Showing results by narrator "Phyllida Nash" in All Categories

Jess Penhaligon is on her way to Devon to receive an award for her botanical painting. Hosting her will be Kate, who gladly welcomes her into her home. Jess's own family fell apart several years ago, so she is grateful for Kate's friendliness - and her close unit of extended family and friends, who embrace Jess just as warmly. As this group begins reminiscing on their pasts and sharing their stories with Jess, it becomes apparent that her family history may be linked with theirs.

A collection of heart-warming short stories from best-selling author Holly Webb. A scruffy pup eagerly awaits a new home just in time for Christmas, a little girl discovers an adorable kitten in her garden, a dog makes an unlikely new friend, a hamster makes a daring escape and a girl tries to help a family of fluffy ducklings. Perfect for sharing at bedtime, this beautiful treasury features 11 delightful animal stories from best-selling author Holly Webb.

Sir Clement Carnell was the most domineering and strait-laced of fathers, and his death has left his grown children, Louisa and Valentine, with a sense of release. While Valentine throws open the Devonshire estate of Pennacombe to their fashionable cousins from London, Louisa feels free at last to reject the man her father chose as her prospective husband - Pearce Lynley.

Five years after seventy-something Tess jetted off to Paris with her best friends, Jen, Rose, Della and Pam - the Five French Hens - for Jen’s hen do, a lot has changed. Prospective groom Eddie has been given the heave-ho, Tess’s husband has been sent packing and the Hens are making the most of their golden years. But Tess is stuck in a rut. Rather than embrace her independence, she watches on as Rose wows Paris, Jen explores Iceland and Pam heads to Greece. But when tragedy strikes Della, Tess is shaken into action.

Byzantium. The name evokes grandeur and exoticism—gold, cunning, and complexity. In this unique book, Judith Herrin unveils the riches of a quite different civilization. Avoiding a standard chronological account of the Byzantine Empire's millennium-long history, she identifies the fundamental questions about Byzantium—what it was, and what special significance it holds for us today.

When one of the houses in an exclusive cul-de-sac is sold to students, dramas begin to unfold and secrets long hidden come to the surface. Local battle-axe Sheila Colby is appalled when Ned Short sells his house as student accommodation. The residents of Dartmouth Circle look on themselves as an exclusive little club, where everyone knows each other and privacy is respected. But now that is about to end and all kinds of things long hidden will come out into the light of day, with dramatic consequences.

When Daisy arrives at the farm campsite where her family are spending her summer holiday, she knows she's going to have the best time ever. Especially when she finds out the farm dog has just had puppies! Daisy can't help falling in love with Barney, the smallest of the litter of German Shepherd pups. Barney takes to the friendly new girl who sneaks him food and smuggles him into her sleeping bag at night, and soon the pair are inseparable.

Molly’s 70th birthday comes as something of a shock. The woman in the mirror certainly looks every day of those 70 years, but inside Molly feels she still has so much more living left to do. Widowed and living alone with her cat Crumper, Molly fears she is slipping into a cliché of old age. When Molly’s sister Nell appears on her doorstep, distraught that her husband of more than 40 years, Phil, has left her for a younger lover, the women decide to seize the day. By the morning, flights are booked, bags are packed and off they go for an adventure in Spain.

Amid the sun-soaked hills of southern Italy lies the Romano family olive grove, where Lara lives with her daughter Rose and her granddaughter Bea. Lara has spent a lifetime trying to forget the traumatic events that led to her desperate escape from Dorset seventy years ago. But when she sees Bea—a passionate horticulturalist most at home in nature—being swept off her feet by Matteo, a handsome and charismatic restaurateur, Lara fears her granddaughter is in danger of making the same mistake as Lara did all those years ago.

