Showing results by narrator "Sherry Baines" in All Categories

Beth Ward and Tyler Blacklock share a love they know will last forever. But Beth’s mother, Esther, is jealous of the girl’s happiness and seizes an opportunity to be rid of her daughter. Banished in disgrace from the family home, Beth takes the northbound train and alights at Blackburn, friendless and alone. On this day, Fortune smiles, for Beth is taken in by warm-hearted Maisie Armstrong, a widow with two children. Money is scarce, but love abounds in the cosy house on Larkhill, and Beth is content there to await the birth of her child.

Nell Reece has never known her mother, and her father's burden of guilt about his wife has kept him cowed for years, working as a common labourer on his sister's farm. For all her aunt's spiteful attempts to break Nell's independent spirit, she has never succeeded. But now Nell, pregnant and alone, is forced to leave behind the men in her life, believing she might never be able to return. With little but the clothes she wears, she travels across the Bedfordshire countryside of 1890. When she encounters a scruffy urchin called Kit, she takes him under her wing.

It is said that books are written to bring sunshine into our dull, grey lives—to show us places we want to escape to, lives we want to live, people we want to love. But there are also stories that can only be found in the deepest, darkest corners of the library. Stories about the unexplained, of lost souls, of things that go bump before the silence. Before the screaming. And some stories just disappear. Stories printed in old newspapers, broadcast live on the wireless, sometimes not even published at all—these are the stories you cannot find on even the dustiest of library shelves.

Blackburn, 1947. In the tiny front parlour 14-year-old Laura Blake watches her beloved father die. But not before he tells her she will make something of her life. Laura never forgets his words. Yet her path to success proves to be a rocky one. Forced to trundle a cart around the back streets, selling other folk's cast-offs to support her family, Laura learns enough to start work in her uncle's furniture shop. But then fate deals another cruel blow when Laura is brutally raped. Bearing the child of her attacker in secret, she vows to make the world pay for its injustice towards her.

From the moment she learns of the stranger's visit, Molly Tattersall is filled with a sense of fear. Then her mother disappears, leaving behind a letter asking Molly to take care of her five brothers and sisters. Molly's wayward father rejects his responsibilities, leaving Molly to choose between the young man she has given her heart to and the family she adores. It is the cruellest decision of her life, with long-reaching and heart-breaking consequences. Only one thing is certain – Molly's life will never be the same again.

On a snowy night in February in a penthouse high above Fifth Avenue, Delphine's mystical talent leads to a tragedy between two brothers. Devastated and disconsolate, Delphine renounces her gift and returns to her old life in the south of France, where Picasso, Matisse, and the Fitzgeralds are summering. There, Delphine comes to question everything and everyone she loves - her art, her magick, her family, and Mathieu....

When Rosie’s parents were involved in a train accident, her mother was killed and her father left crippled, unable to earn a living and relying on Rosie to keep the wolf from the door. With her mother gone and her sweetheart Adam away in the army, Rosie is lonely. She eagerly awaits the letters from him, but they never come. As she grows more disillusioned, Adam’s best friend Doug goes out of his way to be charming and attentive. Alone and confused, Rosie blossoms under his evil influence.

Rumours about a war with Germany have been whispered around the Quality Street factory for months. It’s hard for everyone to get their heads around air raids, rationing and the threat of bombings, so to distract themselves, they girls are betting on who is most likely to announce wedding bells.

Amy, Anne, Kate and Jane were best friends at school. But now, as they approach their 60th birthdays, their lives have taken them in different directions. Successful, dissatisfied, seeking something different in equal measure, they know that life is not always easy. So when Amy invites the other three to her beautiful villa in Majorca for a long celebratory reunion weekend, each of them is drawn by curiosity...and each has a reason for wanting to get away from home for a while.

The Quality Street Factory is fizzing with the news that the King and Queen and the two young princesses, Elizabeth and Margaret Rose, are going to visit the Mackintosh Factory where the country’s favourite wrapped chocolate is made. The factory floor is heady with excitement but plans are dealt a blow when a much loved staff member is the victim of a poisoning incident. Everyone is under suspicion, which only adds to Reenie Calder’s woes, anxious that her new promotion has only made her stick out even more like a sore thumb.

