Showing results by narrator "Fenella Fudge" in All Categories

In England in the 1700s, a woman who was an intellectual, spoke out, or wrote professionally was considered unnatural. After all, as the wisdom of the era dictated, a clever woman—if there were such a thing—would never make a good wife. But a circle of women called the Bluestockings did something extraordinary: Coming together in glittering salons to discuss and debate as intellectual equals with men, they fought for women to be educated and to have a public role in society. In this intimate and revelatory history, Susannah Gibson delves into the lives of these pioneering women.

Inspiring stories from jewellery makers to basket weavers, artists to terrarium makers, printmakers to ceramicists, bring bags of real-world advice and inspiration for those wanting to take their first steps into this new artisanal economy. With more time at home than ever before, the restorative distraction of crafts and making has seen a mainstream resurgence. So too has the desire to 'make a living' from creating handmade products to sell, or to sell our creative skills.

What happens in a relationship when your partner only has eyes for their new phone? What happens when you lose a treasured possession - a hoard of love letters documenting a relationship that never really ended - and this loss becomes an obsession? Speak to Me is the story of a woman's quest, in a world ruled by screens and devices, for a conversation that will unlock who she once was, and what she really wants now. Keenly observed, tender and sharply funny, this is an audiobook about all the ways we say, and don't say, the things in our hearts.

For admirers of Tom Rachman's work, this is a return to the formal ingenuity and technique that he exhibited so flamboyantly in his debut. It's set during a crisis in democracy, a society in lockdown linked digitally but convulsed by a social media frenzy, and is told by a little-known, little-read Dutch novelist named Dora Frenhofer, who has decided that her life as an old woman in this post-truth pandemic world has become too much. But like a twenty-first century Scheherazade Dora spins stories to fend off the evil day, conjuring connections from her past to give meaning to the present.

Weaving together stories of her subjects' troubles and her mother's decline, Noga Arikha searches for some meaning in the science she has set out to study. She explores how the self studies itself and how it loses itself, delving into the scientific research that can help us understand how deeply interconnected are our minds and bodies. The result is an unforgettable journey across the ever-shifting boundaries between ourselves and each other.

'BURN THIS!' Why did so many letters between Lady Frances and Lady Betty Balfour begin this way? What did they have to hide? Alike in so many ways - political, passionate, argumentative and deeply intelligent. It's no surprise that once Frances and Betty became sisters-in-law, they became close...

Annabel Abbs's Windswept: Walking the Paths of Trailblazing Women is a beautifully written meditation on connecting with the outdoors through the simple act of walking. In captivating and elegant prose, Abbs follows in the footsteps of women who boldly reclaimed wild landscapes for themselves, including Georgia O'Keeffe in the empty plains of Texas and New Mexico, Nan Shepherd in the mountains of Scotland, Gwen John following the French River Garonne, Daphne du Maurier along the River Rhône, and Simone de Beauvoir - who walked as much as 25 miles a day in a dress.

In 1799 all of Europe is at war. In Palermo 16-year-old singer-in-training Anna Maria Ludovisi is married by her dying father to Captain Henry Duncannon, the perennial bachelor. Minutes after the wedding he sets sail. The threat of French invasion causes Anna to flee to Paris. At the end of the revolution, Napoleon Bonaparte is transforming France; Anna must transform herself into a professional singer in order to survive.

It's a scandal that 27-year-old Sarah Stanborough is still unwed. Despite her matchmaking mother's fervent wishes, Sarah refuses to encourage the eminently eligible John Phillip North, marquis of Revesne. The arrogant bounder has actually fought duels to keep her potential suitors at bay. Only one man attracts the independent spinster: handsome Edward Middleton, her young cousin's guardian, who detests the frivolous gossip and shallow flirtations of London society as much as she does.

Blood Angel is a nordic noir crime series not for the fainthearted. Sofie Engell is a talented police investigator, with a background as a psychologist, and part of a task force hunting serial killers. A series of new bestial murders are committed, always staged in the same horrible way. Soon a...