Audiobooks narrated by Helen Taylor

"Natalie Travers had only just had her house in Brighton converted into flats, and installed five sets of tenants, when her younger brother Julian sent her an appeal for help. Newly deserted by his wife of one year, he was finding it impossible to cope single-handed with his work, with the running of the house and with the care of his baby twins, Rowena and Randall. Natalie’s elder brother, Maurice, and his wife Freddie, were strongly opposed to Natalie’s going to the rescue. She herself realized what she had undertaken when she reached Julian’s house and found babies’ garments strewn on sofas and chairs, jars and tins of baby food on the mantlepiece and the remnants of Julian’s meals on the table—but she assured herself that as soon as domestic staff could be found to take over, she would be free to go back and resume her own life. But Julian made few efforts to find staff, preferring as Head of the Music Department of the famous public school, Downinghurst, to concentrate on his beloved music and on his other great love, golf. Natalie’s plan to return to Brighton as soon as possible proved over-optimistic. Not only the impossibility of leaving the twins, but also her meeting with the attractive Henry Downing were to detain her longer than she had expected."

Elizabeth Cadell (Author), Helen Taylor (Narrator)

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The Enchanted April

"Four very different women, with very different reasons for wanting to escape a cold and dreary London, come together to share a month's holiday in a medieval castle. They are brought there by the promise of the advertised 'wisteria and sunshine', but they find so much more than they bargained for, as the place transforms them and changes their lives in ways they could never have expected. The novel is dominated by four wonderfully drawn characters: timid Lotty Wilkins, terrified of her domineering husband; sober and religious Rose Arbuthnot; rigid and judgemental Mrs Fisher; and the breathtakingly beautiful but disillusioned and unhappy Lady Caroline Dester. Von Arnim's story of their transformation under the Italian sun is warm, witty, intelligent, and as enchanting as the title suggests."

Elizabeth von Arnim (Author), Helen Taylor (Narrator)

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Escape to Nature: RV Camping Tips for National Park Enthusiasts

"'Escape to Nature: RV Camping Tips for National Park Enthusiasts' is the ultimate guide for those who yearn to explore the majestic national parks of the world from the comfort and freedom of their RV. This comprehensive guide is tailored for novice campers and seasoned RV enthusiasts, offering a wealth of knowledge on maximizing the RV camping experience while treading lightly on the environment. Inside, readers will find invaluable advice on preparing and maintaining an RV for the journey, selecting the best campsites, and ensuring a safe and enjoyable trip. Detailed sections on handling common RV issues, from mechanical challenges to living space optimization, provide practical solutions to ensure a smooth and trouble-free trip. The book delves into essential topics such as wildlife safety, ethical practices for wildlife observation, and emergency preparedness in the wilderness. It emphasizes sustainable camping practices, underscoring the importance of preserving the natural beauty of national parks for future generations. With a perfect blend of practical tips, safety guidelines, and sustainable practices, 'Escape to Nature' is more than just a travel guide; it's an invitation to embrace the great outdoors responsibly and passionately. It's an essential read for anyone eager to embark on an RV adventure into the heart of nature's most stunning landscapes."

Helen Taylor (Author), Helen Taylor (Narrator)

Audiobook

Monday Rent Boy

"FINALIST FOR THE PARAGRAPHE HUGH MACLENNAN PRIZE FOR FICTION By the author of the award-winning The Ghost Garden, a bravely imagined, deeply empathetic novel of two adolescent boys, bound by friendship and a terrible secret. With love and sex so deeply entwined with betrayal and abuse, how does a boy grow up? Monday Rent Boy begins in Somerset, England, in the mid-1980s, with the winning and heart-warming story of two 13-year-old friends and fellow altar boys, Arthur Barnes and Ernie Castlefrank. Endearing outcasts, they try not to speak of the secret tie that binds them: both boys are routinely preyed on by The Zipper, their nickname for Father Ziperto, the local Catholic priest. Still, they find adventure and release in the mischief they get up to together, as each also tries to survive in other ways. Arthur, a great reader and denier of reality, finds an ally in town bookseller Marina Phillips. Ernie, a gifted mathematician and animal lover, is not so lucky. As he and Arthur age out of the abuse, Ernie notices younger and equally vulnerable boys being recruited. When he tries to blow the whistle, nobody believes him. At 16, he disappears, a loss that almost destroys his best friend but also confirms for Arthur that he was smart to stay silent. Arthur eventually also turns his back on the mystery of Ernie's disappearance, but his bookselling mentor and friend Marina Phillips finds a way to follow Ernie where rage and betrayal has led him-into the darkest corners of the dark web-a search that ultimately helps Arthur reckon with what happened to them both. In the novel's stunning, deeply affecting conclusion, Doherty draws a line directly from the covered-up abuse of children by Catholic priests to the current proliferation of child pornography and predators online-miraculously revealing the true heart of darkness while managing to affirm the light."

