Showing results by narrator "Maggie Mash" in All Categories

From the internationally best-selling author of A Woman of Substance. Three generations of beautiful women and their journeys from rags to riches. Audra is an impoverished children's nanny from Leeds who sacrificed everything for her daughter. Christina is a talented art student who won world renown as a fashion designer - yet who has known heartache. Kyle is a rebellious young woman who chafes against her mother's success - and in whom her grandmother's spirit of duty and sacrifice is reborn.

Victorian London is brought vividly to life in Ann Granger's fifth historical crime novel to feature Scotland Yard's Inspector Ben Ross and his wife Lizzie.... A hanged man would say anything to save his life. But what if his testimony is true? When Inspector Ben Ross is called to Newgate Prison by a man condemned to die by the hangman's noose, he isn't expecting to give any credence to the man's testimony. But the account of a murder he witnessed over 17 years ago is so utterly believeable that Ben can't help wondering if what he's heard is true.

Lizzie Martin, lady's companion, has been sent from London to the New Forest to comfort a young woman whose baby has tragically died. A sad enough task, but things take an even darker turn when a rat-catcher is found murdered, and the young woman is discovered beside the body, crying and covered in blood. Not knowing where else to turn, Lizzie calls upon her friend Inspector Ben Ross to solve the horrific crime.

Fifteen years ago, a teenage girl was assaulted and raped as she picked flowers for a Midsummer's Eve ritual. Cut to the present, and a man is killed in a hit-and-run. He has no identification on him; he is not reported missing or wanted by the police. At the same time, a priest and his wife are found dead in an apparent suicide.

The thrilling story of Catherine de Valois - the French princess who became an English queen. Perfect for fans of Philippa Gregory. Even the greatest of queens have rules - to break them would cost her dearly… King Henry V's new French Queen, Catherine, dazzles the crowds in England but life at court is full of intrigue and her loyal companion, Mette, suspects that the beautiful Eleanor Cobham, protégée of the Duke of Gloucester, is spying for him.

It is 1864 when Lizzie Martin takes up the post of companion to a wealthy widow who is also a slum landlord. Lizzie is intrigued to learn that her predecessor disappeared, supposedly having run off with an unknown man. But when the girl's body is found in the rubble of one of the recently demolished slums around the prestigious new railway station at St Pancras, Lizzie begins to wonder exactly what has been going on.

Drawing on letters and diaries, some of which have never been published before, this book will reveal Jane Austen's bond with a family servant, the amateur playwright Anne Sharp, how Charlotte Brontë was inspired by the daring feminist Mary Taylor, the transatlantic relationship between George Eliot and the author of Uncle Tom's Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and the underlying erotic charge that lit the friendship of Virginia Woolf and Katherine Mansfield - a pair too often dismissed as bitter foes.

Set in England when Vikings are on the brink of invasion, this is an epic tale of seduction, war, and unrequited love from an outstanding new voice in historical fiction. In 1002 AD Emma, a young Norman girl, must take her place as bride to England's King Æthelred, a ruler who is looking for nothing more than a political pawn to protect his shores and bear his next child.

Victoria was a very pretty girl, but with three sisters even prettier than she, Victoria had developed a bit of a complex about her looks. So when attractive Alexander van Schuylen made it clear he liked her, she really didn’t expect much more from him. How could she, when he was so impressed with her sisters’ beauty? But if his feelings for Victoria actually did run deep, she could be in danger of losing him - entirely through her own fault.

September 1613. In Belvoir Castle, the heir of one of England's great noble families falls suddenly and dangerously ill. Within a few short weeks he will suffer an excruciating death. Soon the whole family will be stricken with the same terrifying symptoms. The second son, the last male of the line, will not survive. It is said witches are to blame. And so the Earl of Rutland's sons will not be the last to die.

