Showing results by narrator "Joan Walker" in All Categories

Her wedding day should have been the happiest day of Mavis Kendricks's life. Marrying handsome Sam, the youngest of the Farley boys, means joining the Farley clan, and there's nothing Mavis has ever wanted more than a family of her own. But the appearance of an unexpected guest ruins everything...and brings back painful memories Mavis would rather forget.

'Every animal needs its own territory, and humans are no exception. My plans were clear at an early age. I intended to live somewhere wild and supremely beautiful.... I imagined searching the whole world for a place, high and remote as a sheep stell, quiet as a monastery, challenging and virginal, untouched and unknown.' Over 20 years ago, well before the current trend for nature writing, Janet White wrote The Sheep Stell, a beautiful and evocative memoir about her life as a shepherdess.

In The Tale of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle, a little girl named Lucie has lost three pocket handkerchiefs and a pinafore. Setting out to find them, she spots some fresh clean white cloth on the hillside. As she approaches the clean linens on the hill Lucie spies a door built into the side of the hill and hears someone singing a song about laundry behind it. Could the missing hankies be inside?

The multi-award-winning SmartPass study guide with and without commentary options. Full-cast, unabridged performance with comprehensive commentary and analysis for any student to fully understand and appreciate the play. Hear "A little touch of Harry" whenever you want to! Examine and appreciate the powerful language of leadership in this guided history play, considered to be Shakespeare's greatest creative statement about war.

Collins brings the Queen of Crime, Agatha Christie, to English language learners. Agatha Christie is the most widely published author of all time in any language. Now Collins has adapted her famous detective novels for English language learners. These carefully abridged versions are shorter, with the language targeted at learners of English.

Who saw him die? I, said the fly, with my little eye. I saw him die. An astonishingly beautiful setting on the island of Skye. A gathering of fascinating guests at a hunting lodge set to enjoy abundant hospitality. And a double murder. A household in chaos.... No one is allowed to leave. A tantalising new case for Agatha Christie to solve.

100 Ways to Be Kind is a road map of practical, simple, and immediately actionable ways to be kind including how to be kinder to yourself, to others, and to nature. Theresa debunks the damaging myth that being kind is a weakness and shows that it is not anger or aggression that brings out our true inner grit, but kindness. Science has proven that there are powerful, potentially lifesaving, reasons to be kind. The kinder you are, the more likely you are to experience happiness. Kindness is the simple and scientifically proven remedy that everyone needs to administer right now. 

Erykah Macdonald has a nice life - the kind of life you're meant to want. But on her 20th wedding anniversary, she's about to cross a line. Several hundred miles away in the shallow waters of a Hebridean island, a body is found. It's been in the water long enough to make identification tricky, but it's clear this is no accidental death. Erykah knows she's about to make a choice she can't reverse - but she's lived with secrets most of her life. She thinks she's ready.

Here is a full-cast, unabridged performance with comprehensive commentary and analysis for any student to fully understand and appreciate the play. Meet literature's greatest villain in this tragedy, fuelled by jealous rage. Journey into the twisted mind of Iago, who freely admits "I am not what I am", to truly get under the skin of this wondrous play.

We begin with the French Revolution when one woman took on the Fraternite of man, then it's off to America to round up the other rebels who paved the way, fighting side by side for freedom with their men. In Australia we celebrate a mass mooning by female convicts of Queen Victoria's vice-regent and his lady wife, and the dogged, often desperate courage of all the women who dared to think that they could change the world.

Picklewitch lives in a tree at the bottom of the garden. She has a nose for naughtiness, a mind for mischief and a weakness for cake. And unluckily for brainbox and all-round-goody-two-shoes Jack (who's just moved in) - she's about to choose him as her new best friend.... 

In The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck, a farmer's wife believes ducks make poor sitters and takes their eggs to give to her hens to hatch them. The duck Jemima decides to find a safe place away from the farm to lay her eggs. When a fox offers to help, Jemima must keep her guard up. The 12th of Beatrix Potter's 22 charmingly illustrated tales of animals in amusing situations, The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck has children and adults alike since its release in 1907.

An orphan poses nervously for a Renaissance maestro in medieval Siena, and an artist's servant girl in seventeenth-century Amsterdam snatches a moment away from her work to lose herself in tales of knights and battles. In a Victorian photography studio, a woman holds a book that she barely acknowledges while she waits for the exposure, and in a Shoreditch bar in 2008 a woman reading catches the eye of a young man who takes her picture.

When a mummy is stolen from the Natural History Museum, Kit and her friends are fast on the heels of a villainous East End mob, an adventure that takes them to the heart of the Western Desert. But as the story reaches its climax in a temple, the villains and Kit finds they have underestimated a stronger force - the terrible power of Ancient Egypt....

The multi-award winning SmartPass full-cast, unabridged performance with comprehensive commentary and analysis for any student to fully understand and appreciate the play.

Alice finds herself suddenly widowed in her early 40s. Laura and Evie, her 20-something daughters, announce their separate and unexpected news, which ploughs Alice straight out of grieving and into the prospect of planning a wedding and becoming a granny to three grandchildren. Frank, an old family friend, returns to give his godchild, Laura, away at her wedding. A whole host of secrets unfold and set Alice free to finally begin a new, exciting chapter of her life.

This is a full-cast, unabridged performance with comprehensive commentary and analysis, enabling any student to fully understand and appreciate the play. Judge for yourself whether Lear is "a man more sinned against than sinning" in this moral tale that pits wisdom and age against ambition and youth. Experience and examine the power of Shakespeare's most cruel and violent tragedy.

Anna and Louise could be sisters, but they don’t know each other. They are both married with children, and for the most part, they are happy. On almost the same day, Anna, a psychiatrist, crosses paths with Yves, a writer, while Louise, a lawyer, meets Anna’s analyst, Thomas. Love at first sight is still possible for those into their 40s and long-married. But when you have already mapped out a life path, a passionate affair can come at a high price. For our four characters, their lives are unexpectedly turned upside down by the deliciously inconvenient arrival of love

Technology is such that 60 really is the new 40 (or even 35).... But for Christa D'Souza, some nagging questions remain: What is the point of us now that we are officially biologically irrelevant? Are hormones safe, even if you've had cancer? Is there a cut-off point for plaits? In this fabulously confessional romp through the menopause, D'Souza tells us what it was like for her and what it will be like for you.

Mark lives next door to Freya. When her husband dies tragically, he determines to be her saviour, come what may. Whether that means walking the dog, minding the house or taking her on day trips. However, her neighbours on the other side keep getting in the way, as do her two lumpen brothers-in-law....