Showing results by narrator "Harrie Dobby" in All Categories

Gary Budden's debut collection blends the traditions of weird fiction and landscape writing in an interlinked set of stories from the emotional geographies of London, Kent, Finland and a place known as the Hollow Shore. The Hollow Shore is both fictional and real. It is a place where flowers undermine railway tracks, relationships decay and monsters lurk. It is the shoreline of a receding, retreating England. This is where things fall apart, waste away and fade from memory.

Taking listeners on a global journey through human history, historian Natasha Tidd examines how lies can change the world around us, from Julius Caesar's deceptive PR machine to the cover ups that caused Chernobyl.

Juliet only wanted to see her childhood home one more time–to look at it from the street. She never intended to meet the new owners, let alone talk her way into a position as their new live-in nanny. But it's too late now to tell the truth about who she really is. Six-year-old Kitty has progressive mutism and cannot speak. Nobody knows why she keeps making silent phone calls to the police. Juliet makes it her mission to find out. As Juliet settles into the house, nostalgia for her childhood gives way to uneasiness, as troubling memories surface.

But while Sophie, a third-year medical student, works long days and nights saving casualties of war at the American hospital, and waits anxiously for news of her fiancé from the front line, her recently widowed twin, Adèle, is determined to enjoy her freedom. Nothing – not the bombs, the curfews or the Nazi officers sidling up to her in nightclubs – can stop her from indulging in the temptations of Parisian society as she accompanies their father to glamorous parties.

When Detective Nikki Gill is called to the crime scene of Charlotte Winspear, she finds the woman’s body in a secluded woodland at the top of a hill, her feet encased in heels without a speck of mud. Charlotte disappeared from a college party in an exclusive Oxford manor house the night before, and Nikki’s instincts tell her she didn’t die at this spot. So why did the killer bring Charlotte here?

Faye is 39 and single. She's terrified she may never have the one thing she always wanted: a child of her own. Then she discovers a co-parenting app: Acorns. For men and women who want to have a baby, but don't want to do it alone. When she meets Louis through it, it feels as though the fates have aligned.

Moni the Goat-Boy written by Johanna Spyri (1827 - 1901): Moni is the goat boy who takes care of all the goats belonging to the people of Fideris, Switzerland. His favorite is a young kid named Mäggerli. One day Moni comes across a serious situation where he must keep a deceitful secret in order to protect Mäggerli from being killed. This delightful short story teaches children that to trust God and do right is always better than being deceitful.

Risking everything, she becomes increasingly involved in helping to save those on the run–even though that means persuading Jewish parents to hand over their children, in the desperate hope of saving their lives. When she is forced to flee to the non-occupied zone, her medical skills take her to the French camp of Rivesaltes, where she cares for the injured and unwell–until one day her luck runs out.

Lockdown is putting Sophia’s life on pause - just as she planned to put herself out there and meet someone. When the first clap for the keyworkers rings out around her courtyard, she’s moved to tears for all kinds of reasons. Jack is used to living life to the fullest. He’s going stir-crazy after just days isolating. Until the night he hears a woman crying from the balcony under his. He strikes up a conversation with the stranger and puts a smile on her face. Soon their balcony meetings are the highlight of Jack and Sophia’s days.

Following her harrowing pursuit of sinister cybercriminal Dantalion, and her life-changing decision to pursue personal vengeance over her case, Ericka Blackwood hit rock bottom. The only way she can find redemption is through the relentless hunting down of her former quarry. But Ericka is not the only one seeking Dantalion, whose scope has extended from orchestrating murder via the Dark Web and entered the world of international terrorism.

Jess knows it's time to move on from her best friend's couch, where she's been crashing since her boyfriend emptied out her heart, and all her savings. But when she responds to an ad in the newspaper for a lodger on a quiet Notting Hill street, Jess has no idea how life's about to change. Joan has spent too long alone with her memories of the man she walked away from one Manhattan evening years ago. Passing a bedroom door she can't bear to open, she decides to advertise for a lodger. When Jess meets Joan, she recognises a woman left behind by the world, and so she suggests a switch.

