Carole Boyd has narrated 23 audiobooks on Listento.it by 12 authors, with an average listener rating of 4.1★ across 28 ratings. The most-rated is Brat Farrar.
Brat Farrar
Summary
A stranger enters the inner sanctum of the Ashby family posing as Patrick Ashby, the heir to the family’s sizeable fortune. The stranger, Brat Farrar, has been carefully coached on Patrick’s mannerisms, appearance and every significant detail of Patrick’s early life, up to his 13th year when he disappeared and was thought to have drowned himself. It seems as if Brat is going to pull off this most incredible deception until old secrets emerge that threaten to jeopardise the imposter’s plan and his very life.
©1949 The National Trust (P)2014 Audible, Inc.
The Franchise Affair
Summary
Marion Sharpe and her mother seem an unlikely duo to be found on the wrong side of the law. Quiet and ordinary, they have led a peaceful and unremarkable life at their country home, The Franchise. Unremarkable that is, until the police turn up with a demure young woman on their doorstep. Not only does Betty Kane accuse them of kidnap and abuse, she can back up her claim with a detailed description of the attic room in which she was kept, right down to the crack in its round window. But there’s something about Betty Kane’s story that doesn’t quite add up. Inspector Alan Grant of Scotland Yard is stumped. It takes Robert Blair, solicitor turned amateur detective, to solve the mystery...
©1948 Josephine Tey (P)2014 Audible, Inc.
South Riding
Summary
In this rich and memorable evocation of the fictional South Riding of Yorkshire are the lives, loves and sorrows of the central characters. There is Sarah Burton, fiery young headmistress; Robert Carne of Maythorpe Hall, a councillor tormented by his own disastrous marriage; Jo Astell, a socialist fighting poverty and his own illness; and Mrs Beddows, the first woman Alderman of the district (like Winifred's own mother). They are the people who work together in the council chambers and backrooms of local politics. Alongside them, however, are the people affected by their decisions.
©2009 Winifred Holtby (P)2014 Audible, Inc.
Mary Anne
Summary
Exclusively from Audible Inspired by her great-great-grandmother's tempestuous relationship with the men in her life and absolute disregard for convention, Daphne du Maurier delivers a captivating piece, featuring one of her most audacious and ambitious heroines yet. After abandoning her drunken husband, and unwilling to return to the crippling poverty of her youth, Mary Anne begins to work as a high-class escort. Fortune favours her as she finds herself in the arms of The Duke of York and Albany, Frederick Augustus. Becoming his mistress, Mary Anne is seduced by the Duke's lavish lifestyle and the power it bestows on her. She uses her charms and his title to trade in military commissions, venturing down a dark and seductive path which few women would have dared to go down. Set in the Regency period, du Maurier contrasts the luxurious and lavish lifestyle of the upper echelons of society with that of the impoverished lower class. She also highlights the importance that Victorians placed on female virtue and the consequent ticking clock which Mary Anne would always be up against. Much like her ancestor, Daphne du Maurier was an intelligent, creative and resilient woman. A celebrated author and playwright who mastered the romantic and gothic genres, Daphne's masterpieces continue to entertain and intrigue us today and Mary Anne is no exception. Narrator Biography Carole Boyd trained at the Birmingham School of Speech and Drama where her vocal talents earned her the principal national prize for voice as well as the Carleton Hobbs award. She is a British actress, best known for her performances in The Thief Lord, Peter Kay's Animated All Star Band: The Official BBC Children in Need Medley, Bodger and Badger, Virtual Murder and Hetty Wainthrop Investigates. Carole voices the character of Lynda Snell in the BBC Radio 4 programme, The Archers as well as all of the female characters and most of the schoolboys in Postman Pat. Her audiobook narrations include The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Atonement, Jane Eyre, The Turn of the Screw and Middlemarch.
©1954 Daphne du Maurier (P)2014 Audible, Inc.
The Sunrise
Summary
The new novel from Victoria Hislop, the million-copy best-selling author of The Island, The Thread, and The Return. In the summer of 1972, Famagusta, in Cyprus, is the most desirable resort in the Mediterranean, a city bathed in the glow of good fortune. An ambitious couple open the island's most spectacular hotel, where Greek and Turkish Cypriots work in harmony. Two neighbouring families, the Georgious and the Özkans, are among many who moved to Famagusta to escape the years of unrest and ethnic violence elsewhere on the island. But beneath the city's façade of glamour and success, tension is building. When a Greek coup plunges the island into chaos, Cyprus faces a disastrous conflict. Turkey invades to protect the Turkish Cypriot minority, and Famagusta is shelled. Forty thousand people seize their most precious possessions and flee from the advancing soldiers. In the deserted city, just two families remain. This is their story.
©2014 Victoria Hislop (P)2014 Headline Digital
South Riding (Dramatised)
Summary
In this rich and memorable evocation of the fictional South Riding of Yorkshire are the lives, loves and sorrows of the central characters. There is Sarah Burton, fiery young headmistress; Robert Carne of Maythorpe Hall, a councillor tormented by his own disastrous marriage; Jo Astell, a socialist fighting poverty and his own illness; and Mrs Beddows, the first woman Alderman of the district (like Winifred’s own mother). They are the people who work together in the council chambers and backrooms of local politics. Alongside them, however, are the people affected by their decisions.
