Showing results by narrator "Joan Walker" in All Categories

When the Tailor of Gloucester sends his cat to buy some food and a twist of silk for a waistcoat, he discovers a secret - the cat has imprisoned mice under some teacups. After the tailor releases the mice, the cat hides the twist of silk in anger. But how can the tailor finish the waistcoat now?

Little Peter Rabbit, ignoring his mother's warnings, enters the garden of Mr. MacGregor for a snack. When he is spotted by the angry Mr. MacGregor, the chase is on. Before long, Peter loses his jacket and shoes and must also sneak past a cat in order to get back home.

In "The Tale of Mr. Jeremy Fisher", a frog who lives in a slippy-sloppy house alongside a pond collects worms on a rainy day, and sets off on a lily-pad boat to go fishing. During this trip, he encounters all sorts of obstacles, including a large trout who tries to devour him.

How long do you hunt for the missing? A horrible vanishing act.... When a young Josie Masters sees a boy wearing a red football shirt, Dylan Jones, being taken by a clown at a carnival, she tries to alert the crowds. But it's too late. Dylan has disappeared.... Thirty years later, Josie is working as a police officer in Bath. The remains of the body of a child have been found - complete with tatters of a torn red football shirt. Is it the boy she saw vanish in the clutches of the clown? Or is it someone else altogether?

In The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck, a farmer's wife believes ducks make poor sitters and takes their eggs to give to her hens to hatch them. The duck Jemima decides to find a safe place away from the farm to lay her eggs. When a fox offers to help, Jemima must keep her guard up. The 12th of Beatrix Potter's 22 charmingly illustrated tales of animals in amusing situations, The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck has children and adults alike since its release in 1907.

In The Tale of The Flopsy Bunnies, Benjamin Bunny and his cousin Flopsy are the parents of six children called the Flopsy Bunnies. While raiding a heap of rotting vegetables, the family is discovered by old Mr. McGregor, who throws them all into a sack. Will the Flopsy bunnies escape? The 14th of Beatrix Potter's 22 charming tales of animals in amusing situations, The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies has delighted children and adults alike since its release in 1909.

Northumberland, winter 1937. In a remote moorland cottage, Steven Coulter, a young history teacher, is filled with grief at the death of his wife. Through a charismatic colleague, Frank Embleton, and Frank's sister, Diana, he is drawn into the beguiling world of a group of musicians and falls under their spell. But as war approaches a decision is made which calls all their lives shockingly into question.

Our Summer Together is an uplifting story about family, friendship and the happy surprise of finding love later in life. Caro knows how to be a mother - advising her grown-up daughters on career and relationship worries. She knows how to be a grandmother - enjoying the hectic energy of her three-year-old grandson. She knows how to be a daughter - helping her aging mother retain her independence.

Technology is such that 60 really is the new 40 (or even 35).... But for Christa D'Souza, some nagging questions remain: What is the point of us now that we are officially biologically irrelevant? Are hormones safe, even if you've had cancer? Is there a cut-off point for plaits? In this fabulously confessional romp through the menopause, D'Souza tells us what it was like for her and what it will be like for you.

Minnie and her sister, Clara, spinsters both, live in a dilapidated country house in the middle of a housing estate, built when their father sold off the family's land. Now in their 70s, their days follow a well-established routine: long gone are the garden parties, the tennis lessons and their suffocating strict mother. Gone, too, is any mention of what happened when Minnie was 16 and the secret the family buried in the grounds of their estate. Over the course of the summer, both begin to tell their stories....

Alice finds herself suddenly widowed in her early 40s. Laura and Evie, her 20-something daughters, announce their separate and unexpected news, which ploughs Alice straight out of grieving and into the prospect of planning a wedding and becoming a granny to three grandchildren. Frank, an old family friend, returns to give his godchild, Laura, away at her wedding. A whole host of secrets unfold and set Alice free to finally begin a new, exciting chapter of her life.

Dana Catrell wakes from a drunken stupor in time to see an ambulance pull into her neighbour's house a few doors down. Celia Steinhauser has been murdered. But Dana was at her house only a few hours ago. Celia wanted to show her a photo - a photo of Dana's husband with another woman.... Dana has blank spots about what happened to the rest of the afternoon: especially the difference between what actually happened and what she imagines has happened, with dream and reality becoming blurred....

Erykah Macdonald has a nice life - the kind of life you're meant to want. But on her 20th wedding anniversary, she's about to cross a line. Several hundred miles away in the shallow waters of a Hebridean island, a body is found. It's been in the water long enough to make identification tricky, but it's clear this is no accidental death. Erykah knows she's about to make a choice she can't reverse - but she's lived with secrets most of her life. She thinks she's ready.

'I'm good at secrets,' Libby says. Yes, thinks Jessica, I bet you are... Jessica should have everything to make her happy: a loving husband, a growing reputation as a jewellery designer, hope for a family of her own in the future. Then she meets Libby - flattering, attentive - and believes she has found the friendship she missed out on as a child. Until Jessica catches her husband and Libby alone, heads together in whispered collusion. With her life unravelling, Jessica flees home to the seaside town where she grew up.

Very few people ever enter the Shadow Woods, for these woods are like no others. Hidden deep within them is the Gateway to the Shadow Realm – a dark and chaotic world where all kinds of gruesome creatures live…. On her tenth birthday, tomboy Sophie learns she is the Guardian of the magical gateway, and that her destiny is to protect the human world from the goblins, trolls and evil sprites that inhabit the Shadow Woods. Each book sees Sophie having to outwit weird and terrifying creatures from the Shadow Woods, and here, Sophie takes on the Bat Sprites!

All is quiet on Eppingham Farm.The sheep that live there chew cude and cauliflower. Sometimes they butt fenceposts-until one day a silvery object falls on their heads.Sal, the Southdown Ewe, knows their great Sheep God must be in danger. 'Only we can save him!' she cries. And so the Quest of the Warrior Sheep begins. But who are the men in the yellow car and why are they following? The Warriors will need to hold on to their fleeces!

When a mummy is stolen from the Natural History Museum, Kit and her friends are fast on the heels of a villainous East End mob, an adventure that takes them to the heart of the Western Desert. But as the story reaches its climax in a temple, the villains and Kit finds they have underestimated a stronger force - the terrible power of Ancient Egypt....

Who saw him die? I, said the fly, with my little eye. I saw him die. An astonishingly beautiful setting on the island of Skye. A gathering of fascinating guests at a hunting lodge set to enjoy abundant hospitality. And a double murder. A household in chaos.... No one is allowed to leave. A tantalising new case for Agatha Christie to solve.

Jack is very excited when he learns that this year's school trip is a visit to the seaside to hunt for fossils. And even better - there's going to be a prize for the best find, which he is desperate to win! Unfortunately, his best friend, Picklewitch, is not impressed, until she discovers the local Sea Wizard, whose secret lair is hiding the biggest treasure of all....

Jack's new best friend Picklewitch is still causing mischief at St Immaculate's School for the Gifted. When she receives a letter from her cousin Archie Cuckoo, telling her he's coming to stay, Jack worries that she'll lose interest in him. But this new cousin turns out to be unexpectedly nice, and it's Picklewitch whose nose is put out of joint.