Interior designer Faith Hudson knows better than anyone the value of a home. Growing up as an unwanted kid in foster care, she hangs onto every last treasure, always searching for the place where she belongs. Out of the blue, Gabe York, the musician ex-boyfriend who broke her heart, calls to say he wants a second chance...and asks her to renovate the Cornish beach house they used to share together. It's bittersweet for Faith, but she's nothing if not hopeful.

When Allie moves to a quaint old cottage with her husband, it’s their dream home. Nestled in the village of Pluckley, it seems a perfect haven in which to raise their two children. But Pluckley has a reputation. It’s known as England’s most haunted village. And not long after the birth of their new son, Allie begins to notice strange things.... What’s the flash of white she sees moving quickly through the woods to the back of their house? And what’s the strange scratching noise coming from the chimney?

When Natalie Powers returns home for the first time in 13 years, she must convince everyone she has fully recovered from the mental illness that has seen her institutionalised for most of her young life. But instead of being welcomed back, Natalie enters a baffling world of deception. In the village of Little Downey, everybody appears to harbour a mysterious secret, including her father, Frank, the village butcher, who refuses to discuss the circumstances surrounding Natalie’s mother's disappearance. But who can Natalie trust if not her own father?

Nineteen-year-old Ellen is thrilled to have Jack Bryant as a best friend and roommate. She would be even happier to have him as a boyfriend. Ellen doesn't just love Jack, she loves his entire family—so perfect, so wealthy, so envied by the neighbors. Then, one terrible Saturday morning, Ellen and Jack visit his family home—and find six hanging bodies. Little by little, Ellen learns that beneath the family's glossy facade was a seething cauldron of abuse, dysfunction, and toxicity that she couldn't have imagined.

Anna Karenina is a novel by the Russian author Leo Tolstoy, first published in book form in 1878. Many writers consider Anna Karenina the greatest work of literature ever, and Tolstoy himself called it his first true novel. It was initially released in serial installments from 1873 to 1877 in the periodical The Russian Messenger. A complex novel in eight parts, with more than a dozen major characters, it is spread over more than 800 pages (depending on the translation and publisher), typically contained in two volumes.

Krystle didn’t have a normal childhood and longed for warm family Christmases with presents under the tree. Now she makes sure everyone else has the perfect Christmas she never had. With her festive business booming, she decides to celebrate by renting a secluded house in the Lakes, with a plan to make this the ultimate yuletide getaway. But fate immediately throws a spanner in the works in the form of a broken-down car, a flooded river and Max; a man who despises Christmas. Krystle becomes determined to show Max the joys of the holiday. Can she melt Max’s Grinch-like heart?

One Girl Began entwines the stories of three women, separated by history but connected by the same building. For Ellen in 1909, it is a box factory where she finds work and a transformative circle of friendship when her family fall on hard times. For Frances in 1984, it is a derelict ruin, where she joins a group of squatters and is drawn into a coercive relationship. And for Amanda in 2020, it is a gentrified conversion, where she finds herself trapped in a tiny flat and grappling with new motherhood as the pandemic looms into view.

After a very long and turbulent year, Sarah is dreaming of the five-star getaway her sister has booked them on. White sands, cocktails, massages, the Caribbean is calling to them. But as the sisters turn up to white sands, beach shacks, a compost toilet and outdoor shower, Sarah is sure there's been a mix-up. And there has.... At the last-minute, Amy decided a conservation project would be much more fun than a resort.

Greta Thunberg, author of No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference, has directed the attention of adults and her peers alike to issues crucial to the future of the planet, and the heads of even the youngest children have been filled with questions. Global warming, the greenhouse effect, fossil fuels - what do they all mean? What are biodiversity and sustainable development? Who is studying the changes that are taking place here on Earth? Which sources are reliable? What action can I take?