Showing results by narrator "Anne Dover" in All Categories

A love story played out over the ages, this is a compelling novel about five couples whose romances span more than twelve centuries. In the year 1770, a young man named Theo is taken into the Abbeyfields monastery, where he finds his love, Princess Matilda. In 1540, a young woman named Matilda Whitfield meets Brother Theodore, a monk who has nearly lost his faith. In 1880, Theo and Matilda are the proprietors of a sprawling mansion, Abbeyfields Hall.

When Carrie Chapman signs up to be an ambulance attendant at the outbreak of World War Two, she has little idea of what lies in store. The job is gruelling, yet it will also bring her freedom, and a love affair that gives her more happiness than she has ever known. But on a summer evening, five years after the war, horrific events change Carrie’s life forever.

Born in 1800, George Hudson was raised from farmer’s son to the rich and powerful Lord Mayor of York - friend to royalty and owner of half of the railways in the kingdom. But Hudson was driven by greed as well as ambition and a dark secret lurked within his past - a youthful indiscretion…and an illegitimate child. That child, Milly, has been brought up, quietly and lovingly, by her mother, Jane, who dreams of taking revenge on her careless begetter. By a quirk of fate, both Jane and Milly work in the Hudson household. Will Jane’s revenge be sweet?

Scarborough, 1938. When Jane and Nell are brought together by a chance encounter, Jane, unhappy at home, sees an opportunity to escape when Nell invites her to visit her family in Lowestoft. However, they have no idea that their friendship will be tested through the trials of love, hardship and war. Nell's friends, Simon and Ewan, accept Jane as one of their own and welcome her into their world. But the threat of war soon brings changes for all four of them.

Helen-Alice Dear was only 15 when she left London to visit Bulgaria on a family holiday in 1937. Just weeks after her arrival, she found herself unable to leave and struggling to survive in an increasingly hostile and terrifying environment. Her marriage to a Bulgarian man bore her four children but they were often homeless, cold and hungry. Despite these hardships, Helen refused to give up hope and bravely managed to protect and raise her family.

Cornwall, 1960, and a whole new world for young Connie Vickers as she holidays with her brand-new fiance William. But a strange encounter with a beautiful blonde boy on the beach leads to a terrible tragedy, the consequences of which are to affect Connie and William for the rest of their lives.

Life in 1920s Liverpool for sisters Gloria and Betty Jenkins is secure and comfortable. Elder sister Gloria finds romance with the boy next door, until her wealthy, but snobbish and interfering, Aunt Sybil steps in, offering her the opportunity of a lifetime. A trip to New York gives Gloria everything she desires - including a wealthy husband. Meanwhile, Betty chooses a career at sea, which offers challenges, personal danger, and romance. But with the Wall Street Crash of 1929, tragedy strikes for one of the sisters and through these trials they come to value the bonds of family more than ever.

Summer 1953. Hilary Napier's life is turned upside-down when Marianne, a beautiful French woman, knocks on her door. Hilary can't help but be struck by Robert, the young boy with her. As she listens to Marianne's sad tale, she realises Robert is her brother’s son. But this is only the first revelation...As the village of Burracombe tries to make sense of the strangers in their midst, there is also much to celebrate. Hilary has her friends to turn to as she tries to find out the facts about her brother's past.

For Mary Callaghan, marriage has brought heartaches and disappointment. But with it have come joys, the greatest of which are her daughters. And what Mary wants most in the world for her girls is what she never had - a husband who will offer the security her own hard-drinking, free-spending, brash-talking Jack denied her. But when Daisy confesses she's pregnant, Mary knows the future looks grim, for the father's rough, pleasure-loving Sam O'Grady. As Nell watches her sister sink into bitter poverty, she begins to wonder if she could ever allow herself to fall in love, when her own mother and sister are suffering so much.

The slums of Dublin are a lonely place for Katherine Donovan. Her father is one of the most hated men in the district, notorious for his viciousness. Her one friend is eight-year-old Ceppi, as much an emotional orphan as 18-year-old Katherine. When her father is murdered in the unrest surrounding the docker's strike, Katherine, fearing for her life, flees to Liverpool with her father's money, taking Ceppi with her. She finds a refuge for herself and Ceppi with the Moore family, until the eldest Moore boy's unnatural interest in Ceppi convinces Katherine that they must move on.

When John Mitchell inherits property from a distant relative, he and his family move from a comfortable living in Whitby to a large country estate in Cornwall. It seems an ideal place for John and his wife to raise their young daughter, Abigail. However, life in the South is not without its problems and he finds himself clashing with the Gaisfords, a powerful old Cornish family. Any problems the family encounter over the years, however, seem to be averted when Abigail marries handsome Luke Gaisford, in spite of her father's warning that still waters run deep.

Whitby 1901. Sarah Brook has kept diaries for most of her life. Now eighty-five and at the end of her own journey, she allows her favourite great-niece Esther to read them. But while full of Sarah's thoughts and dreams, and family stories, the diaries also hold dark family secrets about the past, which are about to be exposed... Whitby 1832. When their mother tragically dies, life changes dramatically for Sarah and her siblings.

In the year of her 100th birthday, Dame Vera Lynn's fascinating and life-affirming wartime memoir from the forces' sweetheart of her adventures entertaining the troops in far-flung Burma. "I was just 27 years old when I went to Burma. It was an experience that changed my life for ever. Up until that time I had not really travelled anywhere at all, apart from one touring visit to Holland with a band I was singing with before the war, and I had certainly never been in an aeroplane. But I wanted to make a difference, to do my bit." And she did.