Showing results by narrator "Alison Reid" in All Categories

It is the sweltering summer of 1997 when strait-laced, straight-A student Karen meets Biba - a bohemian and impossibly glamorous aspiring actress.She is drawn to her new friend’s carefree world of constant parties, and quickly abandons her old life to move into the crumbling Highgate mansion Biba shares with her brother Rex and a stream of lodgers. For a while, life is one long summer of love. But summer must end. And by the end of theirs, two people would be dead.

How did it all begin? I suppose it would be the day I rescued a new-born baby from a poisonous snake, heard the news of my mother’s death and encountered my first ghost... Veterinary surgeon Clara Benning is young and intelligent, but practically a recluse. Disfigured by a childhood accident, she lives alone and shies away from human contact wherever possible.

The 07.44 am train from Brighton to London: The carriages are packed with commuters. One woman occupies her time observing the people around her. Opposite, a girl applies her make-up. Across the aisle, a husband strokes his wife's hand. Further along, a woman flicks through a glossy magazine. Then, abruptly, everything changes: A man collapses, the train is stopped, an ambulance called. And for three passengers that particular morning, life will never be the same again.

The last time Dodie sees her mother alive, Stella is unusually busy and wearing an old red velvet dress. Soon after this, Dodie’s brother Seth goes missing: the only trace of him through postcards signed ‘Yours in the Lord’ addressed from New York State. When Stella hangs herself, Dodie must leave her baby Jake at home and cross the Atlantic to bring Seth back from the mysterious Soul Life Centre. And when baby Jake unexpectedly arrives at Soul Life events take a shocking turn for Dodie.