Showing results by narrator "Penelope Freeman" in All Categories

1939, Warsaw, Poland: Pilot Jan Grabowski receives orders that take him to the heart of the escalating conflict. He leaves behind his wife, Rulka, who sees Poland overcome by the Nazis. In constant danger and amid cruel reprisals, she joins the Resistance. Norfolk: Louise Fairhurst's war is very different. Evacuated with her class of 10-year-olds from London she finds herself acting mother as well as teacher to the children.

Primavera Blackstone has found contentment in a small Spanish village by the sea. A fiercely protective single mother, she doesn’t appreciate an offer of marriage. Nor does she welcome the arrival of a blast from her past, retired cop Ricky Ross, now a private detective and working for Jack Weighley, millionaire owner of a budget airline. Primavera teams up with Ricky to investigate a series of mystery assaults on Jack’s aircraft. Are they mere acts of vandalism, or the sinister work of Catalan extremists?

Summer, 1939. The de Lacey family believe they are ready for the changes the war will bring. Elizabeth, the eldest daughter, is due to return home from her grandparents’ farm in France and is expected to marry Captain Max Coburn. But when Grandpère suffers a stroke, her future is changed. Instead of returning home, Elizabeth chooses to stay and help her grandparents. Max is also stationed in France – but will the war threaten to separate them for ever? Meanwhile, in the village of Nayton, Lucy Storey dutifully cares for her father the stationmaster.

Spirited Paula O'Brien wants to escape her family home and start a new life, but is scared of defying her abusive father. He had her put away in an asylum as a child and he threatens her with the same treatment if she disobeys him now. When she sees a newspaper advert for a live-in nanny, her best friend persuades her to apply. When grieving widower Jeffrey Lawson invites Paula to an interview, she doesn't realise it will change her life forever. And Jeffrey doesn't expect to meet a woman like Paula.

There were four of the Thorpe family in the Anderson shelter the night of the raid on Coventry. Mum and Dad, Florrie and little May. Jack was missing... he was one of those who did not return from Dunkirk. When Daisy and Marcus, sixth formers in Coventry, are given a project on the bombing of the city in 1940, they go to talk to May, now living in sheltered accommodation but full of memories of the war. The two youngsters both have their problems and as their lives unfold they strike up an unlikely friendship....

Janet Florin has been missing for almost a week, and family friend Trisha Marlowe, desperate for news, hires Sal Kilkenny to track her down. Ramin's brother, Berfan, is missing too. A failed asylum seeker, likely to be returned to Iran, has he disappeared to escape deportation? His brother says not. And when Sal hears that Berfan has been seen in Manchester, the chances of finding him look good.

Louise Charlton sees herself as plain and uninteresting beside her vibrant sister Sarah, a talented singer. When she falls in love with young Doctor Andrew Tate she is convinced he is not interested in her. While Sarah sails to America to pursue her musical career, Louise stays at home, duty-bound to care for her selfish manipulative stepmother.

Devastated after a miscarriage, Claire has distanced herself from her own life, and from her husband, Rob. Unable to deal with her own reality, Claire becomes obsessed with Daisy, a woman from the past, and as she traces her life, month-by-month, she starts to notice intriguing parallels between their lives....

Julie Monday enjoys a rare moment of happiness when at the age of eight she visits the Essex seaside and meets eleven-year-old Harry Walker. Ten years later, they meet again. Fated to be together, they marry just before the outbreak of the Second World War. But it’s now 1939, Harry has enlisted, and Julie must face the blitz alone with their son. Travelling back from work one day, Julie is caught in the chaos of a direct hit.

Ellie Tyler dreams of a life beyond that of her drunken, tyrannical father and the dangerous East London gangland. Her only refuge is in her artistic talents, which she hopes will one day help her escape. But when forced to give up her education and endure horrific abuse at the hands of her father, before finally being abandoned by the man she loved, Ellie runs away to a small Essex village. After landing a job at the silk mill, and with the encouragement of Alex, the mill owner, Ellie starts to rebuild her life.

