Showing results by narrator "Rachel Atkins" in All Categories

Oh, how delightful it is to fall in love for the first time! How exciting to go to your first dance when you are a girl of 18! But life can also be hard and cruel, if you are young and inexperienced and travelling alone across Europe . . . or if you are a child from the wrong social class . . . or a singer without work and the rent to be paid. Set in Europe and New Zealand, these nine stories by Katherine Mansfield dig deep beneath the appearances of life to show us the causes of human happiness and despair.

I've always known Jack was different. Ever since he was eight years old and he killed his father. He was protecting me, just like I've always protected him. But now he's eighteen and this time he's gone too far. Steve is dead. He was a good man, and god, we could have been really great together—but now he's bleeding out on our kitchen table. I must keep my boy safe. No one can ever know what he's done. What he's capable of. And I won't let him get caught. I'll do whatever it takes to keep him safe, keep him with me. Even if it means becoming a monster myself.

It's been a hard couple of years, but things finally seem to be looking up for Danielle. Her boyfriend Matteo has inherited a dilapidated old farmhouse in Tuscany, complete with olive groves, vineyards and a pool. It couldn't be more perfect. When she gets there, Danielle finds it's not quite as idyllic as she thought. There's a lot of work to be done, but first she turns her attention to making the concrete swamp into the infinity pool of her dreams. As she digs up the old foundations, Danielle brings to light buried secrets that will shatter the tranquillity of her Tuscan dream.

Iris Caldwell and Nell Ryland were never meant to be friends. From two very different backgrounds, one the heir to the Caldwell estate, the other a humble vicar's daughter. Both have their secrets, both have their pasts, but they each find solace with one another and soon their futures become irrevocably intertwined. Until May Day 1912, a day that haunts Missensham. The day two girls disappeared. The day the girls were murdered. Now, many years later, old footage has emerged which shows that Iris Caldwell may not have died on that spring morning.

For almost thirty years they kept a terrible secret. Now their lives are falling apart. Many years ago, orphans Bea, her brother Sebastian, Helen, Sandra, and John all lived together in a home with their caretaker Miriam. However, Miriam didn't care at all. If you asked the children, they would have said that Miriam hated them, and it's not fun living with someone who hates you. Which is why the children decided to do something about it... However, a terrible accident changed everything, and the children were separated.

Virginia Woolf: The Essays contains some of the most important and impactful of Woolf's non-fiction writing, including two essay collections and her most renowned essay: A Room of One's Own. Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) was an English novelist and essayist regarded as one of the foremost modernist literary figures of the twentieth century. During the interwar period, Woolf was a significant figure in London literary society and a member of the famous Bloomsbury Group.

Desperate to escape their stepfather’s house, sisters Amy and Lillian stow away aboard a train full of children being evacuated from London and the threat of Hitler’s bombs. Arriving in the seaside town of Worthing, they are taken in by kindly Norah and her husband, Jim. With their future now entrusted to strangers, can the girls finally find a safe harbour in these dark days of war? And will they find the strength to confront what they have been running from, when their past finally catches up with them?

In a heartbeat everything can change. This is the gripping, true story of how a young woman was murdered and a family lost a daughter. Like most young girls her age Nadine lives a life filled with family, friends and thoughts about the future. At seventeen she meets Gerold and they fall in love. But a darkness gradually falls upon their relationship and after almost three years Nadine calls the relationship off. Gerold does not accept this decision and keeps contacting her, despite her rejecting his advances.

Original tales by remarkable writers. Hometown Tales is a series of books pairing exciting new voices with some of the most talented and important writers at work today. Some of the tales are fiction and some are narrative nonfiction - they are all powerful, fascinating and moving and aim to celebrate regional diversity and explore the meaning of home.

Following the death of Mr Dashwood, his wife and three daughters are forced to leave their estate and live in a small cottage in Devon. Austen's novel follows the sisters through love, loss, and heartbreak, until they find their way towards a happy ending.

Winter 1939: Danusha and her family are forced to flee their home when the Nazis invade Poland. Danusha’s mother, Anna, changes her name and secures a position as a housekeeper in a German doctor’s mansion in Kraków where Gestapo meetings are hosted in the kitchen. Her secret is their salvation, but what Danusha remembers most is the solitude, with only her baby brother and the girl in the mirror for company.