Showing results by narrator "Candida Gubbins" in All Categories

Milo, Mia and Birdy are so excited to return to the holiday cottage beside the Enchanted Wood for Christmas. They can't wait to visit their magical friends Silky the fairy and Moonface again. Which amazing worlds will arrive at the top of the Faraway Tree at this time of year? The children are hoping the Land of Presents might come by, or the Land of the Never-ending Christmas Dinner. But not all the Lands are full of good things and Milo, Mia and Birdy must help a friend in great need before they can celebrate the season truly happily.

Anna wants a fresh start. She doesn't believe she deserves it, but after three years behind bars she has finally paid her dues. Most of them, anyway. Lucy craves the attention of the only man she can't have, her alluring Oxford professor. He's married - not for the first time. Maybe she should be next in line? Marie the recluse has been locked up for too long. She's not ready to be free, but some rules are meant to be broken. Everyone wants a perfect life. But not everyone is prepared to take it. Unless someone decides to teach them a lesson.

DS Caitlin Fitzgerald has a secret—but it's one she's deleted from her memory. In the 1990s when she was at school, she and her friends killed a fellow pupil. Thirty years later, Caitlin is happily married and loves her job as a police officer. One day, her husband persuades her to go to a school reunion and another ex-pupil, Garfield Rice, is found dead, supposedly from a drug overdose. As Garfield was an eminent Labour MP and the investigation is high profile, it's headed by Caitlin's new boss, DI Harbinder Kaur.

Sylvie Cloutier, art lover and former antiques dealer, is trapped in her loveless marriage to the bullying Henri like a bird in a gilded cage. Meanwhile, security guard, hopeless romantic and bookworm Philippe Moreau cycles through the streets of Paris in his crumpled uniform, late (again) for his night shift at the Louvre. When Sylvie begs her husband to let her go to work, he gets her a job as an evening cleaner at the Louvre, thinking such a menial position will dispel any ideas about independence she might have. But his plan backfires when she falls in love with kind, gentle Philippe.

Daniel was the first boy to make Alison a mix tape. But that was years ago and Ali hasn’t thought about him in a very long time. Even if she had, she might not have called him ‘the one that got away’; after all, she’d been the one to run. Then Dan’s name pops up on her phone, with a link to a song from their shared past. For two blissful minutes, Alison is no longer an adult in Adelaide with temperamental daughters; she is 16 in Sheffield, dancing in her skin-tight jeans. She cannot help but respond in kind.

Oscar Hammerstein is asked to write the lyrics to a musical based on the life of Maria von Trapp: a novice nun sent to teach a widowed baron's sickly child. Yet much of Maria's life will have to be reinvented for THE SOUND OF MUSIC. When Maria sees the script that is supposedly based on her life, she becomes so incensed that she sets off to confront Hammerstein in person. Told that he's busy, she is asked to express her concerns to his secretary Fran instead. The pair strike up an unlikely friendship as Maria tells Fran about her life.

When no-nonsense, down-to-earth Maddie Wilcox is offered the chance to work on a luxury yacht for the summer, she can’t say no. Yes she’ll be waiting on the posh guests. But island-hopping around the Adriatic sea will more than make up for it—especially when Nick, her best friend Nina’s brother, is one of them. Sparks fly when they meet on board, and Maddie can’t believe self-entitled jerk Nick is really related to Nina. But in a secret, picture-perfect cove, away from the real world, Maddie and Nick discover they might have more in common than they realise.

Lara the Runaway Cat tells the story of Gobi, the loveable pug who followed Dion Leonard across a gruelling 155-mile trek across the Gobi Desert, and her mischievous cat sister, Lara, who runs away from her family, seeking a courageous adventure and different life.

The MacBrides have always gone to Far Barn in Devon for Bonfire Night, but this year everything is different. Lydia, the matriarch, is dead; Sophie, the eldest daughter, is desperately trying to repair a crumbling marriage; and Felix, the youngest of the family, has brought a girlfriend with him for the first time. The girl, Kerry, seems odd in a way nobody can quite put their finger on - but when they leave her looking after Sophie's baby daughter, and return to find both Kerry and the baby gone, they are forced to ask themselves if they have allowed a cuckoo into their nest....

