Showing results by narrator "Annie Aldington" in All Categories

Jill Mansell's best seller Take a Chance on Me takes listeners on an entirely unpredictable romantic journey.... For fans of Carole Matthews and Lucy Diamond. Cleo Quinn doesn't have a great track record when it comes to men, but now Will's come along she's optimistic. Handsome, attentive and an absolute gentleman when it comes to her questionable cooking skills, he could be her Mr. Right. Things are definitely looking up for Cleo...apart from one small problem with a rather large ego.

As snow falls outside Abbotsford vicarage on Christmas Eve, Rose Northwood finds a child lying destitute in the manger of the town's nativity display. Reminded of her younger brother, who died at Christmastime, she is determined to nurse the young boy back to health. But the child has lost his memory and can't recall where he came from…

September 1941. Mary arrives in war-torn London nursing a broken heart and a painful secret. When she is offered her dream post as an assistant in the fabric department at Liberty store, she knows this is the fresh start she needs. Amid the store’s vibrant prints and sumptuous interiors, Mary finds a new family who can help her to heal. But not everyone will give Mary such a warm welcome, and the trauma of her past will soon catch up with her. As Mary and the Liberty Girls endure the heartache and uncertainty of war, it will take a steady heart to keep the magic of Christmas alive.

A compelling wartime drama from the author of The Street, perfect for fans of Pam Weaver and Kitty Neale. The Windmill Theatre was one of the most famous clubs of the 20th century. Its heyday was during WWII when it famously ‘never closed' and it became famous for its ‘tasteful' nude performances. Dawn is a pretty and feisty blonde. Losing her job as a chambermaid, she goes to work as a dancer at The Windmill Theatre.

The new novel from Sunday Times best seller Dilly Court. She turned the picture of the Christmas card over with her frozen hands. The scene showed a family at Yuletide as they gathered around the magnificent tree. Standing stiff with cold on the icy cobbles, Alice could only dream.... With the snow falling steadily, Alice and her ailing mother have found themselves on the cold streets of London with only debts to their name - forced to rely on the begrudging charity of cruel Aunt Jane.

When Eloise Cribb receives the news that her husband's ship has been lost at sea, she wonders how she is ever going to manage. With two young children, the rent overdue, and almost nothing to live on, she has no alternative but to turn to his estranged family for help. She sets off on the long and arduous journey to Yorkshire, but is met with hostility and soon realises she has little choice but to return to London. Virtually destitute and desperate, Eloise is faced with her worst nightmare....

A Vincent is dead and the police have no idea who the killer is. The notorious Ruthers, a villainous family caught up in drugs and prostitution are the only link to the murder. Dolly returns to England to do what she does best and unravels a web of lies. With her family once more behind her she will stop at nothing to exact her revenge. But nothing prepares her for the most horrific discovery. The sinister secrets held within the judiciary are more disturbing than she could have ever imagined.

Winnie Berry had been the landlady for the Battersea Tavern for over 25 years and loved every minute of it. Her husband Brian preferred the quiet of the upstairs, but Winnie liked to be in the thick of it: the atmosphere and the company. While her son has taken after his father in more ways than one, she can't help but love him - David might not be able to hold down a job, but she would do anything to keep him safe. After all, once upon a time she'd made a mistake - something she'd do anything to put right.

Left on the steps of an orphanage when she was just days old, Nancy Sunday was brought up in hardship—until the kindly Rosalind Carey took her in. Now 18 years old, Nancy is an adopted member of the Carey family. But she can’t help wondering who her parents really were. When Nancy is sent away to finishing school, she finds herself in the midst of London society. There she meets Freddie Ashton—kind and warm-hearted, he might just be the man of Nancy’s dreams. But she knows his wealthy parents would never let him marry a penniless foundling.

Can she win over her sweetheart's family? Emily had always been a trial as a child - pushy and rough - and Boots had always avoided her. But now she's an elegant and stylish young lady, and she and Boots are due to be married - and must face the challenge of his wartime injuries together. Can she draw on that steely toughness to rise to the challenge and do right by the love of her life and his family?

