Showing results by narrator "Jilly Bond" in All Categories

Elfrida Phipps loves her new life in her pretty Hampshire village. She has a tiny cottage, her faithful dog, Horace, and the friendship of the neighbouring Blundells - particularly Oscar - to ensure that her days include companionship as well as independence. But an unforeseen tragedy upsets Elfrida's tranquillity: Oscar's wife and daughter are killed in a terrible car crash, and he finds himself homeless when his stepchildren claim their dead mother's inheritance.

As spring comes to Scotland and the hills burst into life, a dance is planned for September. The invitations summon home the group of people Violet Aird has cared for most in her long life. The oldest, strongest and wisest of them all, she sees Alexa, her vulnerable granddaughter, find love for the first time while the decision to send her little grandson away to school is driving parents Edmund and Virginia even further apart.

Connie McColl is finally free to make her own decisions for the first time in decades. And when she meets glamorous Gill and downtrodden Maggie, at a rather dull flower arranging class, it seems that she’s not the only one dreaming of adventure. The three very different women all agree it’s about time they had a holiday to remember. So they make a pact for this summer to be their best yet - and drive off into the sunset together....

Actresses Posy Starling and Caro Hooper both gained a name for themselves playing fictional detective Dahlia Lively on screen - but now they are back treading the boards in London's theatre district, starring in two very different plays. Their fellow Dahlia, Rosalind King, is in the city to catch their opening weeks, but she can't help but notice some tensions between Posy and Caro. Perhaps because of Caro's new friendship with her co-star Luke Burrows, who seems to have a history with Posy . . .Before Rosalind can get to the bottom of what's going on, Luke is found dead.

It all started with a question: What's it like to be old? Then came the letters. What began as a singular response to Sophy's cousin asking about aging, soon blossomed into a full year of unmailed reflections, wonderment, and curiosities on a full life truly lived...

Born in 1921, Pippa Latour was a covert special operations agent who parachuted into a field in Nazi-occupied Normandy. Trained by the British as a Special Operations Executive, Pippa was lauded for her fluency with languages and her coding ability—both attributes she put to remarkable use as she posed as a teenage soap seller, often selling soap to the German soldiers, and sending back information via code to the UK.

The rambling house called Thornyhold is like something out of a fairy tale. Left to Gilly Ramsey by the cousin whose occasional visits brightened her childhood, the cottage, set deep in a wild wood, has come just in time to save her from a bleak future. With its reputation for magic and its resident black cat, Thornyhold offers Gilly more than just a new home. It offers her a chance to start over.

A spellbinding collection of 15 stories from multi-million copy internationally best-selling author Rosamunde Pilcher, published posthumously two years after her death. Each of the 15 stories is a perfect slice of romance written with warmth and passion, featuring some wonderfully memorable, smart and feisty female characters that will transport listeners to another time and place.

England, 1919. Verity Kent's grief over the loss of her husband pierces anew when she receives a cryptic letter, suggesting her beloved Sidney may have committed treason before his untimely death. Lured to Umbersea Island to attend the engagement party of one of Sidney's fellow officers, Verity mingles among the men her husband once fought beside, discovering dark secrets and the shattering possibility that her husband may not have been the man she thought he was....

Charlotte Sauvin has always seen the world differently. At home on 33 Place Brugmann, in the heart of Brussels, her father and her closest friends and neighbours – the Raphaëls from the fourth floor, and Masha from the fifth – have ensured her secret is safe. But when the Nazis invade Belgium, and Masha and the Raphaëls disappear, Charlotte must navigate her new world alone.

Recently widowed and looking for a fresh start away from city life, Sarah Vane moves into a lovely little cottage by the sea. The rustic charm is everything she hoped it would be, but her new home doesn’t quite have enough space for her things. Her old friend Daphne offers to store Sarah’s boxes in her messy beach hut, but while clearing it out, they are shocked to find a heavy trunk… containing a dead body. They immediately recognise the poor man as pub landlord Gus Trubshaw.

