Tags:
The Secret Garden
Audiobook
Pearl Hewitt
Childrens Classic Literature
British Female Voice
British Narrator
Frances Hodgson Burnett
British female narrator
British storyteller
Yorkshire accent
Script:
There's a lot of work to do here," he said once, looking about quite exultantly. Will you come again and help me to do it?" Mary begged. I'm sure I can help, too. I can dig and pull up weeds and do whatever you tell me. Oh, do come, Dickon. I'll come every day if the wants me, rain or shine," he answered stoutly. It's the best fun I ever had in my life, shutting here and waking up a garden. If you will come," said Mary, if you will help me make it alive, I'll... I don't know what I'll do," she ended helplessly. What could you do for a boy like that? I'll tell you what they'll do," said Dickon, with his happy grin. They'll get fat and they'll get as hungry as a young fox and they'll learn how to talk to robins, same as I do. Hey, we'll have a lot of fun. He began to walk about, looking up in the trees and at the walls and bushes with a thoughtful expression. I wouldn't want to make it look like a gardener's garden, all clipped in spick and span, would you? he said. It's nicer like this, with the things running wild and swinging and catching hold of each other. Don't let us make it tidy, said Mary anxiously. It wouldn't seem like a secret garden if it was tidy. Dickon stood, rubbing his rusty red head with a rather puzzled look. It's a secret garden, sure enough, he said, but seems like someone besides the robin must have been in it since it was shut up ten years ago. But the door was locked and the key was buried, said Mary. No one could get in. That's true, he answered. It's a queer place. Seems to me as if they'd been a bit of pruning done here and there, later than ten years ago. But how could it have been done? said Mary. He was examining a branch of a standard rose and he shook his head. Ay, how could it? he murmured, with the door locked and the key buried. Mistress Mary always felt that however many years she lived, she should never forget that first morning when her garden began to grow. Of course it did seem to begin to grow for her that morning. When Dickon began to clear places to plant seeds, she remembered what Basil had sung at her when he wanted to tease her. Are there any flowers that look like bells? she enquired. Lilies of the valley does, he answered, digging away at the trowel. And there's canterbury bells and campanulas. Let us plant some, said Mary. There's lily of the valley here already. I saw them. They'll have grown too close and we'll have to separate them, but there's plenty. The other ones take two years to bloom from seed, but I can bring you some bits of plants from our cottage garden. Why does the want them? Then Mary told him about Basil and his brothers and sisters in India, and how she had hated them, and of their calling her Mistress Mary quite contrary. They used to dance round and sing at me. They sang, Mistress Mary quite contrary, how does your garden grow? With silver bells and cockle shells and marigolds all in a row. I just remembered it, and it made me wonder if they were really flowers like silver bells. She frowned a little, and gave her trowel a rather spiteful dig into the earth. I wasn't as contrary as they were. But Dickon laughed. Hey, he said, and as he crumbled the rich black soil, she saw he was sniffing up the scent of it. There doesn't seem to be no need for no one to be contrary when there's flowers and such like, and such lots of friendly wild things running about making homes for themselves, or building nests and singing and whistling, does there? Mary kneeling by him holding the seeds, looked at him and stopped frowning. Dickon, she said, you are as nice as Martha said you were. I like you, and you make the fifth person. I never thought I should like five people. Dickon sat up on his heels as Martha did when she was polishing the grate. He did look funny and delightful, Mary thought, with his round blue eyes and red cheeks and happy-looking turned-up nose. Only five folks is the likes, he said. Who's to the four? Your mother and Martha, Mary checked them off on her fingers, and the robin and Ben Wetherstaff. Dickon laughed so that he was obliged to stifle the sound by putting his arm over his mouth. I know the thinks I'm a queer lad, he said, but I think that the queerest little lass I ever saw. Then Mary did a strange thing. She leaned forward and asked him a question she had never dreamed of asking anyone before. And she tried to ask it in Yorkshire, because that was his language, and in India, a native was always pleased if you knew his speech. Does the like me? she said. Ay, he answered heartily, that a does, a likes thee wonderful, and so does the robin, I do believe. That's two, then, said Mary, that's two for me. And then they began to work harder than ever and more joyfully. Mary was startled and sorry when she heard the big clock in the courtyard strike the hour of her midday dinner. Oh, I shall have to go, she said mournfully, and you will have to go too, won't you? Dickon grinned. My dinner's easy to carry about with me, he said. Mother always lets me put a bit of something in my pocket. He picked up his coat from the grass and brought out of a pocket a lumpy little bundle tied up in a quite clean, coarse, blue-and-white handkerchief. It held two thick pieces of bread with a slice of something laid between it. It's often a snort but bread, he said, but I got a fine slice of fat bacon with