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Beatriz Williams, author of A CERTAIN AGE, stops by to chat about the dangers of proposal-by-proxy, the difference between historical fiction and vintage fiction, and introduces us to the Carrie Bradshaw of the 1920’s.  

PS: The 1930’s book on 1920’s history that Beatriz mentions is Only Yesterday by Frederick Lewis Allen.

Download the audiobook via iTunes http://ads.harpercollins.com/hcaudiopres?isbn=9780062445186&retailer=apple
and Audible http://ads.harpercollins.com/hcaudiopres?isbn=9780062445186&retailer=audible

Beatriz Williams

Penguin presents the unabridged, downloadable, audiobook edition of Girl Unknown by Karen Perry, read by Conor Maloney, Tracy Keating and Richard Flood.

When Zoe Barry walks into Professor David Connolly's office and announces that she is his daughter, he is left reeling. Suddenly his family - imperfect, flawed, but working - is trying to find space for someone new.

But Zoe's stories don't quite add up and lies become indistinguishable from truths. The family struggle to make sense of whether she is a sister, a daughter, a friend, an enemy. But no one could have expected where it all might end.

Because they have let into their home a girl that they do not know. And now everything they have built has begun to violently, determinedly, break apart.

Wolf Hollow by Lauren Wolk (audiobook extract) read by Emily Rankin

Listen to an excerpt of Caroline Angell's ALL THE TIME IN THE WORLD audiobook, read by Barrie Kreinik.

An unforgettable debut about a young woman's choice between the future she's always imagined and the people she's come to love.

Charlotte, a gifted and superbly trained young musician, has been blindsided by a shocking betrayal in her promising career when she takes a babysitting job with the McLeans, a glamorous Upper East Side Manhattan family. At first the nanny gig is just a way of tiding herself over until she has licked her wounds and figured out her next move as a composer in New York. But as it turns out, Charlotte is naturally good with children and becomes as deeply fond of the two little boys as they are of her.

When an unthinkable tragedy leaves the McLeans bereft, Charlotte is not the only one who realizes that she's the key to holding little George and Matty's world together. Suddenly, in addition to life's usual puzzles, such as sorting out which suitor is her best match, she finds herself with an impossible choice between her lifelong dreams and the torn-apart family she's come to love.

Caroline Angell's remarkable and generous debut is the story of a young woman's discovery of the things that matter most.

All the Time in the World by Caroline Angell, audiobook excerpt

Penguin presents the unabridged, downloadable, audiobook edition of Dead to Me by Lesley Pearse, read by Eve Webster.

When Ruby and Verity met as girls they came from different worlds. Verity was privately educated, living in a beautiful Hampstead home, while Ruby was being raised in extreme poverty. Nevertheless, they became firm friends. 

However, fortunes are not set in stone and soon the girls find their situations reversed. As Ruby goes up in the world, Verity encounters more and more tragedy, but still the girls remain a large part of each other's lives. That is, until one day in 1938 when Ruby says the terrible words 'You're dead to me' and it looks like their friendship might be over for good . . .

Dead To Me by Lesley Pearse (audiobook extract) read by Eve Webster

Listen to an excerpt of Beth Harbison's ONE LESS PROBLEM WITHOUT YOU audiobook, read by Orlagh Cassidy.

Meet Prinny, Chelsea, and Diana. Prinny is the owner of Cosmos, a shop that sells crystals, potions, candles, and hope. It's also a place where no one turns down a little extra-special cocktail that can work as a romance potion or heal a broken heart. But Prinny is in love with her married lawyer, and she'll need nothing short of magic to forget about him.

Chelsea works as a living statue at tourist sites around Washington, DC. It's a thankless job, but it helps pay the rent. That and her part-time job at Cosmos. As her dream of becoming a successful actress starts to seem more remote and the possibility of being a permanently struggling one seems more realistic, Chelsea begins to wonder: At what point do you give up on your dreams? And will love ever be in the cards for her?

Diana Tiesman is married to Leif, a charismatic man who isn't faithful. But no matter how many times he lets her down, Diana just can't let him go. She knows the only way she can truly break away is if she leaves and goes where he will never think to follow. So she ends up at Cosmos with Leif's stepsister, where she makes her homemade teas and tinctures as she figures out whether she'd rather be lonely alone than lonely in love.

In Beth Harbison's One Less Problem Without You, three women suddenly find themselves together at their own very different crossroads. It will take hope, love, strength, and a little bit of magic for them to find their way together.

Buy the audiobook

One Less Problem Without You by Beth Harbison, audiobook excerpt

Stand-up comedian Luisa Omielan's story of how she turned her life around with one simple mantra: What Would Beyoncé Do?!

You know when you find yourself approaching thirty and your dreams are broken? You've got a temping career going nowhere, a student debt that’s mounting and you've just had to move back into your mum’s house.

Then to top it all off, you get absolutely annihilated with heartbreak because of an ex, who is just ‘not ready’ but then manages to be ready, a week later, with someone else. 

