Showing results by narrator "Anne Dover" in All Categories

Brought to you by Penguin. Cosy up with the gorgeous novel from Sunday Times Number One Bestselling author, Katie Flynn Liverpool, 1939: Sixteen-year-old Lizzy Atherton is forced to flee her violent step-father in the middle of the night, and finds herself stranded on a station platform...

When Dot McCann, playing with her pals, decides to hide in Butcher Rathbone's almost empty dustbin, she overhears a conversation which could send one man to prison and the other to the gallows - and suddenly finds herself in possession of stolen goods. Dot lives with her aunt and uncle, abandoned after her parents died. She feels very alone until she meets up with Corky, who has run away from a London orphanage. They join forces with Emma, whose jeweller's shop has been burgled, and Nick, a young reporter who is investigating the crime.

Marianne seems to have everything. She is married to a handsome Naval officer, Neil Sheridan. They have a daughter, Libby, and a beautiful home near Prince's Park in Liverpool. When war comes, Marianne takes war work and moves in with her mother, Mrs Wainwright, and younger sister. Neil disapproves because the Wainwrights live close to the docks, which are bound to be a bombing target, but Marianne is firm.

Sophia Seddon and Grace Thompson are poles apart - the one a member of the notorious Seddons of Plover Street, the other the vicar's spoilt only child. But their childhood friendship is revived when they find themselves fighting a common cause: women’s rights. And the ties of friendship prove stronger and more enduring than those of background or family, even in the face of danger. Both incredibly moving and engrossing, this is period drama for fans of Dilly Court, Margaret Dickinson and Annie Murray, from an experienced and acclaimed storyteller.

A short story from British Library Crime Classic The Christmas Card Crime and Other Stories. A Christmas Eve party at Clevere Hall ends in tragedy when the host is found stabbed to death. Major Ceely certainly wasn’t short of enemies, but who hated him enough to commit the crime?

Diane Allen invites you into the heart of Yorkshire with her historical saga, Daughter of the Dales, the stirring conclusion to the Windfell Manor Trilogy. Upon the passing of matriarch Charlotte Atkinson, her daughter Isabelle courageously assumes the role of caretaker for the family's...

1914. Mining engineer Tommy Birch goes off to war, leaving his new wife, Rita, behind in Pontefract. On the front line, Tommy runs afoul of a German mine and is reported as missing, presumed deceased by his fellow soldiers. But Tommy isn't dead. Found behind enemy lines, wearing only a pair of boots stolen from a dead German, Tommy is picked up by the enemy, who believe him to be one of their own.

Liverpool, 1940. There comes a moment in every child’s life when they must learn to stand on their own two feet. For 15-year-old Ellie Lancton, that time has come all too soon. The death of her mother and the increase in air raids leaves Ellie alone and in grave danger. It’s not long before she is forced to leave her beloved Liverpool behind and cross the Mersey to seek refuge in the countryside. But as the war takes comforts away, so too does it bring new opportunities: for work, new friendships and perhaps a little love....

Orphaned and destitute, will Grace find her own way in the world? When Grace's Ma passes away and her Da's ship sinks with all hands, Grace is utterly alone in the world. She's sent to an orphanage in Blackpool, but the master has an eye for a pretty young lass. Grace won't be his victim, so she runs, destitute, into the night. In Blackpool, she finds a home with the kindly Sheila and Peggy - and meets a lovely airman. But it's 1938, and war is on the horizon. Will Grace ever find the happiness and home she deserves?

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.

When Helga Schneider was four, her mother, Traudi, abandoned her to pursue her career. In 1998, Helga received a letter asking her to visit Traudi, now 90-years old, before she dies. Mother and daughter have met only once after Traudi left, on a disastrous visit where Helga first learnt the...

Maddy Kiernan knows her situation is desperate. With her parents dead, her brother Thomas is left as guardian to her and her sister, Carmel, and Thomas, Maddy is all too aware, only cares about himself. When his plans to marry the daughter of the Protestant canal agent backfire Thomas takes off to Liverpool, leaving the girls to fend for themselves against the lecherous agent. Taking the momentous decision to follow their brother, Maddy leaves for Liverpool. Within days the girls are destitute, reduced to living in a cellar, their money gone. Eventually, Maddy finds work as a maid to an old lady....

A story from Night in the Front Line, a collection of Second World War short stories. One of Elizabeth Bowen’s most well-known stories, The Demon Lover sees Mrs Drover return to her abandoned London home, her family having settled into evacuated life in the countryside, to find a letter waiting for her.

Lucy Bailey is not a girl to take no for an answer. When she asks her friend Billy Wellington to help her rescue a stray dog, she has no idea of the potential repercussions. A serious crime is committed while Billy is absent from the children's home where he lives and, when suspicion falls on him, the police decide that the safest thing for everybody is to lock him away in a mental institution. Lucy refuses to believe that Billy has done anything wrong, and enlists her cool-headed teenage brother Arnold to help.

The moment artist Riana Evans sees the dilapidated mansion in Wales she longs to buy it, despite its unhappy past – 20 years ago, five maids died there in mysterious circumstances. So she is delighted when the house’s elderly and eccentric owner sells it to her for a pittance. The house’s “ghosts” prove good for business – inspiring her paintings and providing welcome atmosphere for a series of successful ghost-spotting weekends.

Thousands of short stories were published during the First World War, which coincided with the heyday of the fiction magazine in Britain. Much of this material has never been republished since the end of the war and is virtually lost to the modern audience. This new collection is an important work of recovery, introducing little-known magazine short fiction - which was primarily written for a civilian readership - by major writers such as Arthur Conan Doyle as well as more neglected authors.

Liverpool, 1936. Molly Penelope Hardwick has been abandoned in Haisborough Orphanage. Desperate to discover her background, she befriends another orphan, Lenny Smith. Together they sneak out to roam the city of Liverpool, and hatch plans for their escape. But when Molly is forced to leave the orphanage, Lenny has no idea where she’s gone. And when war is declared, he soon forgets about his childhood best pal to focus on his posting with the RAF in Scrimpton.

Hilary Napier has had enough of secrets. The engagement party at the Barton is finally a chance for her and David to celebrate their good news. But the course of true love never did run smooth. At the school, Frances and James are readying the children for the play at the annual Summer Fair and doing their best to ignore their feelings for each other. Will the chaos-causing Crocker twins make it to the dress rehearsal? And, more importantly, will Frances find a way to let herself love again?

It's the late 1950s and change is in the air. For the Napier family, up at the big house, the old ways are shifting. Hilary must discover if reaching out for a chance of happiness must mean breaking away from the life expected of her, while Patsy, their young housekeeper's help, is facing motherhood without her own family around her. Down the hill from the Napiers, villagers young and old are setting out on adventures.

A love story, a modern nightmare and an honest and incisive portrayal of a woman who honours her husband's wish to die and finds herself in the dock for murder. When Deborah reluctantly helps her beloved husband Neil end his life and conceals the truth, she is charged with murder. As the trial unfolds and her daughter Sophie testifies against her, Deborah, still reeling with grief, fights to defend her actions. Twelve jurors hold her fate in their hands, if found guilty she will serve a life sentence.