Susan Doherty (Author), Helen Taylor, Simon Blake (Narrator)

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Time Squared: A Novel

"A richly atmospheric portrait of women's agency and the timelessness of love, Time Squared explores the enduring roles of rights, responsibility, and devotion throughout history The game will change when you remember who you are Robin and Eleanor meet in 1811 at the British estate of Eleanor's rich aunt Clara. Robin is about to leave to fight in the Napoleonic Wars, and her aunt rules out a marriage between them. Everyone Eleanor knows, including Robin, believe they've always lived in these times. But Eleanor has strange glimpses of other eras, dreams that aren't dreams but memories of other lives. And their time jumps start as their romance deepens. Robin fights in the Boer War, the First and Second World Wars, in Vietnam and Iraq. Meanwhile, Eleanor struggles to figure out what's going on, finally understanding that she and Robin are being manipulated through time. Who is doing this, and why? Arriving in modern times, Eleanor sets off to confront the ones she discovers are behind this - chessmasters playing her like a pawn. Eleanor's goal? To free herself to live out her life on her own terms. Time Squared examines the roles women are forced to play in different centuries, the power they're allowed, the stresses they face - and what this does to their relationships."

Lesley Krueger (Author), Helen Taylor (Narrator)

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Miss Bennet’s Dragon: A Pride and Prejudice Retelling

"FOREWORD INDIES WINNER • ROYAL DRAGONFLY AWARD WINNER “A fantastic fantasy retelling of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice” (The Lily Café) War threatens England, but Elizabeth Bennet’s battles are closer to home. She’s managing the family estate for her ailing father. Insufferable gentlemen keep bursting in to propose marriage. And most dangerous of all, she’s hiding a forbidden skill. Elizabeth can speak to draca, the small, fire-breathing dragons kept by gentry as frivolous status symbols. When Napoleon’s spies attempt to steal draca, the distant war threatens even cozy Hertfordshire. Elizabeth seeks the aid of Mr. Darcy, the proud man whose proposal she once scorned. Amid the breathtaking halls of Pemberley, she discovers the truth: she is not the first woman to speak with draca. But with her secret revealed, the dark history of Pemberley tears her and Mr. Darcy apart. One hope remains: her dangerous affinity to draca. But does she dare to trust legends and lost songs? And when a terrible betrayal threatens the man she loves, does she have a choice? Miss Bennet’s Dragon is the first book in the award-winning Jane Austen Fantasy trilogy. For fans of Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, and of course Jane Austen."

M. Verant (Author), Helen Taylor (Narrator)

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My Fair Guardian

"When Bethany is saddled with an unwanted, unrefined, and decidedly common guardian, she must polish him up before he’s fit for good society. As for Willoughby Winter, all that stands between him and his inheritance is to marry Bethany off. Can he succeed in his efforts before his past becomes known or will she manage to distract him from his goal—by hook or by crook?"

Suzanne G. Rogers (Author), Helen Taylor (Narrator)

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The Enchanted April

"Four very different women, all wanting to escape cold and dreary London for different reasons, come together to share a month's holiday in an Italian medieval castle. There’s timid Lotty Wilkins, terrified of her domineering husband; sober and religious Rose Arbuthnot; rigid and judgemental Mrs Fisher; and the breathtakingly beautiful but disillusioned and unhappy Lady Caroline Dester. They are lured to the castle by the advertised 'wisteria and sunshine', but they end up finding there so much more than they had bargained for. The place transforms them and their lives are unexpectedly changed. Von Arnim's story of their metamorphosis under the Italian sun is warm, witty, intelligent, and as enchanting as the title suggests. - Elizabeth von Arnim (1866–1941), née Mary Annette Beauchamp, was a British novelist. Born in Australia, her family returned to England when she was three years old; and she was Katherine Mansfield’s cousin. She was first married to a Prussian aristocrat, the Graf von Arnim-Schlagenthin, and later to the philosopher Bertrand Russel’s older brother, Frank, whom she left a year later. She then had an affair with the publisher Alexander Reeves, a man thirty years her junior, and with H.G. Wells. Von Arnim moved a lot, living alternatively in the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Germany, Poland, before dying of influenza in South Carolina during the Second War. Elizabeth von Arnim was an active member of the European literary scene, and entertained many of her contemporaries in her Chalet Soleil in Switzerland. She even hired E. M. Forster and Hugh Walpole as tutors for her five children. She is famous for her half-autobiographical, satirical novel 'Elizabeth and her German Garden' (1898), as well as for 'Vera' (1921), and 'The Enchanted April' (1922)."