The last time Katy saw Jude was on a school trip: Jude was attacked by a stranger, and Katy ran away. Twenty years later, Jude is back, and her reappearance coincides with a series of unsettling incidents: a stranger appears in the downstairs flat, Katy's house is vandalized, her mother is mugged, and her home ransacked. Jude also seems to know an uncomfortable amount about Katy's current life.

In the hilltop villa with its spectacular views across rolling countryside to the straits of Gibraltar, Lucy anxiously awaits the arrival of her brother and sister. They're spending the weekend together to say farewell to Casa de Sueños, the house in the mountains of Southern Spain where they grew up. Her sister, Jo, landing at the airport with her fractious four-year-old, dreads the prospect of this time with her family, fulfilling their mother's last instructions that they celebrate her birthday party together.

Jenny Pepper never expected to end up like this. Tired of her job and her lacklustre marriage, increasingly marginal in her teenage daughter's life, Jenny stumbles into a vigilante rescue one night; suddenly her world is exciting again - and she's a hero. In secret - in costume - she walks the streets of her small town, seeking to right wrongs. But secret identities are tricky to maintain, and Jenny's need for adventure is beginning to cost her dearly. Then, amidst the petty crime, a terrifying villain appears.

Beth is a woman in supreme control of all aspects of her life and family, with a stellar career and her house an oasis of calm. Her closest friend, Megan, is very different; somehow she swims through the chaos of her family with ease, the clutter on the stairs, the cat footprints on the kitchen work space. And while they could not be more different, Beth and Megan have a genuine friendship built on years of laugher, tears and true understanding of each other's strengths and weaknesses.

Touching the World is the extraordinary story of Cathy Birchall, a blind woman, who set off with her companion Bernard Smith, to become the first blind person ever to circle the world on a motorbike, an 18 year old BMW R100. What transpired has become an inspirational worldwide story that challenges people to question their own self-imposed boundaries.

Seven friends. One killer. You can run, but you can’t hide… It’s Boxing Day and your friendship group has planned a hike. You know tensions are running high. You’ve heard the rumours flying around. But this trip is a chance for you to reconnect. As you head into the reserve, everyone is quiet. It almost feels like you’ve imagined the rift. But as the sun sets, you hear a gun shot. One of your group is dead. And someone you know killed them…

Ada Williams once believed money and power would bring her happiness. But now she is all alone except for her greedy son Peter, who waits only for the day he will inherit her fortune. Ada, however, has a different plan altogether. A few miles away in Blackburn, the Bolton family may be poor – but the love they share means they can overcome almost any adversity. But no one could foresee the shocking events of Christmas night 1932, which split the family asunder, leaving Larry crippled and the twins, Ellie and Betsy, in a foster home.

Powerful, hard-hearted Leonard Mears ruthlessly presides over his wife and children, exiling them from the outside world and brutally punishing any disobedience. But he is also a man with a dark secret – an illegitimate daughter that he forced his sister to bring up. The girl is now a young woman who, unbeknownst to him, is determined to find the father that abandoned her.

Sonny Fareham's lover – and also her boss – is the charismatic Tony Bridgeman, a successful and ruthless man who usually gets what he wants. But for Sonny, the affair that has promised a future of hope and happiness must end in desperate fear. Late one evening, Sonny overhears a private conversation between Tony Bridgeman and his wife. Only then does she realise she is in great danger.

Louise and Ben Hunter's loving marriage is marred only by their unfulfilled longing for a child. Living and working with Ben's father, Ronnie, they are quietly contented. But when Ronnie dies, their whole world changes. Ben's lazy brother, Jacob, returns, convinced he stands to inherit Ronnie's small fortune. And he means to have his brother's wife; though just as she did years before, Louise warns him off. Jacob, however, is not so easily dismissed. When he realises Ben will inherit everything, Jacob is beside himself with rage, and commits a terrible deed.