Audiobooks narrated by Olivia Dowd

'Highly recommended - an engrossing story with a charmingly forthright heroine' Anna Jacobs 'It's a real page-turner with a spirited heroine who will worm her way into readers' hearts. A sparkling new voice in fiction' Veronica Henry Even in wartime the customer comes first at Marlow's department store. It's 1941 and young Lily Collins is starting work in Midlands department store Marlow's, whose gleaming facade has fascinated her since childhood. As the air raid sirens blare, Lily learns the ropes from her sophisticated boss Miss Frobisher alongside shy fellow junior Gladys. But her burgeoning friendship with young salesman Jim draws her into a swirl of secrets within the store. And with the war progressing to crisis point, Cedric Marlow and his staff must battle nightly bombings and the absence of loved ones to keep going. From a former writer of The Archers comes a novel that weaves together a powerful sense of community and a vivid evocation of a time when every man, woman and child was doing their bit.

Joanna Toye (Author), Olivia Dowd (Narrator)

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At First Sight

Two strangers. Two chance meetings. One extraordinary love story… Nell and Charlie feel a spark when they meet by chance in a cafe. But they don’t trade numbers, or surnames, so there’s no way they’ll meet again. But the next day, Nell’s phone rings at work. Somehow, impossibly, Charlie is on the other end. And he needs her help. Nell is about to save a life, fall in love … and risk everything for a perfect stranger. Tender, thought-provoking and joyful, Charlie and Nell’s unique love story will capture your heart and give you hope. Perfect for fans of The Sight of You by Holly Miller and Love Rosie by Cecelia Ahern. ‘I was utterly drawn into Charlie and Nell’s story and found myself shedding a tear one minute and laughing the next’ Emma Cooper, author of If I Could Say Goodbye ‘A glorious and unique love story, bursting with hope, that will break your heart then put it back together again’ Nicola Gill, author of The Neighbours ‘Wonderful and joyous’ ***** Reader Review ‘Brilliantly written and I think this will stay with me for a long time’ ***** Reader Review Praise for Hannah Sunderland: ‘Delightfully romantic’ Isabelle Broom, author of Hello, Again ‘A compelling, quirky love story’ Miranda Dickinson, author of Our Story ‘An unconventional romance – real and raw’ Anna Bell, author of We Just Clicked

Hannah Sunderland (Author), Olivia Dowd (Narrator)

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Critical Incidents

Who can you trust when your world goes up in flames? 'Seriously good suspense ... trust me, you'll need to know what happens' Lee Child 'Superb characterisation, humour and galloping plot' Susie Steiner 'This is that deeply satisfying thing, a strong, deft thriller with real depth' Tana French Detective Inspector Robin Lyons is going home. Dismissed for misconduct from the Met's Homicide Command after refusing to follow orders, unable to pay her bills (or hold down a relationship), she has no choice but to take her teenage daughter Lennie and move back in with her parents in the city she thought she'd escaped forever at 18. In Birmingham, sharing a bunkbed with Lennie and navigating the stormy relationship with her mother, Robin works as a benefit-fraud investigator - to the delight of those wanting to see her cut down to size. Only Corinna, her best friend of 20 years seems happy to have Robin back. But when Corinna's family is engulfed by violence and her missing husband becomes a murder suspect, Robin can't bear to stand idly by as the police investigate. Can she trust them to find the truth of what happened? And why does it bother her so much that the officer in charge is her ex-boyfriend - the love of her teenage life? As Robin launches her own unofficial investigation and realises there may be a link to the disappearance of a young woman, she starts to wonder how well we can really know the people we love - and how far any of us will go to protect our own.

Lucie Whitehouse (Author), Olivia Dowd (Narrator)

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Evil in Emerald

Craving a change of pace, Harriet Gordon, joins a local musical theatre production but when a fellow cast member is brutally killed, Harriet and Inspector Curran must turn the spotlight on murder in this all-new mystery from the author of Revenge in Rubies. Between working at her brother's school and typing up Inspector Robert Curran's police reports, Harriet Gordon has little time for personal pursuits and she has been enjoying the rehearsals for her role in the Singapore Amateur Dramatic and Musical Society's latest production - Pirates of Penzance. But Harriet quickly discovers tensions run deep within the theatre company and when the leading man is found murdered, suspicions abound, exposing scandalous behavior as well as some insidious crimes. Inspector Curran once again turns to Harriet for help with this difficult case, but his own life begins to unravel as a mysterious man turns up on his doorstep claiming to know more about Curran's painful past than he himself does. And after the one person he has always counted on delivers him some devastating news, the line between his personal and professional life begins to blur. Now, more than ever, Curran needs Harriet's steadfast assistance, and when another cast member meets a violent end, Curran and Harriet will have to close in on a killer determined to make this case their final curtain call.

A. M. Stuart, A.M. Stuart (Author), Olivia Dowd (Narrator)

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Feminism Is...