Elizabeth Von Arnim (Author), Helen Taylor (Narrator)

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The Fortunate Foundlings

"'The Fortunate Foundlings' is a picaresque novel from 1744 featuring twins Horatio and Louisa, whose journey in the world differs because of their gender. They were both abandoned in infancy and adopted, but soon leave their carer to go off on their one. Whilst Louisa must fight to preserve her virtue in a man’s world, her brother joins the army. This is an eighteenth century rollercoaster - action packed, passionate, melodramatic, and at times unashamedly sentimental. - Eliza Haywood (1693– 1756), née Elizabeth Fowler, was a British author, actress and publisher, who was rediscovered in the 1980s. Little is known about the author, who herself left conflicting information about her life, and was extremely secretive about her personal life. She was a prolific author of romances and other novel’s focusing on women’s point of views, status, and rights. Among her most famous works are 'Love in Excess; Or, The Fatal Enquiry' (1720), 'Fantomina; Or Love in a Maze' (1725) and 'The Anti-Pamela; Or Feign’d Innocence Detected' (1741). Haywood is an important figure of 18th century literature."

Eliza Haywood (Author), Helen Taylor (Narrator)

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The Story of the Amulet

"Cyril, Anthea, Robert and Jane are 'the sort of people that wonderful things happen to.' And the children have yet more adventures ahead of them. Following up on 'Five Children and It' and 'The Phoenix and the Carpet', they once again meet the wish-granting Psammead fairy. This time, he guides them to an ancient Amulet that will help them find their hearts' desire, but it is only half an amulet, and the search for the other half will have them whizzing about through time. - Edith Nesbit Bland (1858-1924) was a British author, activist and poet, who published an extensive amount of children’s books under the pen name 'E. Nesbit', which are still widely read today. Amongst her most famous novels are 'The Railway Children,' 'The Story of the Treasure Seekers,' and 'Five Children and It'."

Edith Nesbit (Author), Helen Taylor (Narrator)

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The Psammead Trilogy: Five Children and It, The Phoenix and the Carpet & The Story of the Amulet

"The Psammead Trilogy includes three novels about the five children Cyril, Anthea, Robert, Jane and the Lamb. Five Children and It is a children's novel by English author E. Nesbit. It was originally published in 1902 in the Strand Magazine under the general title The Psammead, or the Gifts, with a segment appearing each month from April to December. The stories were then expanded into a novel which was published the same year. It is the first volume of a trilogy that includes The Phoenix and the Carpet (1904) and The Story of the Amulet (1906). The book has never been out of print since its initial publication. The Phoenix and the Carpet is a fantasy novel for children, written by E. Nesbit and first published in 1904. It is the second in a trilogy of novels that begins with Five Children and It (1902), and follows the adventures of the same five children: Cyril, Anthea, Robert, Jane and the Lamb. Their mother buys the children a new carpet to replace one from the nursery that they have destroyed in an accidental fire. The children find an egg in the carpet, which hatches into a talking Phoenix. The Phoenix explains that the carpet is a magic one that will grant them three wishes a day. The five children go on many adventures, which eventually wears out their magic carpet. The adventures are continued and concluded in the third book of the trilogy, The Story of the Amulet (1906). The Story of the Amulet is a novel for children, written in 1906 by English author E. Nesbit. It is the final part of a trilogy of novels that also includes Five Children and It (1902) and The Phoenix and the Carpet (1904). In it the children re-encounter the Psammead - the 'it' in Five Children and It. As it no longer grants wishes to the children, however, its capacity is mainly advisory in relation to the children's other discovery, the Amulet, thus following a formula successfully established in The Phoenix and the Carpet."

Edith Nesbit (Author), Helen Taylor, James Pyle (Narrator)

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The Woman Behind the Waterfall: A celebration of Ukrainian culture

"Magic and transformation in the beauty of a Ukrainian village For seven-year-old Angela, happiness is exploring the verdant countryside around her home in western Ukraine. Her imagination carries her into the spirits of passing birds, into the breath of the wind, into the leaves of her springtime garden. Everything changes when, one morning, she spies her mother crying. As she tries to find out what lies behind the sadness, she is drawn on an extraordinary journey into the secrets of her family, and her parent’s fateful choices. Can Angela lead her mother back to happiness before her innocence is destroyed by the shadows of a dark past? Beautiful, poetic and richly sensory, this is a tale that will haunt and lift its readers. 'A strange and beautiful novel' - Esther Freud, author of Mr Mac and Me, Hideous Kinky, Peeless Flats 'Readers looking for a classic tale of love and loss will be rewarded with an intoxicating world' - Kirkus Reviews 'Rich and poetic in detail, it is an often dreamy, oneiric narrative rooted in an exaltation of nature... A lovely novel' - IndieReader 'A literary work of art' – Richmond Magazine"

Leonora Meriel (Author), Helen Taylor (Narrator)

Audiobook

Audiobooks Narrated by Helen Taylor