Audiobooks narrated by Anna Wilson-Jones

Thorns, Lust and Glory: The betrayal of Anne Boleyn

Brought to you by Penguin. A queen on the edge. Anne Boleyn has mesmerised the English public for centuries. Her tragic execution, orchestrated by her own husband, never ceases to intrigue. How did this courtier's daughter become the queen of England, and what was it that really tore apart this illustrious marriage, making her the whore of England, an abandoned woman executed on the scaffold? While many stories of Anne Boleyn's downfall have been told, few have truly traced the origins of her tragic fate. In Thorns and Glory, Estelle Paranque takes us back to where it all started: to France, where Anne learned the lessons that would set her on the path to becoming one of England's most infamous queens. At the court of the French king as a resourceful teenage girl, Anne's journey to infamy began, and this landmark biography explores the world that shaped her, and how these loyalties would leave her vulnerable, leading to her ruin at the court of Henry VIII. A fascinating new perspective on Tudor history's most enduring story, Thorns and Glory is an unmissable account of a queen on the edge. ©2024 Estelle Paranque (P)2024 Penguin Audio

Estelle Paranque (Author), Anna Wilson-Jones, TBD (Narrator)

Audiobook

Cunning Folk: Life in the Era of Practical Magic

Brought to you by Penguin. In Cunning Folk: Life in the Era of Practical Magic, historian Tabitha Stanmore will transport the reader to a time when magic was used day-to-day as a way to navigate life's challenges and to solve problems of both trivial and deadly importance. Imagine it's the year 1500 and you've lost your precious silver spoons - or perhaps your neighbour has stolen them. Or maybe your child has a fever. Or you're facing trial. Or you're looking for a lover. Or you're hoping to escape a husband... At a time when nature's inner workings were largely a mystery, people from every walk of life - kings, clergy and commonfolk - who faced problems or circumstances they were powerless to control sought the help of 'cunning folk'. These wise women and men were often renowned for their skill at healing the sick or predicting the future, fortune-telling and divination, and for their knowledge of spells and potions. Occasionally and tragically, some were condemned as witches for using their powers for ill. But this has tended to obscure the fact that the magic they practised was a normal and accepted part of daily life. In Stanmore's richly peopled and highly entertaining history, we see how this practical or 'service' magic was used and why people put their faith in it. Each of the stories in the book acts as a micro-drama of medieval and early modern life with its pre-scientific worldview, animating vividly people's intimate fears, hopes and desires, many movingly familiar, some thrillingly strange. Told with great wit and warmth, these very human encounters help us to understand why, at that time, seeking magic was not necessarily irrational at all, and also bring into view the ways in which many of us rely on magical thinking today. ©2024 Tabitha Stanmore (P)2024 Penguin Audio

Tabitha Stanmore (Author), Anna Wilson-Jones, TBD (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Social Brain: The Psychology of Successful Groups

Brought to you by Penguin. How many people does the ideal team contain? How do groups bond, earn trust and forge shared identities? How can leaders build environments adaptable enough to respond to shocks and still enable people to thrive together? How can you feel close to people if your only point of contact is a phone or a computer? In The Social Brain leading experts from the worlds of evolutionary psychology and business management come together to offer a primer on great team working. They explain what size groups work and how to shape them according to the nature of the task at hand. They offer practical hints on how to diffuse tensions and encourage cooperation. And they demonstrate the vital importance of balancing unity and the need for different views and outlooks. By explaining precisely how the 'social brain' works, they show how human groups function and how to create great, high-performing teams. ©2023 Robin Dunbar (P)2023 Penguin Audio

Robin Dunbar, Samantha Rockey, Tracey Camilleri (Author), Anna Wilson-Jones (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Hidden Truth: The gripping and suspenseful story of love, heartbreak and one devastating confess

Brought to you by Penguin. The suspenseful new novel from the million-copy bestselling author of Thursdays in the Park, The Anniversary, The Lie and The Affair He was meant to be the perfect man, until she discovered the hidden truth ... A gripping story of love, heartbreak and one devastating confession that changes everything. Sara Tempest has been alone since her husband died and daughters left home. But over the course of one summer she meets and falls in love with the charming Bernard. The years of heartache and loneliness are finally behind her. She quickly moves into his beautiful home on the wind battered cliffs of Hastings. But, after a while, she begins to wonder if Bernard is all he seems. He's barely in touch with his children and with stifling reminders of his wife everywhere Sara looks, the walls begin to close in. Then comes Bernard's confession and Sara's newfound happiness starts to crumble around her . . . Praise for Hilary Boyd 'Hilary Boyd nails family dynamics and misplaced loyalties with pin-sharp precision in an impressively well-written tale' Daily Express 'I was ripping through this book . . . addictive' Evening Standard 'Boyd is as canny as Joanna Trollope at observing family life' Daily Mail © Hilary Boyd 2022 (P) Penguin Audio 2022

Hilary Boyd (Author), Anna Wilson-Jones (Narrator)

Audiobook

Blood, Fire and Gold: The story of Elizabeth I and Catherine de Medici

Brought to you by Penguin. In sixteenth-century Europe, two women came to hold all the power, against all the odds. They were Elizabeth I and Catherine de Medici. One a Virgin Queen who ruled her kingdom alone, and the other a clandestine leader who used her children to shape the dynasties of Europe, much has been written about these iconic women. But nothing has been said of their complicated relationship: thirty years of friendship, competition and conflict that changed the face of Europe. This is a story of two remarkable visionaries: a story of blood, fire and gold. It is also a tale of ceaseless calculation, of love and rivalry, of war and wisdom - and of female power in a male world. Shining new light on their legendary kingdoms Blood, Fire and Gold provides a new way of looking at two of history's most powerful women, and how they shaped each other as profoundly as they shaped the course of history. Drawing on their letters and brand new research, Estelle Paranque writes an entirely new chapter in the well-worn story of the sixteenth century. 'A stunning portrayal of two of the most powerful women in European history' Tracy Borman 'Exciting and compelling, packed full of tantalising details of diplomacy and court life, Paranque succeeds both in bringing history to life, but also in putting flesh on the bones of these two extraordinary women and rival queens' Kate Mosse 'Bursting with fresh perspectives, this is a vibrant retelling of a story you thought you knew' Dan Snow © Estelle Paranque 2022 (P) Penguin Audio 2022

