Showing results by narrator "Julia Franklin" in All Categories

A poignant imagining of Thomas Hardy’s relationship with his last muse. A celebrated author, in the winter of his life, awaits a visit from a beautiful young actress – the leading lady in a staging of his most famous tragedy. But his wife is troubled. An anxious and sickly woman, she watches the growing intimacy between her husband and the young woman, and becomes tormented by the idea that they will betray her.

A devastating tragedy still looms over Adam's family – can he find the answers to unresolved questions?What happened in the Lake District 26 years ago that resulted in a family being torn apart? An old tragedy, still unresolved, brings together estranged brother and sister Adam and Kirsty, who try to solve it despite their relatives' objections. Does a missing camera hold clues to what might have happened?

Fancy Jones, best-selling crime writer, discovers that someone is trying to kill her. When she is invited to lecture at a writers’ conference in the Derbyshire Dales, she leaps at the chance to leave London and hopefully escape the threat of her assassin. Events turn sour when a body is found floating in a lake at the conference venue, and bizarre things start happening to Fancy. Suspicion falls on the other delegates but has her stalker followed her?

The day Maggie Lane dies, she sends her daughter Olivia a letter containing the address of Olivia's first love, Richie Briscoe. Olivia has not seen Richie for over twenty years, not since his desertion of her as a teenager almost destroyed her. Convinced that the note represents an admission of guilt, Olivia sets off for the idyllic seaside village where Richie now lives.

Blanche Longhurst is a pilot with the Air Transport Auxiliary, delivering Spitfires from factories to air bases around the country during World War Two. She believes herself to be safe from the direct conflict but during one routine trip, bad weather causes her to lose her bearings and projects her into activities that go against her sense of morality. She finds herself in another war, in another country where the anti-Nazi offensive is filled with subterfuge and personal betrayal.

While the celebrated opera singer Terri Ivory is in hospital, facing what could be the end of her career, her daughter Julie stumbles upon a long-buried secret that forces her to question her past and her place in her mother’s affection. In their empty house that no longer seems like a home, mother and daughter try to keep their closeness to each other and to the men they love.

Hannah has always felt in the shadow of her older sister. Cat is the flamboyant one, the one who can make everyone laugh. Hannah is so quiet that her parents used to joke about it. Now Hannah has a daughter of her own, who is about to get married. On the day of the wedding, Cat's caustic tongue is once again let loose - but with devastating consequences. As Hannah is compelled to examine her past and try to make sense of her complicated relationship with her sister.

Like a princess in a fairytale, Grace Hamilton has been showered with blessings: professional success, a happy marriage, and she even lives in a beautiful castle. But the only thing she really wants – her heart’s desire – is the one thing she can never have. Her sister, the beautiful Susannah, has made a mess of her life. Like a reverse Midas, everything she touches turns sour. But fate puts Grace’s future in Susannah’s hands, changing the balance of power between the sisters forever.

When Laura Harcourt accepts a temporary position in the north of England she does not dream that it will change her life forever. Wainthorpe is a small town set amongst a dense concentration of woollen mills, where the thriving Cross Ings mill is one of the most prosperous. Its respected owner is Ainsley Beaumont, whose family wealth derives from centuries in the woollen trade. However, when Laura arrives she finds that behind the façade is a family still torn apart by the memory of a disastrous fire.

Curiosity about a murder that took place in an 18th century folly draws father and daughter team Peter and Georgia Marsh to attend a summer gala in honour of Jane Austen at Stourdens, a Georgian mansion in Kent. Robert Luckhurst, the murdered former owner of Stourdens, was an avid collector of Jane Austen memorabilia, and his collection is thought to contain secrets about the novelist that still remain to be revealed.

When Felix Kendall vanishes, his wife Kate is left in turmoil. As she and their children adjust to a hand-to-mouth existence, she looks back on their marriage and Felix's orphaned upbringing in search of clues, confronting the possibility that she has badly misread him. And as Kate gradually discovers strengths she never knew she had, Felix is coming to terms with just what he has lost.

Aunt Maud's cruel words shock Rosie Quest. But they also explain the atmosphere of hostility that surrounds her on the run-down Wirral farm: no wonder her aunt resents having had to take in an illegitimate child, born in the workhouse. It's quite a relief to escape every day to her job as a machinist in Sheraing's garment factory, even though Beatrice Shearing is a demanding employer. But when Rosie catches the eye of Ben Shearing, Beatrice is having none of it.

Steaming and frothy......the perfect novel to listen to while you stretch out on a squashy sofa in a corner of your favourite coffee shop nursing a long coffee and maybe something chocolate and indulgent. Cappuccinos weaves together the stories of 6 people whose lives are all touched by an upmarket bistro called Cappuccinos.

The year is 1947. Kindly, unassuming widow Dorrie Resterick continually finds herself confidante to others' troubles. She would prefer to keep in the background, but life throws her many a mystery, and once she even found a scrap of evidence in a dreadful local crime - the double murder of two villagers. While the police decided the scrap of paper Dorrie brought to them solved the case, Dorrie was never sure - and when new tenants arrive at the creepy cottage of Merrivale their actions plunge the whole village into danger.

Viola hasn't had much luck with men. Her first husband, Marco, companion of her youth and father of her only child, left her when he realised he was gay. Her second, Rhys, ended his high-octane, fame-filled life by driving his Porsche into a wall. No wonder her family always believes she needs looking after, and her friends think she really shouldn't be allowed out on her own...Which is why, at the age of thirty-five, she finds herself shamefully back at home, living with Mum.

Bella has given up on men. Happily divorced, her latest boyfriend just omitted to tell her about his current wife, so she’s back on her own again. Then her ex-husband turns up, wanting to sell the family home in which she and their two teenage children are well settled. But all their lives are changed when a television company rents the house for a reality TV fashion makeover programme.

Living above her stepfather's fish and chip shop on Merseyside's Paradise Parade, Emily Barr is glad to escape to the relative peace of her job in Wythenshaw's jewellery factory. And when she is promoted to work for young Mr Giles, the son of the owner, she is the envy of all her workmates. What a catch he would be! Or so it seems.

Cathy Gordon has made a discovery. Adopted at birth, she finds out at the age of twenty-eight that she has a grandfather. But when she arrives at a cricket match to meet Frank, there is no trace of him - only an alarmingly sexy man called Nick. Heading off to Frank's home in leafy Oxford, she encounters a grumpy old man who only takes pleasure in two things: cricket and arguing - especially with his lifelong friend, Barbara.

An abandoned infant on her doorstep is the last thing Manchester private eye Sal Kilkenny needs as she faces the challenge of her current case. Sal’s client Libby Hill is trying to put her life back together after the brutal killing of her love and the conviction of petty criminal Damien Beswick who confessed to the murder. But now Beswick has retracted his confession – exactly what game is he playing? The evidence against him seems damning, but is there more to this case than meets the eye?

Four bystanders in the wrong place at the wrong time. Witnesses to the shocking shooting of a teenage boy. A moment that changes their lives forever. Fiona, a midwife, is plagued by panic attacks and unable to work. Has she the strength to testify? Mike, a delivery driver and family man, faces an impossible decision when his frightened wife forces him to choose – us or the court case. Cheryl, a single-mother, doesn’t want her child to grow up in the same climate of fear.