Showing results by narrator "Francine Brody" in All Categories

Belle de Jour is the nom de plume of a high-class call girl working in London. This is her story. From the summer of 2003 to the autumn of 2004 Belle charted her day-to-day adventures on and off the field in a frank, funny, and award winning web diary. Now, in her Intimate Adventures, Belle elaborates on those diary entries, revealing (among other things) how she became a working girl, what it feels like to do it for money, and where to buy the best knickers for the job.

In these stories an excellent host finds himself turned out of home by his own guests; a woman spends her wedding day frantically searching for her husband-to-be; and in Shirley Jackson's best-known story, a small farming village comes together for a terrible annual ritual. The creeping unease of lives squandered and the bloody glee of lives lost is chillingly captured in these tales of wasted potential and casual cruelty by a master of the short story.

In 1942, Eva is forced to flee Paris after the arrest of her father, a Polish Jew. Finding refuge in a small mountain town, she begins forging identity documents for Jewish children escaping to neutral Switzerland. But erasing people comes with a price, and along with a mysterious, handsome forger named Rémy, Eva realises she must find a way to preserve the real names of the children who are too young to remember their own identities.

Single mum Jenny's life is turned upside-down (quite literally) when her beloved cottage on the Norfolk coast falls off a cliff. And so, with the storm raging on, Jenny and her eighteen-year-old son Charlie are forced to take refuge in her neighbour, Luke's, cosy campervan. It's a tight squeeze for the three of them - and Luke's adorable dachshund, Betty - but somehow they make it work. And when far-too-handsome Luke suggests a spontaneous road trip around England, it ignites a desire for adventure in Jenny she thought long extinguished!

In house in a wood, Ada and her father live peacefully, tending to their garden and the wildlife in it. They are not human, though. Ada was made by her father from the Ground, a unique patch of earth with birthing and healing properties. Though perhaps he didn’t get her quite right. They spend their days healing the local human folk - named Cures - who visit them, suspiciously, with their ailments. When Ada embarks on a relationship with a local Cure named Samson, she is forced to choose between her old life with her father and a new one with her human lover.

Penguin presents the audio edition of Celestial Navigation by Anne Tyler. Jeremy is a childlike, painfully shy bachelor who has never left home. He lives on the third floor of his mother's boardinghouse and spends his days cutting up coloured paper to make mosaic sculptures - until the day his mother dies and the beautiful Mary Tell arrives to turn his world upside down. From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Amateur Marriage and Digging to America.

When high-flying American lawyer Samantha Muir finds out she’s lost her partnership whilst on an assignment in London, she has a dramatic reaction. Rather than returning home, she resigns, leaves her business suits behind and jumps on the first train to Cornwall at the encouragement of a friendly stranger. The village of Little Penhaven, where Samantha eventually ends up, is a world away from her life in Knoxville, Tennessee - and local farmer Cadan Day is certainly a world away from any man she has met before.

At night, in a corporate office block in an unnamed metropolitan city, a cleaner begins her shift. As she cleans Sad Intern's desk, she throws away some of her more alarming health supplements, and leaves her healthy snacks instead. Mr Buff's desk is immaculate, but he seems to have a secret smoking habit. And she confiscates the knitted coaster that sexy, sensitive Yarn Guy has given to Soda Woman. She's the office guardian angel - and no one even knows it. But tonight, while scrolling through your emails, she'll discover the secret you've been hiding.

Keisha Ceylon is a psychic. At least, that's what she passes herself off as. The truth is, Keisha's real powers have more to do with separating troubled families from their money than actually seeing into the netherworld. Keisha watches the news for stories of missing family members. She gives it a few days, then moves in, tells these families she's had a vision, that she may have some clue to where these missing people are. And by the way, she charges for this service, and likes to see the money up front.

Moonshine Hollow’s famous ‘Lightning Flash’ might be an acquired taste, although the same could be said for moonshine distillery owner Cole Landon, what with his workaholic habits and ‘Scrooge’ tendencies when it comes to all things Christmassy. But when Jenna Pendean from Cornwall pays a visit to Cole’s family-run distillery in Tennessee during the holiday season, will Cole’s cynicism about the existence of Christmas miracles be put to the test?

When an overnight camping trip in the woods on Halloween night goes wrong, and a girl ends up dead with what looks like animal wounds, the whole neighbourhood is shocked. How did it happen? And more importantly what was it that killed her?

Wannabe author Jane Solomon is expecting an uneventful Christmas in her Cornish village of Little Penhaven. But then super fit American gym owner Hal Muir comes to town, and suddenly the holiday season looks set to be far more interesting. Hal is keen on embracing every British tradition on offer, from mince pies to Christmas pub quizzes - and perhaps some festive romance, too....