Showing results by narrator "Patricia Gallimore" in All Categories

This collection features unabridged recordings of the first three novels in E.F. Benson’s beloved Mapp and Lucia series. Narrated by Geraldine McEwan and Prunella Scales, this collection brings to life E.F. Benson’s comic tales of marriage, mishaps and mayhem.

For the past 13 years, as England became an increasingly unhappy and fearful place, Prince Charles has been living quietly on a bleak council estate with his wife and love of his life, Camilla. He enjoys gardening and poultry keeping while Camilla spends her days doing as little as possible. But life is about to change.

Strong of will and slender of ankle, 20-year-old orphan Flora Poste is blessed with every virtue save that of being able to earn her own living. Casting around for suitable relatives with whom she can make her home, Flora alights on the mysterious Starkadders and, ignoring the horrified shrieks of her friends, heads down to darkest Sussex.

Marriage to her publisher, Arthur Abbott, has done nothing to stop Barbara Buncle from involving herself in the lives of her neighbours. After leaving Silverstream and moving to London, Barbara and Arthur are enjoying their newly-wedded bliss, but not the city life. The only solution to their problem? Returning to the country. Silverstream is out of the question, but Barbara eventually finds the perfect candidate in the town of Wandlebury.

Lizzie Kershaw is an independent spirit; ever since her father's death she has had to be a survivor. Home life is harsh, though, and desperate to escape it, she makes an ill-advised marriage. But she discovers that she's married a selfish and violent man. His beatings never seem to stop, and, with the help of some suffragettes, she escapes to Manchester, where she finds work in a munitions factory - she is finally the independent woman she has always longed to be. But her husband, whose cruelty knows no bounds, tracks her down and drags her back home to more beatings than ever....

With a narrative that grips the reader like a detective story, Antonia Fraser brings the characters and events of the Gunpowder Plot to life. Dramatically recreating the conditions and motives that surrounded the fateful night of November 5, 1605, she unravels the tangled web of religion and politics that spawned the plot.

Award-winning author Dame Susan Hill is best known for her hit ghost story The Woman in Black and her popular ‘Simon Serailler’ detective series, but she has also written extensively for radio. This audio anthology includes full-cast adaptations of two of her early novels, plus an additional 12 BBC Radio plays, many of them available for the very first time since their original broadcasts.

Suspicious deaths on the Skipton city council don't sound as though they should have anything at all to do with the Toot Hansell Women's Institute, and DI Adams would rather like to keep it that way. But when the councillor for Toot Hansell becomes the latest victim, Alice Martin, chair of the W.I. and RAF Wing Commander (ret.), steps straight in to take his place.

Rebellious Christmas wreaths. Mysterious welly-dwelling eggs. A plague of irate water fowl. And ten ladies of a certain age who are by no means the least troublesome of Toot Hansell's residents, as far as Detective Inspector Adams is concerned. She's entirely certain her training never covered dealing with the Women's Institute, dragons, or festive magic spills. Not to mention invisible dogs with caffeine dependencies. But Christmas is almost here. Things can't go too wrong. . . can they? Well. It is Toot Hansell.

When Toot Hansell’s water supply turns murky, it's easy to blame the notoriously soggy Yorkshire weather. But this winter, the rain's endless, the water's undrinkable, and the village is slowly turning into a marsh. The local water sprite, Nellie, could probably sort it all out—if she hadn't mysteriously vanished, leaving behind a battalion of furious geese, which are only adding to the problems. Now the only clean water in town is arriving in pricey bottles from Toot Hansell's new wellness guru, Lachlan Jameson. But the rising water isn't the only problem. People are disappearing.

August 1941: As war sweeps across Britain and millions of men enlist, women must fight the battle on the home front. Fran always thought she would marry her childhood sweetheart and live in Massingham, the beloved pit village she has always called home. But the opening of a munitions factory in the north-east of England presents a new opportunity. Against her father's wishes and with best friends Sarah and Beth by her side, Fran signs up to join the ranks of women at the factory. It's dangerous work, but the friends discover that their lives are only just beginning.