it today. Mary thought it looked a queer dinner, but he seemed ready to enjoy it. Come on and get the victuals, he said, I'll be done with mine first, I'll get some more work done before I start back home. He sat down with his back against a tree. I'll call Robin up, he said, and give him the rind of the bacon to peck at, he likes a bit of fat wonderful. Mary could scarcely bear to leave him. Suddenly it seemed as if he might be a sort of wood fairy who might be gone when she came into the garden again. He seemed too good to be true. She went slowly half-way to the door in the wall, and then she stopped and went back. Whatever happens, you never would tell, she said. His poppy-coloured cheeks were distended with his first big bite of bread and bacon, but he managed to smile encouragingly. If there was a mistletoe and showed me where the nest was, does the thinker tell anyone? Not me, he said, they aren't as safe as a mistletoe. And she was quite sure she was.
Tags:
Pride and Prejudice
Jane Austen
Pearl Hewitt
Classic Fiction
Romantic Fiction
Regency Romance
Historical Romance
British female voice
British female narrator
British storyteller
Audiobook
Script:
It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife. However little known the feelings or views of such a man may be on his first entering a neighbourhood, this truth is so well fixed in the minds of the surrounding families that he is considered the rightful property of some one or other of their daughters." "'My dear Mr. Bennet,' said his lady to him one day, "'have you heard that Netherfield Park is let at last?' Mr. Bennet replied that he had not. "'But it is,' returned she, "'for Mrs. Long has just been here and she told me all about it.' Mr. Bennet made no answer. "'Do you not want to know who has taken it?' cried his wife impatiently. "'You want to tell me, and I have no objection to hearing it.' This was invitation enough. "'Why, my dear, you must know, Mrs. Long says that Netherfield is taken by a young man of large fortune from the north of England, that he came down on Monday in his chaise and four to see the place, and was so much delighted with it that he agreed with Mr. Morris immediately that he is to take possession before Michaelmas, and some of his servants are to be in the house by the end of next week. What is his name?' "'Bingley.' "'Is he married or single?' "'Oh, single, my dear, to be sure, a single man of large fortune, four or five thousand a year. What a fine thing for our girls!' "'How so? How can it affect them?' "'My dear Mr. Bennet,' replied his wife, "'how can you be so tiresome? You must know that I am thinking of his marrying one of them.' "'Is that his design in settling here?' "'Design? Nonsense! How can you talk so? But it is very likely that he may fall in love with one of them, and therefore you must visit him as soon as he comes.' "'I see no occasion for that. You and the girls may go, or you may send them by themselves, which perhaps will still be better, for as you are as handsome as any of them, Mr. Bingley may like you the best of the party.' "'My dear, you flatter me. I certainly have had my share of beauty, but I do not pretend to be anything extraordinary now. When a woman has five grown-up daughters she ought to give over thinking of her own beauty. In such cases, a woman has not often much beauty to think of. But, my dear, you must indeed go and see Mr. Bingley when he comes into the neighbourhood. It is more than I engage for, I assure you. But consider your daughters! Only think what an establishment it would be for one of them! Sir William and Lady Lucas are determined to go merely on that account, for in general you know they visit no newcomers. When did you must go, for it will be impossible for us to visit him if you do not?' "'You are over-scrupulous, surely. I dare say Mr. Bingley will be very glad to see you, and I will send a few lines by you to assure him of my hearty consent to his marrying whichever he chooses of the girls, though I must throw in a good word for my little Lizzy.' "'I desire you will do no such thing. Lizzy is not a bit better than the others, and I am sure she is not half so handsome as Jane, nor half so good-humoured as Lydia, but you are always giving her the preference.' "'They have none of them much to recommend them,' replied he. They are all silly and ignorant like other girls, but Lizzy has something more of a quickness than her sisters.' "'Mr. Bennet, how can you abuse your own children in such a way? You take delight in vexing me. You have no compassion for my poor nerves.' "'You mistake me, my dear. I have a high respect for your nerves. They are my old friends. I have heard you mention them with consideration these last twenty years at least.' "'You do not know what I suffer.' "'But I hope you will get over it, and live to see many young men of four thousand a year come into the neighbourhood. It will be no use to us if twenty such should come, since you will not visit them.' "'Depend upon it, my dear, that when there are twenty, I will visit them all.' Mr. Bennet was so odd a mixture of quick parts, sarcastic humour, reserve and caprice, that the experience of three and twenty years had been insufficient to make his wife understand his character. Her mind was less difficult to develop. She was a woman of mean understanding, little information and uncertain temper. When she was discontented, she fancied herself nervous. The business of her life was to get her daughters married. Its solace was visiting and news.
