Audiobooks narrated by Karen Cass

Jack and Eve: Two Women In Love and At War

Vera Holme, known as Jack, left a career as a jobbing actress to become Emmeline Pankhurst's chauffeur and mechanic. Evelina Haverfield was a classic beauty, the daughter of a Scottish baron and fourteen years older than Jack. They met in 1909, fell in love, lived together, and became public faces of the suffragette movement, enduring prison and doing everything they could for the cause. The First World War paused the suffragettes' campaign and Jack and Eve enrolled in the Scottish Women's Hospital Service and soon found themselves in Serbia. Eve set up and ran hospitals for allied soldiers in appalling conditions, while Jack became an ambulance driver, travelling along dirt tracks under bombardment to collect the wounded from the front lines. Together, they carved radical new paths, demonstrating that women could do anything men could do, whether driving ambulances, running military hospitals, becoming prisoners of war or bearing arms. They refused to compromise in their sexuality - they were lifelong partners even though Jack enjoyed relationships with other women. Determined to be themselves, 'forthright, flamboyant and proud', Wendy Moore uses their story as a lens through which to view the suffragette movement, the work of women in WWI and the development of lesbian identity throughout the twentieth century.

Wendy Moore (Author), Karen Cass (Narrator)

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That Festive Feeling: the cosiest, most joyful novel you'll read this Christmas

Holly has the place to herself this Christmas. It's not her place, though - she is house-sitting for friends who live on Nightingale Square - just there to keep the place warm and cosy and only for long enough for her to sort her life out. Newly single and finding herself unsure about next steps for her career, she plans to hunker down and make some life decisions. To clear her mind, she sets off on early morning walks around a nearby lake and bumps into May, an older lady who is also new to the area, and her dapper Dachshund Monty. Quickly, a firm friendship blossoms. Then when Holly meets Bear, a rather large and rather attractive man, at the local pub, and his rescue dog Queenie, her stay at Nightingale Square suddenly feels even more appealing. As the community comes together for the season's festivities, Holly must start thinking about where her life will take her next. Some big decisions need to be made, but distractions close to home make thinking about the future more tricky than ever… Will she get that festive feeling this Christmas…? Your favourite authors love Heidi too! 'Grab a hot chocolate and lose yourself in this heart-warming story of romance, community and secrets. The perfect story to read by the fire!' PHILLIPA ASHLEY 'Brimming with warmth and Christmas cheer' SARAH MORGAN

Heidi Swain (Author), Karen Cass (Narrator)

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Coco Chanel: The Legend and the Life

SLEEK. CHIC. NOTORIOUSLY GUARDED. WELCOME TO THE SECRET WORLD OF COCO CHANEL. Justine Picardie’s definitive biography explores the dark mysteries hidden beneath the shimmering surface of a fabled fashion icon. Unveiling remarkable details about Coco Chanel’s traumatic childhood and her flight into unconventional adulthood, this beautifully constructed portrait reveals her passionate and painful past, her turbulent loves and losses, her quest for fame and fortune, and how she transformed herself into her own most powerful creation. Feared and revered by her contemporaries, Chanel died in 1971, but her legacy lives on as an enduring global brand. Drawing on interviews with her last surviving friends and relatives, and unprecedented archival research, Justine Picardie brings Chanel out of hiding, unpicking the seams between reality and myth, and telling a timeless story that uncovers the true art and heart of fashion. This special new edition has been extensively revised and updated, and offers a uniquely authoritative account of the greatest designer in the world. Adding fresh insights and discoveries, it comes complete with a compelling array of previously unseen images from the Chanel archives.

Justine Picardie (Author), Karen Cass (Narrator)

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The Dress Diary of Mrs Anne Sykes: Secrets from a Victorian Woman’s Wardrobe

