Showing results by narrator "Antonia Beamish" in All Categories

The scandalous image of the Empress Messalina as a ruthless and sexually insatiable schemer, derived from the work of Roman historians such as Tacitus and Suetonius, has taken deep root in the Western imagination. The stories they told about her included nightly visits to a brothel and a twenty-four-hour sex competition with a prostitute. Tales like these have defined the empress's legacy, but her real story is much more complex. In her new life of Messalina, the classicist Honor Cargill-Martin reappraises one of the most slandered and underestimated female figures of ancient history.

A terrifying enigma – with the power to destroy… Twenty years ago, Kate Maddox was a volunteer at a research centre where scientists hunted for a cure for the common cold virus. That summer, Kate fell in love with a handsome young doctor, Stephen, but her stay ended in his tragic death and...

Five-year-old Jimmy Higgins is brazenly snatched from the middle of a busy airport; but this is no ordinary kidnapping. Jimmy’s mother is Scarlett, a reality TV star who, dying of cancer, entrusted the boy to her friend Stephanie Harker. Now Stephanie, reaching into the past to discover the motive behind the abduction, soon encounters a shocking tale of murder and conspiracy, and is faced by the most difficult choice of her life.

It's New Year's Eve, and at a house party, three women bond over dodgy cocktails and fortune cookies, and vow to make this year their best one yet. But as the months unfold, Gemma, Saffron, and Caitlin find themselves tested to their limits. Under pressure, they are each forced to rethink their lives. But dare they take a chance on something new?

As the summer sun beats down on the ancient town of Acitrezza, a folk festival plays out in the picturesque harbour. Music, laughter and the aroma of local delicacies fill the air, and a traditional pantomime draws a crowd. For rookie journalist Nedda Leonardi, it's just another day's reporting in a calendar of unremarkable events. Until that is, the performers dive in the sparkling Ionian Sea for their finale... and emerge with a corpse. Could this be Nedda's big break?

Three sisters and a brother meet up in their grandparents' old house for three long, hot summer weeks. The house is full of memories of their childhood and their past, but now they may have to sell it. And under the idyllic surface, there are tensions. Secrets are uncovered, and passions erupt as a way of life - bourgeois, literate, ritualised - winds down to its inevitable end.

Exploring more than 100 of the most important ideas, organisations, and events to have defined the feminist movement, this is an essential introduction to feminism. Joining DK's best-selling Big Ideas series, The Feminism Book, narrated by Antonia Beamish, is a complete study of feminism. Trace the subject from its origins, through the suffrage campaigns of the late 19th century, to recent developments such as the Everyday Sexism Project and the #MeToo movement.

Adam and Rachel are getting married at last. Childhood sweethearts whose lives and families have been intertwined for years; theirs is set to be the wedding of the year. But then Rachel's cousin Ellie makes an unexpected return to the family fold. As the long-awaited wedding approaches, Adam is torn between duty and temptation, security and freedom, and must make a choice that will break either one heart, or many.

Call the Midwife meets Dr Barnardo's in this gritty drama that will appeal to fans of Katie Flynn. St Saviour's will never turn a homeless child away.... When there is nowhere else to turn, St Saviour's will give them hope.... It's 1948, and London's East End is still a bombed-out landscape. Sister Beatrice, who runs the St Saviour's Children's Home, knows that life is still a precarious existence for many children, and it seems that there is no end to the constant stream of waifs and strays who appear at their door....

Bruised from the breakdown of her marriage, Esther Lomax needs to get away, and Malaysia seems the perfect place. But a day's boat trip takes a desperate turn when Esther and six other holidaymakers are taken to a desert island and their guide doesn’t return. As the days pass, tensions erupt, secrets emerge, and time increasingly runs out, Esther must ask herself: Will she leave the island alive?

Anhedonia is from the Greek word for 'without pleasure' and describes a loss of interest in activities you once enjoyed. It explains why many of us spend our lives in a fog, feeling neither happy nor sad, just not very much at all. In the first book to tackle this missing piece in mental health, writer Tanith Carey joins the dots on how convenience culture, stressful lifestyles, modern diets and both female and male hormonal changes can dial down our ability to feel excitement and joy.

Meet Detective Maddie Ives in this absolutely gripping, race-against-time series opener from best-selling author Charlie Gallagher. A young woman’s body is left in a metal container in a remote location. The killer is careful to position her under a camera that links to his smartphone. He likes to look back at his work. He is watching her. But she isn’t dead. So he will return to finish the job. He can barely contain his excitement at the thought of getting to do it all over again. But he must be careful. He cannot rush. Rushing makes you careless....

Morgravia Sanctus is being hunted. Something terrible has happened to her, a profound trauma that has left behind ‘red dreams’ and a physical agony that can strike at any moment. Her life in danger and her memory fragmented, she arrives in the low-hive of Blackgheist to escape her pursuers and search for ‘the Broker’ – a trafficker in memories and psychic mind manipulation. Soon after, a plague sweeps the city, turning its citizens into blood-hungry monsters. Order collapses, death and slaughter are rampant.

Brought to you by Penguin. 'The coaching room can sometimes become its own theatre. A marriage unravels right in front of you. A shaming confession is made. A secret hugged for many years is disclosed. Tears of wrenching anger and despair can take up the whole session. These are times where you...

When first published in 2001, it divided female critics and readers. One famous columnist wrote a piece demanding that Cusk's children were taken into care, that was she was unfit to look after them. Oprah Winfrey invited her on the show to defend herself and the book as protests grew about its honest, gritty account of the misery of those early months. It is a seminal, stand-out book on the complications of being an ambivalent mum in an age of white-washed, Annabel Karmel'd new families.

Humanly Possible is a wide-ranging, personal, thought-provoking and entertaining journey through the battle of ideas over some 700 years of history—mostly, but not exclusively, in Europe. Through a mixture of biography and philosophy, Bakewell seeks to understand what humanism is, why it has continued to flourish despite opposition from fanatics, mystics, tyrants and cultural pessimists of all kinds, and exactly why we should value and defend it in the 21st century.

From the No.1 Sunday Times bestselling author of Behind Her Eyes, now a Netflix sensation! WARNING: Will keep you up all night Lisa tells lies. Most of them are small white lies intended to make the life of her daughter, Ava, easier. But her biggest lie of all about to be exposed. Because Lisa...

Every evening Rose Ransom looks in the mirror and marvels that she's even alive. A mere woman, her role in the Leader's death has been miraculously overlooked. She still works at the Culture Ministry, where her work now focuses on the outlawed subject of Poetry, a form of writing that transmits subversive meanings, emotions and signals that cannot be controlled. Therefore all Poetry is banned and Rose is appointed a Poet Hunter.

When Rachel Cusk decides to travel to Italy for a summer with her husband and two young children, she has no idea of the trials and wonders that lie in store. Their journey leads them to both the expected and the surprising, all seen through Cusk's sharp and humane perspective.

In the nineties, Lydia was one half of a teen pop group. Their image was sexy, edgy, girly yet 'in control.' The reality was very different. Now, thirty years later, with #MeToo revelations a daily reality, a famous ex-lover resurfaces with a slick, self-serving apology, demanding forgiveness. Suddenly, Lydia is overwhelmed with memories of a harmful time in her life that refuses to leave her in peace.