Showing results by narrator "Caroline Lennon" in All Categories

Lissadell House, Sligo, 1913. Lily and her friend Nellie are young housemaids in service in the Big House - they work for Lady Mary and Sir Josslyn Gore-Booth at Lissadell. As well as her housework and duties, Lily helps out in the local school of needlework - she hopes it might be a step on the way to her dream of being a teacher. Though they work hard, there’s lots of fun to be had at Lissadell - like friendship, fun and madcap bicycle rides with Sir Josslyn’s niece Maeve, daughter of the famous Republican Constance Markievicz. 

Families are complicated! Molly’s dad seems so lonely. He lives on his own, he won’t get a pet and he doesn’t get on with his brother.... Best friends Molly and Beth suspect his problems lie in his past, but what can two 13-year-olds do about that? Well, when they have a time-travelling door, maybe they can do something! The girls go back to 1975 hoping to right some wrongs - if they can navigate 1970s cars, food and boybands. And if the colourful fashions don’t blind them first!

Life is complicated enough for Molly and Beth even before they walk through a spooky doorway that leads to - Thursday 26 July 1984! The girls can’t believe they are back in a time where the hair is weird and the technology is basic. But when Beth realises that her mum, who died when Beth was little, would be alive in the 1980s, she just has to try to find her.... Can the girls navigate their way through the strange world of their parents’ youth - and back home again (without using Google maps)? 

Eva Gordon doesn't like mysteries - so when new girl Aretta hurries away after school every day, Eva's determined to find out why. And Aretta’s not the only person Eva’s interested in - a friend’s granny has been parted from her beloved dog, so Eva decides to cheer her up. But can she? Eva finds that some things are too big and complicated for one girl to deal with alone...but she has a talent for bringing people together, and together people can do almost anything!

As the winter snow falls on the small Irish village of Ballybray, Roisin O’Connor and her young son, Ben, are saying goodbye to their beloved neighbour Mabel Murphy. Mabel lived a bold and colourful life, but the arrival of her brooding nephew ‘blow-in’ Aidan Murphy just makes life more complicated for Roisin. However, in one final act of love, a message arrives from Mabel that changes everything. And as winter turns to spring and the cold snow melts, the secrets both Roisin and Aidan are hiding must be revealed at last....

There is the secret of Birdy's dead grandmother's cat - how the boys tortured it and Birdy Flynn had to drown her in the river to stop her suffering. There's the secret of Mrs Cope, the popular teacher who touched Birdy in the cupboard. There's the secret of the gypsy girl at school, whom Birdy likes, but she can't tell anyone. Because Birdy's other secret is that while she plays and fights as good as the boys, she is a girl, and she doesn't always feel like a girl is supposed to.

Fun, feisty Eva Gordon's never been one to shy away from helping her friends - whether they want her help or not - but this time she might have found a problem that's too big even for her.... When Eva and her family head to Seacove for their summer holidays, she's looking forward to seeing Kate again, but it turns out things have gone very wrong for Kate. Her granny's in the hospital, and with no else to look after her, Kate's hiding out at home by herself, afraid she's going to be taken into care.

Every summer, in a rambling castle in Ireland, TV crews descend to film the nation's favourite cookery competition. For Diana, a celebrated TV chef, it's a way to keep her castle running. Bea, the cupcake queen, is determined to remind everyone why she deserves her own TV show. Connor, the bad boy of the restaurant world, is determined to put his lurid past behind him.

When Eva and Kate find an old diary, they end up determined to right old wrongs! But they can't spend all their time living in the past as the present, too, is throwing all sorts of challenges at them....

Two sisters, one dangerous truth.... One hot August night, Rachel Darcy gets the call everyone fears. It's the police. Her younger sister Evie's had a car crash; she's in a coma. Can Rachel fly to London right away? With Evie injured and comatose, Rachel is left to pick up the pieces of her sister's life. But it's hard fitting them together, especially when she really doesn't like what she sees. Why was Evie driving when she doesn't even own a license?

When a young girl is discovered dead on an isolated Irish country road, it seems to be a simple hit and run. Then the cops see the tattoo on her back - a pair of beautifully wrought angel wings. Forensic investigator Reilly Steel is soon on the scene and she suspects that there is more to this case than a straightforward murder. Then the angel tattoo is traced to other children - both dead and alive - who are all similarly marked.…

Irish singing star Daniel O'Donnell's mother, Julia, grew up on a remote island off the northwest coast of Ireland, going barefoot and doing hard labour as a child during the poverty-stricken 1920s. The hard work continued through her teenage years as she picked potatoes in the fields and travelled to Scotland to gut fish in the ports. After she married and settled in Kincasslagh, Julia's beloved husband, Francie, was forced to leave his family for months on end to work on farms, again in Scotland.

1971. With the troubles in Belfast at their height, a happy domestic life is something that Tess Maguire yearns for. Yet the political and social unrest are sending ripples of uncertainty through every aspect of her life. Whilst her partnership with her friend Theresa Cunningham in a dressmaking firm is successful, it's beginning to affect her romantic interests. Theresa's boyfriend Bob always seems to be near Tess. Near enough, one night, to declare his true feelings for her....

Touchy Subjects is about things that make people wince: taboos, controversies, secrets, and lies. Some of the events that characters crash into are grand, tragic ones: miscarriage, overdose, missing persons. Other topics, like religion and money, are not inherently taboo, but they can cause acute discomfort because people disagree so vehemently. These stories are about the spectrum of feeling that runs from awkwardness through embarrassment to shame.

It is 1960, and Clare Hamilton is returning home to her beloved Armagh to marry Andrew Hamilton, her childhood sweetheart. They plan to live in Andrew’s ancestral home, which they intend to run as a guest house. Their ambition is to buy back the land of the former family estate so that Andrew can quit his hated job and farm the land. At first, things go well, and the guest house prospers, but the 1960s are a time of change. Air travel becomes increasingly affordable and bookings decline. And the increasing political turmoil and religious tensions too close to home make them wonder if, despite all their efforts, their project might fail.

Dom Coleman-Cappabianca is the divinely handsome owner of the hottest restaurant in town. But he’s about to find out things are even steamier out of the kitchen. For starters, his girlfriend Tanya seems hell-bent on promoting her own interests, whatever the expense. And then Dom’s glamorous Italian mother Cici is getting herself into some very hot water. From Dublin to Rome and New York, family fidelity is tested to its limits.

To her neighbours in Belfast, Maura Brady looks like she has it all - an attractive husband, a comfortable home and a gorgeous little boy, Danny. But behind closed doors, things are far from idyllic. Maura has long harboured doubts that her husband Adam only married her because he was quickly trying to mend a broken heart. Years ago, Adam’s childhood sweetheart Evelyn suddenly left town to marry a rich, older man and left Adam shocked and shaken.

It is 1942, and the Second World War has been going on for three wearying years. Work is hard and hours long in the four Ulster mills in Northern Ireland where Alex Hamilton struggles to keep overworked machines going, just as his wife Emily tries to provide food and comfort not only for their own son and daughters, but for the many young American soldiers stationed nearby.

When Meg returns to Dublin after three years following sailor boyfriend Simon around the globe with two toddlers, Lily and Dan, she realises that all her friends have moved on. And now she only has her kooky family and Dan's flaky but dangerously gorgeous father, Sid, to rely on for help and support.

Marianne has worked hard to provide her children with a secure and loving home. But then comes the news that will change everything: Her husband, Dominic, has been found dead. As she and the police delve deeper into the circumstances surrounding Dominic's death, they discover a web of lies that conceals a shady double life. Little does she realise that the worst is yet to come....