Showing results by narrator "Janine" in All Categories

When local baker Essie Browne discovers that Mistletoe Gardens is to be demolished in January, she’s determined to save the place she loves so much. So Essie proposes building a life size gingerbread house to bring in the crowds...just how hard can it be? Well, quite hard actually. Essie can bake gingerbread blindfolded, but she hasn’t got a clue how to build an actual house with it! She needs help - and fast! Enter local builder, Joss Hallissey. Essie is convinced that with Joss’s help they can pull this off. There’s just one tiny problem: Joss hates Christmas.

Vallen, once a member of the king’s shrikes, now stands accused of treason against the Kingdom of Erishum. Alongside four others, he has been condemned to serve as a sacrifice to the monstrous hyva that roam the Dying Wilds. His only hope for survival is a shadowy map and religious amulet his childhood friend Nyssa slipped him. Despite terrible odds, Vallen manages to escape from the sacrificial mound, but not before uncovering a terrible secret – one that could shatter the very bedrock of Erishum – only known to King Jorek and the Grand Enumerox Berossus.

Artist Annie Wright likes her life free of complications, especially complications of the male persuasion. She has her dream job running an art gallery by the sea and her volunteer work rescuing abandoned dogs, and that's enough for her. She doesn't like to talk about her past, especially how she became a widow after just a few years of marriage...until one day her past walks right into the Cape Light Gallery in the form of her late husband's best friend Jeremy, the man who left the country rather than see Annie married to someone else.

Gwenda and Douglas Brady were among the millions of British children sent to live with new families for their own safety during the Second World War, leaving behind their parents, their friends and all that felt familiar and safe. Evacuation could be a scary experience, but five-year-old Gwenda and her brother were lucky enough to be housed with a kindly schoolmaster and his wife, and soon the realities of the war felt very far away.

La poésie lyrique du début du XXème siècle est à la fois héritère et novatrice dans ses thèmes comme dans sa forme avec une nette prédilection pour le vers libre. Continuité du mouvement symbolisme (Anna de Noailles), de la lignée de la cérébralité et du travail formel mallarméen, de la libération de thèmes nouveaux comme l'humilité du quotidien (Francis James) et de l'ouverture au monde moderne (Emille Verhaeren).

Aurora Pettigrew has a loving family, a nice home, a comfortable life. She's waiting for the right man to offer marriage, and the man for her is Reid Sinclair, heir to the Sinclair fortune. But Reid's mother is against the match and unearths a secret that will tear Aurora's world apart. Unwilling to bring shame on her family and needing answers, Aurora moves to York. By chance, she reconnects with a man from her past, and before he leaves with the army to war in South Africa, he offers her security through marriage.

Former spy William Saunders’ world is turned upside down the day he rescues missionary worker Hattie Wright from the deep blue waters off the coast of Gibraltar. When circumstances compel them to share a cramped cabin on the boat trip back to London, desire and passion ignite between them. Hattie sees the time with Will as a brief respite, before she goes back to her mission among the poor and vulnerable in the slums of London. When Hattie goes missing, Will is finally forced to face the truth of his past to save the woman he loves.

At a certain age, women gain a huge confidence about themselves because they realise that life’s too short to waste. These six women are in their 40s and each has a very different – and sometimes surprising – story to tell, from the husband who unexpectedly disappears, to the dreaded ‘other woman’, and the sisters who take an adventurous trip on the Nile together.

For Caroline Saunders, beauty is a curse. Everywhere she goes, she is surrounded by men who worship her. But Caroline knows none of them could ever love her just for herself. She treats her court of suitors with cool disdain, gaining herself the title of "Ice Queen". The Ice Queen is the one woman, in all of London society, Julian knows he could never be prevailed upon to marry, let alone love. But when Newhall Castle becomes Caroline’s only place of sanctuary, Julian quickly discovers that beneath her icy demeanor there beats a passionate heart.

The Granola Diet promises to turn curvy Sara Rodríguez Bloom García into a svelte, new woman in no time. Once it does, her husband’s rekindled passions will be unstoppable - she hopes. “Holy molé salsa!” When Sara reaches for the box of cereal, she travels back in time to a childhood trip to the grocery store with her beloved grandmother. Seeing her dead grandmother alive and well again is wonderful, but Sara may be losing her mind, or much, much more.

