Showing results by narrator "Imogen Church" in All Categories

Wangari lives in the lush, green land of rural Kenya, where the soil is perfect for planting, the trees tower into the sky and the streams are full of mysterious creatures. All day, she plays beneath her favourite fig tree, and at night, she gathers around the fire with her family to listen to her mother's stories. Then Wangari grows up and goes away to school, and things start changing at home. Farmers chop down the trees. Landslides bury the stream. The soil becomes overworked and dry, and nothing will grow. People go hungry.

Stacey is the dusty air, the cracked soil, the drought. To thirteen-year-old Bethany Sloane, she’s everything. Abandoned by her mother at a remote African boarding school, Bethany will do anything to stay in Stacey’s good graces. And that means learning the rules of each twisted game.

Sam Wylde is a Close Protection Officer to the rich and powerful. In a world dominated by men, being a woman has been an advantage. And she is the best in the business at what she does. She takes a job protecting the daughter of the Sharifs - Pakistani textile tycoons - but she realises that there is more to their organisation than meets the eye and suddenly she finds herself in danger.

November 1816: Restless but naive Emeline Fitzpatrick is desperate to escape her stifling life in foggy Halifax. Her guardian is lining up repugnant suitors, but Emeline has her eyes set on a lieutenant in the British Navy. She just needs to persuade him to propose, or her one chance at happiness will be gone forever. But when Emeline’s hopes end in scandal, she finds herself with only one suitor left: the wealthy and enigmatic Captain Graves. Having already lost two wives to tragic circumstances, the widower is seeking a new companion in his cloistered seaside manor, Faraday House.

When one of Nora Bunstruggle’s friends is murdered in cold blood, it sends the Coochie Hole burlesque club on Megalopolis into shock. It soon becomes clear that the police have zero interest in the death of a burlesque dancer. But what if the twisted killer strikes their troupe again? And who is going to exact justice for the victim’s now motherless child? Nora and the gang from the Coochie Hole realise that if they want to get to catch their faceless murderous foe, they are going to have to roll their sleeves up and kick some backsides themselves.

Carrie is a successful TV producer in a high pressure job. She’s talented, liked, and well-respected. She and her husband, Adrian, an award-winning screenwriter, decided years before that they didn’t want children. But now, just as they’re both at the pinnacle of their careers, she has discovered she is pregnant and is shocked to find that she wants to keep the baby. But in a competitive industry where time off is seen as a sign of weakness, Carrie looks on the prospect of maternity leave with trepidation.

When Sarah Roberts’s son, Oscar, was born, he was unexpectedly diagnosed with Down syndrome. Sarah had to rapidly come to terms with a new normal, as she suddenly found her life on a different path to the one she’d always hoped and believed she’d follow. For the Love of Oscar shares a mother’s real and very raw emotions as she comes to terms with that new path, in a story which is nevertheless both heart-warming and funny. Sarah writes candidly about the ups and downs not only of parenthood but also of parenting a child who just happens to have additional needs.

'Tell Mum I miss her.' Bodyguard Sam Wylde has had her British licence revoked. She is now operating in Europe, running security on a swanky motor yacht during the Historic Grand Prix race. And at the same time she trawls for news of her ex-husband and daughter. In fact, the owner of the boat is bankrupt and the bank wants the multimillion-dollar vessel back. Sam is in the middle of a very dangerous situation that is rapidly escalating out of control.

Shipwrecks are part of life in the remote village of Porthmorvoren, Cornwall. And as the sea washes the bodies of the drowned onto the beach, it also brings treasures: barrels of liquor, exotic fruit, the chance to lift a fine pair of boots from a corpse, maybe even a jewel or two. When, after a fierce storm, Mary Blight rescues a man half dead from the sea, she ignores the whispers of her neighbours and carries him home to nurse better. Gideon Stone is a Methodist minister from Newlyn, a married man.

