Showing results by narrator "Anne Dover" in All Categories

Charlotte Booth loves her father and the home they share, which is set high up in the limestone escarpments of Crummockdale. But when a new businessman, Joseph Dawson, enters their lives, both Charlotte and her father decide he's the man for her, and within six months Charlotte marries the dashing mill owner from Accrington. Then a young mill worker is found dead in the swollen River Ribble. With Joseph's business nearly bankrupt, it becomes apparent that all is not as it seems, and Joseph is not the man he pretends to be.

Rose McAllister is waiting for her husband, Steve, to come home. He is a seaman, often drunk and violent. Rose does her best to cope and sees that her daughters, Daisy and Petal, suffer as little as possible. Sensing that war is on the horizon, Steve tries to reform, but on his last night home, he pawns the girls' new dolls to go on a drinking binge. When war is declared, Rose finds a good job but agrees the children must be evacuated. War brings hardship and difficulty for the girls and Rose as they face the destruction of their home and cruelty at the hands of others....

A story from The Prisoner’s Defence, a collection of First World War short stories. In 'Paraphernalia' a nurse describes the difficulty in distancing herself from her patients and their suffering.

London, 1939. When tragedy strikes, Libby Andrews is left homeless and destitute, fending for herself on the capital's most dangerous streets. Desperate times call for desperate measures, and Libby is on the cusp of making a decision that could jeopardise her future when a local boy saves her from ruin. The kindness of this stranger sets her on a different path, and Libby heads to Liverpool with a determined mind and hope in her heart. There, she reconnects with long lost family - but will she be able to uncover the truth that tore them apart all those years ago?

Laura Collins is struggling to make a good life for her daughters, Tess and Tina. So when she is offered a good job, with accommodation, she is delighted. Life is very different for the Brewsters who live on Manor Farm in Herefordshire. Danny plans to marry one day so that he can take over the farm, whilst his cousin, Phil, longs to escape the world of farming as soon as possible. War changes all their plans.

Sarah Foster's parents have been fighting a constant battle with poverty, disease and crime. When her father, Will, is involved in a terrible accident at work, their lives became even harder. But Will's good deeds of the past pay off as John Rayner decides to rescue the Fosters. John provides them with work and a house on the estate owned by his wealthy family.

Autumn, 1942. The Blitz has come to an end, but for many families, it's not over yet. As the residents of Jubilee Row begin to rebuild their lives, twins Sybil and Maudie Maguire decide to go off and do their bit by joining the WAAFs. But what starts off as a great adventure soon forces the girls to grow up as they are confronted with the harsh realities of war. Will they stick together, or will their experiences drive them apart? Back in Hull, their older sister Florence is a typing pool supervisor who has resigned herself to a life without love.

Leeds, 1918. When Amy visits her husband, Jude, at Beckett's Park Hospital, he doesn't recognise her. Broken after serving four devastating years in the First World War, Jude is a shadow of the man he once was. Can he ever again be the man Amy knew and loved? Barnsborough, 1912. The first time Jude and Amy meet, the connection between them is instant and electric. While a librarian's assistant and a collier might not be the most conventional pair, the two come together over a love of books that quickly turns into more.

Hull, 1874. Clara had always wondered about the beautiful, mysterious Jewel Newmarch, who was adopted as a baby and turns heads wherever she goes - her exotic looks point to her origins far away from the streets of Hull. Even at her twin sister Elizabeth’s wedding, Clara knows that Jewel is the belle of the ball. And as Jewel looks on at the happy, newly-married couple she feels a restlessness and intense longing to know her own roots.

It is 1931, and once again Europe is heading towards disaster. Life must go on however, and a new generation of the Neyler family are making their way in this turbulent world. Louis Rose, the self-confessed black sheep of the family, returns to England for his father's funeral and is greeted with more bad news: he has lost his mistress to his young nephew.

It's 1813. Venetia Lovell lives by the sea in Kent with her pretty, frivolous mother and idle younger brother. Venetia's father, Theo, is an interior decorator to the rich and frequently travels away from home, leaving his sensible and artistic daughter to look after the family. Venetia designs paper hangings, and she and her father often daydream about having an imaginary shop where they would display the highest quality furniture, fabrics and art to his clients.

Laura Cannock is on the run. Suspected of killing her bullying husband, his family are on a merciless prowl for revenge. Fleeing from her beloved home of Bolton to Manchester, Laura seeks refuge with her coal merchant uncle. But it soon becomes clear that a roof over her head comes with a price - of the type so unbearable she must escape once more. Destitute and penniless, a stench-ridden housing court in the back streets of the factories is Laura’s only hope of a dwelling - a place where both the filth and the kindness of neighbours overwhelm.

Emmy Dickens lives with her widowed mother in a neat house in neglected Nightingale Court, but Mrs Dickens has always impressed upon her daughter that her main aim in life must be to escape from the court. Emmy sees that marriage is her best way out, and when Peter Wesley, First Officer aboard a cruise ship, asks her to marry him, she is over the moon. Life goes well for the newlyweds; they set up home and start a family. But when Peter is killed and Emmy is left almost penniless, her problems begin....

Dympna Byrne lives a simple life with her family on the Connemara coast. She adores her father Micheál, and does her best to help her family by working hard and expecting little. But beneath the surface there are hidden secrets. Dympna’s mother idolises her clever eldest son, yet her attitude to Dympna is puzzling. So when her family find themselves in desperate need of money, it is Dympna who crosses the water to Liverpool to seek a better life.

When Daisy's family lose their croft on the Connemara coast, her Aunt Jane, housekeeper to Dr. and Mrs Venables, offers to take Daisy back to Liverpool.

Nell Whitaker is 15 when war breaks out and her mother sends her to live with her Auntie Kath in a remote farmhouse on Anglesey. At first Nell hates it, but her friendship with Bryn, who works on the farm whilst waiting for his call-up papers, helps a lot. So when he leaves to join his ship, Nell is counting the days to his return. But her heart is broken when news reaches her that Bryn’s ship has been bombed and he has been drowned. Determined to bury her grief in hard work, Nell finds herself growing closer to Auntie Kath.

Val Neyler, driving an ambulance through the blazing heart of London, is in an impossible position, for the man she loves is a fighter pilot with the Luftwaffe. And Jenny, whose husband, Simon, is flying Spitfires, finds herself working as a landgirl on a Devon farm. Cara, by contrast, develops her social life, and Maude, in the WAAF, falls in love with two men at once.... And Tina, matriarch of the family, loves them all, scolds them all, and tries to understand the new generation growing up in the troubled times of war.

When Laura Page returns to the remote Holderness village of Welwick, it is to try and discover the mystery of her mother Susannah’s early life. Now a local property owner in Hull, Susannah never speaks of her childhood, when she was brought up with the terrible stigma of bastardy – of being nobody’s child. Born into poverty, living in a tiny labourer’s cottage with her father, Susannah’s mother had caught the eye of the local landowner’s son.

Brought to you by Penguin. At only thirteen, Mikey Quinn is arrested for stealing a rabbit to feed his family. Despite his age, he's shown no mercy by the wealthy lawyer who sends him to prison. He returns home to find that his mother has died and his younger siblings taken into the workhouse...

From the acclaimed author of The Last Pearl and Dancing at the Victory Cafe, this is a beautiful novel about dark family secrets, betrayal, love and redemption. 1666. A child is born in the farmhouse at Windebank, in the West Riding of Yorkshire. Named Rejoice (Joy) by her dying father, Joy grows up witness to the persecution of the farming community for following a banned faith.