1980. Three schoolgirls visit St. Valentine's shrine in Dublin, to write petitions for love. 2010. These same women have discovered that finding love was the easy part; it's what you do with it that's tricky. When one of the women returns home unexpectedly from California, all three are forced to examine their choices. Vonnie, Abby and Diana must learn they need to open their eyes and more especially their hearts...

In one of the most famous portraits in the world, a pretty girl walks through the grounds of Kenwood House, a vision of aristocratic refinement. But the eye is drawn to the beautiful woman on her right. Pointing at her own cheek, she playfully acknowledges her remarkable position in 18th-century society. For Dido Belle was the illegitimate, mixed-race daughter of a Royal Navy captain and a slave woman, adopted by the Earl of Mansfield. As Lord Chief Justice of England he would preside over the notorious Zong case - the drowning of 142 slaves by an unscrupulous shipping company.

Marie is turning 69 this year, but there are no signs of her slowing down - she has a new lodger (very into conspiracy theories), an intractable iPhone to wrestle with, and a trip to India to plan! As usual the year brings plenty of challenges as well as opportunities. Marie is burgled, which sends the street into uproar. Ex-husband David is still around and getting rather too close for comfort.

A heart-rending tale of love and tragedy during The Birmingham Blitz. Perfect for fans of Katie Flynn and Annie Groves. For Kathy O'Malley, life has not been easy with her husband, Barry, out of work and with two children to feed. Then when war breaks out in 1939, many of the local men enlist, including Barry, leaving the women to cope as best they can. The years that follow are full of hardship: rationing, nightly air raids, and endless shifts working at the local munitions factory all take their toll on Kathy.

In the middle of a rainy Swedish summer, a little girl is abducted from a crowded train. Despite hundreds of potential witnesses, no one noticed when the girl was taken. Her mother, left behind at the previous station, alerted the crew immediately. But as the train pulled into Stockholm Central Station, the girl was nowhere to be seen.

In 1972 Elizabeth Romer moved to a farmhouse in Tuscany, where she discovered a life moulded by the past and tasted the simple, sublime flavours of traditional Italian cooking for the first time. Here, she introduces the Cerotti family, who farm one section of the valley, and vividly describes, month by month, the Tuscan year. From January's prosciutto and salami, to cheese-making in March, to threshing the corn in high summer, to the game and chanterelles of autumn and the chestnut woods of November and December.

Told with warmth and humour, The Ever Open Door is the story of a hard working, down-to-earth community in a small Yorkshire town during the Second World War and its aftermath.Burly steelworker Jim Butler and his wife Sally are quite content in their little house on Potters Row. Jim's only complaint is that Sally is too soft hearted for her own good, always at the beck and call of any neighbour, friend or even stranger. Sally, on the other hand, accuses Jim of being a soft touch for anyone after a drink or two at the Rising Sun.

Shortly after a crowded New York-bound flight takes off from Stockholm, a bomb threat is found onboard. Anonymous hijackers demand that the Swedish government revoke its decision to deport a Moroccan man. If their demands are not met, the plane will explode if it attempts to land. The US and Swedish governments must choose between negotiating with terrorists in order to save the 400 passengers held hostage at 30,000 feet or to stand their ground and pursue the deportation of a possibly innocent man.

Dare you close your eyes for even a few seconds? One, two, three... Lisa Dale shuts her eyes and counts to 100 during a game of hide-and-seek. When she opens them, her four-year-old daughter, Ella, is gone. Disappeared without a trace. The police, the media and Lisa's family all think they know who snatched Ella. But what if the person who took her isn't a stranger? What if they are convinced they are doing the right thing? And what if Lisa's little girl is in danger of disappearing forever?

In working-class Leeds in the 1920s, Jess is starting on her journey through life. Growing up in the aftermath of the Great War, she is torn between her downtrodden father and her cantankerous, ambitious mother. After a disastrous spell as housekeeper to the local priest, she works happily in the office of her uncle's shoe factory and falls in love with her childhood sweetheart, Wilf.