Showing results by narrator "Helen Duff" in All Categories

It's 1832. Convict girls Friday Woolfe, Sarah Morgan and Harriet Clarke have been serving their sentences in Sydney Town. Each of them has begun to make a life for herself, but when Harrie's adopted child, Charlotte, is abducted, the girls must risk their very freedom to save her. But will Friday's desperate battle with her own vices drive her to fail not only herself but those she loves and all who love her?

It's 1831. Assigned to a good family in Sydney town and now learning the art of tattoo, convict girl Harrie Clarke is still haunted by the horror of the brutal murder she, Friday Woolfe and Sarah Morgan committed the previous year. Powerful and vindictive criminal Bella Jackson continues to demand money in exchange for her silence regarding their crime. And when things go from bad to much, much worse for Harrie, she is left teetering on the brink.

It's 1830. Convict girls Friday Woolfe, Harriet Clarke and Sarah Morgan have been transported to Sydney from London. Each of them is struggling to forget the brutal crime she committed, but their fates are no longer theirs to control. Vicious underworld queen Bella Jackson holds the girls' futures in the palm of her hand, biding her time. Once again the girls must join forces to save one of their own.

After a whirlwind romance, Megan and Nick move into the home of their dreams, a beautiful beach house. They think it's their happily ever after… until their neighbours return from a cruise. Ron and Jackie are loud and obnoxious, playing their home cinema at high volume, and shattering the tranquillity with their endless building work. To cap it all, they have a kennel with four dangerous dogs that bark and howl day and night. They are the living definition of the neighbours from hell.

It’s November 1932, and the peaceful village of Dovecote Hatch is still reeling from the recent murder at Mullings, country estate of the wealthy Stodmarsh family. Now it’s about to be rocked by news of another violent demise. When the body of mild-mannered Kenneth Tenneson is found at the foot of the stairs in his home, the coroner’s inquest announces a verdict of accidental death. However, Florence Norris—the quietly observant housekeeper at Mullings—suspects there may be more to the story than a fall.

The moment my husband showed me Cliffside - a sleek and modern glass home perched on the edge of the jagged Big Sur clifftops - I fell in love. And right there and then I made a pact with myself. I am never leaving this house. But when my husband was killed on the perilous roads leading up to the house, weeks after we moved in, I had a decision to make - leave the home I love and start a new life or stay and shut myself off from the world? I am never leaving this house.

Nobody talks about my mother. Absolutely nobody. I have no idea what she was like. I’d always thought they kept quiet about her because they were sad. But what if it was because they were guilty?

Sarah Sak's son, Anthony Walgate, was murdered by gay serial killer Stephen Port after they met on dating app Grindr. Stephen Port was sentenced to life imprisonment at the Old Bailey in November 2016. The case received extensive press coverage not only because of the horrific nature of the crimes but also because the police refused to investigate Anthony's death despite three more bodies being found in near identical circumstances. It was not until Scotland Yard's crime squad took over that Stephen Port was arrested, charged, convicted and sentenced to life in prison.

'The Borrow-a-Bookshop Bookshop Cafe invites literature lovers to run their very own bookshop for a fortnight. Spend your days talking books with customers in your own charming bookshop and serving up delicious cream teas in the cosy cafe. Bookworms, what are you waiting for? Your holiday is going to be LIT(erary). Apply to: The Borrow-a-Bookshop Bookshop Cafe, Down-a-long, Clove Lore, Devon.' Jude Crawley should be on top of the world. She's just graduated as a mature student, so can finally go public about her relationship with Philosophy professor, Mack.

Margot and Will cross paths at the local dog rescue centre where - after a series of misunderstandings and a lot of consternation - they agree to foster Blossom (a gentle Staffy with a giant head, soft, floppy ears and kohl-rimmed brown eyes) together: one week on, one week off. Margot and Will don't get off to the best of starts: he thinks Margot is demanding and needy and Just So Much. And she thinks Will is emotionally unavailable, slightly brittle and very mistrustful. But the more they bicker, the worse Blossom behaves....