And it is here, at your lowest point, that one of your best friends decides to remind you that you are the same age as Beyoncé.

FML.

Luisa Omielan is a stand-up comedian who turned her life around after she answered the mantra every person needs in their life: What Would Beyoncé Do?!

Hilariously funny, wonderfully uplifting and brutally honest, Luisa's memoir shows us all that there is no situation in which Bey can’t save the day. 
You know when you find yourself approaching thirty and your dreams are broken? You've got a temping career going nowhere, a student debt that’s mounting and you've just had to move back into your mum’s house.

Then to top it all off, you get absolutely annihilated with heartbreak because of an ex, who is just ‘not ready’ but then manages to be ready, a week later, with someone else. 

And it is here, at your lowest point, that one of your best friends decides to remind you that you are the same age as Beyoncé.

FML.

Luisa Omielan is a stand-up comedian who turned her life around after she answered the mantra every person needs in their life: What Would Beyoncé Do?!

Hilariously funny, wonderfully uplifting and brutally honest, Luisa's memoir shows us all that there is no situation in which Bey can’t save the day. 

What Would Beyonce Do?! written and read by Luisa Omielan (audiobook extract)

Poor Mr Swimble is having a bad day.

Rabbits are bouncing out of his hat, pigeons are flying out of his jacket and every time he points his finger, something magically appears – cheese sandwiches, socks . . . even a small yellow elephant on wheels!

It’s becoming a real nuisance – and he’s allergic to rabbits.

His friends at the Magic Rectangle can’t help, but the mysterious vacuum cleaner he saw that morning may have something to do with it . . .

Fourteen fantastically funny stories from master storyteller Sir Terry Pratchett, full of food fights, pirates, wizards and crooks!

‘Arresting stuff! So funny it’s criminal!’ – PC Gorsebush Jones

The Witch's Vacuum Cleaner by Terry Pratchett (audiobook extract) read by Julian Rhind-Tutt

A brand new nursery rhyme treasury from Ladybird!

Ladybird Favourite Nursery Rhymes is a beautiful treasury of songs that every young child should own. It contains over 100 rhymes, each one beautifully sung. A gorgeous complete collection, this is ideal for parents to pass on the rhymes they knew themselves as a child.

Ladybird: Classic Nursery Rhymes Collection (audiobook extract)

Five splendiferous stories from the world's number one storyteller, are brought to life by the author himself.

Roald Dahl's wickedly funny novels have turned him into the world's number 1 storyteller. In this collection five splendiferous stories are brought to life by the author himself.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory(Abridged)
Willy Wonka's famous chocolate factory is opening at last!

James and the Giant Peach (Abridged) 
A little magic can take you a long way

Fantastic Mr. Fox (Unabridged) 
Nobody outfoxes Fantastic Mr. Fox!

The Enormous Crocodile (Unabridged) 
This greedy crocodile loves to guzzle up little boys and girls

The Magic Finger (Unabridged) 
Horrible neighbors learn their lesson from a little girl with powerful magic!

Roald Dahl Reads Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Four More Stories

Hendrik Groen may be old, but he is far from dead and isn't planning to be buried any time soon. So he sets out to write an exposé: a year in the life of his care home in Amsterdam, revealing all its ups and downs - not least his new endeavour the anarchic Old-But-Not Dead Club. And when Eefje moves in - the woman Hendrik has always longed for - he polishes his shoes (and his teeth), grooms what's left of his hair and attempts to make something of the life he has left, with hilarious, tender and devastating consequences.

The Secret Diary of Hendrik Groen Aged 83 ¼ by Hendrik Groen (audiobook extract)

Penguin Audiobooks presents Roald Dahl's Matilda, read by multi-award-winning actress Kate Winslet.

Matilda Wormwood is an extraordinary genius with really stupid parents.
Miss Trunchbull is her terrifying headmistress who thinks all her pupils are rotten little stinkers.

But Matilda will show these horrible grown-ups that even though she's only small, she's got some very powerful tricks up her sleeve . . .

Kate Winslet's award-winning and varied career has included standout roles in Titanic, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Finding Neverland, Revolutionary Road and The Reader, for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress. Also a highly acclaimed voice artist, she received the Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for Children for Listen to the Storyteller.

This audiobook CD is available to buy from penguin.co.uk, Waterstones.co.uk, Foyles.co.uk, Amazon.co.uk and all good bookshops.

Roald Dahl: Matilda (Audiobook Extract) read by Kate Winslet

Penguin Books publishes blockbusting, prize-winning, celebrated, controversial, heart-warming, thought-provoking and inspiring books by a range of authors from Ali Smith to Zadie Smith, Jeremy Clarkson to Jeremy Paxman and Jamie Oliver to Oliver Goldsmith.

Dead To Me by Lesley Pearse (audiobook extract) read by Eve Webster

Penguin Books UK