As a single mother, Annie has an especially close relationship with her son, Ben. They have always been together. Just the two of them. So, when Ben brings home his mysterious beautiful new wife, Daisy, immediately Annie doesn’t trust her. Who is this woman who has taken her son away from her? And what is she hiding? She’ll protect him with her life....

As he packs my things, the nurses tell me Freddie hasn’t left my bedside since the accident I was in days ago. They tell me I’m lucky. We seem like the perfect couple, and together we’ll figure out what happened. So I go home to a beautiful house with a fancy marble kitchen and manicured garden that is supposedly ours. But deep down I know something isn’t right. Even though my memories are gone, this doesn’t feel like my life.

Elfrida Jane, accustomed to the energetic life of a small-part actress, finds life at Mountain Cross very different. At first her mother's old cliff-top house seems lonely and bleak, compared to the glitter and bustle of the theatre. But Elfrida has plenty of courage and soon settles down to enjoy herself. Then, suddenly, her peace is shattered. To the house on the cliff come unexpected visitors from the world of the theatre - a world Elfrida thought she had left behind forever.

On the night Tom Brenner and his nine-year-old son Leo visit the Seven Peaks theme park, they head straight for the ghost house. They go in. But they don't come out. Somewhere inside the ride, impossible as it seems, the two of them simply vanish. When Rebekah Murphy was three, her mother walked out of their childhood home and never returned. Nearly four decades on, Fiona Murphy is still missing. But then, out of the blue, a letter arrives in the post. It says it's from Fiona.

When Jo's beloved grandparents ask for her help in running their little café at the end of the pier in Salthaven-on-Sea, she jumps at the chance. The café is a hub for many people: the single dad who brings his little boy in on a Saturday morning; the lady who sits alone and stares out to sea; the woman who pops in after her morning run.

Lady Georgiana Pendlebury is no stranger to breaking the rules of polite society. But when a so-called ‘friend’ invites her to a clandestine party, Georgiana is shocked to discover the event is more scandalous than even she could have imagined. So when a mysterious stranger offers help, she accepts, not realising their encounter will turn her life upside down.

As Christmas looms, the villagers come under the spell of the Holly King, a demigod bent on destroying Woodville. Faye, Bertie and the witches are determined to stop him, but first they must confront terrible truths that threaten to tear them apart.

Faye Bright always felt a little bit different. And today she’s found out why. She’s just stumbled across her late mother’s diary which includes not only a spiffing recipe for jam roly-poly, but spells, incantations, runes and recitations...a witch's notebook. And Faye has inherited her mother’s abilities. Just in time, too. The Crow Folk are coming. Led by the charismatic Pumpkinhead, their strange magic threatens Faye and the villagers.

When aristocrat's daughter Charlotte Bingham was summoned to her father's office aged 18, she never expected to discover that he was a spy. Even more ominous was his decision that she should work for MI5. Miserably assigned to the formidable Dragon, Lottie wishes for release from the torment of typing. But as fellow secretary Annabella illuminates the mysteries of MI5, and Lottie's home fills with actors doubling as spies, Lottie feels well and truly spooked.

Aveline Jones loves reading ghost stories, so a dreary half-term becomes much more exciting when she discovers a spooky old book. Not only are the stories spine-tingling, but it once belonged to Primrose Penberthy...who vanished mysteriously, never to be seen again. Intrigued, Aveline decides to investigate Primrose's disappearance. But now someone - or something - is stirring. And it is looking for Aveline.

It's been two years since Harper and Will discovered their mum's boyfriend Nick is Santa Claus—now their family is one bigger thanks to baby Yula Hall who's almost a year old. But baby Yula also seems to have Christmas magic she can't control (cue turning the sandpit into a snow pit, causing mischief at nursery by pulling whichever toy she likes out of any drawer and the house being wrapped up in Christmas paper!)