Showing results by narrator "Joanna Tope" in All Categories

Brenda longs for a quiet life; a life where she’s free to run her B&B and enjoy cups of tea and the occasional night at the bingo with her friend Effie. Unfortunately for Brenda trouble tends to seek her out.The whole palaver begins with poison pen letters that start flying around the quiet lanes of Whitby. Then there’s Jessie the Zombie Womanzee, an amorous and strangely unaged professor of Icelandic history, and terrifying encounters with bamboo wickerwork gods from the dawn of time. Lord only knows where it will all end…

Brenda and Effie are living it up on the continent. Holidaying in Paris, they are menaced by a mysterious Peeping Tom with a limp and a hump, who warns them that they must never return home to Whitby again. Untold disaster will take over the world if they go anywhere near the North Yorkshire coast.... But Brenda and Effie know that they simply have to return to Whitby, even if it means the end of everything they hold dear.

The Wicked Witch of Whitby vs. the Bride of Frankenstein. Meet the good, the bad and the bitten... Something is biting people on the streets of Whitby. In an ordinary town, this would be worrying. Here, it's disastrous, and only Brenda has guessed why. She's also trying to prepare for a packed festive break at her B&B, but her best friend Effie is in distracted mood: she hasn't been the same since her suave gentleman friend Alucard reappeared.

Brenda has had a long and eventful life and she has come to Whitby to run a B&B in search of some peace and quiet. She and her best friend Effie like nothing better than going out for tea and keeping their eyes open for any of the mysterious goings on in town. But the oddest thing in Whitby may well be Brenda herself. With her terrible scars, her strange lack of a surname or the fact that she takes two different shoe sizes, Brenda should have known that people as, well, unique as she is, just aren’t destined for a quiet life.

Discover the secret world of Whitby: mystery, mayhem and delicious black comedy. Brenda never meant to tell anyone the truth. She s got used to keeping secrets over the years. But in Whitby, people have a habit of working it out. Especially best friends like Effie, who sniff out the unusual, and expect the unexpected. And Brenda needs friends. She can't keep us safe all by herself. Not any more...

No matter what she tries to do, trouble has a way of finding Brenda and when her old adversary Mr Danby starts filling the airwaves with his late-night phone-in show it can only mean one thing.But fate has an even bigger surprise in store. Romance is in the air for Brenda and, do what she will, she cannot deny that she and her man were made for each other - literally.

Three stories that explore the most evocative experience of summer - outdoor swimming. 'To Brixton Beach': A mysterious swimmer spends all day in the pool at Brockwell Lido. Written by Stella Duffy. Read by Adjoa Andoh. 'Lido Lover': An Englishwoman finds a kind of fulfilment on the Venetian Lido. Written by Michele Roberts. Read by Joanna Tope. 'The Horizon Pool': An unexpected swimming companion in the UK's northernmost outdoor pool - the Trinkie in Wick - may hold the key to recovery for a teenage boy. Written by Linda Cracknell. Read by Finn den Hertog.

Ann Cleeves is well known for her 'Vera', 'Shetland', and 'Two Rivers' crime series, all of which have been adapted into hit TV shows. She was presented with the CWA Diamond Dagger for lifetime achievement in 2017, and was appointed an OBE in the 2022 New Year Honours List for services to reading and libraries. This collection includes full-cast dramatisations of the first two 'Shetland' novels featuring Detective Jimmy Perez, as well as three short stories and a discussion with the bestselling author.