Showing results by narrator "Penelope Rawlins" in All Categories

Kate, a young woman newly arrived from London, is determined to become the kind of person who is up for it and down for it - and not remotely troubled over how those two semantically opposed phrases could have come to mean the same thing. In the sweltering city, she encounters Bill, a once-lauded now booze-sodden novelist, and Inez, his teenage daughter who makes extra cash catering to the sexual fantasies of men she has met online - and falls into a complex infatuation with them both.

Bella's new next-door neighbour is Magda. Magda is lots of fun, and soon they are best friends. But Magda is also trouble! She breaks Bella's mum's best tea set, wrecks Bella's room and covers the living room in soot. And in Trouble at School, on Bella's first day at her new school she already has a best friend - or frenemy! - Magda! Bella wants to make a good impression, but with Magda around, things don't always go according to plan.

Daisy Miller is a young American girl travelling Europe with her mother and younger brother. While in Vevey, Switzerland, she becomes acquainted with Frederick Winterbourne, an idle expatriate, of well-to-do Americans. Winterbourne, who observes and critiques young Daisy through their brief acquaintanceship, is infatuated with her irreverent behavior. Daisy flaunts society's rules and uncompromising standards; she is charming, spontaneous, and unpretentious, and her audacity shocks the Europeans, who consider her an uncultivated flirt. The sophisticated Winterbourne remains smitten with Daisy, but his classical values stand in his way.

Victoria woke one morning at the age of 18 to discover that her uncle had died and that she was now queen. She went on to rule for 63 years, with an influence so far-reaching that the decades of her reign now bear her name - the Victorian period. Victoria is filled with the exciting comings and goings of royal life: intrigue and innuendo, scheming advisors, and assassination attempts - not to mention plenty of passion and discord.

To her friends, Amber leads the perfect life with her successful marriage, her powerful job in London and her immaculate style. But as more of her friends fall pregnant, and her best friend, Dylan, announces his decision to adopt a baby with his gay lover, Amber's carefully structured world begins to fall apart. Intricately crafted and sensually evocative, Something I'm Not is a sharp, contemporary novel that discusses the way the psychological scars of the past pass through the generations of a family.

What sort of mother would leave her all alone? A gripping and heart-wrenching domestic drama that won't let you go. Lily, who is almost three years old, wakes up alone at home with only her cuddly toy for company. She is afraid of the dark, can't use the phone and has been told never to open the door to strangers. But why is Lily alone, and why isn't there anyone who can help her? What about the lonely old woman in the flat below who wonders at the cries from the floor above? Or the grandmother who no longer sees Lily since her parents split up?

When Special Agent Ren Bryce is called to Tate, Oregon, to investigate the disappearance of 12-year-old Caleb Veir, she finds a town already in mourning. Two other young boys have died recently, although in very different circumstances. As Ren digs deeper, she discovers that all is not as it seems in the Veir household - and that Tate is a small town with a big secret. Can Ren uncover the truth before more children are harmed?

Isabel Murrow is precariously balancing her career and her family. Hard-working and caring, worried but supportive, all Isobel wants, in a perilous world of bullies and temptations, is to keep her daughter Phoebe safe. Phoebe has just attempted suicide. She says it is Isabel's fault. Saving Phoebe Murrow is a timely tale about an age-old problem - how best to raise our children, and how far to go in keeping them from harm.

Everything about Joe seemed perfect, and Alice was the happiest she'd ever been. Then one day Joe saw a message on her phone and discovered something that changed everything. Although it was from an old love, he ignored Alice's explanations and desperate pleas. And soon the violence and abuse began. As she attempted to prove to Joe that he really was her world, Alice gave up everything that mattered to her, including her family, her friends and her job. But still it wasn't enough.

This Christmas, a little dog is in for a big adventure.... Meet Claude. He's a loveable, big-eared, permanently hungry French bulldog who loves his humans - the McCawley family of number 11 Maple Drive, to be precise. When Daisy and Oliver McCawley start using new words like, ferry, chateau and France, Claude realises they won't be spending this Christmas at home. Only, when he finds himself on the street as the family car pulls away, Claude realises he is alone.