When sixteen-year-old Sally is evacuated to the English south coast, she is terrified by what lies ahead of her. All she knows are the sights and sounds of London's East End – but Sally swallows her tears as they leave the familiar landmarks behind, knowing that she has to be a Grown-Up Girl and play mother to her six-year-old brother Ernie. Playing mother is nothing new for Sally – their real mother Florrie, a good-time girl, hasn't even come to the station to wave them off and Ernie, crippled at an early age by polio, is used to depending on his older sister.

The Pratchett family have to contend with coalman Alfie Pratchett's obsessive jealousy. A bully, his two teenage children, John and Millie, have learned to dodge him and his moods. The main concern of ugly duckling Millie - who looks nothing like her handsome brother John - is to protect their mum, Eileen. When crisis strikes the Pratchetts' home, Alfie is forced to watch his whole world gradually collapse around him. Their old life has gone forever, and a new one has begun - one in which rape, debt, alcoholism and insanity play their parts. And redemption is a long time coming.

‘A second’s silence and then an almighty scream. It was the most moving thing I had ever seen … A baby, a real live baby, another human life had entered the world. It didn’t seem possible and yet I had witnessed it with my very own eyes.’ Born into a happy working-class North London family in the mid-twentieth century, Katie is determined to ‘do something’ with her life. Working in the impoverished East End in the 1950s, she meets the Sisters of St John the Divine – a community of nuns dedicated to nursing and midwifery.

The war is only into its second year, but already it has claimed one victim from the Adams family. Emily, Boots's cherished wife, has died in an air-raid, and the whole family mourns her. But for Polly Simms the prospect of a new life dawns, while the members of the younger generation who are in uniform, and doing their bit for king and country, have their own problems to contend with.

When orphaned Jake Harding is sent away from his adoptive home aged just seven, he does not understand why - especially as his adopted brother, Toby, is kept by their mother. Forced to make his own way in the world, Jake falls in with a gang of petty thieves, who make their living lifting valuables from those who are better off. At sixteen, he crosses paths with the charismatic Johnny Cooper and his nemesis George Payne, and risks making an enemy when he attracts the attention of George's beautiful daughter Rebecca.

Jo Strong is the youngest widow in the East End. Running her late husband's jewellery shop, mercilessly bullied by her evil mother-in-law, she is trying to get her life back together again. But then the 14-year-old daughter of one of the East end's most notorious gangsters is kidnapped, and Jo finds herself in a deadly race against time to rescue the girl - before it is too late. And to get her back, she'll have to join forces with damaged but handsome bad boy Gabe Miller, a man who has a dark past of his own…

Sheltered and naïve Carmen Darby has lived under the thumb of her father Rex, a brutal criminal businessman, her whole life. But when Rex announces his retirement and plans to leave his vast wealth to his three daughters, Carmen doesn't thank her father as effusively as he'd like, enraging him. Cast out from her home, Carmen assumes a new identity and starts her life over, but she knows she can't outrun the sins of her family for ever.

It is early 1940, and World War Two has already taken a hold on the country. Rose Neville works as a Lyon’s Teashop Nippy on the Kent coast alongside her childhood friends, the ambitious Lily and Katie, whose fiancé is about to be posted overseas in the navy. As war creates havoc in Europe, Rose relies on the close friendship of her friends and her family. When Capt. Benjamin Hargreaves enters the teashop one day, Rose is immediately drawn to him.

The Last Word is the definitive story of how Katrina Amy Alexandria Alexis Infield became Katie Price. It documents how her life has been shaped by a tradition of strong women, by cycles of abuse which have been repeated through generations, and by the impact of fame and trauma on a close family unit.

The heartwarming and nostalgic new novel from the Sunday Times top ten best-selling author of The Beggar Maid. Motherless since she was five, Mirabel Cutler was raised by her father to be a lady. But when he dies suddenly, Mirabel finds herself cast out on the street by her ruthless stepmother. She is taken to a place of refuge by charismatic sea captain Jack Starke. But the safe haven turns out to be a house of ill repute.