Showing results by narrator "Candida Gubbins" in All Categories

It's been eight years since Gen Loxley lost her daughter, Beth: eight years of grief in which nothing's really moved forward, for all that her husband, Art, wills it to. Gen, once a writer of novels, has settled in to a life of half-hearted teaching, while Art makes his name and their fortune - and pressures her into trying IVF once again. For Gen, it seems a cruel act of replacement; life without Beth is unthinkable, unbearable - but still it goes on.

A belief in the afterlife is common to almost every faith and culture around the world. Even people who don't consider themselves spiritual share a fascination in life after death. In this powerful guide narrated by Candida Gubbins, author and intuitive Diane Ahlquist shares her own knowledge of the subject, as well as the views of such religious and spiritual leaders as Edgar Cayce and the Dalai Lama.

It is summer 1989, and 15-year-old Clotilde is on holiday with her parents in Corsica. On a twisty mountain road, their car comes off at a curve and plunges into a ravine. Only Clotilde survives. Twenty-seven years later, she returns to Corsica with her partner, Franck, and their sulky teenage daughter, Valentine. Clotilde wants to the trip to do two things - to help exorcise the ghosts of her past and to provide a bridge between her and her daughter, so that Valentine can begin to understand why her mother is the way she is.

Only a handful of people in the world have a truly perfect memory. Nicola is one of them. It's more of a curse than a blessing - every moment of sadness, embarrassment and unhappiness is burned into her mind forever - so she plays it down and tries to live a quiet life. But a body has been found, a discovery that threatens to tear her community apart - and reopen old wounds from decades ago. Nicola was a child, but she remembers the night with perfect clarity. Despite that, she never discovered the truth of what happened.

Welcome to Amsterdam, one of the World's most popular cities. Her canals and liberal politics draw in over 4 million international visitors each year, but what makes her one of the World's top destinations? Socially diverse with an established coffee shop culture and internationally renowned Red Light District, her history, culture and arts create a memorable city experience.

When Max is sent to Istanbul to stay with her boring Great-Aunt Elodie, little does she expect to be plunged into a thrilling nighttime adventure across Europe. And when the mysterious Heartbreak Diamond goes missing, Max must find her feet in a whirling world of would-be diamond smugglers, thieves and undercover detectives. Will she discover the real diamond thief before they reach their destination?

Some wounds need more than time. They crave revenge. Claire's father is a privileged man: handsome, brilliant, the product of an aristocratic lineage and an expensive education, surrounded by a group of devoted friends who would do anything for him. But when he becomes the prime suspect in a horrific attack on Claire's mother - a pretty little thing who married into the elite ranks of society and dared escape her gilded cage - fate and privilege collide, and a scandal erupts. Claire's father disappears overnight, his car abandoned, blood on the front seat.

Should you find yourself in need of a discreet investigation into any sort of mystery, crime or puzzling circumstances, think of Jesperson and Lane.... For several years Miss Lane was companion, amanuensis, collaborator and friend to the lady known to the Psychical Societs only as Miss X - until she discovered that Miss X was actually a fraud.

Lizzie James is happy. She has a steady office job (with a steady stream of tray bakes), has had the same best friend since secondary school, and sees her family every Thursday night for take-away and TV soaps. Granted, some members of her family she'd rather not see, and they definitely don't want to see her after what happened back then...but on the whole she's happy. Or somewhere close to it, anyway. Until a letter arrives one day from her best friend, Roman. A letter dated 12 years ago, the exact day he went missing.

When sisters Celine and Pip get a call telling them their reclusive mother has died, the two women assemble at her riverside home in Arundel to pick up the pieces. But someone is missing - their sister, Vanessa, brutally murdered years ago and the victim of an unsolved case. As the sisters confront ghosts from the past, the discovery of another body in similar circumstances throws new light on Vanessa's death.

