Showing results by narrator "Annie Aldington" in All Categories

London, 1923. Cyril Black is finally out of prison. Rather than going home to his wife and son, he visits his mistress only to find that she's given birth to his daughter - and wants nothing to do with her. His wife, Florrie, reluctantly agrees to take them in. But there's no love in her heart for another woman's child... 1939. At sixteen, Penny Black lives in constant fear of her mother's temper. Her only friend is her twelve-year-old neighbour, Katy Darwin. When they learn Katy will be evacuated to the countryside, the two come up with a plan to smuggle Penny along.

Clara held on to the precious button, glimmering like a jewel in the dark alleyways of London's notorious Seven Dials. She needed to save her family...but who was going to save her? There was a time when the Carter sisters' father was their hero. Now he's a drunk who's gambled away everything they had and put them all in peril. It's on Clara's shoulders to save the four sisters from destitution. Clutching her precious button box, the only thing of value they have left, Clara dreams of starting a shop that could put a roof over their heads and keep them safe....

When Jared Johnson first meets Clarice Connaught he saves her from the hands of her father, who is brutally beating her in the street. Never one to walk past someone in distress, Jared doesn’t hesitate to help. But who is this girl and what is her story? Jared Johnson started with nothing. At just twelve-years-old he was orphaned and homeless, but eight years later, Jared is a success. Running McGuire’s Rag & Bone Yard and surrounded by friends, all Jared needs now is to find the perfect girl to settle down with.

When Elsie and Bert Jones move with their children, Ann and Arthur, to Candle Lane, a modest street in Battersea, they miss their comfortable house in Wimbledon. But the move is the right thing to do, as it will enable Bert to finance his new removal business. They are a warmhearted family, and Elsie soon makes friends with her less fortunate neighbour, Ruth, and her daughter, Sally. But before long Elsie realises that all is not well in the house next door....

Onstage at a Las Vegas convention, Elo Ó hAllmhuráin, a worldfamous tech magnate, demonstrates a time machine, catapulting himself and journalist Dory Silver into the distant future. Stranded and desperate to get home to her dying partner, Dory is forced to re-examine the past. Time/Life is a love letter to science fiction rooted in a very real present of rising populism and the unintended consequences of technology. Above all, it is a powerful meditation on the nature of love itself.

London’s East End. Life for Hope Daniels in the public house run by her parents is not as it seems. Pa drinks and gambles, brother John longs for a place of his own, sister Violet dreams of a life on stage and little Alfie is being bullied at school. Silas Quirk, the charismatic owner of a local gentlemen’s club and disreputable gambling den her father frequents, has his own plans for Hope. When disaster strikes, the family lose everything and the future they planned is snatched away from them. Secrets are revealed that make Hope question all she’s ever believed in.

Part memoir, part self-help guide, this fascinating audiobook takes the listener through the history of spirituality, what it means in the world and how Sally’s version for the modern age can be harnessed in the personal space. Secret Spirit is an uplifting book about hope and happiness, that deals with the dead as well as a brighter way of living - and is told in Sally’s inimitable, lovable, no-nonsense style.

When Emily's boyfriend posts compromising photos of her on the Internet, her life goes into sharp decline. Emily is about to lose everything - including the man she thought she loved. Her best friend, Cara, is determined to mend Emily's broken heart, and she believes that a little magic is all that's required. But will Cara cast the right spell to get Emily out of her current position? Or will it go horribly wrong when they both fall in love with the same man?

Carla Scofield has looked after her family since she was a teenager, but it's never been a bother because there isn't anything she wouldn't do for those closest to her. Warm, friendly, and with the ability to make everyone around her laugh, she carries her burden proudly. As the years roll past, Carla sees life around her change dramatically. Wartime brings new challenges and a new job for Carla in a sewing factory, and she shines.

Even a small town girl can have big dreams... Marcie Brooks has returned to her home town with a baby and a ring on her finger. But for all her grandmother's insistence that she's a young widow, the truth is the only boy Marcie has ever loved tragically died before he could make good his promise to wed her. Sometimes she still feels his presence near her, which is both a comfort and an unnerving sign that she's inherited her grandmother's gifts...

London 1964. Patsy Kent, now a mother, grandmother, and even great-grandmother, is discovering that it is her family who give her the most pleasure in life, but also the most pain. Her children, Ellen and David, are both going through difficult times with their marriages. The next generation is also giving Patsy cause for concern: Frances, her only granddaughter, may be enjoying the nightlife of the swinging 60s, but it is about to land her in a whole heap of tragedy and trouble.

London, 1961. In the dying days of the Macmillan government, George Preston is in control of crime in West London, and Rina Walker is his favoured contract killer. When Rina is hired by Soho vice king Tony Farina to investigate the disappearance of girls from his clubs, she discovers that they are being supplied to a member of the English aristocracy for the gratification of his macabre sexual tastes.

The Last Word is the definitive story of how Katrina Amy Alexandria Alexis Infield became Katie Price. It documents how her life has been shaped by a tradition of strong women, by cycles of abuse which have been repeated through generations, and by the impact of fame and trauma on a close family unit.

After a tip-off, a man's body is exhumed from a shallow grave in Edinburgh. Murder surely, yet he died from natural causes, so, case closed? Indeed was there ever a case? But Chief Constable Skinner and his people keep on digging. Who was the man, why was he buried so reverentially, and by whom? Meanwhile corruption is discovered within the force, and an investigation launched.

May, 1910. The village of Oystertown is home to those who make their living from the sea. Yet social circles soon extend beyond the harbour, when a boating disaster brings Janna Shilling and her family into contact with the aristocratic Layards who own a mansion just outside of town. Recently arrived in town are the Picards, who lead a bohemian existence, their family home a disused windmill. An artist, Pascal has settled in the small fishing village because of its extraordinary light.

Homeless Bodies and Other Stories is an original fiction podcast featuring audio-exclusive short stories from award-winning authors and Sunday Times best-sellers, inspired by objects & artefacts from Wellcome Collection's permanent exhibition, 'Medicine Man', in London.

London 1941. Sirens warn of danger as German bomber planes approach the city. Ever cautious, Kathy and her mother head immediately for the nearest public air raid shelter, and when the building is destroyed in a direct hit, it is a miracle Kathy survives. Finding herself alone, Kathy is left with nothing but a burning fury and a determination to join the war effort.

Acapulco, 1974: Rina Walker is on assignment. Just another quick, clean kill. She wakes to discover her employer's severed head on her bedside table and a man with an AK-47 coming through the door of her hotel room. She needs all her skills to neutralise her attacker and escape. After a car chase, she is captured by a Mexican drug boss who exploits her radiant beauty and ruthless expertise to eliminate an inconvenient member of the government.

London, 1942. Charlotte Fenimore is back home on a week's leave from the Women's Auxiliary Airforce. She had planned for a week of rest and recuperation. She hadn't planned to fall deeply in love with an irascible detective called Dan Chalmers, a wounded hero of Dunkirk who believed no woman would ever look at him again.

It is summer 1941 and the country is still at war. In the Devon village of Ashleigh, however, evacuees from the London blitz are living in an atmosphere of rural peacefulness, although Daisy Ricketts of Bermondsey isn't sure if she'll ever get on with carping Mrs Mumford, the subject of whispers because of her husband's mysterious disappearance. David, the elder son of Tommy and Vi Adams, meets Kate Trimble, a cockney girl from Camberwell who has just arrived in Ashleigh with her aunt.