Throughout her career prize-winning novelist Jane Gardam has been writing glorious short stories, each one hallmarked with all the originality, poignancy, wry comedy, and narrative brilliance of her longer fiction. Passion and longing, metamorphosis and enchantment are Gardam's themes, and like a magician she plucks them from the quietest of corners: from Wimbledon gardens and cold churches, from London buses and industrial backstreets.

Among the cobbled streets of the Somerset town of Frome, Lou is embarking on the start of something new. After the death of her beloved mother, she takes a deep breath into the unknown and is opening her own vintage clothes shop. In Upstate New York, Donna has just found out some news about her family that has called into question her whole upbringing. The only clue she has to unlock her past is a picture of a yellow dress and the fact it is currently on display in a shop in England.  

Brought to you by Penguin. In 402 AD, after invading tribes broke through the Alpine frontiers of Italy and threatened the imperial government in Milan, the young Emperor Honorius made the momentous decision to move his capital to a small, easy defendable city in the Po estuary - Ravenna. From...

Lucy is unhappy about having to move home and leave all her friends behind. Her parents hope that a cat might help her to settle in, so they surprise her with Sky a gorgeous Siamese kitten. Lucy falls in love with Sky, but she’s still upset with her parents and pretends that she’s not interested in the kitten. Poor Sky is left feeling confused and alone. Why doesn’t Lucy want her? Another fantastic animal story from bestselling author Holly Webb.

Evie is overjoyed when she is given her very own puppy. Alfie adores Evie - he loves to be cuddled, sleeps on her bed and welcomes her home from school every day with a wag of his tail. But it's not long before Evie's new baby brother, Sam arrives. Suddenly no-one has much time to look after Alfie, and soon he finds himself unwanted. Left all alone, he keeps dreaming that one day Evie and her family will come to love and care for him again - but will his dream come true?

Sam, a Golden Labrador puppy, is Emily's best present ever! The two become great friends and Emily is sad to leave him at home when she starts back at school. When Sam is stolen from the garden one afternoon, Emily is desperate with worry. She is determined to get her precious puppy back but how will she find him? A touching story about a little girl who sets out to rescue her beloved dog, from best-selling author Holly Webb.

Viv, who’s in the House of Lords, had the idea for the festival on the twentieth anniversary of the day her first husband left her. Six months later, crowds descend on the grounds of a dreamlike chateau in the South of France, avidly awaiting the experience of a lifetime, Viv’s inaugural Festival for the Broken-Hearted. Everyone is in fancy dress. No one knows who anyone is. They wander the beautiful woods with just one night to change everything. And to crown it all, a very special guest is expected.

In the imposing Glen Carrick House overlooking Scotland’s famous Loch Ness lives eighty-eight-year-old Mimi McKinlay, cared for by her three adult sons. Hamish has inherited his mother’s musical talents, Fin is the responsible brother, and Angus has the complicated and brooding personality to match his dashing good looks. But what all the brothers share is a concern that their beloved mother is living in her memories of her days on stage, while letting her present days pass her by.

In The Darcy Connection, Mr. Collins of Pride and Prejudice is now the Bishop of Ripon, living with his wife Charlotte and their two daughters, who have reached marriageable age. The elder, another Charlotte, is extraordinarily beautiful, and her parents hope her looks and connections will ensure a brilliant marriage. Her sister Eliza, while not as handsome, possesses a lively intelligence that, in Mr. Collins's opinion, is too like her godmother Mrs. Darcy.

Ella loves her kitten, Fluff, and worries about her going missing again. But Fluff is enchanted by being outside, especially when it starts snowing and she has the pretty snowflakes to play with. But suddenly a blizzard sets in and Fluff loses her way.

When Miss Seeton walks out after a performance of Carmen and witnesses a real-life stabbing, all she can recall is a shadowy figure. But how could she have guessed that her latest artistic endeavor is a picture-perfect portrait of the killer? Her sketch puts her in a perilous position, for back at her recently inherited cottage in Plummergen village, she's fated to be a sitting duck...for murder most foul!