Showing results by narrator "Annie Aldington" in All Categories

For most of her life, Judy Begg has been a loyal servant at Creek Manor and to Jack Fox, its future lord. But just as their childhood friendship blossoms into a secret engagement he abandons her to join his brother overseas. And with Creek Manor up for sale, Judy and her family lose everything. Devastated, Judy is nonetheless determined to make the best of her life. Resolving to forget about Jack, she battles to keep her family from poverty’s door and her mother from the hands of her violent husband.

When the going gets tough, the Butlers get even.... ‘Murdered in 1980 she was, bless her. Now I'll tell you the story of everything that's happened since....' No parents should ever have to bury their child, but God knows the Butlers have buried more than their fair share. Now Vinny and Michael are planning the downfall of all who've wronged them. The Butlers don't forgive or forget, and they take their secrets to the grave. As yet more tragic events rip the family apart, loyalties are on a knife edge.

Daisy Lane returns to her hometown of Gosport after a spell abroad. She's been getting over the bad times, having lost both her husband, Kenny, and her lover, Eddie, to violent deaths. In her months away from home, Daisy has been busy. She's given birth to a baby boy and has been plotting her revenge on Roy Kemp: the London gangster who viciously murdered Eddie. Now she's ready to carry out those plans. But is it possible for a vulnerable woman to take on a man like Roy Kemp and not be badly hurt?

It’s February 1952 and whilst the nation grieves the death of King George VI, life must go on for The Woolworths Girls. At The Erith Store there is a new temporary Manager and Sarah is getting more than a little concerned by problems he seems to be creating. The whole mess is enough to make her want to resign. Meanwhile, Ruby is extremely worried about her friend Vera, and with illness causing a problem from her past to come flooding back, she knows it’s going to take a lot of strength and willpower to do what needs to be done.

It is 1945 and the war is finally over. For sisters Sophie and Maria, though, the upheaval is just beginning. For they have no choice but to leave their beloved home on the Isle of Man. It is a huge wrench for 18-year-old Maria, who can't forget Hans Bonhoeffer, a young Austrian, interned on the island during the war.

Barbara - a child of the Blitz - has more secrets than she cares to admit. She has protected her children from the harsh realities of life and told them little of the poverty of her childhood, nor of the darker side of her marriage to one of Britain's most famous photographers. With such an incomplete picture, her youngest, Sophie, has struggled to understand who her parents really are, and in turn, Barbara sometimes worries, to build her own identity.

Lady Caroline is happy to be back amid the swirl of London society, guiding her employer's daughter, Dorothy Frogerton, through her first Season. Mrs. Frogerton, meanwhile, finds her own diversions, including spiritualist gatherings at the home of Madam Lavinia, and begs Caroline to come along. Caroline is sceptical of the Madam's antics and faux French accent—until she slips a note into Caroline's hand, which contains intimate family knowledge. Even as Caroline tries to discern whether the spiritualist's powers are real, a much darker mystery presents itself.

It is late 1940, and the war feels closer to home than ever for Rose Neville and her staff at the Lyon’s Teashop in Margate. The worry of rationing hangs overhead as the Nippies do their best to provide a happy smile and a hot cup of tea for their customers. When a heavy bombing raid targets the Kent coastline, Lyon’s is badly hit, throwing the future of the cafe into jeopardy. The light in Rose’s life is her dashing fiancé, Capt. Ben Hargreaves, and planning their Christmas Eve wedding.

Thirteen-year-old Alice Truelove can’t take another day of her father’s cruelty. Better a life on the streets than being constantly blamed for her mother’s sad death, or that’s what Alice thinks as she packs up her meagre possessions. But fending for herself in the Black Country town of Wednesbury is not as easy as she expected, and it soon hits her that without help she will quickly be hungry and cold.

Two very different girls from this tight-knit community join up as ARP Wardens to do their bit for the home front. Violet Simms lives with her controlling, widowed mother who runs the local pawn shop. At just 20-years-old, Violet longs for friendship, love and escape. It seems her dreams might come true until tragedy strikes on one of the very worst nights of the Birmingham Blitz. Grace Templeton is the eldest in her family of 10 children. Spirited Grace is determined never to become burdened by child bearing and drudgery like her mother.

The latest crime thriller from best-selling author Kerry Barnes.

It’s spring in Little Creek, and wedding bells are ringing. After their hasty marriage the Christmas before, Daisy Marshall is overjoyed to be finally marrying dashing Jay Fox properly, in front of the whole village. But then, on the evening of their wedding, amid the festivities, Jay disappears. Daisy doesn’t know if Jay is dead or alive, if she’s his wife or his widow. And what’s more, without her husband, she has no means of supporting herself or her household.

When Harper Kane is ready to push her grief aside and take down Teddy Ryder, she is suddenly faced with more shocking news. Working undercover in the field of human trafficking has its risks and Charley, Harper's sister, is missing. Her operations manager maintains she has been murdered. However, despite seeing a photo of two charred bodies and a set of handcuffs covered in blood, Harper still believes that her sister is alive. But Harper can't trust the police, so who can she trust?

The girl emerged from the woods, barely alive. Her story was beyond belief. But it was true. Every dreadful word of it. Days later, another desperate escapee is found - and a pattern is emerging. Pairs of victims are being abducted, imprisoned then faced with a terrible choice: Kill or be killed. Would you rather lose your life or lose your mind? Eeny Meeny is an electrifying debut, with the nerve-shredding intensity of Saw and Along Came a Spider.

Happily married, Rose has her hands full with staffing problems at the Lyon’s Teashop now that many women are taking on war work. The girls left all have their own worries while the war rages on. Katie has always wanted a large family, but is worried that she is still not pregnant. So when young Jennie is invited to lodge at Doctor’s Cottage now that Rose and Ben have their own home, Katie finds she needs all her mothering skills to keep the younger girl on the straight and narrow.

Daisy Lane is battling to keep her family together. About to be released from prison, her oldest son Eddie is desperate to escape his past. But Eddie soon discovers that giving up the life of a gangster isn’t going to be easy. Daisy’s youngest son Jamie is determined to step out from under the shadow of his older brother and make a name for himself. And when Jamie gets wind of his brother’s plan to pull off a heist, his involvement threatens to be Eddie’s undoing.

1946: The war might be over but for the Gilby family there are still battles to be fought at home. For Birmingham and the Gilby family the war years have been a time of great change. With husband, Len, having left her for another woman, Ann Gilby is finally free to follow her heart. While the neighbours may be scandalised by having a divorcee in their midst, Ann is determined to rise above the local gossip and make a happy home with her former sweetheart, the father of Ann's youngest child.

London, 1854: 20-year-old Essie Chapman lives with her father in poverty-stricken Limehouse, working on the river as a boatman. Her life seems set before her, never to leave this part of London and forever at her father's beck and call. Then, one night, she must transport a mysterious man from a foreign ship to the banks of the Thames, a man who ends up renting a room in Essie's house, identifying himself only as 'Raven'.

Liv Anderson can take care of herself, and she knows how to make money in a man's world. The daughter of a convicted murderer, she's made her way in one of the roughest parts of London by entrapping men and extorting them for money. But Liv is playing a dangerous game and soon finds herself in trouble with the city's most notorious gangster.

Nellie Welche’s life changes for ever when she’s proposed as companion to Princess Sophia, daughter of mad King George III and Queen Charlotte. Taken into the heart of the family, Nellie is privy to the innermost secrets of the wayward House of Hanover. From the first rumblings of the French Revolution to the beginnings of the railway age, Nellie charts their story as she and Princess Sofy support each other through the ups and downs of their extraordinary lives.