Showing results by narrator "Corrie James" in All Categories

At the outbreak of the Cultural Revolution, 13-year-old Nanchu watched Red Guards burst into her home and arrest her parents, whom they tortured and jailed. She was left to fend for herself and her younger brother on the streets of Shanghai, enduring poverty and near-starvation. As she grew older she herself became a Red Guard and was sent down to the largest work camp in China. There she faced primitive conditions, predatory officials, a viper's nest of party jealousies, and near-fatal injury before she finally won admittance to Madame Mao's university in Shanghai.

Ronan Sutherland is a fierce warrior. Swearing off all else, he thrives on his powerful position within William Wallace's army. Freedom for the Scots is his mission - until he meets fair Julianna. She captivates him, intoxicates him...makes him want more out of life than the harsh dangers he's accustomed to. Lady Julianna is no meek maiden. She's trained in the art of war, sister to one of Scotland's most powerful men, and tasked with keeping the future king safe. Until she's kidnapped by a rivaling clan. Now her only hope is for the one man she trusts - and desires - to save her.

A Black porter publicly whips a White English gentleman in a Gloucestershire manor house. A heavily pregnant African woman is abandoned on an Indonesian island by Sir Francis Drake. A Mauritanian diver is dispatched to salvage lost treasures from the Mary Rose.... Miranda Kaufmann reveals the absorbing stories of some of the Africans who lived free in Tudor England.

While 1858 in London may have been noteworthy for its broiling summer months and the related stench of the sewage-filled Thames River, the year is otherwise little remembered. And yet, historian Rosemary Ashton reveals in this compelling microhistory, 1858 was marked by significant, if unrecognized, turning points. For ordinary people, and also for the rich, famous, and powerful, the months from May to August turned out to be a summer of consequence.

Highland warrior Blane Sutherland has one mission: disguise himself as an Englishman, cross the border, and retrieve Lady Aliah de Mowbray. Always up for a challenge, he agrees, pursuing his conquest with vigor - and trying to deny the powerful desire that eclipses him each time he touches his charge. A rogue of the highest order and a younger son, he has nothing to offer a lady but a broken heart.

Laird Daniel Murray seeks adventure, battle, and freedom for his countrymen. Putting off his duties as laird - with a promise to his clan he'll return come spring - Daniel sets off with his men to fight alongside William Wallace and the Bruce. But soon he stumbles upon an enchanting lady in need. She tantalizes him with an offer he simply can't refuse and a desire he attempts to dismiss. Escaping near death at the treacherous hands of a nearby clan, Lady Myra must find the Bruce and relay the news of an enemy within his own camp.

Knowing she was seen as a threat to the queen she served, Lady Katherine Grey, legitimate heir to the throne, longs only for the comfort of a loving marriage and a quiet life far from the intrigue of the Tudor court. After seeing her sister become the pawn of their parents and others seeking royal power and then lose their lives for it, she is determined to avoid the vicious struggles over power and religion that dominate Queen Elizabeth's court. Until she finds love - then Kat is willing to risk it all, even life in prison.

Lady Anne Seymour knows that her family hangs by a thread. If her sister-in-law Jane Seymour cannot give the King a son, she will be executed or set aside, and her family with her. Anne throws herself into the deadly and intoxicating intrigue of the Tudor court, determined to pay any price to see the new queen's marriage succeed and the Seymour family elevated to supreme power. But Anne's machinations will earn her a reputation as a viper, and she must decide if her family's rise is worth the loss of her own soul.

Eclipses: What Everyone Needs to Know helps explain the profound differences between a 99.99 percent partial eclipse and true totality, and inform listeners how to experience this most beautiful natural phenomenon successfully. It covers eclipses of sun, moon, and other astronomical objects, and their applications in science, as well as their role in history, literature, and myth. It describes the phenomena to expect at a solar eclipse and the best ways to record them - by camera, video, or by simple handmade experiments.

In London during the interwar years, five women's lives intertwined around one address. Mecklenburgh Square, on the radical fringes of Bloomsbury, was home to activists, experimenters and revolutionaries; among them were the modernist poet H. D., detective novelist Dorothy L. Sayers, classicist Jane Harrison, economic historian Eileen Power, and author and publisher Virginia Woolf.

