Showing results by narrator "Annie Aldington" in All Categories

When Carrie Manning’s father dies, her mother, Esther, is heartbroken. Essie leaves London to convalesce with her good friend Lady Alice, and it is down to Carrie to look after her family and take charge of the shipping company that her father has left behind. But the company is in dire straits, forcing Carrie seek work as a companion to Maria Colville. When Carrie and Maria try to track down Maria’s mother, they have no idea of the secrets that they will discover. Secrets that link the Colvilles, the Mannings and figures from the past who return to England.

June Dawson has come a long way from her rough East End background. She now lives in a nice little cul-de-sac in Rainham with her ultra-respectable husband and a lovely social life. But her world collapses when daughter Debbie announces that she is pregnant by her low-life drug addict boyfriend, Billy McDaid. June feels as though she is being sucked back into the world of villains and thugs she thought she had escaped forever.

The Crying Game opens in 1944 and tells the story of Trixie - a girl who has only ever known turmoil. As a teenager, she covers up the terrible truth of her father's death and she and her pregnant mother go on the run. Little does she know that fate has more cruel twists in store.

Determined to build a life for her herself, Trixie becomes a singer in the pubs and clubs of Gosport - but her heart is still set on finding the little brother she had to leave behind years before. It will take Trixie many years and many tears before the truth can finally emerge - but will it finally give her the courage she needs to fall in love?

Daddy’s girl Samantha Reynold hadn’t bargained on unexpectedly needing to step into her father’s shoes and take over the family casino business. Pampered and spoiled, Sam knows nothing about the rules of this glamorous but deadly new world. She has a lot to learn and even more to prove. But she won’t let her family down, especially when it looks like they could lose everything to their biggest rivals - the Stoker family.

Susie Brown is overjoyed when her brother, Will, turns up unexpectedly on leave from service in time for her wedding to Sammy Adams. But Will's leave is an extended one due to bad health, and he's unsure whether the army will keep him or whether he'll be able to find a job in the slump of the '20s. To make matters worse, he's at risk of falling in love with the young and personable Annie Ford.

The unabridged, downloadable audiobook edition of Virginia Nicholson's Millions Like Us: Women's Lives in the Second World War. A special multi-voice recording featuring five actresses that bring to life the hundreds of personal testimonies, diary entries and books that make up this superb study. Read by Patience Tomlinson, Annie Aldington, Rachel Bavidge, Julie Maisey and Georgina Sutton.

Holding the letter in trembling hands, Daisy’s future crumbled before her – the words engraved on her heart forever. The village of Little Creek, the long winter of 1867. The first flakes of snow are falling when Daisy Marshall, secretly engaged to her master's son, finds herself jilted at the altar. Heartbroken, Daisy flees to the small village of Little Creek, nestled on the coast of Essex. There she is warmly welcomed – but the village is poverty-stricken, suffering under a cruel lord of the manor. And when cholera hits, the villagers are truly in dire straits.

Christmas is coming to the village of Rockwood. But the happiest time of the year is marred by the news that Rosalind Blanchard’s husband, Piers, is close to death after a shipwreck at sea. The fate of her beloved family home, the crumbling Rockwood Castle, is once more in her hands. She must find the strength to keep her family together.

The Mitchells and the O'Haras have been enemies for years. One a gangland family, the other travellers, they resort to violence to solve problems between them. So when Frankie Mitchell fell for Jed O'Hara, it was only going to be a matter of time before all hell broke loose. Clever, ruthlessly attractive to women and slippery as a snake, Jed O'Hara has Frankie exactly where he wants her - pregnant and estranged from her family. Even Eddie Mitchell, Frankie's terrifying father, is no threat - he's in prison awaiting trial for murder.

It’s 1983 and Stephanie Crouch’s life is dull. She is desperate to escape the run-down, pokey council house she shares with her overbearing family, but at fourteen years old she has nowhere to go. When Stephanie meets East End wide-boy Barry, his cockney charm and quick tongue soon have her head over heels in love. Finally Stephanie feels like her dreary life is on the up. But too young to control their fate, Stephanie and Barry are torn apart when he is whisked away to Spain by his family.