©2011 AudioGO Ltd (P)1988 Winifred Holtby
Francis I
Summary
Francis I (1494-1547) was inconstant, amorous, hotheaded and flawed. Yet he was also arguably the most significant king that France ever had. This is his story. A contemporary of Henry VIII of England, Francis saw himself as the first Renaissance king, a man who was the exemplar of courtly and civilised behaviour throughout Europe. A courageous and heroic warrior, he was also a keen aesthete, an accomplished diplomat and an energetic ruler who turned his country into a force to be reckoned with. Yet he was also capricious, vain and arrogant, taking hugely unnecessary risks, at least one of which nearly resulted in the end of his kingdom. His great feud with his nemesis Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor, defined European diplomacy and sovereignty, but his notorious alliance with the great Ottoman ruler Suleiman the Magnificent threatened to destroy everything. With access to never-before-seen private archives, Leonie Frieda's comprehensive and sympathetic account explores the life of the most human of all Renaissance monarchs - and the most enigmatic. Read by Carole Boyd. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.
©2017 Leonie Frieda (P)2018 Orion Publishing Group
Three Letters
Summary
Three Letters is the brand new dramatic novel about the power of a father’s love, a little boy’s journey, and the desperate search for a place to call home, from number-one best-selling author Josephine Cox. Eight-year-old Casey’s mother, Ruth, is a cruel woman with a weakness for other women’s husbands. Casey’s father is gentle and hard-working and, though Tom Denton has long suspected his wife of having sordid affairs, he has chosen to turn a blind eye to keep the peace. But then, out of the blue, Tom’s world is completely shattered when he receives two bits of devastating news. Because of this, Tom realises that from now on their lives must change, forever. A broken man, Tom is made to fight for his son, determined to keep him safe. But, when fate takes a hand, life can be unbearably painful, and Casey is made to remember his father’s prophetic words: "It’s done. The die is thrown, and nobody wins." But, unbeknownst to Casey, there are three letters penned by his father that may just change his destiny forever.
©2012 Josephine Cox (P)2012 HarperCollins Publishers Limited
Stephen Hawking: His Life and Work
Summary
Stephen Hawking is one of the most remarkable figures of our time, a Cambridge genius who has earned international celebrity as a brilliant theoretical physicist and become an inspiration and revelation to those who have witnessed his courageous triumph over disability. This is Hawking's life story by Kitty Ferguson, who has had special help from Hawking himself and his close associates and who has a gift for translating the language of theoretical physics for non-scientists. Twenty years ago, Kitty Ferguson's Stephen Hawking: Quest for a Theory of Everything became a Sunday Times bestseller and took the world by storm. She now returns to the subject to transform that short book into a hugely expanded, carefully researched, up-to-the-minute biography.
©2011 Kitty Ferguson (P)2014 Audible, Inc.
The Daughters of the Late Colonel
Summary
This is a story from the Classic Women's Short Stories collection.... Five stories from influential women writers of the 19th century and the first decades of the 20th century. New Zealand-born Katherine Mansfield settled in England where she wrote a series of short stories that are widely recognized as among the finest of the 20th century for their economy, clarity, sensitivity and effect. "The Garden Party" is one of her most famous, while "Daughters of the Late Colonel" shows a wonderful sense of wit. Kate Chopin, writing in the last years of the 19th century, broke new ground with her daring view of women as individuals with human needs. "Lilacs" and "Ma'ame Pelagie" are sympathetic portraits of women with differing dilemmas. Woolf's "A Mark on the Wall" shows, in short story form, the turmoil within the stillness which became such a mark of her later novels.
©2001 NAXOS AudioBooks Ltd. (P)2001 NAXOS AudioBooks Ltd.
Storm in the Village
Summary
On a blustery March day in the village of Fairacre, Miss Clare sees two strangers "pacing slowly, side by side, along the edge of Hundred Acre Field, which lay on the other side of Miss Clare's garden hedge...." So begins a story that brings all the villagers of Fairacre together, as they face the prospect of developers who hope to build new houses on the fields adjoining old Mr Miller's farm. Everyone has an opinion, but not everyone is in agreement about the development. Under the watchful gaze of Miss Read, the school teacher, we meet old characters and new, from retired teacher Miss Clare and the surly Mrs Pringle, to the new assistant teacher, Miss Jackson, who brings with her problems of her own.
©1958 Miss Read (P)2006 Orion Publishing Group Ltd.
Unfaithfully Yours
Summary
When Elizabeth Price engages private detective Roland ‘Orlando’ Gibbons to find out the truth about her husband’s suspected affair, she unwittingly sets off a chain of correspondence that reunites four formerly close-knit couples. They all live just a few suburban streets away from each other, they are all still married, so how - and why - did they become so estranged? In a series of letters, each protagonist is far more self-revealing than they would ever be in person. The result is an uproarious and poignant portrait of four marriages, and a story about how little we know those we think we know best.
