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Lucy was born to a single mother who had been abused and neglected for most of her own childhood. Right from the beginning Lucy’s mother couldn’t cope, but it wasn’t until Lucy reached eight years old that she was finally taken into permanent foster care.

By the time Lucy is brought to live with Cathy she is eleven years old and severely distressed after being moved from one foster home to another. Withdrawn, refusing to eat and three years behind in her schooling, it is thought that the damage Lucy has suffered is irreversible.

But Cathy and her two children bond with Lucy quickly, and break through to Lucy in a way no-one else has been able to, finally showing her the loving home she never believed existed. Cathy and Lucy believe they were always destined to be mother and daughter – it just took them a little while to find each other.

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Will You Love Me? by Cathy Glass, read by Danica Fairman

Swizzle your ears for some of the finest, most fantastic first words every written, spoken and dreamt. Stay tuned for more extracts from Roald Dahl’s best loved children’s stories and if you like what you hear then visit the Apple App. Store to download the Audiobooks App for free!



Roald Dahl: Danny The Champion Of The World ready by Peter Serafinowicz

The latest title from the internationally bestselling author and foster carer Cathy Glass.

Beth is a sweet-natured child who appears to have been well looked after. But it isn’t long before Cathy begins to have concerns that the relationship between Beth and her father is not as it should be. 

 Little Beth, aged 7, has been brought up by her father Derek after her mother left when she was a toddler. When Derek is suddenly admitted to hospital with psychiatric problems Beth is taken into care and arrives at Cathy’s.

Beth and her father clearly love each other very much and Derek spoils his daughter, treating her like a princess, but there is something bothering Cathy, something she can’t quite put her finger on.

Meanwhile Cathy’s husband is working away a lot and coming home less at weekends. Then, suddenly, everything changes. Events take a dramatic turn for both Beth and Cathy and her family; as Cathy strives to pick up the pieces all their lives are changed forever.

Daddy’s Little Princess, By Cathy Glass, Read by Denica Fairman

An extract from the audiobook edition of Charles Dickens's celebrated classic, David Copperfield, available as an abridged downloadable audiobook read by Nathaniel Parker.

About the book:
Humorous, dramatic, ironic and tender, David Copperfield has always been one of Dickens's most popular novels. From his boyhood at the knee of his nurse Peggotty, to the cruelties of Salem House Academy and his youthful adoration of Dora Splendow, David begins to learn about life, the world, and the heart. His path to maturity is filled with memorable characters, such as the Micawbers, Uriah Heep, Steerforth and many more. Told as 'autobiography', David Copperfield draws deeply on Dickens's own life and was his own 'favourite child' among his books.

This audio book is available to download from Audible.co.uk and iTunes UK now. 

Dickens: David Copperfield (Audiobook Extract), read by Nathaniel Parker

The audiobook The Passage of Venus is the first in the City of Conspiracy trilogy.  The novel is set in London and the story centres around Adamson Sherlock Delgado, a citizen journalist who investigates his friend TJ's murder only to find that TJ was on the verge of exposing an elite conspiracy to install a new Messiah after a terrorist event at the London Olympics.  Sherlock is forced to team up with Karla Granville, London's first independent Mayor, who is being blackmailed by the same conspirators.  This unlikely pair are London's last line of defence against catastrophe.
For more information got to http://www.cityofconspiracy.com



City of Conspiracy: The Passage of Venus Chapter 1

City of Bones audiobook excerpt by Cassandra Clare, narrated by Ari Graynor.

City of Bones Audio Excerpt by Cassandra Clare

City of Glass audiobook excerpt by Cassandra Clare, narrated by Natalie Moore.

City of Glass Audio Excerpt by Cassandra Clare

A radio reading of Winnie The Pooh.

I don't know who or what radio station commissioned this. It's been a cassette tape in the family for a long time. (20+ years).