Tags:
Fiction
British female voice
The Hurricane
R J Prescott
contemporary romance
Pearl Hewitt
British female narrator
British storyteller
Audiobook
Script:
I turned around as Frank rushed toward us. He sidestepped me and went for Danny. I stepped in front of him and raised my hands to push him away. Danny was the nearest thing I had to a dad and there was no way that Frank was taking him from me. No! Danny screamed. I stumbled and fell backward onto the floor. Frank fell on top of me. As quickly as it happened, Frank staggered to his feet. Pushing Danny hard, he ran out of the door. I couldn't believe how fast he was, given the amount of blood he'd lost. It felt like I was bathed in it. You OK, Danny? I asked. I'm fine, baby girl. How about yourself? I've been better, I chuckled, relieved beyond measure that Frank was gone and that Danny appeared to be unharmed. You just stay with me, darling. Connie's on his way. He scrambled toward the desk, grabbed the phone and dialed frantically. It's Danny Driscoll. Sit at the gym. I need an ambulance here now and get someone to tell Cormac O'Connell. He barked. Slamming down the phone, he raced back to me. He couldn't have been gone more than thirty seconds. I'd have waited a lot longer to hear the comfort in his voice. Be careful, I warned Danny. Frank's lost a lot of blood. He can't be far. He's still dangerous. No, it weren't his blood, sunshine, Danny told me grimly, his eyes wet with unshed tears. I followed his gaze downward and saw the knife sticking out of my chest. He held my hand between his two and I marvelled at how warm those weathered hands felt. Meeting you was the best thing that ever happened to me, I told him. Not sure about that, darling. I don't think he'd be lying here now if it weren't for me. I tatted in admonishment. Frank would have found me anyway. You gave me a family. I haven't had that in a really long time. The cold had crept into every part of my body, but the pain seemed to be lessening. Me either, he admitted, crying proper tears now. Love you, I whispered. I love you too, sunshine, he replied, squeezing my hand. As I drifted off into the darkness, it reminded me that I wasn't alone.
