Showing results by narrator "Verona Westbrook" in All Categories

As Britain settles into a short-lived peace, the characters of Pride and Prejudice pick up very nearly where the novel left off, in a new series of stories focused on love and family. Elizabeth Bennet finds the joy of her marriage and honeymoon are followed by the demands of becoming Mrs. Darcy, all while helping her shy new younger sister come out into society.

With her third London season drawing to a close, the shy Eliza Malcolm seems unlikely to find any husband, let alone a titled one. But when the hunting-crazed Duke of Brockenhurst invites the Malcolms to visit Harrowhaven, Eliza's father jumps at the chance to gain a wealthy son-in-law. Surrounded by quarreling parents, tactless acquaintances, the aloof dowager, and the unsettling duke, Eliza looks for one person kind enough to help her navigate the murky waters of Harrowhaven's secrets.

Fitzwilliam Darcy is in a difficult situation. His father is pressing him to propose marriage to the last woman in the world he would wish to take as his wife. With a fortnight to announce his betrothal, he makes the acquaintance of Elizabeth Bennet, who is in a predicament of her own. Could Darcy be willing to consider Elizabeth as a solution to his problem and to hers? And can Elizabeth ascertain enough of Darcy's character to trust him upon nothing but a first impression?

One night, to decide his entire life's happiness. Chastened by Charles Bingley following Mr. Bennet's untimely death, Fitzwilliam Darcy determines he will offer marriage to Elizabeth Bennet, but she marries another. Years later, a widowed Elizabeth is mistress of Longbourn, and has vowed she will never marry again. A house party at Netherfield brings them back together, but Darcy will have to win more than her heart if he is to have any chance at making her mistress of Pemberley.

As the “Year Without a Summer” threatens estates across Britain, Elizabeth and Georgiana both go on journeys that take unexpected turns – journeys that will threaten the lives of those they hold dear. Three of Elizabeth’s sisters find their lives changed by childbirth, while on Pemberley’s grounds, a surprising romance emerges. A story of love and family, and the third installment of the Constant Love series.

The preparations for Elizabeth’s birth and the beginning of Georgiana’s married life do not go as smoothly as either of them would wish, and they must each consider an alternate legacy for Pemberley as they encounter opposite sides of the same "what if?" Meanwhile, for the first time, Mary Bennet finds herself romantically interested in a man, but will her own character and his family get in her way?

Thomas Bennet unexpectedly outlives his wife and must make his way in a new life. Can he use the opportunity to become a better man, or will he let this chance pass him by?

Eda Swanycke is enjoying her first season in London when her debut comes to a crashing halt. Jilted by her cousin, she suffers the indignity of watching Haro's new intended lay claim to his person and position. But when a brutal murder upends the household with Haro as chief suspect, Eda must put her wounded pride aside, match wits with the investigator from London, and try, at all costs, to save Haro Emison's neck from the gallows...

Cv/VAR 154 publishes a study of photography and art in which authors Marina Vaizey and Anne Blood consider the historical impact of photography from pioneers Hill and Adamson, William Fox Talbot, and Louis Daguerre to contemporary practitioners such as Andreas Gursky and Boris Mikhailov. The documentary power and graphic clarity of the medium challenged and persuaded artists such as Degas, Sickert, Andy Warhol, and Richard Hamilton, and innumerable creative voices. The volume includes biographical details of leading figures and a guide to national collections and study centres.

Author, critic and traveler, Marina Vaizey, in her third lockdown essay, reflects on the books of figures in the changing façade of English society and the establishment. Missing people, even with telephones and emails. And music and theatre even with the incredibly generous digital provision.

Both men and women enjoy thrillers, mystery, and crime. Yet it may still feel not quite respectable, somehow a guilty (sorry!) pleasure. Do these novels so often categorized as genre offer something the literary novel does not? The market is enormous, perhaps the largest in publishing. It is a cliché which may be true that only the Bible – say - outsells Agatha Christie. And then there are films and television, either original or adapted from novels.

When savage family sickness, and the unscrupulous embezzling steward, Mr. Craven, steals the Boone's family fortune, he snatches Sandra Boone’s idyllic childhood from her innocent hands. The heartbroken child finds herself in a place she never thought possible – destitute and begging on the dirty, dangerous streets for her next meal. When opportunity opens the door for a life of servitude to a wealthy family, Sandra, crushed by the harshness of her unfair years, finally thinks fortune may be turning her way. Instead, a fire of controversy unfolds, forcing her to flee.

Drugged and supposedly drowned by the mother who should have loved her, six-year-old Gwendoline is dredged from the Saltwick River. Poverty-stricken but rich in love, Mr. and Mrs. Paul love the tiny child as their own, until hard times and tragedy drive them to the workhouse. From this slavery, Gwendoline flees her present horror, only to run headlong into her unknown past, with consequences that tumble through the generations.

It’s Christmastime at Pemberley, and Lizzy is nervous to be hosting her first event. Her family is coming, and so is Lady de Bourgh. An unexpected and unwelcome guest also arrives. How can Wickham have the courage to show his face at Pemberley? Even worse, what is he doing to make poor Lydia so miserable? Lizzy and Fitzwilliam must unravel the details and deal with machinations that threaten their first Christmas together while helping to find Lydia a second chance to move past her marriage mistake and be happy.

Elias, the handsome Duke of Westhampshire, has courted many women, but not for long. He doesn’t believe in commitment and flits from woman to woman, until he lays eyes on beautiful maid, Maria. Thinking her an easy target, he is shocked when she refuses his advances which angers, yet intrigues, him. Can the duke change his rake ways and open his heart? Will Maria be able to ever trust him?

Penny's story is the fourth in Brian L. Porter's award-winning Family of Rescue Dogs series. It features a tiny terrier, abandoned in a particularly cruel manner and her subsequent adoption and life with the author and his family. From being attacked and needing emergency surgery to days out at the coast chasing seagulls and living in stately homes, Penny's life in Brian's pack of rescue dogs has never been anything but interesting and eventful.

Meet Lulu the Terrible and find out how she fell from grace; shudder at the menace of the cat who howls in the night and laugh with the irrepressible stationery cat; learn how the ancient Cabriole won his lady love, and how she rewarded him, and listen, with the wide-eyed kitten, to the mew-moirs of the cat who has been here before.

A viewing room by room of Bill Viola/Michelangelo at the Royal Academy of Arts on Monday March 4, 2019. Encounter the video works by Bill Viola on the theme of life, death, and rebirth and the drawings by Michelangelo from the 1530s to 1560s on religious and spiritual themes.

A recorded visit to Elizabethan Treasures during the press view at the National Portrait Gallery London. Inspect miniature portraits by Nicholas Hilliard and Isaac Oliver of Sir Walter Raleigh, Sir Francis Frake, Henry Wriothesley and others, and the celebrated icon of Queen Elizabeth I.

The reputation of Cecil Beaton hardly rests on the fact that he was the most prolific and productive of official war photographers both on the home front and abroad during World War II; rather, he is thought of as a royal-society- and celebrity-portrait photographer, designer for stage and film - recipient of three Oscars and a Tony - prolific author, and gossipy and fascinating diarist.