Chapter 1 - In Which We Are Introduced to Winnie-the-Pooh and Some Bees and the Stories Begin

Chapter 2 - In Which Pooh Goes Visiting and Gets Into a Tight Place

Chapter 3 - In Which Pooh and Piglet Go Hunting and Nearly Catch a Woozle

Chapter 4 - In Which Eeyore Loses a Tail and Pooh Finds One

Chapter 5 - In Which Piglet Meets a Heffalump

Rebecca asks: "How do I apply your methods to something that I'm less than excited about, but really need to know? Like accounting, finance, marketing..."

http://first20hours.com 
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SpeakerText Transcript of the Track:
Rebecca asks, "How do I apply your methods to something that I'm less than excited about but really need to know like accounting, finance, marketing, etc." Good question. In general, your brain learns best what you're interested in most. And so it's in your best interest if you're really excited about something those are naturally going to be the things you pick up most quickly but life often doesn't allow us, for a variety of reasons, to just focus on the things that we may be super jazzed about learning at a certain point in time. 

So in cases where you're learning something, less for intrinsic reasons because you're super interested in it, and more for instrumental reasons because you want to do something cool with it, it's important to hook into that 'something cool' that you're going to get out of it when you're done. So I would ask, "Why are you interested?" or "Why do you feel like you need to know accounting or finance or marketing?" 

What is it that you're going to get out of that? Is it getting better at your job so you can get a raise or get a promotion? Or you're able to start your own business? Or you're able to make a new product and sell it successfully? What's the draw? What's in it for you? If you're able to really clearly define what it is that you get out of the learning process, that can be tremendously exciting in and of itself. So I'm super interested in all things business but I find things like accounting and bookkeeping and statistical analysis not the most interesting things in the world. But oh my gosh, the cool things you can pull off when you know those skills or you're able to use them in a context to get a really cool result, that's exciting. Right. So, it's really important, if you don't have some intrinsic desire to learn something, focus on the instrumental desire. 

What is it that you get out of it? And as long as you're excited about that outcome you can use that to make the learning process for pretty much anything drastically easier. Hope this helps. 


<a href="http://speakertext.com/videos/4277767">Review Transcript and Additional Download Options</a>
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FIRST 20 HOURS - What about skills I'm not excited to learn?

Vo asks: "Wing Chun (a martial art) has so many forms it's difficult to indentify the most critical sub-skills. How do you know which parts are most important?"

http://first20hours.com 
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SpeakerText Transcript of the Track:
Bo says, Wing Chun, which is a martial art, has so many forms it's difficult to identify the most critical sub skills. How do you know which parts are the most important? This is actually a really good question and I would highly recommend talking to an instructor, somebody who's been practising for a long time, and working with them to identify what are the types of movements. So, not necessarily the forms, but what are the types of movements that you do over and over and over again. 

Sometimes you can get an idea of doing this through books. So you look at different compilations of the forms that exist and try to find common elements that you need to practice. So, for example, one thing that I have passing familiarity with is Aikido. And one of the things that you learn very quickly or very early on in Aikido is how to fall. 

How to practice with somebody else in a safe way, and if somebody else throws you, how to fall in a way that doesn't hurt you. So, there are probably, not familiar with Wing Chun as a martial art or an art form. But there are likely to be a couple of different movement patterns it may be striking, it may be kicking, it may be falling. 

Try to find the common movement patterns and practice those first. And If you're working with an instructor that is really experienced, sometimes it's very difficult for them to isolate these things. on their own, because they've been practising for such a long time and everything is important, so they say everything is important. 

By working with an instructor and a lot of questions about what other type of movements that we use most often, you can work with the instructor to help them narrow down the skill for you so you can practice in smart way. Hope that helps. 


<a href="http://speakertext.com/videos/4277765">Review Transcript and Additional Download Options</a>
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Chapter 1 - In Which We Are Introduced to Winnie-the-Pooh and Some Bees and the Stories Begin

AP Erebus