other....

Martha is lost. She’s been lost since she was a baby, abandoned in a suitcase on the train from Paris. Ever since, she’s waited in the station's lost property for someone to claim her. It’s been 16 years, but she’s still hopeful. In the meantime, there are mysteries to solve: secret tunnels under the station, a suitcase that may have belonged to the Beatles, the Roman soldier who appears at the same time every day with his packed lunch. Not to mention the stuffed monkey that someone keeps misplacing.

When 27-year-old Posy arrives at picture-perfect Oleander House in the Somerset village of Astercombe, she is enchanted. Adopted when she was just a baby, Posy is excited to reconnect with her birth family and help out on the family cider farm with its old stone walls and bees buzzing in the hedgerows. There’s just one tiny problem - her new next-door neighbor. Haughty, handsome vineyard owner Lachlan.