Brought to you by Penguin. The hidden fabric of a Victorian woman's life - from family and friends to industry and Empire - told through her unique textile scrapbook. In 1838, a young woman was given a diary on her wedding day. Collecting snippets of fabric from a range of garments she carefully annotated each one, creating a unique record of her life and times. Her name was Mrs Anne Sykes. Nearly two hundred years later, the diary fell into the hands of Kate Strasdin, a fashion historian and museum curator. Strasdin spent the next six years unravelling the secrets contained within the album's pages. Piece by piece, she charts Anne's journey from the mills of Lancashire to the port of Singapore before tracing her return to England in later years. Fragments of cloth become windows into Victorian life: pirates in Borneo, the complicated etiquette of mourning, poisonous dyes, the British Empire in full swing, rioting over working conditions and the terrible human cost of Britain's cotton industry. This is life writing that celebrates ordinary people: the hidden figures, the participants in everyday life. Through the evidence of waistcoats, ball gowns and mourning outfits, Strasdin lays bare the whole of human experience in the most intimate of mediums: the clothes we choose to wear. 'An extraordinarily rich record of middle-class Victorian life.. [a] fascinating book' Guardian 'Irresistable' The Times 'The story of a singular woman... Kate Strasdin's forensic detective work has finally let Mrs Sykes - and her book - speak again' JUDITH FLANDERS ©2023 Kate Strasdin (P)2023 Penguin Audio

Kate Strasdin (Author), Karen Cass (Narrator)

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The Book-Lovers' Retreat: the perfect summer getaway

One long summer. One perfect setting. Can fiction inspire real life…? Sometimes a book grabs you by the heart and grows to mean everything to you. That's what Hope Falls is to friends Emily, Rachel and Tori. So, when they get the chance to spend a whole summer at the cottage in Lakeside where the film adaptation was located, they know it is going to be the holiday of a lifetime. Spending six weeks away will give them a chance to re-evaluate their life choices. For Emily to decide which way her career will go - the safe route, or the more risky creative option? And for Rachel to decide whether to move in with her partner Jeremy. Then Tori has to drop out at the last moment, and her space is offered to another Hope Falls afficionado, Alex. But when Alex turns out not to be who they expected, the holiday takes an unforeseen turn. And as the summer develops, so does their friendship. Could this be where they uncover their future selves, find love in all its forms and where their lives will change course forever…? Your favourite authors love Heidi Swain's books: 'A summer delight!' SARAH MORGAN 'A delightfully sunny read with added intrigue and secrets' BELLA OSBORNE 'With heart-warming characters, a gorgeous summer setting, and a great story with secrets aplenty to keep you turning the pages, it's the perfect read to relax and curl up at home with' CAROLINE ROBERTS 'A ray of reading sunshine!' LAURA KEMP 'A lovely, sweet, summery read' MILLY JOHNSON 'An absolutely gorgeous summer tale of love and secrets' RACHAEL LUCAS

Heidi Swain (Author), Karen Cass (Narrator)

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A Christmas Celebration

***The sparkling new Christmas novel from the Sunday Times bestselling author Heidi Swain!*** When Paige turns up unannounced at Wynthorpe Hall, she discovers the place she knew when she was growing up has changed beyond all recognition. She’s only planning to stay for a short time, but is quickly pulled into local life. One night while driving home after delivering library books and shopping to residents she stumbles across an isolated cottage and meets Albert, its elderly and rather grumpy owner. She quickly realises there’s more to Albert than meets the eye and the same can be said for the other man she can’t seem to help running into, handsome but brooding Brodie. All three of them have a secret and a desire to hide away from the world, but with Christmas on the horizon, is that really the best way to celebrate the season? Praise for Underneath the Christmas Tree ‘Heidi Swain is the queen of feel-good fiction, and this Yuletide yarn certainly ticks all our boxes’ New! Magazine ‘A seasonal romance as warm and welcome as a mug of mulled wine’ Woman & Home ‘You’ll want to curl up with a hot choc to read this warm hug of a festive book’ Fabulous Magazine 'The Magical One' Heat, festive fiction picks 'This heartwarming story by Heidi Swain' Hello

Heidi Swain (Author), Karen Cass (Narrator)

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A Bride's Guide to Marriage and Murder: A Countess of Harleigh Mystery, Book 5