Can she win the heart of the man she loves? Sammy has always had an eye for business and a good deal and is determined to expand the family business. But as his mighty empire grows, his assistant Susie Brown has plans of her own.... Susie has always adored Sammy and has decided that he will be the man she marries. But marriage doesn't figure in Sammy's plans. Will he fall into line? Does he stand a chance against a determined woman and the rest of the Adams family?

Glenda Jenkins has been beaten by her husband, Harry, one too many times - and this time he's put her in a hospital bed. Battered and bruised, Glenda slowly makes her recovery. But she fears what awaits her back at home.... When Glenda meets kind hospital porter Frank, he offers her a lifeline she can't refuse. The pair decide to run away together, escaping the terror of Harry. But, fearing for her life, Glenda has to make the biggest sacrifice of all and leave her baby, Johnnie, behind.

Sean O'Donnell, small-time villain and loyal family man, walked out on his family nineteen years ago and hasn't been heard of since. Now his daughter Iris has returned to the East End in the hope of finding out what happened. But it isn't going to be easy. Everyone close to Iris, including her mother, seems intent on keeping the truth hidden. With the rest of her life in a mess, Iris struggles to make sense of her murky family history. But a chance meeting with the mysterious Guy Wilder changes everything.

Ava Gold's employment options are rapidly shrinking and, not wanting to go back to driving minicabs, she lands herself a trial run at being nightclub owner Chris Street's personal driver. Chris is one of the men about town in Kellston, East London, and is initially suspicious of having a female driver, but Ava soon proves her worth, and beyond. Still, working for one of the notorious Streets - who have a past history of violence reaching back to the boom time of the sixties - is never going to be easy.

When 73-year-old Jen announces that she is going to marry Eddie, a man she met just a few months previously on a beach on Boxing Day, her four best friends from aqua aerobics are flabbergasted. The wedding is booked and, when the groom decides to have a stag trip to Las Vegas, the ladies arrange a hen party to beat all others - a week in the city of love, Paris.

Having spent her life watching her father run his East London firm, Zara Ezra has learnt a thing or two about being a gangster, and she’s ready to take over when the time comes. Mike Regan, a blast from Zara’s past, is the head of his own firm, but when his son is kidnapped in the middle of a gangland feud, Mike has no choice but to accept help from the Ezras to get his little boy back alive. With a rival firm playing increasingly dirty, murder moves to the top of the agenda and Zara has some big choices to make.

Maggie Bailey has not had an easy childhood. Her father, Michael, always too easy with his fists after spending the family’s rent money down the pub. Just sixteen, in love and blinded by promises, Maggie sees marriage to handsome Jack as her great escape. However, she soon finds herself abandoned with a beautiful baby when Jack disappears. Maggie is forced to seek a new life away from the East End of London and finds herself a job at a hotel in Yarmouth.

London, 1944. With bombs raining over London, keeping the Battersea Tavern open is no easy feat for owner Winnie Berry - but the community need the warmth and familiarity of the pub more than ever. After marriage, Maureen Fanning had moved out to Wandsworth with her bad-tempered husband Brancher. But when he loses both his job and their lodgings, the only people who will take them in are her kindly grandparents, Len and Renee. Getting a cleaning job at the Battersea Tavern is the least she can do to pay them back. It would all be fine...if it weren't for Brancher.

It is 1962. Daisy Lane's man, Kenny, is in jail for robbery, leaving Daisy to run the couple's café down in Gosport, Hampshire. Daisy lives above the café and shares the house with Kenny's older brother, Eddie: a handsome, resourceful villain with a streak of viciousness that leads him to commit acts of terrifying violence to get his way. But Eddie has a weakness and it's called "Daisy". He loves his brother's wife; Kenny's not around, and Eddie always gets what he wants.

The final thrilling showdown between the Mitchells and the Butlers. This is Kimberley Chambers at her heart-stopping best! One of them has a gun to his head. Who will pull the trigger? When king of the underworld Vinny Butler goes into business with respected villain Eddie Mitchell, it's a match made in East End legend. Friends and family are treated like gold, enemies like rats - it's the life. Then mysterious packages arrive, dead creatures and threats. Someone is out for revenge.