Seventeen-year-old Chloe Smedley walks out of the school gates and waves to the person waiting for her across the road. She smiles and hurries towards them… and is never seen alive again. Detective Jackie Cooke is first on the scene when Chloe’s body is found, posed upright at a garden table. In her gut, Jackie knows she’s searching for a monster and it’s only a matter of time before they strike again, but no one will listen.

Rebecca Bray has moved on from a childhood she wants to forget. She has the dream fiancé, a loving stepdaughter and a career she's proud of. But with a move back to her hometown of Cornwall, everything she wanted to bury starts to surface. And when her stepdaughter goes missing at a New Year's Eve party, Rebecca must finally face the ghosts of her past - or Ava might never come home safely.

With her marriage in danger of falling apart, Joanna returns home to the beautiful but dilapidated Mulberry Farm Cottage in Dorset, where her sister Harriet is struggling to keep the farm afloat and cope with their eccentric mother. When Joanna discovers a bundle of love letters in the attic, written by a watercolourist named Emmy, she is intrigued and sets out to discover Emmy's true story. Emmy's letters take Joanna to the picturesque alleyways and bridges of Lisbon, Prague, and the most romantic place of all: Venice - where a whole new magical world seems to unfold in front of her.

Single-mom Samantha moves with her daughter to a quiet village in the Peak District. The post as matron at Hallow Croft, now an exclusive residential home, seems to offer the escape she needs. But away from the TV room and afternoon activities, one of the residents is kept locked out of sight "for their own safety." And nobody will talk about the previous matron. She disappeared, leaving behind only a scuffed diary. Forty years ago, a girl was killed on the grounds of Hallow Croft Manor. Some people even say that began a curse on the home and the family who owned it.

Gethsemane fought off an attack by a sleazy hotel developer who wanted to turn her Irish cottage into a tourist trap. But now she must face a vengeful ghost determined to exact revenge for a murder that took place centuries ago. This ghost's wrath spares no one - not Gethsemane's students, Inspector Niall O'Reilly, fellow teacher Frankie Grennan, or the group of ghost hunters that has descended on Dunmullach to capture proof that ghosts exist...proof that Gethsemane has to quash to keep Eamon, her resident ghost and friend, from becoming an internet sensation.

Journalist Zoe Kincade arrives in the rundown seaside town of Sunshine Sands to report on this year's talent show. The motionless Ferris wheel blurs into the dark sea beyond and polystyrene chip trays bounce along the pavement. She checks into the Forget-Me-Not hotel, a faded Edwardian terrace that has seen better days, the place her beautiful older sister Jane stayed the night she disappeared. Zoe has spent forty years trying to block out the pain. The aftermath of that night destroyed her chance of a happy marriage and living in any kind of peace.

It’s a beautiful day for a wedding. White roses scent the air and the summer sunlight streams in. A spoon chimes against a champagne flute and the room falls silent. And there he is - my husband - getting to his feet to propose a toast. He’s still handsome. His new wife is next to him, gazing upwards, oblivious. I’m not supposed to be here. All these years in the same town and I had no idea until I saw his name on the seating plan. He lived with me, once. Loved me. Small-town memories are long, but the people in this room don’t want to remember.

An acclaimed crime novelist and dramatist, Alison Joseph has scripted over 25 plays for BBC Radio. This collection showcases four of her original crime dramas, all specially written for Radio 4 – beginning with an apparently open-and-shut case for Sister Agnes that turns out to be anything but...

One ordinary morning, Laurie's husband, Mark, vanishes, leaving behind his phone and wallet. For weeks, she tells no one, carrying on her job as a cleaner at the local university, visiting her tricky, dementia-suffering father and holing up in her tower-block flat with a bottle to hand. When she finally reports Mark as missing, the police are suspicious. Why did she take so long? Wasn't she worried? It turns out there are many more mysteries in Laurie's account of events, though not just because she glosses over the facts.

England, 1918. As war ends, across the world people are trying to heal and recover. But Eleanor still feels broken. The loss of her beloved brother, killed just days before the Armistice was signed, feels impossibly unjust. Spending her time in the neglected garden behind their house, she fears her heart will never recover. Then her father hires a man to help restore the garden to its former glory.