Showing results by narrator "Jilly Bond" in All Categories

Five haunting tales from Benedict Ashforth, the best-selling author of Abbot's Keep.

Ambitions clash when the village launches an allotment project. Morag wants to plough hers with a horse; Beth buys a gleaming mini-tractor; Alexandra arrives with a Chanel spade & film crew, while Mary endures the advice of a champion vegetable-grower.

The summers spent at Roseland, the sprawling ancestral home of her best friend, Eloise, were among the happiest of Cathy's life. Tucked away on the Cornish coastline and brimming with history, Roseland seemed to belong to another century. Cathy has barely been back since Eloise's death a decade ago. So she is shocked when Jack, the love of Eloise's life and father of her children, announces that he is getting married, and that the wedding will take place at Roseland.

Drawing on hundreds of previously unseen letters from the sisters as well as from their grandmother Queen Victoria, The Princesses of Hesse takes us on a sweeping journey across the tumultuous landscape of the turn of the century - from the dramas of the Russian Court to the Russian Revolution, and through both World Wars in which they often found themselves on opposing sides.

In a beautiful Southern Spanish town, where the sea sparkles and orange blossoms scent the air, the gates of a brand-new apartment complex, La Joya deAndalucía, glide open to welcome the new owners. Anna and Austen MacDonald, an Irish couple, are preparing to enjoy their retirement to the full. But the demands of family cause problems they have never foreseen and shake their marriage to the core. Sally-Ann Connolly Cooper, a feisty Texan mother of two young teenagers, is reeling from her husband's infidelity. La Joya becomes a place of solace for Sally.

Never believe that life in a tiny Spanish mountain village is predictable. Vicky and Joe have finished fixing up their house and look forward to peaceful days enjoying their retirement. Then the fish van arrives and, instead of delivering fresh fish, disgorges the Ufarte family. The peace of El Hoyo is shattered. Packed with badly behaved humans and animals, irreverent humour and sunshine, this audiobook will make you laugh out loud.

First published in the 1940s, the story of Gobbolino, the witch's cat with one white paw and bright blue eyes, has been delighting generations of children. Gobbolino is the charming tale of a witch's cat who would rather be a kitchen cat. Gobbolino has one white paw and blue eyes and isn't wicked at all, so his mother doesn't like him.

Leningrad, September 1941. German tanks surround the city, imprisoning those who live there. The besieged people of Leningrad face shells, starvation, and the Russian winter. Interweaving two love affairs in two generations, The Siege draws us deep into the Levin's family struggle to stay alive during this terrible winter.

Thailand 1996. The Year of The Rat. Pete, a young travel writer, wanders into a Bangkok go-go bar and meets the love of his life. Joy is the girl of his dreams, young, stunningly pretty, and one of the Zombie Bar's top-earning pole dancers. What follows is a roller-coaster ride of sex, drugs, and deception, as Pete discovers that his very own private dancer is not all that she claims to be. And that far from being the girl of his dreams, Joy is his own personal nightmare.

Sixteen-year-old Frances Stuart arrives at the Restoration court to find her innocence and beauty are highly prized commodities, envied by the women and desired by the men. Before long, King Charles II falls passionately in love with her and will stop at nothing to make her his mistress. But Frances is no conventional court beauty. She is determined to make her own choices in life and to be with the man she loves. Can she overcome the dangerous pitfalls of the King's obsession, the Queen's jealousy, and the traps set for her by the King's notorious mistresses?

Fran Morrison, a travelling musician, is summoned home to London after her father suffers a stroke. She finds herself in charge of the family business - a stained glass workshop. When the vicar of the local church asks Fran to restore a shattered window, her research into its origins uncovers a fascinating and moving love story from the Victorian past that resonates in her own life.

In a provincial university town, Caro Grimstone, a dissatisfied faculty wife, becomes the unwilling accomplice to her husband Alan's ambitions. When she volunteers to read to a blind esteemed anthropologist in a nursing home, Alan seizes the opportunity to steal his papers—research that could both advance his reputation while refuting the findings of a respected colleague.

High in the Himalayas near Darjeeling, the old mountaintop palace shines like a jewel. When it was the General's 'harem' palace, richly dressed ladies wandered the windswept terraces; at night, music floated out over the villages and gorges. Now, the General's son has bestowed it on an order of nuns, the Sisters of Mary. Well-intentioned yet misguided, the nuns set about taming the gardens and opening a school and dispensary for the villagers.

Malaya, 1941: As the glamorous wife of a plantation owner, Connie Hadley appears to lead a pampered and comfortable life. But she is hiding devastating secrets that could destroy her marriage. Life is changed forever on the day of the infamous attack on Pearl Harbour. As Japanese Zero aircraft attack the town of Palur, Connie makes the decision to flee to Singapore on the family's boat, the White Pearl

Successful lady novelist Laura Morland and her boisterous young son, Tony, set off to spend Christmas at her country home in the sleepy surrounds of High Rising. But Laura's wealthy friend and neighbor, George Knox, has taken on a scheming secretary whose designs on marriage to her employer threaten the delicate social fabric of the village.

As the woman who trained the great Best Mate to win three consecutive Cheltenham Gold Cups, no one could be better qualified than Henrietta Knight to discover what makes today's top jumps trainers succeed. From eccentric, outspoken Yorkshireman Mick Easterby to elegant, aristocratic Venetia Williams; from Irish wizard Willie Mullins to perfectionist champion trainer Paul Nicholls and young pretender Dan Skelton, here is a dazzling cast of extraordinary characters, all with their quirks and foibles but with one single-minded ambition - finding first-class horses and training them.

In 1947, Elisabeth Mander’s German nephew comes to stay: Stefan Landau, her dead sister’s teenage son, whom she hates and loves before she’s even set eyes on him. Orphaned by the war and traumatised by the last vicious battles of the Hitler Youth, Stefan brings with him to England only a few meagre possessions. Among them a portrait of a girl with long copper hair by a young painter called Michael Ross - and with it the memory, both painful and precious, of her life and that time between the wars.

A high society Christmas Eve wedding at a remote Scottish castle sounds like the perfect winter getaway for the three Dahlias and their partners - until a snowstorm hits, cutting them off from the mainland, and civilisation. Which, of course, is when the dead body of one of the other guests turns up in the snow outside the family chapel. A dead body wearing a wedding dress and a stolen diamond necklace...

At the age of 32, Richard the Lionheart has finally succeeded Henry II to the English throne. And, against his father’s wishes, he intends to make Berengaria, daughter of the King of Navarre, his Queen. But first he must fulfil his vow to his country to win back Jerusalem for the Christian world. Leaving England to begin his crusade, Richard entrusts his kingdom to his brother, John, who casts covetous eyes on the crown, and his sister, Joanna, who is willing to defy even a king.

Amelia Ravenscroft is desperate to escape her aunt’s home, where she endures a life of drudgery whilst fighting off her lecherous cousin. When she overhears Viscount Demarr confiding in a friend that he needs to marry "at once", she boldly proposes a marriage of convenience. Amelia soon proves herself a perfect fit for the role of Lady Demarr. But their blossoming relationship is blighted by suspicions regarding Amelia’s past. Will they find, all too painfully, that if you marry in haste you repent at leisure?