Script:
Captain Glen is often to be found on the bridge. He is here for port approaches and departures, but also whenever he can escape paperwork, which is not as often as he would like, now that the role of ship's purser has ceased to exist and all the administration falls on the captain and senior officers. He can be on his computer for four to eight hours a day now. Glen is the most senior captain in Musk's container fleet. In older times, he would have been known as Commodore and saluted by the raising of flags on courteous passing ships. His talk turns often to earlier times because he has done enough years to have plenty and because in his four decades, life at sea has changed dramatically. His first ship was a tramp-steamer, a freelance vessel that picks up trade where it can, not a liner with a scheduled route like Kendall. A taxi, not a bus. It was iron, had derrick cranes on deck to heft cargo about, and was held together by rivets. Rivets! Not like this Korean-made welded ship, only four years old. Still, Captain Glen is not entirely nostalgic and always loves the ship he commands. He says of Kendall, isn't she beautiful? And salutes her every day with a stroke or a tap, a formal and ritual greeting. He is scornful of a modern trend in maritime journalism, notably led by Lloyd's List, to call ships it. What nonsense! His ship is a she. Why? She just is. If Captain Glen stands on the bridge facing forward to sea, the old life is behind him and the new one in front. Behind him are the national flags a ship raises when she calls at port, each kept in a wooden cubbyhole on a shelf that stretches halfway across the wheelhouse. You never know when you might need to be nice to a Nauru. There is the chart table and drawers filled with a hundred and sixty-nine charts drawn up by the UK's Hydrographic Office, a chart-making entity nostalgically known as the Admiralty. Other nations produce charts, Russia and Japan, for example, but the Admiralties are known to be better. In front of him the captain sees sea, but mostly he sees boxes. Orange, blue, grey, red. If the captain leaves the wheelhouse to stand on the port or starboard wings, the bridge's two terraces, he will see boxes fore and aft. That is if he sees them at all. For him they are blank, boring. I am indifferent to them. They're just boxes, you've got to admit. He thinks they have destroyed the soul of a ship and of shipping. This is an old lament, too. In the middle of the shift from sail to steam, Joseph Conrad complained that the loading of ships was once a matter of skill, judgment, and knowledge. With the modern steamship, cargo was dumped into her through six hatchways with clatter and hurry and racket and heat in a cloud of steam and a mess of coal dust. After Rotterdam I begin to spend hours on the bridge hanging out, though I choose my hours carefully, avoiding one officer and happy to bother others. It is easy to plan ahead. At sea you always wake up to a different sunrise, but the watches don't change. So that Kendall can operate for twenty-four hours a day, each of the three officers has two four-hour watches. The captain is not included. His watch is constant. The four-to-eight morning and afternoon watch is given to the chief officer, the captain's second-in-command. Vintens is one of the plates covered in plastic wrap that sits on the table during dinner for later consumption. The second officer gets the twelve to four a.m. and p.m., and the third the eight to twelve, so that the most junior is in charge at times when senior officers are likely to be awake. The duty officers are always hospitable, because company is distraction. An A.B. is often on watch to steer the helm, but it's the same A.B. as yesterday and the day before that. There are things to be done on duty, but not enough to fully fill four hours of time. The tasks include plotting courses, checking the magnetic gyro, monitoring changes of weather and running conditions, keeping an eye on vessels in the vicinity. This list is laminated and pinned to the bridge console, but it can be summed up by keep a good lookout.
Tags:
Thriller
British female Voice actor
Twisted 50
British female narrator
The Cyclist
audiobook
Script:
Merle concentrates hard upon the road and the driving, edging her speed to 55. She is uncomfortable at such a pace on these roads, leaning forward slightly, gripping the wheel tightly, unwilling to take her eyes from the road to check the rear view mirror. But at last she does, she has to, and moans a little, for the cyclist is nearer, still a distance off, but closer than he was just minutes ago. Merle presses the accelerator and the little car picks up speed, rattling and shaking as it increases to 65. She never drives this fast, not even on a motorway, and is frightened at how unsteady the car is, how even the slightest movement of the steering wheel is exaggerated at this speed. She grips the wheel in her thin fingers, not daring to look at what is behind, concentrating upon the road as the little red car races on, because it is dangerous to drive at this speed. But she must look in the mirror, cannot help it, and he is closer again. And before her eyes snap back to the road, she sees that his legs are blurs, they move so fast. And how can that even be?