Estelle Paranque (Author), Anna Wilson-Jones (Narrator)

Audiobook

Patient 1: Forgetting and Finding Myself

Brought to you by Penguin. Charlotte Raven had never heard of Huntington's Disease when, in her mid-thirties, she discovered that her father was suffering from the illness. Life for her and her young family would never be the same again. Patient 1 is her brutally candid account of coming to terms with this inherited neurodegenerative disease, which can manifest at any time in life for people who carry the faulty gene. As the illness began to take hold of Raven's body, mind and memory, she began to write. She wrote like her life depended on it - and in many ways she believed it did. Frank and fearless, Patient 1 is an act of self-preservation and a kind of reckoning: with the illness, with the person she once was, with the person she is now. In an afterword, Raven's doctor Ed Wild - one of the country's leading experts in Huntington's - explains how doctors and patients like Charlotte are working together in the hope of one day eliminating this disease altogether. Honest, intelligent and unsentimental, Patient 1 is a startling self-portrait written with wit and vulnerability, and a unique testament to the power of hope in the face of illness. © Charlotte Raven 2021 (P) Penguin Audio 2021

Charlotte Raven, Edward Wild (Author), Anna Wilson-Jones, Dr Ed Wild (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Rising Tide: the heart-stopping and addictive thriller from the Richard and Judy author

Brought to you by Penguin. The new pulse-pounding thriller from the bestselling author of THE MEMORY WOOD: beautifully written, evocative and dramatic, you will read it with your heart in your mouth. HOW DID IT COME TO THIS? The news doesn't strike cleanly, like a guillotine's blade. Nothing so merciful. This news is a slovenly traveller, dragging its feet, gradually revealing its horrors. And it announces itself first with violence - the urgent hammering of fists on the front door. Life can change in a heartbeat. Lucy has everything she could wish for: a beautiful home high on the clifftops above the Devon coast, a devoted husband and two beloved children. Then one morning, time stops. Their family yacht is recovered, abandoned far out at sea. Lucy's husband is nowhere to be found and as the seconds tick by, she begins to wonder - what if he was the one who took the boat? And if so, where is he now? As a once-in-a-generation storm frustrates the rescue operation, Lucy pieces together what happened onboard. And then she makes a fresh discovery. One that plunges her into a nightmare more shocking than any she could ever have imagined . . . Praise for Sam Lloyd: 'Lloyd is a rare new thriller talent.' Daily Mail 'Stunning prose and compulsive reading.' Lesley Kara 'An intense, atmospheric, and truly original thriller.' Shari Lapena 'A beautifully written, fast-paced thriller.' Heat 'A darkly chilling and original novel . . . a series of twists keeps readers captivated until a shocking climax.' Daily Express 'Brilliant writing, a terrifying story, and characters so real it feels like you know them.' Samantha Downing 'A truly chilling story.' Woman & Home © Sam Lloyd 2021 (P) Penguin Audio 2021

Sam Lloyd (Author), Anna Wilson-Jones, Charles Armstrong (Narrator)

Audiobook

Victoria: A Novel

This program includes an interview with the author, Daisy Goodwin, who is the writer and creator of Victoria, the Masterpiece Presentation on PBS. Anna Wilson-Jones, who plays Lady Portman on the show, narrates. "The research is impeccable, the attention to details -- from protocol to petticoats -- perfect, and it brings the formidable figure of Victoria to sparkling life."--Sunday Mirror "Victoria is an absolutely captivating novel of youth, love, and the often painful transition from immaturity to adulthood. Daisy Goodwin breathes new life into Victoria's story, and does so with sensitivity, verve, and wit." —Amanda Foreman, New York Times bestselling author of Georgiana: Duchess of Devonshire and A World on Fire, and 2016 Chair of The Man Booker Prize Early one morning, less than a month after her eighteenth birthday, Alexandrina Victoria is roused from bed with the news that her uncle William IV has died and she is now Queen of England. The men who run the country have doubts about whether this sheltered young woman, who stands less than five feet tall, can rule the greatest nation in the world. Surely she must rely on her mother and her venal advisor, Sir John Conroy, or her uncle, the Duke of Cumberland, who are all too eager to relieve her of the burdens of power. The young queen is no puppet, however. She has very definite ideas about the kind of queen she wants to be, and the first thing is to choose her name. Everyone keeps saying she is destined to marry her first cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, but Victoria found him dull and priggish when they met three years ago. She is quite happy being queen with the help of her prime minister, Lord Melbourne, who may be old enough to be her father but is the first person to take her seriously. Drawing on Victoria’s diaries, which she first started reading when she was a student at Cambridge University, as well as her own brilliant gifts for history and drama, Daisy Goodwin, author of the bestselling novels The American Heiress and The Fortune Hunter as well as creator and writer of the new PBS/Masterpiece drama Victoria, brings the young queen richly to life in this magnificent audiobook.

Daisy Goodwin (Author), Anna Wilson-Jones (Narrator)

Audiobook

Audiobooks Narrated by Anna Wilson-Jones