Ceana Montgomery had notions of marrying for love after her first disastrous marriage ended in widowhood. But now Robert the Bruce has ordered her to marry a stranger, securing a strong alliance and ending a decades-old feud. Already used as a pawn once in marriage, she is devastated that she will once more have to give up her happiness in order to please the edicts of men. And while the braw warrior standing before her might incite feelings inside her she thought long since buried, desire is a far cry from love.

Gabriel Travis – a poet and book binder – has lived and worked above the popular bookshop in Chipping Common for many years. His story is tragic, his murder even more so. The police are convinced the bookshop owner is the culprit; the elderly and erudite, Ezekiel Melnyk.

Lady Clara de Montfort begrudgingly attends the tournament at her mother and uncle's insistence, to meet the Scottish warrior she's being forced to marry. But Clara has a plan—she's got one week to change Baston Ross's mind and free herself from an unwanted marriage.

Born into poverty and raised in a brothel, Nell Gwynne sells oranges in the pit at London's King's Theater, newly reopened after the plague and the Great Fire devastated the city. Soon, her quick sense of humor and natural charm get her noticed by those who have the means to make her life easier. But the street-smart Nell knows a woman doesn't get ahead by selling her body. Through talent, charm, intelligence, and sheer determination, Nell works her way out of the pit and onto the stage to become the leading comedic actress of the day.

Rome, 1520. The Eternal City is in mourning. Raphael Sanzio, beloved painter and national hero, has died suddenly at the height of his fame. His body lies in state at the Pantheon. At the nearby convent of Sant'Apollonia, a young woman comes to the Mother Superior, seeking refuge. She is Margherita Luti, a baker's daughter from a humble neighborhood on the Tiber, now an outcast from Roman society, persecuted by enemies within the Vatican. Margherita was Raphael's beloved and appeared as the Madonna in many of his paintings. But now that Raphael is gone, the convent is her only hope.

While Jemma continues to search for her missing husband, the citizens of historic York are shocked by a series of vicious crimes at the city's two museums. A bungled break-in at the Yorkshire Museum is quickly followed by the brutal murder of Lance Richards, a sub-curator at the neighboring Castle Museum. The main suspect is Anthony Gill, a quiet and unprepossessing clerk. But Gill doesn't have an alibi and is uncooperative with the police. His desperate lawyer hires Jemma and Bobbie from Smoke & Cracked Mirrors to prove his innocence.

Drawn to a life of excitement and risk, Lady Millie Aldon made a pact to forsake marriage. But her plans are thrown into chaos when Chase Wentworth returns to town. The lanky lad she remembers from childhood is now the Marquess of Chaselton, possessing an air of mystery Millie can't resist. As Chase moves through London's elite circles, his stealth manner has Millie convinced he harbors a secret-one she is determined to reveal. As Millie makes a game of observing Chase's every move, she finds her attraction to him unsettling.

Lady Aimee Wentworth is desperate and willing to do anything to recapture the stormy and passionate moment she and Reece Hamilton shared. For years, she has loved her brother's best friend, the untitled second son of a lord. But now that Reece has noticed her, she has a new hurdle to overcome - her dreaded status as a lady. Aimee refuses to accept Reece's decree for her to find a nobleman fitting her rank and is willing to do anything - including tricking her best friends, stowing away on Reece's ship, and facing his rage - to make him her very own.

Miss Busby helped Major Heathcliff Lennox solve a series of murders at Bloxford in the Cotswolds. Now, she finds herself drawn into a new murder, but this time, it's just her, and she must rely on her sharp mind and sharper wits to catch a Cotswolds killer, along with a handsome police inspector and a reporter who's keen to make her mark.

The Wars of the Roses didn't start on the battlefield: Blood Roses traces it back to the beginning. Starting in 1245 with the founding of the House of Lancaster, Kathryn Warner follows a twisted path of political intrigue, bloody war, and fascinating characters over 200 years. From the Barons' Wars to the overthrowing of Edward II, Eleanor of Castile to Isabella of France, and true love to Loveday, Blood Roses reframes some of the biggest events of the medieval era—not as stand-alone conflicts, but as part of a long-running family feud that would have drastic consequences.