Showing results by narrator "Jilly Bond" in All Categories

Food writer Claudia has sampled dishes by the world's greatest chefs. But when she hears about a remarkable pastry shop operated out of a convent in a sleepy Italian hillside town, she wants to write a book featuring their desserts and their creator - Sorella Agata. Sorella tells of the young woman who inspired her: Rosalia, who was kidnapped and separated from her family. Claudia discovers a deep, fascinating story - one that affirms food can do more than nourish the body....

It's 1782. The 13-year-old daughter of a Venetian merchant family is lured naked from her bath by a stray cat and finds herself in the arms of Casanova - the legendary seducer of women. Twenty-five years later Cecilia is in Albania, now a portrait painter of some renown. Enter a young man from England, a troubled poet, looking for adventure at any price - a man who begins his affair with Cecilia.

Norah Thornby can no longer afford to live in her grand family home - unless she can find a respectable lodger. But Nurse Lettie Quick is not nearly as respectable as she seems. Meanwhile the beautiful Rae Grainger is staying in an isolated house miles away from the town. It’s certainly rather creepy, but Rae knows that all she has to do is stay out of sight until paid-professional others take her little problem away.

In the nursery, only the toys that are old and wise truly understand what it means to be Real. The Velveteen Rabbit, a newcomer to the nursery, asks one of the most knowledgeable toys, the Skin Horse, what being real means. "Real isn't how you’re made," says the Skin Horse. "It’s a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but really loves you, then you become real. It doesn't happen all at once."

The latest novel from best-selling author Jean Ure - perfect for fans of Jacqueline Wilson and Cathy Cassidy. A warm-hearted story of friendship, school life, and drama - and the perils of sharing a secret… After all, even best friends don't tell each other everything…

In a remote, crumbling house in the Fens live four sisters - Agatha, Milly, and Ellen and Esther - identical twins so closely linked as to be almost one person. They have lived there all their lives, trapped still by the fear of their dead father, who governs his daughters' lives from beyond the grave. And then there is George, another inhabitant, imprisoned in the cellar. Little by little, macabre events come to light: events that transform an idyllic country childhood into a world of eccentric isolation.

They whisper her name in the ballroom’s shadows – the Marquis’s mistress! It will take all of Alice Sweetly’s acting skills to play this part: smile until it no longer hurts, until they believe your lies, until you believe. If the Marquis of Razeby thinks he can let his mistress go easily, he is so very wrong. Each night she appears before a rapturous Covent Garden audience, taunting him with her beauty.

Viscount Rothersthorpe can't tear his eyes from Lydia Morgan any more than he can calm the fury coursing through his veins. Furtive glances across the ballroom are not helping to ease Lydia's state of shock - the man who once uttered a marriage proposal has returned. But when he stuns her with an outrageous but wickedly delicious proposal, it is clear that despite the rumours, the rake from her past has not reformed!

Yesterday, Sally was living in an idyllic South African farmstead with her teenage daughter, Gigi. Now Sally is dead, murdered, and Gigi is alone. But Sally lingers unseen in her daughter's shadow. When Gigi moves in with her aunt, Sally comes, too. When Gigi's cousin develops an obsession with African black magic. Now Sally must find a way to stop her daughter from making a mistake that will destroy the lives of everyone.

It is 1936 in a remote dale in the old northern county of Westmorland. For centuries the rural community has remained the same, the Lightburn family has been immersed in the harsh hill-farming tradition. Then a man from the city of Manchester arrives, spokesman for a vast industrial project that will devastate both the landscape and the local community. Mardale will be flooded to create a new reservoir, supplying water to the Midland cities. In the coming year this corner of Lakeland will be evacuated and transformed.

Can a reclusive and distrustful lord, scarred by betrayal, learn to trust a pampered society beauty who seems to have the whole world at her feet? When Alexander Forthin, Earl of Calvercombe, clashes with Persephone Seaborne it seems not... But a series of mysterious disappearances links their two families, forcing the embittered soldier and the toast of St James into an unlikely alliance.

A year after the tragic death of her husband, Kate Nichols, still overwhelmed with grief, meets Richard Marshall. A divorced father of two, Richard’s messy involvement with his bi-polar ex-wife troubles Kate but, despite these obstacles, she can’t stop herself from falling in love. Meanwhile, as Kate’s father battles with the final stages of cancer, her divorced mother has found a new love in Ben. But Kate’s suspicions are roused as her mother’s behaviour becomes increasingly furtive.

Another thrilling adventure for Anna Fehrbach. 1953: Anna Fehrbach, now happily married, is enjoying her Bahamian hideaway. Its been three years since the Russians last attempted to arrest her for her attempt on the life of Joseph Stalin, and she's beginning to believe that her archenemy, Lavrenty Beria, has abandoned the chase. But when Anna is lured into one last job for the CIA, she is plunged back into the Russian orbit....

Germany, 1945: The Third Reich has collapsed and MI6 are retiring beautiful but deadly Anna Fehrbach, aka the Countess von Widerstand. But Anna is still wanted by the Russians for an attempt on the life of Stalin, and when they trace her to her Scottish refuge where she's under the care of her MI6 handler and lover Clive Bartley, Anna escapes the only way she knows how: She shoots her way out....

The end of the war has not allowed beautiful but deadly Anna Fehrbach to retire. Working for the SS her principal antagonist was the Soviet Union, and to Joseph Stalin and his henchman Lavrenty Beria she remains the most wanted of all war criminals. Although under the aegis of the CIA, the Russians remain on her trail and elaborate plans are being laid for her capture and execution....

July 1944: In the aftermath of an attempt on Hitler’s life, Germany is in chaos, but once again beautiful, deadly Anna Fehrbach is on hand to help maintain the regime. But Anna is not all she seems, and in her capacity as a double agent was herself integral to the conspiracy. As the Third Reich collapses, how will Anna secure the release of her family, held by the Nazis to guarantee her loyalty?

The thrilling sequel to Angel of Vengeance - In 1943 Nazi Germanys defences are crumbling, and Heinrich Himmler is taking steps to ensure his survival. He employs beautiful but deadly Anna Fehrbach to courier large sums of money across the border into Switzerland. What Himmler does not know is that Anna has for four years been a double agent, working for the British SIS and the American OSS in her determination to bring the Nazis down...

The thrilling sequel to Angel in Red - Anna Fehrbach is an MI6 operative in the heart of the Nazi establishment who has just found out about the Final Solution, but convincing her British employers proves next to impossible... Meanwhile, she must organize the assassination of Hitler's probable successor who also happens to be Annas lover. But will Annas nerve of steel hold out as those around her fall to pieces?

Victoria James is at home awaiting a call from Downing Street, desperate for the telephone to ring but mindful of the impact a promotion could have on her husband and daughter. When she receives the summons, high office does indeed await her, and life will never be the same again. As a young, attractive female Minister, Victoria will be living in the public eye, challenged in her views at every turn. But nothing prepares her for what ultimately throws her off-balance: a love affair with a married man.

Violet Dimond, the Holy Terror, has delivered many of the town children in her capacity as handywoman. But Violet’s calling is dying out with medicine’s advances. Grace, Violet’s adopted daughter, is a symbol of change herself. In the place where she has grown up and everyone knows her, she is accepted, though most of the locals never before saw a girl with skin that colour. For Violet and Grace the coming war will bring more upheaval: can they endure it, or will they be swept aside by history’s tide?