Tags:
Cosy Murder Mystery
Oxford Tea Room Mysteries
H Y Hanna
Pearl Hewitt
Mystery and Suspense
Audiobook
British female voice
British female narrator
British storyteller
Script:
There was a rustle from inside the room, the sound of people standing up, the floorboards creaking as weight shifted. Then, footsteps approached the door faster than we expected. Mabel jerked back from the door. It's coming out! I stumbled backwards in panic. There was no time to run down the staircase. Devlin would be sure to see us in the stairwell. We looked wildly around for a hiding place. This was the top landing in the tower, and there was only one other door up here. Mabel ran across and flung it open. It was a broom cupboard filled with cleaning equipment. Quick, in here! she hissed at the other old biddies. They piled in, wedging themselves between the mops and brooms. I was amazed at how quickly four old ladies could squeeze themselves into such a tiny space, lavender handbags and all. The only problem was, it left no room for me. Sorry, Gemma, age before beauty, said Mabel ruthlessly, and she yanked the door shut in my face. I stared at the closed door in disbelief. What, they're leaving me out here to deal with Devlin alone? I'm going to kill them, senior age or not. Whirling, I considered my options. The only other thing I could see on the landing was a narrow Gothic window. I ran over and pulled the casement open. Instead of the sheer drop I'd expected, it led out onto a circular battlement, which enclosed the tower. If I could climb out, I could crouch beneath the level of the parapet and hide from view until Devlin had gone down the stairs. I hooked a leg over the windowsill and started to push myself out through the narrow gap. It wasn't as easy as I'd thought. I was sitting astride the windowsill, half in, half out, trying to suck my stomach in, when I heard the dreaded voice. Gemma? Bugger.
Tags:
Childrens Literature
British Narrator
Audiobook
Roald Dahl
Script:
"'But I can't help it if I'm growing too fast, Grandma," George said. "'Of course you can,' she snapped. "'Growing's a childish, nasty habit.' "'But we have to grow, Grandma. If we didn't grow, we'd never be grown-ups.' "'Rubbish, boy, rubbish!' she said. "'Look at me. Am I growing? Certainly not.' "'But you did once, Grandma.' "'Only very little,' the old woman answered. "'I gave up growing when I was extremely small, along with all the other nasty childish habits like laziness and disobedience and greed and sloppiness and untidiness and stupidity. You haven't given up any of these things, have you?' "'I'm still only a little boy, Grandma.' "'You're eight years old,' she snorted. "'That's old enough to know better. If you don't stop growing soon, it'll be too late.' "'Too late for what, Grandma?' "'Oh, it's ridiculous,' she went on. "'You're nearly as tall as me already.' George took a good look at Grandma. She certainly was a very tiny person. "'Daddy says it's fine for a man to be tall,' George said. "'Don't listen to your daddy,' Grandma said. "'Listen to me.' "'But how do I stop myself growing?' "'Eat less chocolate,' Grandma said. "'Does chocolate make you grow?' "'It makes you grow the wrong way,' she snapped. "'Up instead of down. "'And stop eating chocolate. "'Eat cabbage instead.' "'Cabbage, oh, no. "'I don't like cabbage,' George said. "'It's not what you like or you don't like,' Grandma snapped. "'It's what's good for you that counts. "'From now on, you must eat cabbage three times a day. "'Mountains of cabbage, and if it's got caterpillars in it, "'so much the better. "'Cabbage doesn't taste of anything "'without a few boiled caterpillars in it. "'Slugs, too.' "'Not slugs,' George cried out. "'I couldn't eat slugs.' "'Whenever I see a live slug on a piece of lettuce,' "'Grandma said, I gobble it up quick before it crawls away. "'Delicious.' "'She squeezed her lips together tight "'so that her mouth became a tiny wrinkled hole. "'Delicious,' she said again. "'Worms and slugs and bitterly bugs. "'You don't know what's good for you.'
Tags:
Audiobook
Childrens Literature
British Narrator
Script:
Anthony, said Stragonone, you must sweep the house and wash the dishes. You must weed the garden and pick the vegetables. You must feed the goats and milker, and you must fetch the water. For this, I will give you three coins and a place to sleep and food to eat. Oh, grazie, said Big Anthony. The one thing you must never do, said Stragonone, is touch the pasta pot. It is very valuable, and I don't let anyone touch it. And so the days went by. Big Anthony did his work, and Stragonone met with the people who came to see her for headaches and husbands and warts. Big Anthony had a nice bed to sleep in next to the goat shed, and he had food to eat. One evening, when Big Anthony was milking the goat, he heard Stragonone singing. Peeking in the window, he saw Stragonone standing over the pasta pot. She sang, Babble, babble, pasta pot, boil me some pasta nice and hot. I'm hungry, and it's time to sup. Boil enough pasta to fill me up. And the pasta pot bubbled and boiled, and was suddenly filled with steaming hot pasta.