©2014 Nigel Williams (P)2014 Oakhill Publishing
Whispers on the Water
Summary
Tomboy Grace Tooley meets Rupert Bradley when her eldest brother's sudden death forces her to take on burdens beyond her years. From then on, Grace gives her heart to her brother's wealthy friend, but he sees her as a mere girl and marries a woman from his own station in life. They meet again when the Great War has changed them both. Grace has suffered loss and pain and emerged as a strong, passionate woman. Rupert, nearly broken by the horrors he has endured, has been humiliated by the bride who once seemed so right for him, and he rejects Grace's love and any hope of future happiness. But Grace is determined to rediscover the spirit of the only boy she ever loved in the man who is ready to die.
©2002 Audrey Howard (P)2014 Audible, Inc.
The Runaway Woman
Summary
No-one thought she had the courage.… Those looking in from the outside think Lucy Lovejoy's life is like any other, but at the centre of her family there is a big empty hole where all the love and warmth should be. Over the years, her children have watched while their father chipped away at Lucy's self-confidence. Now the children are following their own paths, and Lucy has never felt more alone. When tragedy strikes at the heart of the family, it's a wake-up call for Lucy. Everyone has taken a little piece of her, and she isn't sure who she is anymore. So when Lucy faces a betrayal from those she loves deepest, she knows that it's time to make a choice. Is she brave enough to find herself again?
©2014 Josephine Cox (P)2014 HarperCollins Publishers Limited
The Flight of Swallows
Summary
Charlotte Drummond knows she has a duty to obey her father. Girls, especially well-bred upper-class ones, are expected to be submissive to the men in their lives. But Charlotte's father is a cruel man, viciously beating her and her brothers for the slightest reason. He even wants to marry her off, at just sixteen years old; to a man she does not love. Lion-hearted Charlotte wants to defy him but to protect her brothers from his fury she agrees to become the wife of Brooke Armstrong. Only when tragedy strikes will she will be able to admit that she loved him from the moment they met. But will it be too late?
©2009 Audrey Howard (P)2014 Audible, Inc.
A Time Like No Other
Summary
Lally Fraser, widowed at 20, seeks comfort with dashing young mill owner Roly Sinclair. But when she finds she is expecting his baby, she turns to his dour brother Harry for help. Secretly in love with her, Harry offers her marriage. Roly, though, is anything but pleased. Threatening scandal or worse, he sets out to destroy them both. And when Harry is injured in a vicious attack, Lally must take charge of the mills to protect her children and the man she is growing to love from his worst enemy - his own brother.
©2007 Audrey Howard (P)2014 Audible, Inc.
A Family Secret
Summary
The new novel from Sunday Times best-selling author Josephine Cox - the master storyteller. Sometimes you just need the courage to tell the truth.... Although she's surrounded by a loving family, Marie feels lost: living with a lie can be very lonely. Marie has been carrying a secret for years, one that could ruin the lives of those she loves most, and the guilt she feels weighs heavily. Her granddaughter, Cathy, is a most cheerful young woman, and in the first flush of love. The secret Marie is about to tell her will not only change her future but rewrite her past. Cathy now has a dangerous choice to make that could change her life forever. As far as everyone can see Cathy's future sister-in-law, Beth, has a happy life and a good marriage, but she's heartbreakingly sad. One day, perhaps she'll be brave enough to speak out and run away.... Secrets at the heart of a family can last a lifetime...but it's the love of a family that can set you free.
©2017 Josephine Cox (P)2017 HarperCollins Publishers Limited
A Flower in Season
Summary
Briony Marsden has led a hard life, forced to do the work of a grown man while enduring her drunkard father's taunts and blows. But when he goes too far, her fate becomes even worse as she makes her way alone in a heartless world. But Chad Cameron, the richest man in the district, has always admired Briony's spirit. When her fortunes are at their lowest, he falls in love with her and decides to make her his wife. Unfortunately, the only way he can do it is by trickery.
©2002 Audrey Howard (P)2014 Audible, Inc
A Painted Highway
Summary
Vibrant and headstrong, Ally Pearce loves working on the Edith, her family's narrow boat, proving she's the equal of any man on the Leeds to Liverpool canal. Betsy, delicate, calculating and sensuously beautiful, wants only to become a 'lady' - and will use the most unladylike means to become one. When Dr Tom Hartley enters the sisters' lives after a tragic accident both are attracted to him - but for very different reasons....
©2003 Audrey Howard (P)2014 Audible, Inc.
Beyond the Shining Water
Summary
When Lily Elliott's father dies she loses everything - not just a beloved protector and his wonderful ship the Lily-Jane, but also the way of life she has always known. As her mother sinks into a dream-world and the money which had always seemed sufficient turns out to have been mostly debts, Lily watches, bewildered, as destitution comes ever closer for the Elliott women and their loyal housekeeper. Then two rescuers appear. One is the most unlikely saviour: Liam O'Connor, a poor seaman who selflessly befriends the unhappy little girl. The other is Joshua Crowther, the wealthy owner of Oakwood Place, a grand country mansion where the desperate women finally find refuge.
©1999 Audrey Howard (P)2014 Audible, Inc.