Jessie has kept the identity of her son Oliver's father a secret for years. She's stunned when she discovers that the man in question, actor Toby Gillespie, has just moved in next door. The truth's about to come out. One glance at Oliver, and a little mental arithmetic, and Toby has the situation sussed. Meeting the son he never knew he had is the shock of a lifetime. It's a shock, too, for Toby's wife, the beautiful Deborah, though she seems to take it in her stride.

Miriam has never exactly seen eye-to-eye with her sister. But when a body's dumped on the doorstep of a Women's Institute meeting and all signs point to Rainbow, Miriam knows her sister's being framed. Going to the police would be the smart move, but Rainbow's got her own reasons for avoiding them. Before long she's on the run, trusting to Miriam and the W.I. to clear her name. The killer's left nothing to chance, though, and Rainbow's in more danger than she realises - and she's dragging the others right in with her.

One should never meddle in the affairs of dragons, but someone has been doing just that. They've been making imitation dragon scale baubles that are nothing short of lethal, and kidnapping delivery drivers all over the Yorkshire Dales. They've also been leaving behind some distinctly dragon-ish traces. Beaufort Scales, High Lord of the Cloverly Dragons, is hot on the trail—or would be, if he wasn't having political problems at home.

A simple case - or it should be. But all clues point to the Toot Hansell Women’s Institute, and Detective Inspector Adams is about to discover there’s much more to the W.I. than just bake sales and jam-making. Alice Martin knows the ladies of the W.I. are not guilty. But she has a bigger problem. Toot Hansell has a large and dragonish secret, and she needs to keep the police well away from it. Beaufort Scales, High Lord of the Cloverly dragons, knows even better than Alice that the modern dragon only survives as long as no one knows they exist.

The world's longest-running drama, The Archers, has delighted audiences ever since its launch on 1st January 1951. Today, over five million fans across generations and across the world tune in, hooked on the epic saga of everyday life in the rural village of Ambridge. This collection takes a look back at the early years of the iconic show, from the 1950s to the 1970s, and follows the fortunes of some of its pivotal characters, including Jack and Peggy Archer, Walter Gabriel, Sid Perks, and Brian and Jennifer Aldridge.

Mrs Abbott is flustered at the thought of putting up a lady from the Red Cross, but is happily surprised when she turns out to be an old friend from her previous life as Miss Buncle, infamous writer. Of course, she’s now far too busy with her children to write, not to mention helping out in the lives of the villagers. And with a possible spy in their midst, evacuated families, potential love matches and a visit from a famous writer, she’s got her work cut out for her.

December 1941, North East England. Despite the loss of her father, Sarah is settling into her new role at the munitions factory. Her blossoming romance with pitman Stan is a welcome distraction from the dangerous working conditions. But a shocking revelation puts everything on the line. Meanwhile Fran is missing her sweetheart Davey, who has been conscripted to Bletchley Park. Beth is longing for someone too - and it's not her husband on the front line. As the factory girls face hardship on the home front, they will discover that the heroes they need are already by their side.

Ellen Dawson is glad when the Great War ends but sad that Lady Bingram's aides are to be disbanded. She can't bear to go back into service again after working as a driver and mechanic in London. But she is forced by her mother's illness to accept her old position as housemaid in order to stay in the small Lancashire town, and her stepfather will stop at nothing to get her under his control again. Meanwhile, Seth Talbot is also facing difficulties when he takes over as local policeman in a town where the law has been flouted for years....

Gina Knight is looking forward to the prospect of retirement with her husband of forty-three years. Until, to her surprise, said husband decides he needs to 'find himself' – alone – and disappears to Santa Fe, leaving a Dear John letter in his wake. Now Gina needs a new role in life, not to mention somewhere to live, so she applies for the position of Companion to elderly Dorothy Reed. At eighty-nine, ‘Dot’ needs someone to help her around the house – or at least, her family seems to think so. Her companion’s first role would be to accompany Dot for a week-long extravagant wedding party.