Showing results by narrator "Antonia Beamish" in All Categories

Open yourself up again to all that terrible light and savage bliss and deafening reverberation …’In the Summer of 1971, a charismatic family seeks refuge in the quiet, English coastal backwater of Pett Level. Bran Cleary is a controversial Irish muralist; his fractious and promiscuous wife (and muse) 'Lonely' Allaway is half Aboriginal; their strange, sickly daughter, Orla Nor, is almost a Saint.

In the western hinterland of Roman Britannia, Meddi, the seeress of the Eorlingas tribe, can only obtain vengeance when her husband’s dead and her ancestral villa returned to her. With her brother, Madog, as leader, they unite and stand strong against those who seek the riches of their villa. They must harness the power of the lost magiks of iron to make weapons to mercilessly oppose those who seek to challenge and fight to rule.

Morgravia Sanctus is being hunted. Something terrible has happened to her, a profound trauma that has left behind ‘red dreams’ and a physical agony that can strike at any moment. Her life in danger and her memory fragmented, she arrives in the low-hive of Blackgheist to escape her pursuers and search for ‘the Broker’ – a trafficker in memories and psychic mind manipulation. Soon after, a plague sweeps the city, turning its citizens into blood-hungry monsters. Order collapses, death and slaughter are rampant.

A long-serving beat cop in the Met and a teenage girl fall to their deaths from a tower block in London's East End. Left alive on the roof are a five-year-old boy and rookie police officer Lizzie Griffiths. Within hours Lizzie has disappeared, and DPS Officer Sarah Collins sets out to uncover the truth around the grisly deaths in an investigation that takes her into the dark heart of policing in London.

Heartache and hardship in London's East End, from the best-selling author of The Orphans of Halfpenny Street. It's the 1950s, and the orphans of Halfpenny Street have found a new home in the Essex countryside at Halfpenny House. Meanwhile, back among the slum clearances of Bethnal Green, St Saviour's has now been partially given over to a home for disturbed girls, though it still serves as a reception centre for local children who are in desperate need. Amongst these are Archie and his sister, June.

English novelist Barbara Pym’s career was defined, in many senses, by rejection. Her first novel Some Tame Gazelle was turned down by every publisher she sent it out in 1935, finally published only 15 years later. Though she picked up a publisher from there and received modest praise, the publishing industry grew restless and her sales spiralled downwards. By her seventh novel, she had been dropped. This brilliant biography, brimming with Pym’s private diaries and intimate letters, offers a first full insight into Barbara Pym’s life and how it informed her writing.

'Did you hear Amy has heartbreak?! What bad luck to catch it right at the end of winter.' When Ziella Bryars was in the midst of heartbreak, a conversation with her neuroscientist best friend changed everything. Frustrated by unhelpful advice from magazines and rom-coms, Ziella began diving deep into the latest scientific research to help her understand the pain of heartbreak and find a route to recovery. This warm and witty self-help book outlines the impact a relationship break-up has on our brains and bodies, and explores how a science-based approach can help us heal.

When Megan’s father gets a letter containing a secret from the past, he asks her to go to the Cornish village of St Mawgen Cove to get to the bottom of the mystery. Megan is happy to take a holiday after a challenging year but as soon as she checks into The Ship Inn something feels amiss. There are noises in the room above, the locals tell tales of smugglers and shipwrecks and she can’t escape the story of the witch who waits and watches, weeping on the top of the cliff.

As a young civil servant, Caroline Slocock became the first ever female private secretary to any British Prime Minister and was at Margaret Thatcher's side for the final 18 months of her premiership. A left-wing feminist, Slocock was no natural ally, and yet she became fascinated by the woman behind the Iron Lady façade and by how she dealt with a world dominated by men. As events inexorably led to Margaret Thatcher's downfall, Slocock observed the vulnerabilities and contradictions of the woman considered by many to be the ultimate anti-feminist.

