Showing results by narrator "Kate Hosking" in All Categories

After backpacking her way around India, Sarah Macdonald decides she hates the country with a passion. When a beggar at the airport reads her palm and insists she will one day return - and for love - she screams 'Never!' and gives the country, and him, the finger.

When you meet the love of your life, the one person you want to spend the rest of your days with, what do you do when they're ripped away? Vashti and Andy Whitfield fitted together like the missing pieces of a perfect jigsaw. From the moment they met, they were inseparable. Vashti inspired Andy to fight fearlessly to achieve whatever he dreamed, and he gave her a love so deep that they both knew their life together would be nothing less than extraordinary.

Dulcie Bodsworth was the unlikeliest serial killer. She was loved everywhere she went, and the townsfolk of Wilcannia, which she called home in the late 1950s, thought of her as kind and caring. The officers at the local police station found Dulcie witty and charming, and looked forward to the scones and cakes she generously baked and delivered for their morning tea. That was one side of her. Only her daughter Hazel saw the real Dulcie. And what she saw terrified her.

"Get the doctor," said Dad. "The poor thing is green." "Give it to me," said Mum and took the baby away from Chris. At once it screwed up its nose, closed its eyes and stopped breathing. It started turning purple again. A father at eight years old? It could only be a Paul Jennings story. And it is.

Philadelphia Gordon is an artist, a riverboat skipper, a beautiful and independent woman. Orphaned by a shipwreck, Philadelphia grows up on the banks of her beloved Murray River, seemingly destined for a conventional life. But tragedy leads her first to a successful career as a painter, then to marriage to the dashing captain of the paddle-steamer that bears her name.

The story of how gold miners rebelled against British authority, beginning a process that would ultimately lead to democracy in Australia. The Eureka Stockade. It's one of Australia's foundation legends - yet the story has always been told as if half the participants weren't there. But what if the hot-tempered, free-spirited gold miners we learned about at school were actually husbands and fathers, brothers and sons? What if there were women and children right there beside them inside the Stockade when the bullets started to fly?

Indiana O'Meara is no stranger to the forces of evil. Her own past is full of violence. Now a policewoman, Indy is always fighting to redeem herself and defeat the dark. So when girls begin to go missing at a remote cattle station in Tasmania, she is quick to agree to go undercover to investigate chief suspect Logan Atherton, the owner of Calico Mountain Lodge, even though last time she went undercover it came to a bloody end. But her early encounter with Logan reveals a man full of contradictions.

Whilst living in Echuca, Philadelphia Gordon has developed a strong attachment to the river, and a fascination for paddle steamers. When she becomes owner of a paddle steamer she wishes that she had been born a male and not bound by the conventions society imposes upon females. When Delie meets a young handsome riverman, Brenton Edwards, she falls hopelessly in love with him. However, the future is not the idyll she had foreseen.

She watches; she dreams. She sees more than they realize. She has worries and fears, hopes and desires. She is troubled; she is angry. Above all, she is lonely. She may be someone you know. She may be you. In So Much to Tell You she tells her story. With humor and insight, with sensitivity and strength, with painful honesty. You will never forget her.

Philadelphia (Delie) Gordon is in the twilight of her years. Finally, it seems, she has found some peace. With the power of the Murray River finally harnessed and the advent of train and rail, the great paddle steamers of the past are redundant. With time to paint and to ponder the continuity of life, she contemplates the randomness of her existence. However Delie's contentment is shattered when fate, with the advent of WWII, is once more to intervene in her life.

Philadelphia (Delie) Gordon, with her husband Brenton cruelly incapacitated by a stroke, continues to defy tradition by becoming first mate and skipper of the paddle steamer Philadelphia. Rising to this new challenge, Delie is happy with her activity-filled days, and with a growing awareness of the beauty of the river and its slowly paced life, she begins to find some contentment. However, Delie, though espousing the equality of the sexes, is all woman and is to be sorely tempted by the men who enter her life.

Australian swimmer Petria Thomas won the hearts of millions around the world with her triple gold-medal-winning triumph at the Athens Olympic Games in 2004. Having overcome the pain and anguish of three shoulder reconstructions and two ankle reconstructions over the length of her glittering 12-year career, Petria is admired and respected for her grit, determination, and steely will to win.

A new story in an ancient landscape from Australia's favourite storyteller. In The Red Coast, Di Morrissey returns to the red earth of the Kimberley with a passionate story of resistance and resilience under its soaring blue skies. After the upheaval which separated Jacqui Bouchard from her beloved son, she has finally settled in Broome, a magical remote town on the northwest coast of Australia.

It's 1969, and small-town girl Faith Taylor longs for the excitement of the city. Leaving her family home in Willow Tree Bend, Faith lands a job at The Angel - Melbourne's most infamous nightclub. While Faith relishes her newfound freedom, she can't help but notice that there are some things about the club that don't add up. So when a policeman shows her a shocking photograph and reveals that a former waitress was murdered, Faith realises she must help to bring down the shadowy owner behind the club's activities.

In 1962 Cindy drops out of college to impulsively marry an Australian grazier, moving from the glamorous world of Palm Springs, California, to an isolated sheep station on the sweeping plains of the Riverina in New South Wales. Cindy's new life at Kingsley Downs station is not what she'd imagined, as she is flung into a strange and challenging world. Natural disasters and the caprices of the wool industry shape her destiny and though she tries hard to fit in, she finds she is always the outsider.

City girl Paula married her lovely farmer, the only problem is he comes with a farm...Another heart-warming rural romance from the queen of Australian storytelling. Self-reliant Sydney girl, Paula, is looking forward to a new life in the country. Just married to sheep farmer Dan Woodcroft, she can't wait to escape her protective family and exchange her busy existence for a new life down on the farm in rural South Australia. But life on the farm proves rather different to what she was expecting.

"'There he is', Gramps shrieked. 'The Spy. The scumbag spy.' I looked up and saw a monstrous white hairy face disappear into the drain. I had never seen such a frightening sight. White hair covered its entire head. I couldn't even see any eyes. In a flash Gramps splashed into the drain after it."

I gulped. My mouth was dry. How could I tell her? How could I just announce that her son¿s innards had been sucked out by giant worms and that his skin was probably flapping somewhere in the morning breeze? I turned away, struggling to find the words.

"We must be ruthless," Edward snarls, "because we lead ruthless lives: you, of anyone, should understand that. This is our existence, Jordan, this house, this land, that father, that mother - there's no pity, there's no mercy, there's probably no escape. It is hard, Jordan, and we have to be hard to survive it, and the best we can do is fight anything that threatens to make it worse."

For 12 years Winter has been haunted. Her past, her memories, her feelings, will not leave her alone. And now, at 16, the time has come for her to act. Every journey begins with a single step. If Winter is going to step into the future, she must first step into the past.