Summer, 1938, and for the second time Britain is threatened by war with Germany. This time civilians too will be in the front line. In London, two very different families are brought together by the war. Doctors, Amy and Dan, have twins, 18-year-old Tessa and Charlie. Nora, a working-class wife and mother, has a twelve-year-old daughter, Sara, whose dream is to become a doctor, a wild idea for a working-class child. Together, and helping each other, the two families struggle to survive and endure the six years of war, and Sara fights to reach her impossible dream.

In the 1930s, Emma Pearson and her family offered a rural holiday to two orphaned children. Despite being unable to adopt John and Tommy as their own, the Pearsons stayed in touch over the years, treating them as family.

Midsummer Madness follows the fortunes of talented actress Sophie Gresham as she struggles with the secret she is desperate to hide from her theatre company. Sophie is shocked when she realises that Joe Harrison, their tough guest producer from New York, is in fact the penniless actor she once helped out in the days when she had more heart than sense.

When sweet-talking Mick Brogan dies, his young wife Cathleen struggles to bring up their daughters in their rented rooms in 1960s North London. She is comforted by Father Jerry, her husband's cousin, and a priest generally acknowledged by the Irish community to be both a saint and the spit of Gregory Peck.

Dover, 1864: Violet Rayfield leads a happy life with her family in a beautiful terrace on Camden Crescent. But Violet’s seemingly perfect world is shattered when her father makes a decision that costs her family everything. Now Violet must sacrifice all she holds dear, including the man she loves. As Violet strives to pick up the threads of her existence, a series of shocking revelations leaves her feeling even more alone. But where one door closes, another opens, and the embroidery skills Violet perfected while a young woman of leisure win her vital work.

No turkey. No fruit to make a decent pudding. No money for presents. Your children away from home; your husband, father and brothers off fighting. How in the world does one celebrate Christmas? That was the situation facing the people of Britain for six years during the Second World War. From the family whose dog ate the Christmas roast, leaving them to enjoy “Spam with all the trimmings”, to the exhibition of handmade toys for children in a Singapore prison camp, these firsthand stories are by turns tragic, poignant and funny.

Soundings and Choc Lit present the audiobook edition of A Christmas Secret. When Hugo McCreadie steps into Isla Brodie’s pet portrait studio to get a 'Festive Furball Photo Shoot' for his sister’s cat Schubert, he does question his sanity. But he knows the photographs will be the perfect Christmas present for his eccentric sister, Nessa - and he finds himself quite taken with ditzy, animal-loving Isla Brodie, too. Will a Christmas secret from long ago prevent Hugo and Isla’s new friendship from going any further? Or will a certain big, black cat take matters into his own paws?

Soundings and Choc Lit present the audiobook edition of Christmas at Borteen Bay. Christmas is a bittersweet time for Pippa Freeman. There are good memories, of course - but some painful ones, too. Then her mother is implicated in a mysterious occurrence in their home town of Borteen, and Pippa wonders if she'll ever experience a happy Christmas again - especially when a family secret is revealed. But when police officer and old school friend Ethan Gibson offers his support, Pippa begins to realise that even though her life has been turned upside down, a happy and hopeful Christmas isn't impossible....

From the deserts of North Africa to the waters of Scotland, the Second World War touches the lives of two women from two very different worlds.In Alexandria, Fran finds her world turned upside down as Rommel's forces advance on the idyllic shores of Egypt. The life of luxury and stability that she is used to is taken away as she finds herself having to deal with loss, heartache and political uncertainty.

After fleeing her divided Dutch homeland, Jannekyn van der Hest comes to Colchester, Essex, looking to make a new life for herself. Though she seeks comfort and community, she finds herself at the mercy of her cruel uncle, who condemns her to a demeaning life as a kitchen maid. As she struggles to regain her independence and make a life for herself in the cloth trade, Jannekyn will need all the courage and resourcefulness she possesses - especially when she falls in love with an Englishman, whose arrival turns Jannekyn's world upside down.