Frances Wynn, the American-born Countess of Harleigh, returns in Dianne Freeman's charming, lighthearted mystery series set in Victorian England, and finds her wedding day overshadowed by murder . . . On the eve of her marriage to George Hazelton, Frances has a great deal more on her mind than flowers and seating arrangements. The Connors and the Doyles, two families of American robber barons, have taken up residence in London, and their bitter rivalry is spilling over into the highest social circles. At the request of her brother, Alonzo, who is quite taken with Miss Madeline Connor, Frances has invited the Connor family to her wedding. Meanwhile, Frances's mother has invited Mr. Doyle, and Frances fears the wedding may end up being newspaper-worthy for all the wrong reasons. On the day itself, Frances is relieved to note that Madeline's father is not among the guests assembled at the church. The reason for his absence, however, turns out to be most unfortunate: Mr. Connor is found murdered in his home. More shocking still, Alonzo is caught at the scene, holding the murder weapon. Powerful and ruthless, Connor appears to have amassed a wealth of enemies alongside his fortune. Frances and George agree to put their wedding trip on hold to try and clear Alonzo's name. But there are secrets to sift through, not just in the Doyle and Connor families, but also in their own. And with a killer determined to evade discovery at any cost—even if it means taking another life—Frances's first days as a newlywed will be perilous indeed . .

Dianne Freeman (Author), Karen Cass (Narrator)

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The Bleeding

1899, Belle Époque Paris. Lucienne's two daughters are believed dead when her mansion burns to the ground, but she is certain that her girls are still alive and embarks on a journey into the depths of the spiritualist community to find them. 1949, Post-War Québec. Teenager Lina's father has died in the French Resistance, and as she struggles to fit in at school, her mother introduces her to an elderly woman at the asylum where she works, changing Lina's life in the darkest way imaginable. 2002, Quebec. A former schoolteacher is accused of brutally stabbing her husband - a famous university professor - to death. Detective Maxine Grant,who has recently lost her own husband and is parenting a teenager and a new baby single-handedly, takes on the investigation. Under enormous personal pressure, Maxine makes a series of macabre discoveries that link directly to historical cases involving black magic and murder, secret societies and spiritism. . .and women at breaking point, who will stop at nothing to protect the ones they love. . .

Johana Gustawsson (Author), Jessica Preddy, Karen Cass, Stephanie Cannon (Narrator)

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The Ultimate Horror Collection: 60+ Novels and Stories from Lovecraft; Poe; Stoker; James; Shelley,

The Ultimate Horror Collection is a fully-indexed collection of over 60 classic horror stories, read by four Audie-winning narrators. Included here are stories by H.P. Lovecraft; Edgar Allan Poe; M.R. James; Oscar Wilde; Joseph Le Fanu; Bram Stoker; Mary Shelley; Robert Louis Stevenson; and Henry James. - The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde - Carmilla, Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu - Frankenstein, Mary Shelley - Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Robert Louis Stevenson - The Turn of the Screw, Henry James - Dracula, Bram Stoker - x12 H.P. Lovecraft stories - The Colour Out of Space; The Dunwich Horror; The Whisperer in the Darkness; The Haunter of the Dark; Call of Cthulhu; The Rats in the Walls; From Beyond; Dagon; At the Mountains of Madness; In the Vault; The Shadow Over Innsmouth; The Dreams in the Witch House - x14 M.R. James stories - Canon Alberics Scrapbook; Lost Hearts; The Mezzotint; The Ash-tree; Number 13; Casting the Runes; Count Magnus; Oh Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad; A Warning to the Curious; A View From a Hill; A Neighbour's Landmark; The Uncommon Prayer-Book; Wailing Well; The Fenstanton Witch - x30 Edgar Allan Poe stories and poems - A Descent into The Maelstrom; A Tale of Jerusalem; A Tale of the Ragged Mountain; Eleonora; The Black Cat; The Cask of Amontillado; The Fall of the House of Usher; The Gold Bug; The Hop Frog; The Masque of Red Death; The Murders in Rue Morgue; The Mystery of Marie Roget; The Oblong Box; The Oval Portrait; The Pit and the Pendulum; The Purloined Letter; The Tell-Tale Heart; The Raven; To Helen; Ulalume; A Dream Within a Dream; Annabel Lee; The Haunted Palace; Alone; Dream Land; Eldorado; The City in the Sea; The Bells; A Valentine; A Sonnet to Science

Bram Stoker, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (Author), Jonathan Keeble, Karen Cass, Malk Williams, Peter Noble (Narrator)

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Hitler's Girl: The British Aristocracy and the Third Reich on the Eve of WWII