Following a scandalous affair, wayward Emma Devaney is sent in disgrace from her home in Ireland to Ryhope, where she will live with her widowed aunt, Bessie Brogan, and help run her pub. Bessie is kind but firm, and at first, Emma rebels against her lack of freedom. Struggling to fit in, she turns to the wrong person for comfort, and becomes pregnant. Accepting she must embrace her new life for the sake of her baby, Emma pours her energy into making the pub thrive and he catches the attention of Robert, a gruff but sincere farmer, who means to win her heart.

Life as a lady-in-waiting for Mary, Queen of Scots isn’t at all what Isabel Tait expected. But she must either tolerate the mindless partying and ceaseless backstabbing of Mary’s other ladies, or risk being sent home to a forced marriage. She’d almost rather return to her family - if not for a certain handsome gentleman who arouses a new desire in her, something she’s never before experienced. Of course, he’ll never notice her....

Even as a child Barbara was beautiful, but as her beauty grew so did the affliction which shadowed it. She was becoming deaf. Yet living in an almost silent world protected her from what could be a worse affliction - to know the truth of her own origins. Barbara had another protector in Anna Brigmore, who knew that truth and was haunted by the thought it must one day be revealed to this girl she cherished like her own child. And among the surrounding hills and valleys of Northumberland, it was a long-relished scandal....

After ten years, Peter leaves Gillian for Laura. Distraught, Gillian goes round to Peter's parents to be consoled. They take her in - then things go a little weird. This rousing audio dramatisation stars Diane Morgan, Colin Hoult, Janine Duvitski, John Henshaw, Zoe Gardner, Zahra Barri, John Biddle, Tony Marshall, Christine Hall, and Sean Grundy. It was directed by Alison Crawford.

August, 1955. Janice Butler is working as a waitress at her mother’s Blackpool boardinghouse before she heads off to university. When Val and Cissie, both from Walker’s woollen mill in Halifax, come to stay for a week, the three young women form an instant friendship. They attend a local dance at the Winter Gardens, which changes all their lives, both for better and for worse.

After the death of their parents, sisters Poppy and Rose are taken in by widow Nellie Harper. But whilst they have a roof over their heads, the young orphans are unloved, unwanted, and always hungry, with only one pair of boots between them. Keen to make money, Nellie hatches a plan to sell the girls to the mysterious Mr Scurrfield. But when the day comes for them to leave, Scurrfield reveals he will take only one of the sisters - and he will decide which it will be on the turn of a sixpence.

Life seems perfect in Valley Farm, a quiet community in Northumberland. Then a shocking discovery shatters the silence. The owners of a big country house have employed a house-sitter, a young ecologist named Patrick, to look after the place while they’re away. But Patrick is found dead by the side of the lane into the valley - a beautiful, lonely place to die.

Ivy, Dulcie, Barbara, Ann, Dorothy and Jean all had different reasons for applying to work at Carr’s biscuits, but once they had put on their overalls and walked through the factory gates they discovered a community full of life, laughter and friendship. To those who didn’t know, the biscuit factory that towered over Carlisle might look like just another slice of the industrial North, a noisy and chaotic place with workers trooping in and out at all hours.

Everyone recognises the cry of Meg Sutcliffe as she plies her trade along the back streets of Ryhope. She learnt the ropes from her dad when he returned from the war. But when tragedy struck, Meg had no choice but to continue alone, with only her trusty dog, Spot, and beloved horse, Stella, for company. Now the meagre money she earns is the only thing that stands between her family's safety and predatory rent collector Hawk Jackson....

DI Vera Stanhope is not one to make friends easily, but her hippy neighbours keep her well-supplied in homebrew and conversation so she has more tolerance for them than most. When one of them goes missing she feels duty-bound to find out what happened. But her path leads her to more than a missing friend... It's an easy job to track the young woman down to the Writer's House, a country retreat where aspiring authors gather to workshop and work through their novels. It gets complicated when a body is discovered and Vera's neighbour is found with a knife in her hand.