Showing results by narrator "Anne Cater" in All Categories

Sister Maggy MacFergus was tall and she discovered most men found this offputting. When Dr Paul Doelsma offered Maggy a nursing job in Holland, she took it. There was something special about Dr Doelsma and it wasn’t just that he was taller than her. She was sensible enough to realise that he would never love her back, after all, Paul said he had already chosen himself a wonderful wife. But who was the lucky girl?

Megan thought she had it all - a good job, a caring family and a fiancé whom everyone agreed would make her a wonderful husband. But then her perfectly constructed world fell apart, and she found that her one hope was Professor Jake van Belfeld. He seemed determined to rebuild her life - but why was he taking such a personal interest in her? He couldn't think that her heart needed his attention, too, could he?

When obscure crime writer Ethelred Tressider vanishes, his dogged literary agent, Elsie Thirkettle, is soon on his trail. Finding him (in a ramshackle hotel in the French Loire) proves surprisingly easy. Bringing him home proves more difficult than expected - but (as Elsie observes) who would have predicted that, in a hotel full of stamp collectors, the guests would suddenly start murdering each other? One guest is found fatally stabbed, apparently the victim of an intruder.

It is 1919 and poverty in the mining village where 16-year-old Megan Williams lives, forces her to leave her loving family to work as a kitchen maid in Bristol. Her sly cousin Lizzie, already a parlour maid at Redcliffe House, is determined to make things difficult for Megan. It was never going to be easy, for both upstairs and downstairs it is a maelstrom of feuds.

In the chaos aboard the sinking Titanic, Mair Parsons is separated from her infant daughter, Catherine, and her travelling companion and future mother-in-law, Ethel Jenkins. The disaster changes all their lives. During her repatriation to Britain, Mair has time to reassess her life and knows that before she can find happiness she must find the truth about her absent mother, even if it means leaving her beloved Wales and Catherine behind.

The year is 1909, and 15-year-old Rhiannon Hughes and her young stepsister, Mair, find themselves abandoned and alone. They are forced to leave their cottage in the Welsh Valleys and take refuge with Rhiannon’s aunt, a popular music hall star. Rhiannon is instantly dazzled by this glamorous new world, and by the handsome young master of ceremonies, Gus Davenport. But Mair’s feckless mother, Nellie, unexpectedly returns and lures Mair into Cardiff’s sleazy underworld.

When Miss Catherine Kent's fiancé, Richard Montague, disappears, she is distraught. Catherine sends for her beloved spinster aunt, Miss Dido Kent. But on the very day of Dido's arrival, a sinister discovery casts unwelcome suspicion on Richard's sudden absence.

It was Mrs Croyden who had been taken by the idea of digging up the history of the family. It seemed to be the kind of thing that everyone was doing nowadays. And once started she became more and more enchanted by the project. Even her husband, George, having seen the ancient photograph of a most attractive girl, long since dead, was taken by the project. The snag was that even Great Aunt Maud, the owner of the photograph, had no idea what had happened to the beautiful girl named Isabella. Apparently she had completely vanished and to the rest of the family had simply become “The Unknown”. Would the mystery ever be solved?

When beautiful Venetia Sellingham got married for the second time they all said it wouldn't work. For young huntsman Mike Petheric, though handsome and virile, was twelve years her junior. But Venetia didn't care and neither did Maybelle, her 15-year-old daughter. Or not at first, anyway. But as the novelty of the marriage wore off, so did the glamour of youth. And then some other sides to Mike's character that weren't quite so attractive soon began to appear....

Eleanor and Beatrice dream of lovematches but the Dowager insists romantic love is for housemaids, not for the Graceover women. Beatrice, despatched to London to look over the current crop of bachelors, is unimpressed by the frivolities of the Season. Disturbed by the languid charm of Lord Serle and appalled by the mercenary attitudes to marriage displayed by Society, Beatrice’s country innocence and unconventional behaviour lead her into some alarming situations.

Set in the reign of Queen Anne, this is the bold yet touching story of Magda, a young girl partially disfigured by a childhood riding accident who grows to an otherwise beautiful womanhood. Her savage stepfather Sir Adam Congrayle tricks handsome young Esmond, Earl of Mornbury, into marriage with Magda without first allowing them to meet. And the night of the wedding, when Esmond sees Magda for the first time, brings its inevitable crisis…

When Eustacia Hope is jilted at the altar, her parents decide to save her reputation by sending her to stay with her godmother, Lady Agatha Rayner, a clergyman's widow. Eustacia's mother warns her to have nothing to do with Lady Agatha's brother, the notorious Lord Ashbourne, nor with his son, Lord Ilam.

Evangeline Granby is so tired of her aunt's lectures on morality that she allows a handsome young gallant to take her to an inn where they indulge in a desperate and very improper flirtation. Never expecting to see him again, Evangeline is horrified to discover that he is the Reverend Michael Buckleigh, the newly appointed curate for the village where she lives. The attraction between the pair flares at subsequent meetings but Michael knows that, however spoiled Evangeline may be, her father will never consent to their blossoming love.

Set in the East End of London and in Surrey, Time Will Tell opens towards the end of World War II, during an air-raid. Joan gives birth to a son just as a bomb hits the hospital. The electricity is cut, and panic and pandemonium ensue, but this is nothing compared to the anguish Joan will suffer in the following years. For in the aftermath of confusion, her baby son is miss-tagged with another baby boy, a fact that only comes to light 20 years later.

Althea, Cressida and Phoebe have been friends since their schooldays. Now a successful artist, Cressida has never married. Phoebe has a career as an actress, but she has always given priority to her married lover, and never achieved stardom. Only Althea ever married, swept off her feet by businessman Geoffrey Lewis. As is their custom every summer, the Lewises are preparing for their annual fête.

The lively Barleybridge Veterinary Hospital is bustling with energy, everyone is working hard to ensure that all the animals are looked after. At the same time, the staff are coping with crises in their personal lives. Rhodri, the Welsh vet, is deeply in love with Megan but is struggling to find a solution to their problems with her invalid father. Kate is worrying about her A-level results and getting into veterinary college.