Showing results by narrator "Kristin Atherton" in All Categories

Chef and award-winning writer Phyllis Grant’s life has been defined by food. First, as a dancer struggling to find her place at Julliard, when banana muffins with inch-thick streusel are the fuel for another day of training. Then, a lowly junior chef in high-pressure NYC four-star kitchens, as she masters the tarte Tatin and ice cream custard. Falling in love with her future husband and the garlicky tomato sauce he makes in his bare apartment. The quesadillas she can’t stop eating in LA before she realises she’s pregnant.

Jessica Wood is an aspiring photographer living in London. She’s had her heart broken, and her friends have pieced it back together again. But across the neon lights of Soho, in the smell of alcohol and cigarette smoke, on every night bus, in every song, every time she tries to forget: she remembers him. Now, in a battle between the past and the future, choosing between having a life and making a living, finding her feet or spreading her wings, Jessica must ask herself: who is she really living for?

She’s a small-town schoolteacher, he’s a hotshot creative director. Together, it’s hate at first sight. Sophie Taylor has a secret and Joe Walsh is the last person she'd tell. He’s devilishly handsome, incredibly hot – and far too sure of himself. But Sophie needs his help. Because she's not just hiding something small. She is Este Cox, the mysterious romance author the entire world is desperate to unmask. When a trip to the countryside means sharing a cottage with only one bed, it’s a short step to sharing a whole lot more besides… Can Sophie trust Joe with the truth – and be herself?

London, 1952. Seven years after the chaotic aftermath of World War II, London has is coming alive again, with jazz clubs and flickering cinema awnings lighting up the night sky. But for widowed Helen ‘Dexie’ Dexter, she’s still a woman in a man’s world. She longs to prove herself as an officer in the London Metropolitan Police, yet she’s stuck intervening in domestics and making tea for her male colleagues. Then Harri Schroder arrives, seconded from Hamburg to the Met.

Inspired by the author's family history, Library for the War-Wounded transports listeners to the aftermath of World War II, uncovering the life of Helfer's father, Josef. Born with the stigma of illegitimacy, he found solace in books, and his education was eventually funded by the Catholic Church. Drafted into the Wehrmacht, he witnessed the horrors of the Eastern Front and returned from the war an amputee. He married his nurse and brought his family to the high, idyllic slopes of the Austrian Alps, where he took a position as manager of a convalescent home for war-wounded.

Maria and Josef live with their children in a valley in westernmost Austria. When the First World War breaks out and Josef is drafted into the army, Maria is left to provide for her family alone. Every day is a struggle against starvation, the harsh alpine climate and the hostile nearby villagers who see Maria as little more than a beautiful temptress out for the men left behind. But when a red-haired stranger arrives in the village, Maria feels happiness seep back into her life and she faces a choice whose consequences will affect the lives of her family for generations to come.

Their battles of wits are legendary, but Benedick has sworn off women and Beatrice has vowed that she will never marry a man. It's a good job that they don't like each other then... or might they be persuaded with a little help from their friends?

King Leonte's jealousy causes his sweet wife, Hermione to die and their baby daughter, Perdita to be exiled. Can the king learn the error of his ways? Will he ever get to meet Perdita again?

Helena, a low-born girl, is desperately in love with Bertram, a nobleman. When she is allowed to choose anyone in the kingdom to marry, she chooses Bertram. He swears he will never be her husband. Can Helena ever convince Bertram to love her back?

Devastated by her mother’s death, Sophie longs to get away from an empty house full of memories and a life that hasn’t quite turned out as she had imagined. So when a chance discovery among her mother’s belongings hints at a past Sophie knows nothing of, she jumps at the opportunity for escape and a chance to heal. The magical, idyllic Greek town of Methoni awaits. But Sophie – determined to uncover her mother’s secrets – is about to discover so much more.