Showing results by narrator "Kim Hicks" in All Categories

Twistleton is a village untouched by time. Daisy, Jean, Freddie and their friends Aurelia and Laura are devoted to the place, so that when war breaks out Twistleton becomes the embodiment of everything for which they are fighting. For the previous generation the new conflict causes private despair, increased when Twistleton is requisitioned by the Army. Turfed out of their houses, the villagers take refuge at the Hall.

Delphine Venner is an old woman now, but she remembers everything. She remembers what it is to be a child of war, fighting for her life, and what the terrifying creatures from another world took from her all those years ago. And in that other world, beast-filled and brutal, someone waits for her. Hagar, a centuries-old assassin, daily paying a terrible price for her unending youth, is planning one final death: that of her abhorrent master, the Grand-Duc. The death that will cost her everything.

You wouldn’t be ‘barking mad’ if, when asked the definition of certain phrases, ‘the cat got your tongue’ and you ‘clammed up’. Let’s not ‘beat around the bush’; the English language is littered with linguistic quirks that, on closer examination, seem utterly fantastical. In Spilling the Beans on the Cat’s Pyjamas, Judy Parkinson explores the many colourful – but rather incomprehensible – phrases that enhance our language, describing their origins and defining their true meanings.

Emmaline has always understood from her mother that, as the eldest of four daughters, she must marry. But it seems that no proposals are going to come her way - until, at a crowded ball, Julius makes his way to her side and waltzes her off. The next morning he makes it plain that he wants to marry her, and will marry her no matter what. So Emmaline finds herself travelling to England from America to join her husband-to-be, her hopes as high as they have ever been.

When Kitty is invited to stay with her friend Partita at Bauders Castle, her mother sees it as an undreamed-of opportunity for her daughter to escape from the dark presence of her notorious father.

The Magic Factory is where Midden and her team of helpers come up with magical answers to all sorts of problems. In these four fun stories, they must stop the terrible twins from terrorising the town; round up some runaway scissors; save school from a spell disaster and catch an invisible imp, all before the Halloween party!

As the top model for the Ivano King fashion house and girlfriend of the label's founder, Ian King, Kirsty was destined for stardom. But when she is found dead in her flat, D.I. Angela Costello is called to the scene. D.I. Costello's investigation leads her to the local gym, and as she delves deeper, she discovers a seedy underworld of theft, addiction, and prostitution lurking behind the glamorous façade of the fashion world.

Now you see them, now you don't.... What would you do if you could become invisible? Creep around unseen? Listen in on other people's conversations? Twins Carrie and Conrad, and their friends Peter and Charlotte, do all these things and much more when a new girl at school - Rosie - shows them her secret: how to make themselves invisible. It's exciting, and it's fun. It can also be frightening...and dangerous.

Julia Blackburn's play captures the warm, heartfelt and comic story of the Victorian poet and painter Edward Lear's lifelong friendship with his eccentric Greek servant, Giorgio, who inspired him to address the painful truths in his life while making us laugh. Stars Andrew Sachs as Edward Lear...

Once a creature is extinct, it's gone forever. Isn't it? Not anymore, as a butterfly from the past proves. The physicist mother of Kizzy and Fraser Rye has invented an amazing time machine that can travel back into the past, snatch a plant or animal now extinct, and bring it back into the present. It's a wonderful achievement, a real scientific breakthrough. But the machine has a horrifying potential.

'I'll fly,' Jenna whispered to herself. 'I'll fly, whatever Ned says. Whatever anybody says....' Jenna is 13 - and has suddenly realised what she wants to do with her life. She wants to fly. Like Granddad's heroine, Amy Johnson.... But Jenna's wish for wings has to be put on hold when something awful happens: Granddad's souvenir of his wartime service - a loaded gun - goes missing. And Jenna is almost certain that her brother, Ned, has taken it....

Florence Fontaine has still not recovered from a family tragedy when she discovers a strangely dressed young man asleep in her guest cottage at the Old Rectory. Against her better judgement, she offers him breakfast, only to rue the day as she finds herself caught up in the resulting drama of his life. Against everyone's advice, Florence enlists friends and neighbours to help restore Edward's missing memories. But can they discover who he might be?

What do witches do when their wands break? Where do wizards shop for stuff for spells? And if you were a ghost who wasn't scary enough, where would you find help? The Magic Factory! It's where Midden and her team of helpers come up with magical answers to all sorts of problems.

What do witches do when their wands break? Where do wizards shop for stuff for spells? The Magic Factory - it's where Midden and her team of helpers come up with magical answers to all sorts of problems.

When Alexandra Stamford goes to stay with her Millington cousins at Knighton Hall, she knows nothing about the handsome stable lad Tom O'Brien. But are Alexandra and Tom really destined to be together?