London, 1702. When her husband is lost at sea, Mary Burton Gulliver, midwife and herbalist, is forced to rebuild her life without him. But three years later when Lemuel Gulliver is brought home, fevered and communicating only in riddles, her ordered world is turned upside down. In a climate of suspicion, poverty and violence, Mary is caught in a crossfire of superstition and fear driven by her husband’s outlandish claims of the wonders he has seen, and it is up to her to navigate a passage to safety for herself and her daughter, and the vulnerable women in her care.

Compton Magna and Nether Bagot sit high on the Fosse Hills to either side of the Gloucestershire/Warwickshire border, just half a mile apart. They form the backdrop to this rich story of secrets and rivalries, as glamorous Ronnie Ledwell returns to take up the reins of her father's horse breeding stud farm, years after she scandalised family and friends by eloping with her lover. News of her return will well and truly set the cat among the pigeons....

It's the glittering 80s and Lucinda Cowper, Elizabeth Beaumont, and Flora Fielding feel happy and secure in the power and pleasure of wealth. Nothing could have prepared them for a devastating financial scandal, which turns the boom to bust. The crash takes away their hope, their self-respect, and for some, it destroys even more. Facing bleak futures, affairs begin, lies are spun, relationships are pushed to breaking point, and within the year someone will be dead. But who? And why?

Newly retired Sarah Vane is completely settled in Merstairs, enjoying the quirky, quaint feel of her new home. With some time on her hands, she decides to surprise her friend Daphne by cleaning her dusty, cluttered seafront shop. But when she arrives there early one morning, Sarah is shocked to find a dying woman on the doorstep, who utters one word before she takes her last breath: ‘Wits…’ The victim is Abi Moffat—a much loved schoolteacher. Who could want her dead, and what could ‘wits’ possibly mean? Could the answer to Abi’s death be in Whitstable—the posher town along the coast?

Mercia, 788 AD. In the grand Saxon halls of Mercia, King Offa rules with cold ambition. His youngest daughter, Eadburh, is destined for an arranged marriage, but with reckless spirit, her heart is taken by a Welsh prince, a man she can never be matched with and who is quickly and cruelly taken from her. Offa’s Dyke, 2021. In a cottage hidden amongst the misty Welsh hills of Offa’s Dyke, Bea Dalloway is called to help Simon Armstrong, who is searching for peace. Instead he finds himself disturbed by unsettling noises and visions.

Thailand 1996. The Year of The Rat. Pete, a young travel writer, wanders into a Bangkok go-go bar and meets the love of his life. Joy is the girl of his dreams, young, stunningly pretty, and one of the Zombie Bar's top-earning pole dancers. What follows is a roller-coaster ride of sex, drugs, and deception, as Pete discovers that his very own private dancer is not all that she claims to be. And that far from being the girl of his dreams, Joy is his own personal nightmare.

Celebrate Christmas with one of the world's best-loved storytellers. In this collection there is mystery and magic, laughter and mischief, the joy of shared times and plenty of delicious food - many of the ingredients that have been delighting Enid Blyton's fans for more than 70 years.

When Sheba Hart joins St George's as the new pottery teacher, lonely Barbara Covett senses that she has found a kindred spirit. But Barbara is not the only one drawn to Sheba. Before long Sheba is involved in an illicit affair with a pupil, and Barbara is powerless to stop Sheba from pursuing her foolhardy course of action. But when the liaison is found out and Sheba's marriage falls apart, Barbara is loyally standing by, ready to provide succour.

Laura, newly married and ever conscious she may be living in the shadow of her husband Alec's first wife, decides to take a holiday with his family in Cornwall. Through the long hot summer days, she is slowly charmed by the beautiful old house and the people she learns to know and love. In time her uneasy spirit is soothed by the sparkling, brilliant sea, and her restless heart finally calmed.