The MacBrides have always gone to Far Barn in Devon for Bonfire Night, but this year everything is different. Lydia, the matriarch, is dead; Sophie, the eldest daughter, is desperately trying to repair a crumbling marriage; and Felix, the youngest of the family, has brought a girlfriend with him for the first time. The girl, Kerry, seems odd in a way nobody can quite put their finger on - but when they leave her looking after Sophie's baby daughter, and return to find both Kerry and the baby gone, they are forced to ask themselves if they have allowed a cuckoo into their nest....

Tony Kytes is a favourite with the girls but he’s not terribly clever. If you meet an old girlfriend and she asks for a ride home in your wagon, do you say yes? And then if you meet the girl you are planning to marry, what do you do? Very soon, Tony is in a great muddle, and does not know how to escape from it. These stories are set in an English country village of the nineteenth century, but Hardy’s tales of mistakes and muddles and marriages belong in any place, at any time.

Welcome to Venice. Gently sinking into the surrounding lagoons, this once great naval power now draws in over three million international visitors each year. But what makes Venice one of the World's top destinations? A World Heritage Site where the only traffic is on water, the city's architecture, culture and arts combine to create a uniquely romantic experience.

They were identical in every way. Until the unthinkable tore them apart. Isolte and Viola are twins. Inseparable as children, they've grown into very different adults: Isolte, a successful features writer for a fashion magazine with a photographer boyfriend and a flat in London, and Viola, desperately unhappy and struggling with a lifelong eating disorder. What happened all those years ago to set the twins on such different paths to adulthood? As both women start to unravel the escalating tragedies of a half-remembered summer, terrifying secrets from the past come rushing back - and threaten to overwhelm their adult lives....

In the chaotic last days of World War II, Jacob and Kizzy are tricked into a life-or-death journey. Far from home, they are attacked and only just escape. They hide in a seemingly deserted mansion, but they keep hearing strange noises. Investigating, they find it shelters not only forty abandoned horses but a small band of lost children, displaced by the war. With danger on every side, can Kizzy and Jakob keep them safe and get them all home?

It's 25 days until Christmas. And 10-year-old Harper gets a surprise when Mum announces she's bringing her new boyfriend Nick home for the holidays! Nick seems nice enough. But why do strange Christmassy things happen whenever he's around? Like snow falling only in the family's garden? Or a reindeer suddenly appearing on the roof?! Harper's convinced that Nick must be Father Christmas! And if her mum and older brother won't believe her, she'll just have to find a way to prove it herself.

Elsa loves her gorgeous new puppy Coco. But her family's two cats aren't so welcoming. They chase the terrified pup all over the house! And to make things worse, Coco's chewing everything, and it's stressing Mum out. Luckily, the Puppy Club is on hand to help, and soon Operation Friendship is underway, with plans to keep Coco out of trouble and help her bond with the cats. But with each day seeming to bring a new disaster, Elsa can't help worrying...what if Mum has second thoughts about keeping Coco?

Jaya and her friends are desperate for a puppy of their own. They've even created the Puppy Club to find out all they need to know. When the time comes they’ll be the perfect owners! So when Jaya's aunt, who runs the Underdogs rescue centre, tells Jaya that new dog Lulu is expecting puppies, it feels like the girls' best chance to get their parents to agree. It's time for Operation Pawfect Puppy!

Sisters Georgie and Kate have always been close. Brought up by their mum Jan after the death of their father, this family of women have always been able to rely on each other. Jan loves her daughters with all her heart. She knows some people think she’s an over-protective mother, but they didn’t know what she knows. She has always kept her girls close but now she can feel them slipping away. Secrets have a nasty habit of refusing to stay hidden, and now Georgie and Kate are about to discover that while lies can cause pain, the truth could destroy them all.

At the International Conference Centre in Geneva, Hannah Rossier, formerly Annie Price, comes face to face with Neville Weir, someone from her childhood who she never expected, or wanted, to meet again. As Neville’s reasons for attending the conference become clear, the dark waters of Hannah’s past start to rise. Hannah is a psychotherapist, with a specialist interest in memory and how connections are made between past and present. She has reinvented herself successfully, moving from a small northern town in England to Lucerne, Switzerland, with her husband, Thibaut.