Showing results by narrator "Nicolette" in All Categories

‘If only my Cantonese parents weren’t so allergic to the word love…’ ‘A wonderfully heart-warming memoir from the bottom of the stomach. ’ Xiaolu Guo ‘A real and delightful surprise, full of smart thought and deft words – and also very funny.’ Ella Risbridger 'Poetic, delicious...

Set in Lancashire and Western Australia in the 1860s, Anna Jacobs' entrancing new saga follows the fortunes of the family that first appeared in FAREWELL TO LANCASHIRE In the untamed outback of Western Australia, the Blake sisters are together again despite what seemed like unsurmountable odds...

Twenty-four of the Buddha's most distinguished disciples are brought to life in ten chapters of rich narration. They include monks who were very close to him throughout his life, including Sariputta and Mahamoggallana; his cousin and companion Ananda; his principal women disciples, including the nun Isidasi and his lay disciple, the courtesan Ambapali; and the serial killer Angulimala, whose character was transformed after meeting the Buddha.

Claudia Hampton - beautiful, famous, independent, dying. But she remains defiant to the last, telling her nurses that she will write a 'history of the world...and in the process, my own'. And it is her story, from a childhood just after the First World War through the Second and beyond. But Claudia's life is entwined with others, and she must allow those who knew her, loved her, the chance to speak. There is Gordon, brother and adversary; Jasper, her untrustworthy lover and father of Lisa, her cool conventional daughter; and then there is Tom, her one great love.

Suffragette Girl is an heart-wrenching tale of love and liberty by the author of The Clippie Girls, Margaret Dickinson. When Florrie Maltby defies her father by refusing to marry Gervase Richards, she sets off a chain of events that will alter her life. Instead she goes to London and becomes...

Saga storytelling at its finest for all Catherine Cookson fans. Cassandra Blake has raised her three motherless sisters. The girls are the pride of their book-loving, impractical father, and not in a hurry to marry. Then the American Civil War cuts off supplies of cotton to Lancashire, the mills...

Gwinny Tuffel, the dog sitter, stays at an ageing rock singer's Little Venice houseboat to look after his border collie while he goes on tour. But during the annual Canal Carnival the singer's body is discovered, having never made it out of London. The police dismiss it as an accident, but Gwinny suspects murder most foul. It is up to her to solve this curious crime .

When Kip Bramley receives a cryptic invitation, delivered by a beetle-shaped drone that appears to be breathing, his world changes forever. On his first day at Quicksmiths College of Strange Energy Kip finds himself chasing riddles and solving puzzles set 400 years earlier by a mysterious genius. Kip, his new friends, and their furry sidekicks must stay one step ahead to find the Ark of Ideas. But dark forces are closing in and getting closer....

Superior saga set in Lancashire and Australia from prize-winner Anna Jacobs. Norah's husband was killed in the Great War, and she's struggling to provide a home for her daughter. Andrew's wife is dead and he wants to make a new life for his two sons. The Australian government is giving...

In an elite English boarding school where the girls kiss the marble statue of the famous dead author who used to walk the halls, a young Australian woman arrives to take up the antiquated role of ‘matron’. Within this landscape of immense privilege, in which the girls can sense the slightest weakness in those around them, she finds herself unsure of her role, her accent and her body. That is until she meets Mrs S, the headmaster’s wife, a woman who is her polar opposite: assured, sophisticated, a paragon of femininity.

In late-twenty-first-century Australia, Tao-Yi and her partner Navin spend most of their time inside an immersive, consumerist virtual reality called Gaia. They log on, go to work, socialise and even eat in this digital utopia. Meanwhile, their aging bodies lie suspended in pods inside cramped apartments. Across the city, in the abandoned real world, Tao-Yi's mother remains stubbornly offline, dwindling away between hospital visits and memories of her earlier life in Malaysia.

Eudora Honeysett is done - with all of it. Having seen first-hand what a prolonged illness can create, the 85-year-old has no intention of leaving things to chance. With one call to a clinic in Switzerland she takes her life into her own hands. But then 10-year-old Rose arrives in a riot of colour on her doorstep. Now, as precocious Rose takes Eudora on adventures she’d never imagined, she reflects on the trying times of her past and soon finds herself wondering - is she ready for death when she’s only just experienced what it’s like to truly live?

This unique biography, told in a lively manner through six 'voices', presents the Buddha's revolutionary solution for humanity that lends to the end of ill will, craving and delusion. It goes back to the earliest sources of the Buddha's life and teachings, drawing as it does from the Pali Canon which was said to record the words that the Buddha spoke, the events that happened, and his specific teachings on which the world-wide religion was based.

In the far south of New Zealand, in the remote Fiordland village of Manapouri, Ruth Shaw runs two tiny bookshops. In this memoir, she weaves together stories of the characters who visit her shops, musings about favourite reads, and bittersweet stories from her full and varied life, which has been crammed with incredible escapades. After becoming the first New Zealand Wren to go AWOL, Ruth has sailed the Pacific for years, been boarded by pirates, and worked the yacht Breaksea Girl with her husband Lance.

Suzanne is engaged to be married to the man of her dreams - except the lead up to her wedding is beginning to feel more like a nightmare. Can Suzanne uncover the truth about her fiancé ahead of her big day? Bella's life was on track until the day of the hen party when everything changed. Now she must find the strength to rebuild her future - and decide who she wants to spend it with. Mandy's grandmother has fallen in love, but her family don't approve. For her grandmother's dreams to come true, Mandy has a secret wedding to plan, and a very special dress to find.

1921. In the sleepy village of Charlton Ambrose, eight ash trees stand as a timeless memorial to the men killed in the Great War. On a dark and chilly night, a ninth tree appears. Who planted it and why? And who was 'the unknown soldier' for whom it is marked? 2001. Eighty years later, the memorial is under threat from developers. Local reporter, Rachel Elliott, is determined to save it, and to solve the mystery of the ninth tree. The trail will take her into the dark heart of her own family history; to a tragic, love; and to a secret that has been kept since the war to end all wars.

When Stella Simmons comes to the Devonshire village of Burracombe to start her teaching career, she is alone in the world. Orphaned as a child and brought up in a children's home, she was separated from her sister, Muriel, and has never been able to trace her. Stella is soon caught up in the life of the village, especially in the plans for celebrating the Festival of Britain. With the help of artist Luke Ferris, she tries to find Muriel. But Luke has his own troubles - notably the relationship he once had with Val Tozer, daughter of a local farmer.

Molly is a school teacher who is on the waiting list for a heart transplant. Max is an architect with an eye condition which has left him virtually blind. Barbara is a lonely widow, preparing to spend the end of her life in hospital. Michael is a young man escaping a childhood overshadowed by illness. Alex is a devoted husband to Lisa, and father to a lively six-year-old son, Connor. A devastating event is about to bring these five strangers together. And when their fates intertwine, their lives will change in ways they cannot imagine.

Eleanor…young, high-spirited, supremely intelligent, heiress to the vast Duchy of Aquitaine – at a time when a woman’s value was measured in terms of wealth. Her vivid leadership inspired and dazzled those about her. And yet, born to rule, she was continually repressed and threatened by the men who overshadowed her life. This is the story of a brilliant, medieval figure – of a princess who led her own knights to the Crusades, who was bride to two kings and mother of Richard the Lionheart.

The Great War opened up an exciting new career for Vi in London. But that was yesterday. Now the war's over, her husband is dead and she needs to pick up the pieces of her life. On her way home from work she meets a man who is in huge need of her help. Recently demobbed, Joss Bentley has no job...