Showing results by narrator "Annie Aldington" in All Categories

Rowan Forrester has it all - the happy marriage, the adorable dog, the good friends, the promising business and even the dream home after she and her husband, Tom, win a stunning but slightly dilapidated Georgian townhouse in London at auction. But in the blink of an eye, Rowan’s picture-perfect life comes crashing down around her, and she is faced with the prospect of having to start again. To make ends meet she begins a search for housemates and, in doing so, opens the door to new friends and new beginnings. But could she be opening the door to new heartbreak, too?

It is winter in London. Eliza Cummings, a ceramics restorer at the V&A Museum, is leaving work when she receives a phone call which draws her back 25 years - to the night Rose died. But why does Rose’s father want her to visit him when they both know that he blames her for what happened to his daughter? Grief and guilt cast terrible shadows, but as this beautifully wrought story unfolds we learn that generosity, humour, and friendship can smooth over and restore even the most broken lives....

STANLEY BUTTERS is 10 years old. He has a hero - his Great Granddad, Sidney, a comedian who played the Palladium in the 50s and 60s (even if it was at the bottom of the bill). He has a passion - to be just like his Great Granddad and fulfil his dream of performing at the Royal Variety Performance - in front of the Queen. Armed with Sidney's wisdom and training and his secret box of destiny, Stanley is working towards his dream. One day on a school trip to the Drury Lane Theatre, Stanley gets his chance.

Aggie has tasted freedom working at the local munitions factory. But the Great War is coming to an end, and the men are coming home. Aggie can't bear the idea of going back into service. She wants more from her life - and becoming a Copperette - a member of the Women's Police Service - might help her move up in the world. Mim just wants to do her bit for her country. She's prepared to work hard to help her fellow women and keep up morale. She even takes Aggie in to her house to help with her training.

It’s Christmas 1880 in London’s East End, and a dying Irish girl leaves her baby in the care of the Sisters of Clemency. The nuns raise little Ettie O’Reilly as their own. But the lives of the nuns and orphans are soon crushed by an unexpected turn of events. Ettie is at her lowest ebb when she is betrayed by the boy who has promised his undying love and loyalty. She is faced with the revelation of a heart-wrenching secret.

Margaret Woodruff is slowly dying in a care home. When her son is presented with the chance of exceptional care in her final months, he finds the offer hard to resist. Winifred is assigned to Margaret’s care. She’s a Helper: a new kind of carer that’s capable, committed and completely tireless - because she’s a synthetic human being. Under Winifred’s care Margaret’s health improves beyond everyone’s expectations, and Winifred begins to learn from Margaret what it means to be alive. But how will Winifred use what she learns from Margaret - and what does she truly want from her?

Lettice Pegg's father is a working-class policeman and her mother is a middle-class suffragette. Stuck between them as they argue, Lettice mostly cares about trying to fit in at school and convincing her parents to let her have roller skates and go to the music hall. But, when Lettice sees her mother brutally thrown to the ground by a policeman while on a protest march, her life changes forever. Not all of the women on the march are vulnerable to attack. Some of them have a secret weapon: jiu jitsu.

The third and final novel in the Ten Bells Street saga series.

Essex, 1916. Lily is a housemaid up at St Clere's Hall. But times are changing with the outbreak of war. With a husband bent on signing up for the trenches and a lecherous master of the house, Lily is forced to leave. Doing her bit for the war effort - and bringing in more money for the family - Lily goes to work in a factory making explosives to send to the trenches. It's a hard job. The munitionettes must face terrible working conditions, the constant danger of accidents and air strikes and a patronising, self-serving boss.

Sent to the workhouse as a child, all Ella Hathaway can remember is a voice whispering, 'Dearie, promise you will never forget what you saw. Your Ma was killed deliberate...and someone oughter pay for it.' When wealthy spinster Letitia Fairchild witnesses Ella being ill treated, she takes her in as a scullery maid. But as Ella grows up, she is determined to find the truth about her mother's death and appeals to Letitia for help, revealing her only personal possession, a black silk purse. Intrigued, Letitia agrees to begin a quest to solve the mystery of Ella's past.