'Why are so many women - and men - nervous about calling themselves a feminist? ... It's a hopeful term... it means you believe in human rights, after all.' - Gemma Cairney, foreword What is feminism? This indispensable book for young adults answers this important question with clarity, urgency, and conviction. Feminism is... tackles more than 50 intriguing and relevant topics, such as 'Are all people equal?', 'Do boys and girls learn the same things?' and 'Can men be feminists?' Find out what equality for women really means, get a short history of feminism, and take a look at the issues that affect women at work, in the home, and around sex and identity. Along the way you will learn about some great women, such as Gloria Steinem, Frida Kahlo, and Malala Yousafzai, 'rebel girls' who refused to accept the status quo of their day and blazed a trail for others to follow. In the foreword, you will also meet Gemma Cairney, the multi-award-winning broadcaster, author, and activist. Narrated by Olivia Dowd - the first woman to play Macbeth on stage in the West End - this is a lively and accessible audiobook for teens on the history, pioneers, and the daily reality of feminism today, Feminism is... is empowering, engaging, and vital reading. 'A terrific book' - Dermot O'Leary on BBC Radio 2

Dk (Author), Olivia Dowd (Narrator)

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Genius and Ink: Virginia Woolf on How to Read

FOREWORD BY ALI SMITH WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY FRANCESCA WADE Who better to serve as a guide to great books and their authors than Virginia Woolf? In the early years of its existence, the Times Literary Supplement published some of the finest writers in English: T. S. Eliot, Henry James and E. M. Forster among them. But one of the paper's defining voices was Virginia Woolf, who produced a string of superb essays between the two World Wars. The weirdness of Elizabethan plays, the pleasure of revisiting favourite novels, the supreme examples of Charlotte Brontë, George Eliot and Henry James, Thomas Hardy and Joseph Conrad: all are here, in anonymously published pieces, in which may be glimpsed the thinking behind Woolf's works of fiction and the enquiring, feminist spirit of A Room of One's Own. Here is Woolf the critical essayist, offering, at one moment, a playful hypothesis and, at another, a judgement laid down with the authority of a twentieth-century Dr Johnson. Here is Woolf working out precisely what's great about Hardy, and how Elizabeth Barrett Browning made books a "substitute for living" because she was "forbidden to scamper on the grass". Above all, here is Virginia Woolf the reader, whose enthusiasm for great literature remains palpable and inspirational today.

Virginia Woolf (Author), Olivia Dowd (Narrator)

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Impossible

This isn’t a love story. This is . . . ‘The book we all need right now’ SARAH PINBOROUGH ‘Warm, funny, thrilling’ EMMA GANNON ‘Unputdownable’ JENNIFER SAINT ‘Holy s***’ GILLIAN MCALLISTER ‘Breathtakingly good’ JOSIE SILVER Discover the book with the IMPOSSIBLE twist – read it to believe it … Nick: Failed writer. Failed husband. Dog owner. Bee: Serial dater. Dress maker. Pringles enthusiast. One day, their paths cross over a misdirected email. The connection is instant, electric. They feel like they’ve known each other all their lives. Nick buys a new suit, gets on a train. Bee steps away from her desk, sets off to meet him under the clock at Euston station. Think you know how the rest of the story goes? They did too . . . But this is a story with more twists than most. This is Impossible. *JOIN THE OBSESSION NOW* Everyone is falling for IMPOSSIBLE: ‘Holy s***. This book. The zingy dialogue, the romance, the suspense. I loved everything about it’ Gillian McAllister ‘I feel the same way for this book as I did when I first read One Day. It's going to be a classic’ Emma Gannon ‘I was swept away by Bee and Nick’s impossible love story . . . utterly hooked from the start’ Jennifer Saint ‘I am BAWLING. Bawling. An actual masterpiece. There will not be a book I love more in 2022’ Anstey Harris ‘A ripping clever story with so much damn heart. I loved it’ Lauren Beukes ‘Electrifying and alluring all the way to the heartbreakingly epic denouement – this story is impossible to put down’ Netgalley reviewer ‘Wow. Just. Wow’ Netgalley reviewer ‘I devoured this book in 24 hours. It was funny, intriguing, painful, joyful and heartbreaking in equal measures’ Netgalley reviewer ‘A book of absolute genuine beauty – the storyline, the characters and the writing. Absolutely mesmerising with some real twists and turns to keep the reader on their toes’ Netgalley reviewer

Sarah Lotz (Author), Clifford Samuel, Olivia Dowd, Paul Tyreman (Narrator)

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John Stonehouse, My Father: The True Story of the Runaway MP

The true story of the MP who faked his own death, by his daughter On 20 November 1974, British Labour MP and Privy Counsellor John Stonehouse faked his death in Miami and, using a forged identity, entered Australia hoping to escape his old life and start anew. One month later his identity was uncovered and he was cautioned; the start of years of legal proceedings. In a tale that involves spies from the communist Czechoslovak secret service, a three-way love affair and the Old Bailey, John's daughter examines previously unseen evidence, telling the dramatic true story for the first time, disputing allegations and upturning common misconceptions which are still in circulation. The story was never far from the front pages of the press in the mid-70s, and yet so much of the truth is still unknown. A close look at the political dynamics of the time; paced like a thriller, it's time for the world to know the real John Stonehouse.

