Showing results by narrator "Lisa Armytage" in All Categories

Bequeathed a century-old house, four estranged friends return to their hometown, Calingarry Crossing, where each must stay for a season at Dandelion House to fulfil the wishes of their benefactor, Gypsy. But coming home to the country stirs up shameful memories of the past, including the tragic end-of-school muck-up day accident twenty years earlier.

Suddenly, she isn't twenty-five; she's turning fifty. She doesn't have a big-deal boyfriend; she has a nerdy husband. While Kelli "celebrates" her Big Five-O birthday, she desperately schemes to get back to her glorious past. But what if there's no way out—and what if her future proves to be the life she really wants to lead?

It is the spring of 1961, and the sleepy little town of Jingera is at its most perfect with its clear blue skies, pounding surf and breathtaking lagoon. Yet all is not so perfect behind closed doors. George Cadwallader - butcher by day and stargazer by night - is loved by everyone, except his wife. He only wants the best for his family, yet it's all falling apart. Philip Chapman is a sensitive young boy, a musical prodigy - and a target for bullies. But with his wealthy parents indifferent to his cries for help, his entire future is at risk.

Coming together with a small group of friends, Ann Pettitt started a movement that changed the face of Cold War Britain. Her remarkable memoir tells the real story behind one of the 20th century's most iconic expressions of grass roots political will.

Meryem has learned to look out for number one. Abducted as a teenager from England to Turkey, thirty years later she is finally free to live life on her own terms. She is divorced and wealthy, working a lucrative job in Dubai, when a whispered confession from her dying father turns her world upside down, and sets her on a path to discover the truth. The first step is a return to London, and her childhood friends, Alma and Sammy, with whom she embarks upon an impromptu 80s weekend.

Party-planner, Jo Swainson takes pride in her optimistic outlook. Nearly fifty, she has come to terms with both her childlessness and the estrangement from her cold mother, Bobbi. But after being blindsided by Bobbi’s sudden dementia diagnosis, she’s devastated when her husband announces that he’s leaving to start a family with another.

It's 1957 and, after the death of her husband, pianist Ilona Talivaldis and her nine-year-old daughter Zidra travel to the remote coastal town of Jingera in New South Wales. Ilona, a concentration camp survivor from Latvia, is searching for peace and the opportunity to start anew. In her beautiful vine-covered cottage on the edge of the lagoon, she has plans to set herself up as a piano teacher. The weeks pass, and slowly mother and daughter get to know the townsfolk. But Jingera is not quite the utopia Ilona imagines it to be.

New South Wales, 1972. Following the death of her beloved Aunt Hilda, widow Clare Barclay inherits Bellevue, an historic property in the Blue Mountains township of Numbulla, Australia. Giving up her teaching job to move there, Clare plans to restore the house to its original glory. She also hopes to track down a box of missing documents that may shed light on why her husband Jack secretly second-mortgaged their home. Clare makes friends with the locals, including a boy named Joe. She soon hears of plans to redevelop Numbulla, and to exploit the land bordering the protected wilderness area.

Sandwiched between the needs of her elderly mother and her own family, Annie barely has time for a quick swim, let alone a leisurely chat about a long neglected tea set. But as the story unfolds, the modern world seems to fall away along with her mother's dementia, and forgotten family histories are revealed.

The Lockdown Diaries records a year in the life of Dawn, Rod, their kids, cats and garden. We will all identify with their daily struggles with the pandemic. She takes us from the beginning of the lockdown, as we all became used to wearing masks, turned into teachers and hairdressers and found that nail technicians were like gold dust. She touches on the everyday struggles too - being apart from her six children, missing friends, and getting fat. On the plus side, Dawn has contributed to glass-bottle recycling on a global scale and performed miracles for Smirnoff shares.

The sudden death of her refugee friend sets off a chain of events that will change Shelley’s quiet life forever. Her burning desire for the truth uncovers a web of conspiracy, danger, and corruption that reaches all the way to the top. Shelley is reluctant to jeopardize her safe career and comfortable life, but it soon becomes clear that she will have to break rules and risk everything to uncover the truth.