Showing results by narrator "Anna Bentinck" in All Categories

Two suburban women. Two dark secrets. The almost perfect murder. Everybody needs good neighbours.... Melissa and Hester have lived next door to each other for years. When Melissa's daughter was younger, Hester was almost like a grandmother to her. But recently they haven't been so close. Hester has plans to change all that. It's obvious to her that despite Melissa's outwardly glamorous and successful life, she needs Hester's help.

In this eloquent meditation on ageing, Marie de Hennezel guides us through a true ‘art of growing old’. She recalls her encounters as a clinical psychologist with extraordinary people who 'grow old gracefully’ – and through her experience shows us how to make the most of this time in our lives, to avoid depression and to stay happy.

The chances of Cornish gentlewoman Maria Branwell even meeting the poor Irish curate Patrick Brontë in Regency England, let alone falling passionately in love, were remote. Yet Maria and Patrick did meet, making a life together in the heartland of the industrial revolution. An unlikely romance and novel wedding were soon followed by the birth of six children. They included Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë, the most gifted literary siblings the world has ever known. Yet Maria has remained an enigma, while the fame of her family spread across the world.

Joan Bomford, BBC Countryfile's Farming Hero of 2015, has lived all her life in the lush, rolling countryside of the Vale of Evesham, where cows graze the water meadows of the River Avon and modern life seems far away. Farming is in Joan's blood. Generations of her family have worked the land, and in Up with the Lark, Joan tells us with warmth, wit and great insight what it's been like to live through an era of such enormous change.

A middle-class woman at her wits' end and a struggling migrant worker with few options for survival. When tensions boil over, who will be the first to snap? Will it be Theodora, finally breaking under the pressure? Or Mona, desperate to find a way out? Two women. Two stories. Who do you believe?

A ruthless killer is spreading panic in a quiet village in the Italian Alps. Police Inspector Teresa Battaglia is the only one who can stop them. But how can you catch a monster when you're slowly losing your mind?

Joan Seabrook, a fledgling archaeologist, has fulfilled a lifelong dream to visit Arabia by travelling from England to the ancient city of Muscat with her fiancé, Rory. Desperate to escape the pain of a personal tragedy, she longs to explore the desert fort of Jabrin and unearth the treasures it is said to conceal. But Oman is a land lost in time - hard, secretive and in the midst of a violent upheaval - and gaining permission to explore Jabrin could prove impossible.

Gateshead, April 1866. The Apprentice of Split Crow Lane takes the forgotten case of a child murder in 1866 as a springboard to delve deeply into the pysche of the Victorians. What Jane Housham finds in this exploration of guilt, sexual deviance and madness is a diagnosis that is still ripe for the challenging and a sentence that provokes even our liberal modern judgment.

Michelle Clark has loved animals all her life, filling her home with a menagerie of stray cats and abandoned dogs. But when her outreach work with London's homeless community leads to a chance meeting with a desperate man, and a quest to find a missing Staffie named Poppy, she has no idea that her life will be transformed forever.

There is far more to Switzerland than beautiful scenery, chocolate, watches, faceless bankers, and spotless cities. The real Switzerland is full of surprises and anything but bland. This small, rugged, landlocked country at the heart of Europe has been a confederation since the first three cantons came together in a defensive alliance in 1291. Four national languages are spoken within its borders. Its present 26 cantons are largely autonomous and retain their individual characters.

Don't pack anxiety in your suitcase! Listening to Tanzania - Culture Smart! before you go, will ease your travel, help you to make friends, and avoid confusion. Tanzania - Culture Smart! will help you to understand local manners, customs, and laws. Tanzania - Culture Smart! goes the extra mile to help you brush up on your cultural small talk and will make you confident in leaving your comfort zone far behind.

There are some things you can never leave behind… Kate Forrest is invisible…her husband doesn’t seem to know she’s alive and her two children have become stroppy adolescents. With her fortieth birthday approaching, Kate walks out of her life, and gets on a plane to Italy. With no responsibilities, she soon finds herself caught up in the arms of a man half her age. But eventually Kate will be forced to choose between her past and the future.

In 1922, Christian, a young artist, travels to Weimar to begin his studies at the Bauhaus, where the avant-garde confronts conservative elements around it. With postwar Germany in turmoil, while the Bauhaus attempts to explore radical ways of thinking and living, Christian finds that love will change him forever. And in 1970s London Duncan uses his inheritance to establish the country's first gay bookshop in the face of opposition from the neighbours and victimisation by the police.

The Phoenix and the Carpet is the sequel to Five Children and It and continues the adventures of Robert, Cyril, Anthea, Jane, and their baby brother, Lamb. They encounter a phoenix wrapped in a magic carpet, and thus begins a series of adventures: Captivating, extraordinary, and fun, even if some of them go horribly wrong.

Shortly before Christmas, Chief Inspector Hanne Wilhelmsen is called to the scene of multiple murders. Four people are found shot dead at the home of the wealthy Stahlberg family. Three of the dead are members of the family, and the fourth victim is an undistinguished author, seemingly out of place. As Hanne and her longtime police partner, Billy T., investigate, they unearth many motives for the murders. But Hanne doesn't believe that the full story has been revealed.

1918. Young, beautiful and impoverished, Katya arrives in Paris to begin a new life - leaving behind a terrible secret. She is swept up in the city's glamour - particularly the boutiques on the Champs-Élysées, with their glittering haute couture gowns. Dare Katya dream that she may someday wear - or even design - one of these dazzling creations? It feels like an impossible wish, until she meets businessman Harry Morten. Tall, handsome and well-connected, Harry could give Katya everything she wants...but at what price?

There's more going on in The Street than its inhabitants realize.... In the course of this delightful, quirky and perceptive audiobook, an elderly soldier with incipient Alzheimer's saves the life of a remarkable child, a resting actor finds real purpose, a woman starved of love discovers it in an unexpected place and a beloved cat achieves immortality.

Maria King knows a secret London. Born blind, she knows the city by sound and touch and smell. But surgery has restored her sight - only for her to find she doesn't want it. Jonathan Dark sees the shadowy side of the city. A DI with the Metropolitan Police, he is haunted by his failure to save a woman from the hands of stalker. Now it seems the killer has set his sights on Maria and is leaving her messages in the most gruesome of ways.

The hilarious and poignant new novel from the best-selling author of The Kicking the Bucket List. When a box set of Broadchurch is more appealing than having sex with your husband, then perhaps it's time to hide the remote.... Cait and Matt have been married for 30 years. They are rock solid. An inspiration to others. Stuck together like glue - aren't they? But Cait can't shake off the feeling that something is missing.

Nadine, a 16-year-old runaway new to the city, is set up in a decaying Georgian house by her Finnish lover, Kai. Slowly she begins to suspect that Kai and his partner, Tony, have plans for her that have nothing to do with love. "Be careful", warns Enid, a sitting tenant in the house, whose own tragic past means that she knows all about survival. When Nadine discovers that she has been groomed for renting out to a government minister with special tastes, Enid's warning takes on a prophetic quality.