Showing results by narrator "Sophie Aldred" in All Categories

Celia Frost is a freak. At least, that’s what everyone thinks. Her life is ruled by a rare disorder that means she could bleed to death from the slightest cut, confining her to a gloomy bubble of ‘safety’. No friends. No fun. No life. But when a knife attack on Celia has unexpected consequences, her mum reacts strangely - and suddenly they’re on the run. Why is her mum so scared? Someone out there knows.

We’ve given the planet a hard time over the last couple of centuries, and she’s showing the wear and tear of her least considerate offspring. We asked our authors: Where are the signs of renewal? Are there signs of regrowth? Have we pushed nature too far? What if it’s already too late? This audiobook presents poems and stories from the brink, responding to the floods and droughts and fires all around the globe with tenderness, compassion, fear, grief, and rage.

Zed and her family move unwillingly from London to Cornwall in an attempt to support her mother’s mental health. Gradually, the family fall apart, and it is only when Zed realizes that the local cormorants are playing a part in the disasters that consume them in revenge for an ancient wrong, that she and her sister, Amy, start working together to find a solution and call a truce.

Home alone with her eccentric home-brewing father and a Jack Russell, she is just getting her life back on track when her job at the local museum is threatened by her first love and nemesis, Councillor David Barton, who intends to sell the beautiful old building to a pub chain. But help is at hand from her colleagues: Jackie, a former Greenham Common warrior; Tish, a flamboyant historian; and Carol, mega-flirt. Plus newcomer and former campaigner Tom. Who happens to be a widower. And quite sexy.

The long-awaited portrait of a literary master from one of our generation's greatest biographers. Anthony Powell: the literary genius who gave us A Dance to the Music of Time, an undisputed classic of English literature. Spanning 12 spectacular volumes and written over 25 years, his comic masterpiece teems with idiosyncratic characters, capturing 20th-century Britain through war and peace. Drawing on Powell's letters and journals, and the memories of those who knew him, Hilary Spurling explores his life.

An ancient artifact buried deep within the TARDIS leads the Doctor back to London, where a deadly predator prowls the tunnels beneath the city. As the Time Lord and her friends investigate, they uncover a mystery that will take them from a secret mountain base to the depths of the ocean - and if they cannot solve it, one of them will perish. In order to save her friend, the Doctor must solve the riddle of...the Maze of Doom!

Detective Joe Lazarus works for the Dying Squad, solving crimes the living police can't. When the Generation Killer starts wiping out Manchester's innocents, Joe and his new partner Bits have mere hours to catch the murderer. A young woman's life depends on it. Joe's former partner Daisy-May has her own problems. Children are going missing in the afterlife, and she's the only one who seems to care. Her investigation uncovers a conspiracy so vast, it threatens both the living and the dead.

Step inside Marietta’s Magic Dress Shop! There are hundreds of beautiful dresses in every colour of the rainbow, sewn with magic thread. Take a look, try one on and wait for the magic to whisk you away... Ava is looking for her cat when she finds Marietta’s mysterious shop. She tries on a perfectly-fitting gold and emerald princess dress and whizzes through a secret mirror - to fairyland! Will she get there in time to be a bridesmaid at Cinderella’s wedding?

This book was written at a time when foot-and-mouth was very much in the news, as farmers across the UK fell victim to an outbreak that was to leave potent images of blazing carcasses deeply embedded in many minds.

From the drug addicts who call Amanda ‘the mother I never had’ to the women who’ve pushed back at domestic abuse, to women close to release in their 70s, who just want to stay in the place that they’ve always known, these are stories that are heartbreaking, harrowing and heart-warming. Amanda listens, prescribes and does what she can. After all, she’s their doctor.

Set in Cornwall, coastal erosion and flooding take on a near mythical power as the short stories in this collection weave in and out of the recent past and near future, as lives and relationships ebb and flow with the tide. From one maritime tragedy to another, the community, and three generations of women from the same family, struggle with their over-close affinity for the sea.

For Solstice Shorts 2021 we invited writers to respond to the growing climate crisis. From an exceptionally strong field we chose stories and poems that respond to the floods and droughts and fires all around the globe with tenderness, compassion, fear, grief and rage. Gaia is represented in all ther power and glory, and butterflies and plants sow seeds of hope, while other writers ask:. How do we stop it? How do we survive it? And how do we live beyond the catastrophe on our horizon?

It’s the Queen’s unofficial birthday, and no one has bought her a present. Not the Prime Minister, not the Treasurer, and not even her lazy Ladies-in-Waiting. All she wants is one small, very cheap present. Just because it has four legs and a tail, that shouldn’t put anyone off....

Cosmo the witch-cat is delighted that evil Sybil - the most terrible of witches - is safely in prison. In fact, she's even been fitted with a special tag, which means that if she tries to escape she will be turned into a frog. But then mysterious goings-on are reported on Witch News. Baby witches are being visited by strange midwives and having their toenails clipped and stolen. Cosmo is sure something sinister is afoot. Could a highly wily witch be brewing a spectacularly spooky spell?

Rose knows that nothing stays the same forever. Still, it's hard to watch her sisters and brother growing up and moving so far ahead of her. Caddy is back, but she's not living at home. And worse—she's broken up with Darling Michael. Saffy and Indigo are so busy, they are seldom home. With her father in London and her mother painting in the shed, Rose is often alone in the house. Maybe that's why she agrees to her new friend Molly's crazy scheme. At least it seems crazy when Rose finds herself locked in the zoo at night with a roaring tiger.

Cadmium Casson is 12 years old the summer that everything changes. Not only are her closest friendships in jeopardy, but her mum is expecting a baby. And when the baby arrives early, Caddy's world turns upside down. Her mother spends all her time at the hospital, and her father takes over the household, which of course turns into one chaotic (though hilarious) crisis after the next. When her charmingly dense boyfriend dumps her, Caddy is at her wits' end. Then she discovers that the fragile baby she is so afraid of losing is not an ending, but a beginning for her whole family.

Danger. Deportation. Death. These are just some of the fates facing the inmates at Huntercombe prison. Some have fled their homeland in fear of their lives. Others are being sent to a country they left decades ago. But Dr Amanda Brown is doing all she can for each patient stuck in no-man’s land. They have little or no idea of what awaits them outside, but she treats them with kindness and respect. Whatever their crime, and whatever their future holds, she is still their doctor.

In this episode, the Brigadier reveals his past as a protector of the undead; Italian nuns, Charles Darwin and vampire-slaying biker gangs all find themselves at the considerable mercies of the heroic Munchausen. Smith, meanwhile, is beginning to lose faith.

In this final showdown, the Brigadier’s behaviour becomes increasingly erratic and Smith is forced to make a dramatic choice. Is she prepared to believe the unbelievable stories of her friend or side with an old enemy to get Munchausen the help that he needs?

In this episode, a slow escape in a hot-air balloon makes the Brigadier nostalgic for his time in America; stories of rodeo clowns and super-human cyborgs spill from his past. But all this time travel is beginning to erase Munchausen's memory, and Smith fears for her friend’s sanity. Perhaps the only cure is through the help of the truly terrifying tech-guru Logan Snuff....