Showing results by narrator "Ellie Heydon" in All Categories

When Alice Appleton’s boyfriend dumps her out of the blue, just after she has lost her mother, she‘s knocked sideways. Escaping to the stunning Dorset coast, she takes a job at the crumbling Castle Café. It’s a million miles away from her busy London lifestyle, and she knows her mum would approve. Surrounded by cream teas and welcoming faces, could the quirky seaside village be the perfect place for Alice to heal her broken heart this summer?

Annie Higgins has given up on love: she’s too busy trying to get her own business off the ground. But - infuriated by the advertising agency across the hall making fun of her job - Annie accepts their crazy challenge: to make a random stranger Instagram-famous in just 30 days.

Returning early from a disastrous date night with my husband, I know something is wrong the moment the wheels crunch the gravel drive of our home. Inside, the TV is on and a half-eaten meal waits on the table. My heart stops when I find our little girl is alone in the house and our babysitter, Sasha, is missing....

In 1967, four female scientists worked together to build the world’s first time machine. But just as they are about to debut their creation, one of them suffers a breakdown, putting the whole project - and future of time travel - in jeopardy. To protect their invention, one member is exiled from the team - erasing her contributions from history. Fifty years later, time travel is a big business. Twenty-something Ruby Rebello knows her beloved grandmother Granny Bee was one of the pioneers, though no one will tell her more.

In their rise to fame over the course of the war, Bea Herron, Ivy Sparrow and Rainey Bird have faced down bombs and looked tragedy in the eye. They have also found love, created their own families and had careers that they never thought possible. With peace finally on the horizon, what will the new world hold for them?

Twenty-five-year-old Lily King is wondering when her life is going to start. She adores working at the much-loved Castle Teashop, surrounded by familiar faces and delicious cakes. But she’s stuck in a rut. She’s just been dumped by her boyfriend, and her dream job seems to be slipping through her fingers. When her best friend Emily Campbell needs urgent help to organise her enchanting Christmas wedding, Lily realises it’s finally her moment to shine and reach for the opportunities she’s been wishing for.

Anna is distraught when her beloved mother, Ines, passes away. She inherits a box of papers, handwritten in Italian and yellowed with age, and a tantalizing promise that the truth about what happened during the war lies within. The diaries lead Anna to the small village of Rofelle, where she slowly starts to heal as she explores sun-kissed olive groves, and pieces together her mother’s past: happy days spent herding sheep across Tuscan meadows cruelly interrupted when World War Two erupted and the Nazis arrived....

Rainey Bird, Ivy Sparrow and Bea Herron all love to sing. For Rainey, music has been a solace during the upheaval of starting a new life with her mother, away from her abusive dad. Bea finds a confidence when she sings that she cannot get from anything else. Ivy sees it as her best chance of making a life away from Gosport and a dead-end job. The three of them sing in a choir run by the strict but kind Mrs Wilkes. The choir provides a couple of hours of stardust each week, away from school and work and family worries.

Elsie Barker is desperate for a new start after her husband leaves her. When her friend Izzy, herself planning an escape from her abusive boyfriend, tells her about the jobs going for women as narrowboat crew on the canals between London and Coventry, she jumps at the chance. Their new boss, Dorothy, is kind and fair, but it's clear she has a secret of her own. Their crew is completed by Tolly, searching for a new vocation now that her dream job has been snatched away. The work is hard, but the girls forge close friendships that will see them through the darkest times.

Kismet [n.] /'kismet/ Destiny; Fate. Origin: 19th century: from Arabic, qisma 'division, portion, lot', qasama 'to divide'. Anna [n.] /'æne/ Journalist and Community Shed entrepreneur, rent-a-sheep developer; in love. Or maybe not. Anna's a free spirit. Definitely happy. Or anxious. Or is it more panicked? She's certainly talented. Unless she's really a fraud. Absolutely hilarious - but possibly grieving. And lustful. On the edge. Having a glass of wine. Whether Kismet means destiny or division, Anna is about to test it to its very limits.

