Showing results by narrator "Rachel Atkins" in All Categories

Meet Margaret Small: 75, plain spoken, Whitstable native and a Cilla Black super fan. Shortly after the death of her idol, Margaret begins receiving sums of money in the post, signed simply 'C'. She is convinced it must be Cilla, but how can it be? To solve the mystery of her benefactor Margaret...

Ingrid Coleman writes letters to her husband, Gil, about the truth of their marriage, but instead of giving them to him, she hides each in the thousands of books he has collected over the years. When Ingrid has written her final letter, she disappears from a Dorset beach, leaving behind her beautiful but dilapidated house by the sea, her husband, and her two daughters, Flora and Nan. Twelve years after her disappearance, Gil thinks he sees Ingrid from a bookshop window.

Detective Jane Tennison must lift the lid on the most chilling murder case of her career to date. A coffin is dug up by builders in the grounds of an historic convent - inside is the body of a young nun. In a city as old as London, the discovery is hardly surprising. But when scratch marks are...

Murder’s on the menu, and no one is safe from playground gossip . . . classic Tuesday. From cocktails to cold tea, and swanky dinners to school-gate antics, Rachel Walker has lost her old life—and her identity. But when the new term begins, and she’s swept into the Parent WhatsApp group...

An extended essay initially written in response to a letter pondering how to end war, Three Guineas eloquently relates women’s equal opportunity to the end of the power structures which contribute to conflict. Using the metaphor of three guineas, Woolf highlights three worthy causes to donate to in order to end violence: rebuilding education for women, supporting professional opportunities for women and the promotion of pacifism.

'I was hooked!' Meet your new favourite detective DCI Liz Field in this dark and twisty crime thriller You can't hide from the past… Fifteen years ago, five vulnerable teenagers took part in a life-changing study of OCD. Now, their psychologist has been brutally stabbed and left for dead. DCI...

A book of the year for the Times, the Sunday Times, the Independent, the Guardian and the Daily Mail 'Charming . . . heartbreaking, sometimes both funny and unsettling, and always - from start to end - very, very good' RODDY DOYLE 'Magical . . . as scrumptious as the home-made mayonnaise...

As the glamour of the Bright Young Things crashes into the world of the Mitford sisters, their maid, Louisa Cannon, finds herself at the scene of a gripping murder mystery. Meet the 'Bright Young Things', the rabble-rousing hedonists of the 1920s whose treasure hunts were a media obsession. One such game takes place at the 18th birthday party of Pamela Mitford but ends in tragedy as cruel, charismatic Adrian Curtis is pushed to his death from the church neighbouring the Mitford home. The police quickly identify the killer as a maid, Dulcie.

Set in the extreme landscape of Alaska, The Quality of Silence follows the story of Yasmin and her deaf daughter, Ruby. Yasmin arrives in Alaska to be told her husband, Matt, is dead, the victim of a catastrophic accident. Yasmin, unable to accept this as truth, sets out into the frozen winter landscape, taking Ruby with her, in search of answers. But as a storm closes in, Yasmin realises that a very human danger may be keeping pace with them.

Lose yourself in the gripping first novel in a new series of Golden Age murder mysteries set amid the lives of the glamorous Mitford sisters. It's 1919, and Louisa Cannon dreams of escaping her life of poverty in London, and most of all her oppressive and dangerous uncle. Louisa's salvation is a position within the Mitford household at Asthall Manor, in the Oxfordshire countryside.

The Essential Jane Austen Collection: Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Mansfield Park, Emma, & Persuasion. Discover the wit, romance, and timeless insight of Jane Austen in this beautifully curated collection of five beloved novels that continue to captivate readers around the world. Together, these enduring classics offer unforgettable characters, sparkling dialogue, and keen observations of society, making them essential reading for lovers of great literature.

The must-have cosy crime novel of the year! Perfect for fans of Richard Osman, Ian Moore and Robert Thorogood! The Bromley Botanists are getting down and dirty as they seek to dig up the truth. Gill and her fellow Bromley Botanists are excited to take ownership of the Chequered Lawns Golf Club...

A bear, born and raised in captivity, is devastated by the loss of his keeper; another finds herself performing in the circus; a third sits down one day and pens a memoir which becomes an international sensation, and causes her to flee her home. Through the stories of these three bears, Yoko Tawada reflects on our own humanity, the ways in which we belong to one another and the ways in which we are formed.

Published in 1937 to commercial success, The Years is a powerful narrative that traces the fortunes of the Pargiter family from the 1880s through to the 1930s, capturing the shifting tides of English society as old traditions give way to modernity. Through Woolf's characteristically lyrical prose and sharp psychological insight, the ordinary rhythms of domestic life – births, deaths, reunions, quiet moments of longing – become heavy with meaning.

Virginia Woolf: The Essays contains the most important and impactful of Woolf's non-fiction writing, including five essay collections and her most renowned essay: A Room of One's Own. Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) was an English novelist and essayist regarded as one of the foremost modernist literary figures of the twentieth century. During the interwar period, Woolf was a significant figure in London literary society and a member of the famous Bloomsbury Group.

Magdalen and Norah Vanstone have known only comfort and affluence for their entire lives. Orphaned suddenly following the unexpected deaths of their parents, the illegitimate sisters find themselves flung into the other extreme of living: their father had neglected to amend his will following their parents' recent marriage, leaving them with nothing, and their bitter, estranged uncle, the legal inheritor of the family fortune, mercilessly refuses them support.

1937. War with Germany is dawning and a civil war already raging in Spain. Split across political lines, the six Mitford sisters are more divided than ever. Meanwhile their former maid Louisa Cannon is now a private detective, working with her ex-policeman husband, Guy Sullivan. Louisa and Guy are surprised when a call comes in from novelist Nancy Mitford requesting that they look into the disappearance of her Communist sister, Jessica, nicknamed Decca. It quickly becomes clear that Decca may have made for the war in Spain - and not alone.

‘Each time my mother laid a finger on me… it was another step into the jaws of hell. Her abuse, more so than any other, destroyed me. It was the ultimate betrayal.’ Abused from the age of eight by her older brother and then her step-father, Maureen Wood quickly became numb to the constant...

The Virginia Woolf Complete Collection brings together all of her 9 published novels, from her very first published work, the exuberantly youthful The Voyage Out, to the modern masterpieces of Mrs Dalloway and To the Lighthouse, as well as the hugely ambitious and ever-relevant Orlando, alongside many other wide-ranging and ever-inventive works of fiction.

The Virginia Woolf Complete Collection brings together all of her most iconic works, including all 9 of her published novels, a selection of her best short stories, as well as some of her most influential non-fiction writing. From the enduring importance of her ideas of female independence in A Room of One's Own to the modern masterpieces of Mrs Dalloway and To the Lighthouse, alongside many more of her novels, criticism, and essays, this collection takes you across the broad breadth of Woolf's ever-inventive and timeless writings.