The tried and tested 'On This Day in History' format has elevated the stories of many people and their impact on the wider world. However, of those considered noteworthy by the Establishment, just a fraction are women. But this is not the whole story - not by half. Our past is full of influential women many of whom have been unfairly confined to the margins of history. Politicians, troublemakers, explorers, artists, writers, scientists and even the odd murderer; these women have shaped society around the globe.

Veronica Cecil was 25 years old when her husband was offered a job at a large multi-national company in the Congo. Filled with enthusiasm for their new life, the couple and their 11-month-old son set off for an African adventure. Very soon, however, Veronica began to realise that life in the Congo was not what she had imagined. Food shortages were an everyday occurrence; she felt like an outsider at the club in Léopoldville, which only the Belgians and other expats frequented; and flickers of violence were starting to erupt everywhere.

Stunning, charismatic Lexy O’Brien is the reigning queen of British reality TV. Her life in front of the camera is planned and manipulated as successfully as any military assault. But success breeds jealousy. When you’re on top, the only way is down, and there’s always someone standing by to give you a shove....

Ewan Stokes disappeared after a football match in Ipswich 15 years ago. No one knows where he went but every year on the anniversary of his disappearance, random mysterious sightings are reported across Europe. Since Ewan vanished, a fanatical online following has grown up around the mystery. The cult believes Stokesy is coming back. And he wants payback.

On a hot July day, three elderly people are found dead in a dilapidated house in Primrose Hill. Reading the story in a newspaper as she prepares to leave the country, Marie Gillies has an unshakable feeling that she is somehow to blame. How did these three people come to live together, and how did they all die at once? The truth lies in a very different England and in the secret world of the ladies of the house....

Catherine Swift is a bestselling romance author, but her personal story hasn’t been quite so successful; three failed marriages have left her relationship with her daughters strained. Engaged once again, Catherine is counting on this wedding, at her villa in Corfu, to finally bring the family together. Adeline can’t believe her mother is getting married for a fourth time, or that she’s expected to attend. It brings back the pain of her mother’s infidelity and the baby who was the result.

When Rachel marries dark, handsome David, everything seems to fall into place. Swept from single life in London to the beautiful Carnhallow House in Cornwall, she gains wealth, love and a stepson, Jamie. But then Jamie makes a chilling prediction, and Rachel's perfect life begins to unravel. Haunted by the spectre of David's late wife - Jamie's real mother - Rachel finds herself drawn to the deserted mines where she plunged to her death three years prior.

Iris Turner, an unworldly young Englishwoman, arrives in the French Riviera to take up a secretarial role for the mysterious Hammond Brooke. Living in a small, exclusive hotel among eccentric and unpredictable aristocrats and struggling to gain her employer's trust, she soon realises that nothing is as it seems. Initiated into the mysterious world of perfume, she finds herself entangled in a web of intrigue and deception.

Marissa lives alone in her tiny one-bed apartment. It’s quiet and safe; all she’s ever wanted since the night her mother was killed in front of her. But when the police knock on her door with the news that her last remaining family member has been murdered, she comes face-to-face with the trauma she has spent a lifetime running from.

In the end, all things are known. Return to the world of The Relic Guard with this remarkable fantasy novel. Divided, hunted and short on resources, the surviving members of the Relic Guild are in real trouble. Their old enemy, the Genii, and their resurrected master have infiltrated Labrys Town and taken over the police force. So the Relic Guild must flee their home and set off on a dangerous journey across the worlds of the Aelfir. One that will lead them to a weapon which might destroy the Genii.

Returning to her homeland from beyond the mountains, the ranger Leiyn goes to defend Baltesia during its war of secession. But the Ilberian Union refuses to relinquish its old colony. With the greatest fleet in the world and a host of odiosas at its disposal, a shadowy accomplice further augments the Union's power. The dangers to Leiyn and her comrades are greater than ever before. To survive, Leiyn will have to rely on more than her magic. She must find allies who possess secret knowledge beyond anything she's imagined. Allies even lyshans fear.