1943, and The Bluebird Girls are at the top of their game. They are touring with ENSA, visiting army bases across the world in order to boost the morale of the brave boys fighting in the desert and the jungle. The hours are long and the travelling uncomfortable, but Bea, Rainey and Ivy wouldn't be anywhere else for the world. Then tragedy strikes the group and their little show business family. Their manager, Blackie, and Rainey's mother, Jo, find themselves with heavy new responsibilities, and the change in circumstances causes the girls themselves to reconsider their lives.

Gosport, 1941. The Bluebird Girls - Rainey Bird, Bea Herron and Ivy Sparrow - are on their way to stardom. From working mens' clubs to the glamour of the Savoy Hotel, fame and fortune beckon as the south coast's favourite singing trio work to charm their way into the hearts of the nation. But the war rages on, and reaching the top of their game will not be easy. Blonde bombshell Bea is still dealing with the fallout of a traumatic encounter last winter. Rainey is determined to live up to her mother's belief in her, but finds herself struggling with the whirlwind of life in showbusiness.

Help busy young minds wind down and switch off before bed with this relaxing audio collection. Developed with The Children's Sleep Charity, and parent-tested, Puffin Sleepy Tales are specially designed to help children aged 7+ feel calm and positive at the end of a long day. They're the perfect relaxation tool for the hour before bed, and can be listened to before or after a bedtime story, as part of your nightly routine. Read slowly and soothingly, each tale is 15 minutes long, so you can put your audiobook sleep timer on with no need to return to the screen.

Florence Connelly is broken-hearted; her beloved grandmother has just died and her marriage has collapsed. But things change when she opens a box of vintage 1960s dress patterns, discovered inside her grandmother's wardrobe. Inside each pattern packet is a fabric swatch, a postcard from Europe and a faded photograph of a young woman wearing the hand-made dress. Why did Flo's grandmother never speak of this mysterious woman - Nancy Moon? Her life in tatters, Flo decides to remake Nancy's dresses and to head across to the Continent to re-create Nancy's Grand Tour of 1962.

Four months. Four weddings. One happy ending. Bea, Lizzie, Hannah and Kat - die-hard romcom fans - have always joked about getting married in the same year: their own Four Weddings summer. But when Bea unexpectedly turns down her boyfriend's proposal, the rest of the girls decide she needs a little Richard Curtis-esque meet-cute.

Legend has it that when the Gabriel Hounds run howling over the crumbling palace of Dar Ibrahim, high in the Adonis Valley of Lebanon, death will follow on their heels. When rich, spoilt Christie Mansel arrives at the decaying palace to look after her eccentric Aunt Harriet, she arrives to the sound of howling dogs. The palace is riddled with hidden passages and the servants are unwilling to let anyone see Harriet during the day. It seems the palace hides an extraordinary secret...one that somebody is willing to kill to keep.

Linda Martin understands what is to be lonely: her parents died when she was young, and she was raised in an orphanage. When she is hired as a governess to the orphaned young Philippe, Comte de Valmy, Linda finds a kindred spirit in the lonely little boy. But Philippe is the heir to a vast estate in Savoy, and his dangerously handsome uncle may be willing to kill to ensure that Philippe never inherits it.

August 1939. At peaceful Summerhill, orphaned Maddy hides from the world and the rumours of war. Then her adored sister Georgina returns from a long trip with a new friend, the handsome Victor. Maddy fears that Victor is not all he seems, but she has no idea just what kind of danger has come into their lives....

We all know someone like Becca. She has the job everyone wants, a designer wardrobe, a hot-shot lawyer boyfriend, holidays to exotic locations. And she flaunts her perfect life all over social media. It drove her colleague Lizzie mad, but she couldn't stop looking. They were never really friends - and yet Lizzie knew everything about her. Or did she? When chance and a terrible mistake pull Lizzie back into Becca's orbit years after they lost touch, she'll realise that you can't always believe what you see online...and that finding out the truth might be the worst thing you can do.

A Vera Wang dress, the reception at a sophisticated London venue, and a guest list that reads like a society gossip column are all the ingredients of Anna Whitehall’s perfect wedding that never was… Spending the summer uncovering hidden treasures in a vintage shop, Anna can still vividly...