A timely, riveting book that presents for the first time an alternative history of 1930s Britain, revealing how prominent fascist sympathizers nearly succeeded in overturning British democracy—using the past as a road map to navigate the complexities of today’s turn toward authoritarianism. Hitler’s Girl is a groundbreaking history that reveals how, in the 1930s, authoritarianism nearly took hold in Great Britain as it did in Italy and Germany. Drawing on recently declassified intelligence files, Lauren Young details the pervasiveness of Nazi sympathies among the British aristocracy, as significant factions of the upper class methodically pursued an actively pro-German agenda. She reveals how these aristocrats formed a murky Fifth Column to Nazi Germany, which depended on the complacence and complicity of the English to topple its proud and long-standing democratic tradition—and very nearly succeeded. As she highlights the parallels to our similarly treacherous time, Young exposes the involvement of secret organizations like the Right Club, which counted the Duke of Wellington among its influential members; the Cliveden Set, which ran a shadow foreign policy in support of Hitler; and the shocking four-year affair between socialite Unity Mitford and Adolf Hitler. Eye-opening and instructive, Hitler’s Girl re-evaluates 1930s England to help us understand our own vulnerabilities and poses urgent questions we must face to protect our freedom. At what point does complacency become complicity, posing real risk to the democratic norms that we take for granted? Will democracy again succeed—and will it require a similarly cataclysmic event like World War II to ensure its survival? Will we, in our own defining moment, stand up for democratic values—or will we succumb to political extremism? Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.

Lauren Young (Author), Karen Cass (Narrator)

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The Falcon's Eyes: A Novel

“Stanfill has persuasively re-imagined the Middle Ages, surrounding the legendary Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine with indelible characters in an immersive tale of intrigue, bravery, ruthlessness, and compassion. . . . The Falcon’s Eyes is a dazzling adventure, with riveting twists and turns and a surprising yet deeply satisfying conclusion.'—Sally Bedell Smith, author of Elizabeth the Queen Set in France and England at the end of the twelfth century, the moving story of a spirited, questing young woman, Isabelle, who defies convention to forge a remarkable life, one profoundly influenced by the fabled queen she idolizes and comes to know – Eleanor of Aquitaine Willful and outspoken, sixteen-year-old Isabelle yearns to escape her stifling life in provincial twelfth century France. The bane of her mother’s existence, she admires the notorious queen most in her circle abhor: Eleanor of Aquitaine. Isabelle’s arranged marriage to Gerard a rich, charismatic lord obsessed with falcons seems, at first, to fulfill her longing for adventure. But as Gerard’s controlling nature, and his consuming desire for a male heir, become more apparent, Isabelle, in the spirit of her royal heroine, makes bold, often perilous, decisions which will forever affect her fate. A suspenseful, sweeping tale about marriage, freedom, identity, and motherhood, The Falcon's Eyes brings alive not only a brilliant century and the legendary queen who dominated it, but also the vivid band of complex characters whom the heroine encounters on her journey to selfhood: noblewomen, nuns, servants, falconers, and courtiers. The various settings — Château Ravinour, Fontevraud Abbey, and Queen Eleanor’s exiled court in England — are depicted as memorably as those who inhabit them. The story pulses forward as Isabelle confronts one challenge, one danger, after another, until it hurtles to its final, enthralling, page. With the historical understanding of Hillary Mantel and the storytelling gifts of Ken Follett, Francesca Stanfill has created an unforgettable character who, while firmly rooted in her era, is also a woman for all times. Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.

Francesca Stanfill (Author), Karen Cass (Narrator)

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Carmilla

In an isolated castle deep in the Austrian forest, Laura leads a solitary life with only her ailing father for company. Until one moonlit night, a horse-drawn carriage crashes into view, carrying an unexpected guest – the beautiful Carmilla. So begins a feverish friendship between Laura and her mysterious, entrancing companion. But as Carmilla becomes increasingly strange and volatile, prone to eerie nocturnal wanderings, Laura finds herself tormented by nightmares and growing weaker by the day. Pre-dating Dracula by twenty-six years, Carmilla is the original vampire story, steeped in sexual tension and gothic romance.

Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu (Author), Karen Cass (Narrator)

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Audiobooks Narrated by Karen Cass