When Daisy Holt was dismissed from her post as a nursemaid she set off cheerfully into the jungle of mid-Victorian London. When Kitty Hammond, proprietress of the “select establishment” off Leicester Square discovered her she was quick to realise that Daisy has a rare talent and would make a successful entertainer. And there it was that she met the impoverished artist John Skelton. To him Daisy represented the perfect model – the one to inspire his work.

When the beautiful but naïve Grace Lennicker falls for Isaiah Feasey, son of a rival smuggling family and owner of a local tavern, her sisters try to intervene. But as tensions grow, there is another suitor also hoping to win her hand in marriage, the dashing and more favourable Albert Enderby, a young lieutenant in the Revenue. Grace is unwittingly drawn back into the world of smuggling that her sisters fought hard to leave behind, and as violence erupts, she finds herself unable to stand by, knowing the rival gangs will kill anyone who stands in their way.

Moira and Jack Taylor own a thriving rag-and-bone business, and have six children. Their contented family life is upset when their eldest daughter, Nora, steals 18-year-old Maggie’s fiancé, Robert, a widower with a young son. Maggie, heartbroken, swears that she will never forgive her sister’s betrayal. The First World War and the Spanish flu epidemic of 1919 bring further tragedy, and the younger generation of the Taylor family embark on their own adventures.

A young woman's body is found dumped in the Essex countryside. Investigative reporter Riley Gavin recognises her as Helen Bellamy, a former girlfriend of her colleague, PI Frank Palmer. Ex-military policeman Palmer is accustomed to death, but this is different; this is the brutal murder of someone he was once close to. He knows only one way to deal with it: find the killers.

Flame-haired beauty Chloe Collard watched her mother struggle through life, scraping together pennies in order to provide for her and her brothers, so Chloe promised herself something a long time ago: she would get a proper education and make something of herself. This vow would carry Chloe through her entire life. When Chloe is offered a job as a personal assistant in a prestigious firm, she finally feels that her hard work is paying off.

Born into poverty and hardship, Ruby Skinner's decision to approach the unscrupulous East End villain, Donald McCoy, for help, ends in disaster. In a desperate bid to move her ailing mother to the fresh air of the countryside, she realises that she has made a huge mistake, which will shape the rest of her life. Robert Thornton, a wealthy business man, also had the misfortune of suffering from the under hand dealings with McCoy, and when curiosity forces him to pursue Ruby Skinner, the barriers which divide the social classes of the 19th century are put to test by the power of love.

It is 1930, and the sleepy Hampshire village where Emma Pearson lives with her husband and two daughters is untouched by the Depression. When the villagers are asked to offer a rural holiday to orphaned children from the poorest parts of London, they welcome the opportunity to share their good fortune. John and Tommy, two lads from the charity orphanage, come to stay with the Pearsons for a holiday in the countryside.

London, 1640. Fifteen-year-old Henrietta Challoner dreams of adventure, of a life lived at the gallop, of the opportunities afforded to her brothers, Ned and Sam. She cannot know how devastatingly real these dreams will become, as the country slides towards vicious civil war...The crisis threatens to tear Henrietta's family apart. As religious and political tensions spill into the streets, they all must decide what comes first – their family, their country or their desires.

When Annie and her brother Cory are orphaned Hettie's mother takes them in. Hettie and Annie sell watercress on the streets of Victorian London to make a living. Annie's dissatisfaction grows and her reckless ambition takes her on a separate path. After she disappears in mysterious circumstances, Hettie sets out to find her. While searching for Annie, in the darkest and most dangerous part of London, she uncovers the corruption and depravity of Victorian society. Secrets are revealed that put both their lives put in danger. Can Hettie find her friend before it's too late?

When Sam falls in love with Deptford thug Derek, and Anne’s best friend Kathleen takes her own life, they discover they are linked not just by a world of drugs and revenge - they also share the friendship of the uncanny and enigmatic Deborah. Seamstress, sailor, storyteller and self-proclaimed centenarian immortal, Deborah slowly reveals to Anne and Sam her improbable, fantastical life, a history of hidden Deptford and ultimately the solution to their crises.