Mind-boggling, heart-rending and darkly comic, this is the full story for the first time, from the writer of the Guardian column "Mid-Life Ex-Wife". When her husband fell in love with someone else, Stella Grey thought she'd be unhappy for the rest of her life. But then she realised that she needed to take her future in her own hands. She needed to meet someone wonderful and find a heartfix for heartbreak. So she joined online dating sites and embarked on a mission.

Sophia Beaumont-Brown was an 'it' girl. But now she's in the papers for all the wrong reasons. She's single, sofa surfing and not speaking to her family; only her grandmother has any faith left in her. From her hospital bed, Tilly Beaumont sends Sophia letters about her life: dispatches about wartime England, about family secrets and, finally, about the most beautiful thing she ever owned - a necklace of the most incredible pearls. If Sophia's prepared to listen, she'll unlock the secret story of generations of incredible women.

You shared your life online. Now how will you get it back? Twitter. Facebook. WhatsApp. Google Maps. Every day you share everything about yourself - where you go, what you eat, what you buy, what you think - online. Sometimes you do it on purpose. Usually you do it without even realising it. At the end of the day, everything from your shoe size to your credit limit is out there. Your greatest joys, your darkest moments. Your deepest secrets. If people want to know everything about you, all they have to do is look. But what happens when someone starts spilling state secrets?

A woman with wings that exist in another dimension. A man trapped in his own body by a killer. A briefcase that is a door to hell. A conspiracy that reaches beyond our world. Breathtaking SF from a Clarke Award-winning author. Tricia Sullivan has written an extraordinary, genre-defining novel that begins with the mystery of a woman who barely knows herself and ends with a discovery that transcends space and time.

Perhaps the most brilliantly successful ghost story ever written, The Turn of the Screw creates a terrifyingly believable impression of innocent children so corrupted by evil that they remain deceptive pictures of innocent beauty. Their governess must struggle alone to confront and exorcise the demons that she believes possess their souls....

Princess Ellie is pony-mad! And she hates boring royal rules. She can't wait to go camping with her best friend Kate and her ponies, Moonbeam and Rainbow. There'll be no servants, no governess and - best of all -no rules! But when she hears strange noises in the night, Ellie starts to get scared. Will she solve the moonlight mystery?

I saw her file it away: a good Catholic girl come to supervise her in her detention. Every girl in England now, under the circumstances, made sure to be a good Catholic girl. Except her, of course. And, if only she knew it, me. Escorting 'nine days queen' Lady Jane Grey across the Tower of London from throne room into imprisonment is Elizabeth Tilney, who surprised even herself by volunteering for the job. All Elizabeth knows is she's keen to be away from home; she could do with some breathing space.

Astra Ordott is in exile. Evicted from Is-Land for a crime she cannot regret, she has found work in an ancient fortress in Non-Land: headquarters of the Council of New Continents, the global body charged with providing humanitarian aid to the inhabitants of this toxic refugee camp. Recovering from a disorienting course of memory pacification treatment, Astra struggles to focus on her overriding goals - to find her Code father and avenge the death of her Shelter mother, Hokma.

Most of us have plans. Somewhere to go if something awful happens. Pilgrim Jones doesn't. She looks up at a departures board and takes the first flight. She alights on the edge of Africa. Over confessions and strong gin, she's lured into a world of mercenaries and philanthropists, delusional heroes and witchdoctors in polyester suits. But what about the beating absence, the thing she's done?

Paul and Elaine have two boys and a beautiful home, yet they find themselves thoroughly, inexplicably stuck. Obsessed with 'making things good again', they spin the quiet terrors of family life into a fantastical frenzy that careens well and truly out of control. From a hilarious encounter in the pantry with a Stepford Wife neighbour, to a hostage situation at the school, Homes lays bare the foundations of marriage and family life.