Present Day. When Hanna returns to Norfolk from years working abroad, the strange dreams of her adolescence return: indistinct figures in tunics, mighty soldiers in armour, gladiators, temples, an Iceni warrior woman leading her people. Gradually Hanna’s dreams begin to slip into the present as visions in the famous mists rolling across the fens, and as shocks of recognition when a new face moves to her childhood home. As Hanna realises that she has a connection with a tragedy that occurred many years before, so Brea has to understand that her fate is bound up with her Roman master.

At 28, Violet's father is beginning to worry she will never find a husband. But every suitor he presents, Violet finds a new and inventive means of rebuffing. Because Violet does not want to marry. She wants to work, and make her own way in the world. But more than anything, she wants to find her mother Lily, who disappeared from Hastings Pier 10 years earlier. Finding the missing is no job for a lady, but when Violet hires a seaside detective to help, she sets off a chain of events that will put more than just her reputation at risk.

So when mum of two Beth moves out of her beloved marital home and into an unloved and unkempt cottage, she can’t help but feel demoralised. Faced with months of DIY and dust, her children Jacob and Olivia aren’t impressed either. But when Beth finds a box of letters while she’s clearing out the children’s room, things start to look up.

When one of the notorious Johnson brothers is murdered and a bag of money goes missing, a deadly game of cat and mouse is set in motion. Detective Allie Shenton and her team are called in to catch the killer, but the suspects are double-crossing each other and Allie has little time to untangle the web of lies. As she delves deeper into the case, things take a personal turn when Allie realises she is being stalked by the very same person who attacked her sister seventeen years ago and left her for dead.

With Miranda's children grown, a perfectly amicable divorce long behind her, and her career in need of a spark, life feels steady — but a little too predictable. She can’t shake the feeling that something has to change.

The heartbreaking story of the passionate love affair between Boris Pasternak and Olga Ivinskaya - the tragic true story that inspired Doctor Zhivago. Though Stalin spared the life of Boris Pasternak, the writer's lover, typist and literary muse Olga was sent twice to Siberian labour camps because of her association with him, miscarrying their child on her first visit. When released, she always assumed that Boris would leave his wife for her, but he failed to do so.

When Anna Hunt takes a break from her job to live in Peru, none of her friends take her seriously. With a love of stilettos, chocolate, and Sauvignon Blanc, how will she manage in a developing country? Anna's quest takes her from the wilderness of the Amazon jungle, to a passionate affair with Maximo Morales, a seductive and charismatic shaman who offers her the opportunity to become his apprentice…

Hazel and Jamie are happily married. Or so it would seem. Behind closed doors, things are far from normal. Jamie has an unhealthy obsession, and Hazel is more worried about herself than her husband. So when Millicent injects herself into their lives, with Jamie firmly in her sights, the trio end up on a path that will end in death. Everyone has secrets. Everyone has a dark side. But who is good, who is bad, and who is going to get away with murder?

Ali Kingston is happily married with three children. She isn't the type to have her head turned - but then it isn't every day that a gorgeous younger man falls at her feet. When Ed, Ali's husband, finds out that she's spent time with another man, he's sure there's more to it than just a minor indiscretion - so in a moment of madness, he kicks Ali out of the house. Their family and friends do all they can to help Ali and Ed reconcile, but nothing seems to work. And then fate intervenes....

It's New Year's Eve, and at a house party, three women bond over dodgy cocktails and fortune cookies, and vow to make this year their best one yet. But as the months unfold, Gemma, Saffron, and Caitlin find themselves tested to their limits. Under pressure, they are each forced to rethink their lives. But dare they take a chance on something new?

Three women. One will sacrifice her life to stop him. One is his next victim. One must try to put him behind bars. Holly Maguire takes a taxi to a clifftop location. She is determined to make things right. Then the car goes over the edge of the cliff. As Holly falls to her death, she tightens her grip on a rucksack. She will give her life to bring him down.