Showing results by narrator "Sarah A" in All Categories

Ah, remember ye olde days when the family would gather around the giant Philco radio and listen to serials? You don’t? We don’t either. But apparently that’s how Cinnamon Bear was born on November 26, 1937, as the star of a holiday season cliff-hanger-style children’s radio series. We hear it was quite the rage!

After my nightmarish past, starting fresh should be a dream come true. But when my father’s death leaves me on the run, I have no choice but to seek shelter with the only family I have left: an uncle I’ve never even met.

I know I want to marry Sam the moment I meet him. After I lost my beloved mother so suddenly, this charming, softly spoken architect with his deep-brown eyes is just the fresh start I’ve been searching for. I’m delighted to be expecting our first child before we’ve even had a chance to plan a honeymoon. I want our family to work, so I try to ignore his long work trips. I turn a blind eye to the private calls he takes, and I listen to his excuses about why the money keeps disappearing from my bank account.

What drives someone to keep reaching for all that glitters, no matter the price? It’s easy to believe that more is better: more acclaim, more control, more wealth. But when dreams are fueled by greed, they can quickly twist into nightmares. These six propulsive short stories explore what happens when the true cost of ambition comes due.

Fifty-two-year-old Michelle Banks is struggling to keep all the plates spinning. She’s a perimenopausal district nurse, caring for elderly parents. Her husband is wasting their money on children’s TV memorabilia, her teenage daughter is riddled with anxiety and her 16-year-old son is behaving secretively. Alexa is the only one who knows how much Michelle is juggling. Listening in via four smart speakers, she also knows that it’s about to get even worse. So, when Michelle pleads for help, Alexa decides to go rogue.

London’s bright young things are partying, Soho’s nightlife is buzzing, and Augusta Peel is hiding in her basement. She has a reason to hide there: it’s home to her Bloomsbury workshop where she repairs old, neglected books. After a busy time during the war, all Augusta wants is peace and quiet. But events take a turn when Augusta agrees to chaperone nineteen-year-old Harriet Jones on a date. Failing to get her home on time, she ends up in a riotous nightclub. She can’t imagine the evening getting much worse when the police raid it. But then the murder happens.

A librarian’s discovery of a mysterious book sparks the journey of a lifetime in the delightful novel from the author of The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper. 'A gem of a book. I loved it.' Sarah Morgan, author of The Christmas Book Club 'A lovely, heart-warming story.' B A Paris, author of...

Martha Strangeways has settled into a quiet life in Strathbran, after the horrific events that traumatised the village a year earlier: her son, Dougie is at university, her friend Orla will give birth at any minute, and she's becoming ever closer to her ex, Jamie. But all this is turned upside down when her friend at Glasgow CID, DI Derek Summers, calls on her to help with a truly disturbing case: a human ear, with an unusual Celtic earring, has been found next to a railway line in the Highlands.

From renowned author Lindsey Davis, creator of the much-loved character, Marcus Didius Falco and his friends and family, comes the fourth novel in her all-new series set in ancient Rome. Life is sweet for Flavia Albia and her soon-to-be husband Faustus. But his new job as a building contractor...

Having uncovered the secrets that lay behind the spookily pristine town of Perfect, Violet and the townsfolk are enjoying their new freedom from the maniacal rule of the evil Archer twins. But have they really seen the last of Edward Archer? Why is Boy acting strangely? And who is masterminding a scary zombie army? 

Our home was always our sanctuary. As a barrister, I work long hours with tough people. Coming back to Damien and our teenage daughter Ellie was heaven. But lately, Ellie has been distant, missing her curfew and never answering her phone. Tonight, as I watch the blue flashing lights across the street as a young girl is wheeled into an ambulance, I feel a growing sense of dread: Is my daughter guilty?

In an era of fake news and new fault lines in global politics, millions of listeners turn to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme each morning to help them make sense of the world around them. The first ever book from the iconic programme marks 60 years of programming with 60 world-changing stories. Covering everything from the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Anti-Apartheid Movement to the emergence of Brit Art and space exploration, artificial intelligence and machine learning, Today explores events as they happened and reveals how they changed the world around us.

Haunted by their past, the Skelf women are hoping for a quieter life. But running both a funeral directors’ and a private investigation business means trouble is never far away, and when a car crashes into the open grave at a funeral that matriarch Dorothy is conducting, she can’t help looking into the dead driver’s shadowy life. While Dorothy uncovers a dark truth at the heart of Edinburgh society, her daughter, Jenny, and granddaughter Hannah have their own struggles.

When a chocolate festival turns bitter with the collapse of a wealthy connoisseur, bakery owner Allison Sweet finds her latest creation at the center of a mystery as tantalizing as her truffles. Can she clear her name and the reputation of her seaside sweet shop before the final course of justice is served?

Zombies can be murderWhen a string of unnatural deaths occur around the magical town of Omensford, tech witch Fi is called in to investigate. But she didn't expect the zombies. There's a necromancer on the loose and Fi has to find them before they kill again. Oh, and then there's the small matter of stopping some evil garden gnomes from destroying her sister's garden while navigating a deepening relationship with the handsome Dr De'ath. Just another week in Omensford.

As featured in Pitchfork, Empire, Nerdist, NPR, The A. V. Club, Mashable, IGN, SFX, and more! Following his underground hit Eraserhead and critically acclaimed The Elephant Man, visionary filmmaker David Lynch set his sights on bringing Frank Herbert’s beloved sci-fi novel Dune to the screen. The project had already vexed directors such as Alejandro Jodorowsky (El Topo) and Ridley Scott (Alien).

One little girl. Mirabelle’s mother loves her. She’s her ‘little doll’. Mother dresses her, paints her face and plaits her hair. But as Mirabelle grows, the dresses no longer fit quite as well, the face paint no longer looks quite so pretty. And Mother isn’t happy. Two little girls. On Mirabelle’s 13th birthday, Mother arrives home with a present - a new sister, five-year-old Clarabelle, who Mother has rescued from the outside world. But Mother only needs one.

The Secret World is an impressions show with a difference – it shines a light on the imaginary alternative lives of famous folk. Each episode takes place over one day, with stories unfolding and overlapping from morning to night. In these 22 episodes, we hear about the bizarre habits of celebrities from Lady Gaga to Keith Harris and Orville. Al Pacino reveals his alternative life as a balloon twister, Barack Obama becomes a Pearly King; Professor Brian Cox finds himself stalked by various women, including the Queen.

From intimate relationships to global politics, Sarah Schulman observes a continuum: that inflated accusations of harm are used to avoid accountability. Illuminating the difference between conflict and abuse, Schulman directly addresses our contemporary culture of scapegoating. This deep, brave, and bold work reveals how punishment replaces personal and collective self-criticism, and shows why difference is so often used to justify cruelty and shunning.

He’s hockey’s golden boy, my new client, and the man I’ve avoided for the last nine years. I was hired to fix him—but he’s not the only one who’s broken. Hawk Madden was my first love. I thought he would be my forever. But life wasn’t always fair. And grief could be a cruel beast. Fight or flight? I’d always run. But now he’s back in my life after all these years. Old feelings resurface, feelings that I thought I’d buried a long time ago. Hawk Madden was my first love…I just didn’t know that he’d be my last.