Showing results by narrator "Stephanie Racine" in All Categories

Astrid has her wings at last. But unlike all her Starminster classmates, she can’t get them to work, no matter how hard she tries. Soon, the formidable new headmistress issues a warning: Astrid must learn to fly, or leave London Overhead forever. Then the Month of Birthdays arrives, bringing circus shows, rollercoasters, mountains of cake – and a legendary series of games, with a prize beyond Astrid’s wildest dreams.

The year is 1794, and Fritz - passionate, idealistic and brilliant - is seeking his father's permission to announce his engagement to his heart's desire: 12-year-old Sophie. His astounded family and friends are amused and disturbed by his betrothal. What can he be thinking? Tracing the dramatic early years of the young German who was to become the great romantic poet and philosopher Novalis, The Blue Flower is a masterpiece of invention, evoking the past with a reality that we can almost feel.

One little lie just became deadly.... Perfect mother. Perfect wife. Jane Goodwin has spent years building her picture-perfect life in the quiet town of Ashdon. So when the girl next door, 16-year-old Clare Edwards, is found murdered, Jane knows she must first protect her family. Every marriage has a few white lies and hers is no exception. Jane’s worked hard to cover up her dark secret from all those years ago – and she’ll do anything to keep it hidden…

Writing directly to girls and young women, Dr Tara Porter draws on decades of experience to offer them insight into their own psychology. From exams to friendship, from families to love, Tara pulls together everything she has learnt to provide accessible explanations and suggestions for teenagers and young women everywhere. Like a warm letter from a wise friend or big sister, You Don't Understand Me not only understands the young person's perspectives but guides them through their challenges they face.

You stay in bed until the afternoon, scrolling through your social media feeds and wondering why everyone else seems to be achieving so much. Sometimes you don't get out of bed at all. Then you hear about Life on Nyx, a programme that allows 100 lucky winners the chance to escape it all, move to another planet and establish a new way of life. One with meaning and purpose. One without Instagram and online dating. There's one caveat: if you go, you can never come back. But you aren't worried about that. After all, what on Earth could there possibly be to miss?

It is Christmas Eve 1932, and the Kluger family are celebrating at home. Their only daughter Lexa is excited about her upcoming summer wedding to Moritz Weissmann, a promising young doctor. Lexa has many admirers, but her heart belongs to Moritz, who is initially welcomed by her parents and two brothers, Helmy and Erich. As the year progresses, Lexa enjoys skiing, swimming and going to parties with Moritz and her friends. But little by little Moritz is excluded from the pool, the library, and eventually his own home.

France, 1944. Deep in the river valley of the Dordogne, in an old stone cottage on the edge of a beautiful village, three sisters long for the end of the war. Hélène, the eldest, is trying her hardest to steer her family to safety, even as the Nazi occupation becomes more threatening. Elise, the rebel, is determined to help the Resistance, whatever the cost. And Florence, the dreamer, just yearns for a world where France is free. Then, one dark night, the Allies come knocking for help.

Martin Gilmour is an outsider. When he wins a scholarship to Burtonbury School, he doesn't wear the right clothes or speak with the right kind of accent. But then he meets the dazzling, popular and wealthy Ben Fitzmaurice and gains admission to an exclusive world. Soon Martin is enjoying tennis parties and Easter egg hunts at the Fitzmaurice family's estate, as Ben becomes the brother he never had.

Aimee Sinclair: the actress everyone thinks they know but can’t remember where from. Except me. I know exactly where you’re from, who you are, what you’ve done. Your husband has gone missing and the police think you’re hiding something. You lie for a living, always pretending to be someone else. But that’s not new, is it? Because I know you lied before. You’ve always lied. And the lies we tell ourselves are always the most dangerous.... This twisty new psychological thriller will leave your heart pounding and your pulse racing.

Stephanie Racine narrates Women: Our History, which reexamines history from a female perspective. Packed full of evocative facts, and with a foreword by Lucy Worsley, this audiobook reveals the key events in women's history - from early matriarchal societies through women's suffrage, the Suffragette movement, 20th-century feminism and gender politics, to recent movements such as #MeToo and International Women's Day - and the key role women have had in shaping our past.

