Showing results by narrator "Penelope Rawlins" in All Categories

When Dani's mum gets the chance to study penguins in the Antarctic, she decides to send 11-year-old Dani to a strict girls' boarding school where students wear smart uniforms that include skirts! Having failed to change Mum's mind, Dani finds herself having to say good-bye to Granny Viv, her dog, Downboy, and her best friend, Arch. But when they arrive at St Grizelda's it seems that there have been some drastic changes: uniforms are out, and instead chaos, anarchy and goats are in!

Welcome to Big Sky Mountain: a home for everyone! Rosa has come from the city to live with Grandma Nan in the wilds of Big Sky Mountain. And what surprises are in store for her! Grandma Nan is not exactly an ordinary grandma, and Big Sky Mountain is like nowhere Rosa has dreamed about before. Grandma Nan lives in an old wooden cabin with Albert the moose and Little Pig the pygmy owl and spends every day out on adventures. From canoeing down rapids to making friends with the local animals, life never stays still for long on Big Sky Mountain!

A gripping account of the unsolved death of an Indigenous teenager, the detective determined to find her killer and a country's hidden secrets. On 17 August 2014, the body of 15-year-old Indigenous runaway Tina Fontaine was found weighted down in the Red River in the Canadian city of Winnipeg. The loss of Tina was a tragedy for her family and for the Indigenous community. But it also exposed a national scandal: Indigenous women are vastly more likely than other Canadians to be assaulted and killed.

Artificial intelligence is one of the most significant technological developments of recent times, with the possibility to reshape society as we know it. In this engaging volume, the author explains the cutting-edge science behind artificial intelligence models as well as the philosophical implications in simple and accessible language.

Charlie Hunter does not like Christmas, especially the lead into it—cooking endless servings of Christmas dinner. So when she is asked by Graeme Strickland, Michelin-starred chef, egomaniac and friend, to help out in a hotel restaurant in Edinburgh’s New Town, for a fortnight, she accepts with alacrity. The Head Chef, David Jenkins, is a very old friend of Strickland’s, and the job entails covering temporarily for a sous chef position, while Strickland provides cover for Charlie, gratis, in the Old Forge Café.

With the world in turmoil, spiritual forces are needed more than ever before. Harnessing the angel and new age movement can help you make sense of life when it feels directionless. Angels provide us with hope and illuminate a new path forward. Rather than visiting or becoming dependent on gurus, psychics or mediums, expert Theresa Cheung is here to show you how to directly communicate with angels on your own. 

In Grudova's unforgettably surreal style, these stories expose the absurdities behind contemporary ideas of work, Britishness and art-making, to conjure a singular, startling strangeness that proves the deft skill of a writer at the top of her game.

Penny has big dreams for her wedding day. When Mark finally pops the question, it’s the best moment of her life. Until Penny checks her wedding fund and is horrified to discover that she’s somehow gambled away £10,000 playing online bingo! Working under the pretense of surprising Mark with her plans on their big day, operation ‘Don’t Tell the Groom’ rolls into action, with surprising, hilarious and moving results.

'England? It seemed to be raining the whole time . . . Or maybe it was me' MARILYN MONROE In July 1956, Marilyn Monroe arrived in London, on honeymoon with her husband Arthur Miller, to make The Sleeping Prince (later released as The Prince and the Showgirl) with Laurence Olivier. When the...

1962, Cornwall: Tara Jupp - vicar’s daughter, occasional thief, expert horse-rider and second fiddle to her sister ‘the beauty’ Lucy - sings at a wedding and is spotted by a record producer. With the spotlight suddenly, thrillingly shining on her alone, the roots of Tara’s country existence are shaken free and she is propelled to swinging-'60s London. Plunged into a dazzling new world of fashion, music and heartache, in a city where skirts are being hitched up as fast as the past is being pulled down, can Tara hold the limelight and hold on to who she really is?

Chef Charlie Hunter is just trying for mindfulness and a work/life balance, if such a thing is ever possible in the context of a busy professional kitchen. She's found herself a great podcast that's going to help her get there. Until she finds that her online self-help guru has feet of clay — feet which are much closer to her restaurant than seems possible. Even more disruptive is the attack on a well known writer in Charlie's quiet Chilterns village of Hampden Green, and the arrest of the village's own celebrity shock jock. 

The brand new release from the Sunday Times bestselling author that bought you Fairytale of New York and It Started With A Kiss. What happens when your happy ever after is suddenly and painfully taken away from you? Elsie Maynard has a whole new life she never expected to have. From...

Princess Ellie is pony-mad! So she's excited about visiting Prince John, as she can't wait to meet his ponies, Toffee and Fudge. She's enchanted by the snowy mountains, too, but when they go for a ride they soon discover that snow isn't always fun - it can be scary. Will Ellie and her friends have to spend the night in the freezing white wilderness?

Five months pregnant and facing difficult decisions, 30-year-old Sandra leaves her job and her boyfriend to take stock of her life in her sister’s beach house on the Costa Brava. She befriends an elderly Norwegian couple, Karin and Fredrik, who provide her with stimulating company and take the place of the grandparents she never had. However, when she meets Julian, a former concentration-camp inmate who has just returned to Europe from Argentina, she discovers that all is not what it seems and finds herself involved in a perilous quest for the truth.

Every morning, I sit at the same table of my favourite café, sip my cappuccino, and watch them. The woman has no idea I’m watching, day after day, unravelling the secrets of her life. I see the way she smiles when he arrives, how she glances over her shoulder… like someone who is hiding something. She thinks she’s in control, but has no idea I’m on to them… I know a lot more about the man. For a start, he’s not who he pretends to be – his lies are as plain as the nose on your face. There’s more to this story than meets the eye, a lot more than I’ll ever let on.

Autumn 1940, World War Two: Bombs are raining down, destroying the cities of Britain. The evacuations begin, and soon children are being taken to the country for safety. Teacher Eve Parkins is in charge of one such group. The children are scared and Eve does her best to calm them, but the truth is that she too is haunted by a personal tragedy she cannot put behind her. Their destination is Eel Marsh House. Desolate and forlorn, it is situated on a causeway and is sinking into the treacherous tidal marshes that surround it. Far from home and with no alternative, Eve and the children move in.

When an American woman, Stella Bain, is found suffering from severe shell shock in a London garden, surgeon August Bridge and his wife selflessly agree to take her in. However, Bridge quickly develops a clinical interest in his houseguest. Stella had been working as a nurse's aide near the front, but she can't remember anything prior to four months earlier when she was found wounded on a French battlefield.

At the golden hour, hidden truths and desires come to light . . . In the genteel squares and stuccoed villas of late-Victorian Brighton, Ellen and Reynold Harper - twins, companions, colleagues, - ply their trade as portrait photographers. But at the golden hour, the girls arrive to pose for the...

Treachery has been revealed on an Imperial world - human acolytes of the Alpha Legion have infiltrated the faithful populace and triggered a catastrophe. As the Adepta Sororitas battle the unmasked heretics, they look to their leader for guidance - but Sister Adamanthea faces trials of her own. With her faith in herself and the Emperor in doubt, she must rally herself and her warriors to combat the enemy - even as she discovers that they may be closer than she thought.

First published in 1872, Poor Miss Finch tells the story of Lucilla Finch, a young woman who is blind due to an accident. Lucilla lives with her devoted companion, Madame Pratolungo, and fiancé, Oscar Dubourg. However, experimental surgery offers Lucilla the possibility of regaining her sight. Over time a love triangle emerges between Lucilla, Oscar and Oscar’s identical twin, Nugent.