Julia Stonehouse (Author), Olivia Dowd (Narrator)

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Liquid Crystal Nightingale

Go deeper, they said. Look closer. Pleo Tanza is a survivor. Her father was broken by tragedy, her twin sister is dead-chewed up and spat out by the corruption and injustice of Chatoyance-but she's going to make it, whatever it takes. She's going to get off this rock. But escape is for the rich or lucky. Pleo's framed for the murder of a rival student-the daughter of one of the colony's wealthy, squabbling clans-and goes on the run, setting off a chain events that could destroy the fragile balance of the old colony forever... (P) Penguin Audio and Rebellion Publishing 2020

Eeleen Lee (Author), Olivia Dowd (Narrator)

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Mantel Pieces: Royal Bodies and Other Writing from the London Review of Books

A stunning collection of essays and memoir from twice Booker Prize winner and international bestseller Hilary Mantel, author of The Mirror and the Light In 1987, when Hilary Mantel was first published in the London Review of Books, she wrote to the editor, Karl Miller, ‘I have no critical training whatsoever, so I am forced to be more brisk and breezy than scholarly.’ This collection of twenty reviews, essays and pieces of memoir from the next three decades, tells the story of what happened next. Her subjects range far and wide: Robespierre and Danton, the Hite report, Saudi Arabia where she lived for four years in the 1980s, the Bulger case, John Osborne, the Virgin Mary as well as the pop icon Madonna, a brilliant examination of Helen Duncan, Britain’s last witch. There are essays about Jane Boleyn, Charles Brandon, Christopher Marlowe and Margaret Pole, which display the astonishing insight into the Tudor mind we are familiar with from the bestselling Wolf Hall Trilogy. Her famous lecture, ‘Royal Bodies’, which caused a media frenzy, explores the place of royal women in society and our imagination. Here too are some of her LRB diaries, including her first meeting with her stepfather and a confrontation with a circus strongman. Constantly illuminating, always penetrating and often very funny, interleaved with letters and other ephemera gathered from the archive, Mantel Pieces is an irresistible selection from one of our greatest living writers.

Hilary Mantel (Author), Hilary Mantel - Introduction, Olivia Dowd (Narrator)

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Mindfulness: An Easy-to-Understand Approach to Mindfulness and How It Works

An easy-to-understand approach to mindfulness and how it works with simple techniques for focusing on your mind, body and emotions with meditation methods to help deepen your mindfulness practice, narrated by Olivia Dowd. 'Over the last 25 years, the practice of mindfulness has been shown to be very beneficial to all kinds of people, for all kinds of reasons. Mindfulness has been shown to improve cardiovascular health, increase rates of healing, decrease reported pain levels, and improve immune response. There is evidence it can decrease anxiety and stress, provide a way to cope with depression, increase levels of satisfaction with relationships and work situations, and help people change problematic behaviours.' Mindfulness is consciously paying attention to your present experience with a receptive attitude, in order to perceive things more clearly. Mindfulness enables people to get more in touch with the truth of their lives and make more beneficial choices. When people cultivate mindfulness, they experience important physical and emotional benefits. In Idiot's Guides: Mindfulness - An Easy-to-Understand Approach to Mindfulness and How It Works, listeners get: - A clear explanation of how mindfulness works and how to practice it in daily life - Steps for opening oneself up to the experience of mindfulness - Guidance on paying attention to one's body, emotions, and thoughts, and how to overcome the distractions that get in the way - Instructions for the top mindfulness meditation methods to help deepen mindfulness - Ways to use mindfulness to help alleviate anxiety, depression, compulsive behaviours, addiction, and trauma - Help with using mindfulness to repair and improve relationships with others, connect with children, and find meaning in life © 2014 Domyo Sater Burk © 2019 DK Audio

Domyo Sater Burk (Author), Olivia Dowd (Narrator)

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Mummy's Boy

No one can love a son like his mother... A psychological thriller from debut author J A Andrew for fans of T.M. Logan, My Lovely Wife and K.L. Slater. Patricia Mullner is trapped in a nightmare no parent should ever experience. Three years ago, her 17-year-old son Andrew vanished without a trace. There was no note, no goodbye and no body has ever been found. Now her days are spent in a fog of heartache and alcohol. But Patricia is more than just a grieving mother. As Andrew's disappearance starts to unravel the perfect family she's built with her husband, it seems that the actions of her past may be back to haunt her. Because someone is watching from the shadows - someone who knows exactly what Patricia is hiding. Someone who will stop at nothing to take revenge - and might just hold the key to Andrew's disappearance... - JA Andrews is the author of gripping twisty psychological thrillers, Mummy's Boy (2020) and You Let Him In (2020). As well as writing fiction, JA Andrews enjoys reading a mix of genres, watching various reality TV and spending time with family and friends. He is a member of the Crime Writers Association.

J A Andrews (Author), Charlotte Worthing, Oliver Hembrough, Olivia Dowd, Tom Allenby (Narrator)

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Audiobooks Narrated by Olivia Dowd