Showing results by narrator "Penelope Freeman" in All Categories

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?

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.

Hugo Kendal and his wife, Margaret, finally receive a royal pardon and are permitted at last to return to their beloved homeland. Most of the family warmly welcome the couple and the news that they are soon to become three. However, despite the smiles, Hannah Kendal cannot help but dwell on the threat that Hugo might pose to her husband Simon's position as Master of Heron.

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....

In the aftermath of the Second World War, two women leave England for new lives as GI brides. Gracie Brown starts her married life living with her husband Jeff's family: an overbearing mother-in-law and a brother-in-law whom her husband detests. Valerie Brampton and her lawyer husband, Ross, have their own property, but with a past girlfriend still holding on to hope of a relationship with him, all is far from settled.

Inside his log cabin, in the Great White Wilderness, young Joanna Grey’s father dies, and she is forced to flee from the lecherous Conrad Owen into the icy wilderness. Lost and exhausted, she’s found by Richard Strange and they shelter in a cabin where they become trapped by raging snowstorms. And despite discovering their love for one another, they agree that John should return to his wife. But then, terrifyingly for Joanna alone in the arctic night, Conrad Owen appears.

When Jean Sinclair's parents are killed in an accident she travels from the US to Scotland to trace her family roots, despite the disapproval of her fiancé, Don. There she meets Adam Crawford, a handsome but arrogant landowner and, despite her initial dislike, has a tempestuous physical union with him at a glamorous highland ball.

In Talyton St George, vet nurse Tessa Wilde is on the way to her wedding...It should be the happiest day of her life. But then her car hits a dog, and though the dog is saved, her wedding is not. Animal welfare officer and part-time firefighter Jack Miller spends his life saving animals and people. As one of Tessa’s oldest friends, he feels he has the right to rescue her from a marriage that can only end in tears.But does he? Tessa is sure she doesn’t need rescuing, least of all by Jack.

When Major Charles Davenport is evacuated to England to recuperate from a battle wound received at Tobruk, a letter is awaiting him from his wife in London, informing him that she wants a divorce. Mary Kennedy is a young Irish American who has moved to her grandparents’ cottage in Ireland to mourn the loss of her husband and child. Participating in a Red Cross morale-building effort, she corresponds with a young British soldier, but his letters cease abruptly.

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.

London, May 1911. The new king, George V, is preparing for his coronation. The suffragettes are campaigning for women to get the vote. The East End seethes with unrest. And 18-year-old Kitty Challoner is looking forward to 'coming out' in London society. But Kitty's secure, sheltered world is about to be torn apart. Lydia Challoner is shot dead while out riding in Hyde Park, and during the ensuing murder investigation Kitty discovers that there was so much she didn't know about her mother.

Fearless Felicity Penrose thrives on adventure: she's one of the most experienced female sailors in the world. But one day, in the middle of the 1950s, her boat is found abandoned. Fliss has mysteriously vanished, tragically leaving behind her husband and baby girl. Nearly 30 years later, Emma's world is rocked when she is approached by journalist Mike Bond with an extraordinary revelation: that Fliss was seen in America after she was presumed drowned.

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.

Laura Meredith never imagined herself appearing on TV - she’s too old, too flabby, too downright hormonal, and much too busy holding things together for her son, Stanley, after her husband left her for a younger, thinner replacement. But best friend Charlotte is a determined woman and when Laura is persuaded on to a daytime show to talk about her PMT, everything changes. Suddenly there’s a camera crew tracking her every move and Laura finds herself an unlikely star. But as things heat up between her and gorgeous TV director, Cal, they’re going downhill elsewhere.

Seamstress Elowyn Liddicot's family believe they've secured the perfect future for her in the arms of Nathan Cardew. But then one evening, Elowyn helps to rescue a dying man from the sea, and everything changes. William Cotterell, wild and self-assured, refuses to leave her thoughts or her side - but surely she can't love someone so unlike herself? With Elowyn's dressmaking business suddenly under threat, her family's pressure to marry Nathan increasing and her heart decidedly at odds with her head, Elowyn doesn't know whom to trust anymore.

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.

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.

___________________________ 1940. The height of the Blitz. In London, eighteen-year-old Susan Banks longs to do her duty in the war. Her secret ambition is to learn to fly - to serve her country and realise her dream. But she knows it is out of the question for a girl like her; a foundling...

Featuring some of the characters from Sons and Daughters, Jenny's War is an epic story of loss and heartbreak from Margaret Dickinson. Is it possible for a ten-year-old girl to fall in love? Jenny Mercer thought so. Evacuated to Lincolnshire from the East End of London at the outbreak of war...

The compelling new Second World War novel from Sunday Times Top Ten bestselling author of Some Lucky Day. It is 1942 and England is at war. Mary Jones has just celebrated her eighteenth birthday and said goodbye to her childhood sweetheart Jack, when she learns that her house has taken a direct...