Showing results by narrator "Sophie Roberts" in All Categories

She is a stay-at-home mother of three with boundless reserves of patience, energy and love. After being friends for a decade, this is how Liz sees Jess. Then one moment changes everything. Dark thoughts and carefully guarded secrets surface – and Liz is left questioning everything she thought she knew about her friend, and about herself.

To the outside world, Electra D’Aplièse seems to be the woman with everything: as one of the world’s top models, she is beautiful, rich and famous. Yet beneath the veneer, Electra’s already tenuous control over her state of mind has been rocked by the death of her father, Pa Salt, the elusive billionaire who adopted his six daughters from across the globe. Struggling to cope, she turns to alcohol and drugs. As those around her fear for her health, Electra receives a letter from a complete stranger who claims to be her grandmother.

Coleen Greenwood was overjoyed to meet James Scott, a heroic firefighter and man of her dreams. Little would she know her dreams would soon become a nightmare as his web of lies started to unravel. The astonishing true story of one man’s lies and a family’s fight for justice.

Daisy-May Jones was four years old when she was told by her parents the family was moving halfway across the world to Australia for a better life. Leaving everything behind, including her beloved grandparents, Daisy-May spent a happy and secure few years adapting to a new life. But after the breakdown of her parent's marriage, she stepped into a nightmare as her mother introduced a new step-father to her and her disabled brother.

Hannah Godley is an agony aunt on a London radio show Queen of Hearts. She's warm and empathetic; a good listener. Her catchphrase is: Be kind, always. But when a stranger phones in to tell a tragic story about her brother who killed himself after he was the victim of a terrible prank by two people, Hannah goes cold. Because she remembers Diane's brother well. In fact, all these years later, he still haunts her dreams. All because of that one bad thing she did when she was young...

In little more than 50 years the regard with which the Royal Family are held has changed out of all recognition. Their private lives are now the stuff of soap opera and it seems any one who comes into contact with them sells their story to the magazines or to the newspapers. The Little Princesses was published in 1950 to a furore we cannot imagine today. Crawfie was demonised by the press, and the Queen Mother, who had been a great friend and who had, Crawfie maintained, given her permission to write the account, never spoke to her again.

Nancy North and her boyfriend Felix are making the move across London to Harlesden. A new flat, a new area, a new start. Because while Nancy is fine now, she wasn’t fine before. But settling into the new flat and meeting the new neighbours isn’t helped by Felix’s hovering concern. She is all right. She is sticking to her breathing exercises and doctor-prescribed help. So, when their new neighbour Kira Mullen is found dead by suicide, Felix is understandably worried about Nancy’s frame of mind.

Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes Lyon,the youngest daughter of the Earl of Strathmore, was born on 4 August 1900. It might reasonably have been expected that she would lead a life of ease and privilege but few could have imagined the profound effect she would have on Britain and its people. Her life spanned the whole of the 20th century and this official biography tells not only her story but, through it, that of the country she loved so devotedly.

On the top of the hill, overlooking the sea, that's where you'll find a magical place . . . To Bea and Raffy, Ravenwood is home. In its own way, the house rescued them, even if it did have a fallen-down tree taking up most of the kitchen. So the idea that it could be sold. Demolished even. Well, that's unthinkable. Then again, it's not like the children get a choice. But the truth is, we can all make our own choices, especially if we care enough . . . A beautiful, soulful, exciting story about holding onto what's precious, and guarding the extraordinary nature that surrounds us.

Who was the real Diana? What was it like to be so privileged yet so anguished, so beloved yet so self-loathing, so spoiled yet so despairing? The Princess of Wales was all these things--far more complicated, conflicted, and intriguing a person than the wildly disparate saint or lunatic she is frequently portrayed to be.

Much has been written about the brutal crimes of Peter Sutcliffe, the Yorkshire Ripper, and - 35 years after he was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of 13 women - scarcely a week goes by without some mention of him in the media. In any story featuring Sutcliffe, however, his victims are incidental, often reduced to a tableau of nameless faces. But each woman was much more than the manner of her death, and in Somebody’s Mother, Somebody’s Daughter, Carol Ann Lee tells, for the first time, the stories of those women who came into Sutcliffe’s murderous orbit.

The warm sea breeze ruffles the pages of my notebook as I meet the bright eyes of the elderly lady sat opposite me on the porch. Sofia has been keeping a devastating secret for over sixty years. Why did she fake her own death during the war? And why is she back now to finally tell her story?

In this vibrant and eye-opening book, economist and broadcaster Dharshini David follows the course of an average day to reveal the green changes that are already taking place in every aspect of our world. Exploring industries such as energy, food, fashion, technology, manufacturing and finance, she asks what is happening, how quickly, who is driving it all and what it means for us.

Researching her family tree had been little more than a hobby - until Katie stepped onto Kingsley House’s sprawling, ivy-strewn drive. The house may be crumbling today, but it was once the intimidatingly opulent residence of the St Clairs, Katie’s ancestors. Arriving here 200 years later, emotion stirs in Katie: a strange nostalgia for a place she’s never seen before...and when Kingsley House comes up for sale, Katie is determined that her family must buy it.

Greg Wilson is now in prison. Finally, it is over for Coleen and Karen. They can now move on, take time and heal. But is it that easy? Or is there still much more of the story to come? The uplifting follow-up true story to “Playing with Fire.” How after the darkest days have ended, light will always break through.

One sultry evening in Kowloon, Dr Rowena Rossiter and Sister Alice Huntley are off-duty and in search of fun - little knowing that their world is on the brink of collapse. That night, Rowena will meet two men who will fight for her heart for the next four years. Connor O'Connor, the rebellious Irish soldier, who will woo and then lose her, and Kim Pheloung. Immensely rich and the most beautiful man Rowena has ever seen, he is also the most ruthless, with a sinister need to possess and control.

When Vale Moonwing returns to Darkwood Forest, he discovers that her old friend, the wizard Yaztromo, has vanished...himself?

A naive young woman at the mercy of her ambitious family. At just 19, Katheryn Howard is quick to trust and fall in love. She comes to court. She sings, she dances. She captures the heart of the king. Henry declares she is his rose without a thorn. But Katheryn has a past of which he knows nothing. It comes back increasingly to haunt her. For those who share her secrets are waiting in the shadows, whispering words of love...and blackmail.

Brokewood-on-Tandle is a strange and mysterious place. So when Hattie and her brother, Jonathan, arrive to find their granny missing, they suspect something sinister is going on. Hattie knew her family kept secrets. But she had no idea that they were this magical....

Harriet White is no stranger to odd correspondence. Ensconced in the basement of the Baker Street building society, her job is to reply to the mail they receive on behalf of Sherlock Holmes. But while letters to the fictional sleuth may be plentiful, telegrams are rare, and so when she receives one describing the grave situation of celebrated author Philip St John, her interest is piqued. The writer describes St John as being consumed by terror, seeing ghostly apparitions on the fens, and only at ease in the company of his loyal wolfhound.