In 1960s Marrakech a young girl travels to meet her estranged grandmother. Vicky Baudin steps on to the train through Morocco looking for the truth about the woman who gave her father up for adoption decades before. Clemence Petier lives in a kasbah on the edge of the Atlas Mountains, her background shrouded in mystery. But the past holds secrets that threaten them both. A face from Clemence’s childhood threatens to expose everything she has built a life to hide.

Easter Sunday, 1938. Ivy is nineteen and ready for her life to finally begin. At Cressingdon, her sprawling, bohemian family and their friends gather for lunch and to await the arrival of a longed-for guest. Britain is on the cusp of war, but in the idyllic Sussex countryside anything feels possible. It is a single, enchanted afternoon that ends in tragedy and will change Ivy’s life forever.

Vanessa's husband, Paul, dies suddenly and tragically on their regular Sunday morning swim. How will she cope with her dilapidated house, her teenage children, the patients who depend on her? Will therapy help? Why do mysterious white feathers start appearing in unexpected places? Beautifully written and honestly relayed, Vanessa uses her professional skills to explore the many questions posed by unanticipated death and to try to find a way forwards.

On Battersea Reach, a mixed bag of the temporarily lost and the patently eccentric live on houseboats, rising and falling with the tide of the Thames. There is good-natured Maurice, by occupation a male prostitute, by chance a receiver of stolen goods. And Richard, an ex-navy man whose boat, much like its owner, dominates the Reach.

Maggie, Liz, Helena & Joni. Old friends bound by history, adventures, old secrets. And now, bound by murder. They lace up their hiking boots for the adventure of a lifetime in the Norwegian wilderness: a place of towering mountains, glass-like lakes, log cabins and forests stolen from a fairytale. It’s the perfect place to lose yourself – until a broken body is found at the bottom of a ravine. Somewhere out there, someone knows exactly why a woman has died. And in this deep, dark wilderness, there’s a killer on the trail.

Trapped on an alternate Earth, the combined crews of a crashed Russian spaceship, a British expeditionary force and a group of strays from the future must work together to survive, escape and discover what led them to this point. All are from parallel universes where small changes in history led to different realities, and the tensions between the groups are rising.

When a small child is found wandering alone, the local shopkeepers call the authorities immediately. Twenty minutes later, the girl’s mother turns up, panicked and distraught. It doesn't take long to clear things up, and mother and daughter are soon reunited and sent on their way. Miles away, the body of a man is discovered, floating in a bathtub, but the most surprising discovery of all is that he isn't dead. Two seemingly unrelated events. But as DS Harper begins to investigate, disturbing connections between the two incidents start to surface.

From mystery and crime to romance and tragedy, in this collection you will discover award-winning writing that effortlessly spans genre and style. Witness the excess and luxury of 1920s America in The Great Gatsby, experience profound meditations on death in The Bridge of San Luis Rey, as well as Poirot's very first murder case in The Mysterious Affair at Styles. The titles included in this collection, in order of appearance, are: The Hound of the Baskervilles, by Arthur Conan Doyle; The Call of the Wild, by Jack London; The Weary Blues, by Langston Hughes; The Great Gatsby, by F.

Written in a hospital tent to the sound of gunfire and shells falling, Cicely Hamilton drew on her experiences working in France during WW1 to tell the story of William Tully and his new bride Griselda, who are wrenched away from their all-consuming interests – socialism and votes for women – and plunged into the almost dream-like horror of war. As brutal tragedy strikes, their attitude to both pacifism and patriotism is altered and their lives are changed forever.

The Ultimate Classics Collection: Volume Four is the fourth instalment of our wide-ranging classic collections. Volume Four features 12 timeless works that largely focuses on the greats of American and British literature, with novels from Charles Dickens, Edith Wharton, Thomas Hardy, Victor Hugo, and others. Read by a cast of incredible narrators including Miranda Raison, Pearl Mackie, Adam Sims, David Rintoul, and more, this is a chance to expand your listening with some of the greatest authors of all time.