Showing results by narrator "Annie Aldington" in All Categories

Robbed of marriage to the man she loved, Leah Bryce rears his daughter Miriam as her own. But her desire for vengeance lead her to treat the girl with extreme cruelty. Leah's son Ralph has always loved the girl he believes to be his sister, and fights to subdue feelings that are more than brotherly. Only when Leah's malign influence is removed for ever can Miriam overcome the horrors of her girlhood to find love and joy at last.

Having suffered much cruelty at the hands of her father, Isabel Kenton is shocked to hear after his death that he was not her real father. Isabel inherits their house while her twin brother, Mark, is left the family steel works. But when World War I breaks out, Mark joins the RAF, and Isabel must take responsibility for the management of the business. Struggling to keep the business alive, she must also discover who she really is.

Accused of killing her brother, Rachel Cade is sent to the workhouse to await trial. There, handsome landowner Jared Lytton comes to her rescue. Despite being vindicated, Rachel is forced to leave the village. She meets the widow Beulah Thomas and her son, William. Working on their farm, she is treated with kindness, and when William asks for her hand in marriage, she agrees. But Rachel cannot forget Jared Lytton, whose path seems destined to cross hers.

It’s Christmas 1880 in London’s East End, and a dying Irish girl leaves her baby in the care of the Sisters of Clemency. The nuns raise little Ettie O’Reilly as their own. But the lives of the nuns and orphans are soon crushed by an unexpected turn of events. Ettie is at her lowest ebb when she is betrayed by the boy who has promised his undying love and loyalty. She is faced with the revelation of a heart-wrenching secret.

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.

Deal, Kent, 1812. Eighteen-year-old Winnie Lennicker yearns for a peaceful life as a respectable married woman. However, when she becomes involved in her family's free-trading operations and is caught by the Revenue, she is sent before the magistrates. Forced to confess that she is with child, now more than ever, Winnie is determined to give up smuggling. But the only way she can support herself and her unborn child is to carry on.

When the beautiful but naïve Grace Lennicker falls for Isaiah Feasey, son of a rival smuggling family and owner of a local tavern, her sisters try to intervene. But as tensions grow, there is another suitor also hoping to win her hand in marriage, the dashing and more favourable Albert Enderby, a young lieutenant in the Revenue. Grace is unwittingly drawn back into the world of smuggling that her sisters fought hard to leave behind, and as violence erupts, she finds herself unable to stand by, knowing the rival gangs will kill anyone who stands in their way.

March, 1942: new mother Alice Milward is itching to return to her job as a shop assistant at Liberty’s. Despite her husband still being missing in action, Alice is determined to give baby Arthur the best possible start. She soon settles back into the rhythm of life on the shop floor, and the Liberty Girls rally to help keep everything on an even keel. But when the American GIs start swarming into London, there are more complications to come. And each of the Liberty Girls has their own impossible storm to weather. 

Margaret Woodruff is slowly dying in a care home. When her son is presented with the chance of exceptional care in her final months, he finds the offer hard to resist. Winifred is assigned to Margaret’s care. She’s a Helper: a new kind of carer that’s capable, committed and completely tireless - because she’s a synthetic human being. Under Winifred’s care Margaret’s health improves beyond everyone’s expectations, and Winifred begins to learn from Margaret what it means to be alive. But how will Winifred use what she learns from Margaret - and what does she truly want from her?

1915, Chrisp Street Market, East London. While the man she loves is fighting on the frontline for his country, Lily Larkin is up at dawn carrying crates of apples to his market stall. Taking charge of Greg's business while he's away, she's grown from a penniless workhouse orphan into a shrewd tradeswoman. But the market is a man's world, and Lily soon starts attracting unwanted visitors, including Greg's old rival.

Liv Anderson can take care of herself, and she knows how to make money in a man's world. The daughter of a convicted murderer, she's made her way in one of the roughest parts of London by entrapping men and extorting them for money. But Liv is playing a dangerous game and soon finds herself in trouble with the city's most notorious gangster.

Christmas Eve, 1909. When 11-year-old Lily Larkin is left to fend for herself in an East London workhouse after her dying mother is taken to an infirmary, her future looks bleak. Once she is separated from her twin brother, Davy, her childhood hopes seem to shatter. But Lily's fierce spirit - along with her beloved new friends - help her to endure the miserable drudgery of life at South Grove Workhouse and its cruel supervisor, Miss Fox.

You think you know who I am. Five seconds is all it takes to sum me up and dismiss me. But a man needs company, and I want a woman who's worth the effort. There's no rush, though. I'm not going to make the same mistake twice. As I've found to my cost, bodies are hard to get rid of.

North London, 1916. When Olivia Bone and Lieutenant Lucas Black shared a passionate kiss one summer's evening, it seemed as if their love might finally have a chance to bloom. But their brief happiness is cut short when Lucas is sent to fight on the front line, leaving Livvie uncertain if she'll ever see him again. And after a chance encounter with one of Lucas's old flames, Livvie is left doubting whether an ex-factory girl like her will ever fit into his world - and wondering if she would be better off protecting her heart.

After her years in domestic service, Winifred Foley married and started a family. But while scraping a living as a charwoman in a rundown north London tenement, she continued to long for her home in the Forest of Dean and the cherished relatives she had left behind. Determined to give their children the rural upbringing she had enjoyed, the young couple moved to an isolated, crumbling cottage not far from the forest. But even in the 1950s, they lacked heating or running water, and money was tight. Food was begged, borrowed or homegrown, and their clothes were hand-me-downs.

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.

Spring, 1944. Working on an aeroplane production line for planes, Hildy believes she is doing her part for the war effort. But troubles at home with her overly protective mother make it harder for her to find happiness. Meanwhile, Cora is still reeling from the devastating loss of both her parents in the Blitz. Faced with homelessness and poverty, Cora and her friend, Belle, turn to the dark streets of Southampton to work on the game.

Lily and Laurence had it all: the money, the car, a beautiful home in the Buckinghamshire countryside. Then Laurence loses his job, and everything disappears. With nowhere to turn, Lily and Laurence are forced to take their two young children and move to a flea-ridden council house on a notoriously rough estate. As they try to pick up the pieces of their shattered lives, Lily constantly dreams of returning to her old luxurious life. Will her dream come true, or will she learn that money doesn't always buy happiness?

Acapulco, 1974: Rina Walker is on assignment. Just another quick, clean kill. She wakes to discover her employer's severed head on her bedside table and a man with an AK-47 coming through the door of her hotel room. She needs all her skills to neutralise her attacker and escape. After a car chase, she is captured by a Mexican drug boss who exploits her radiant beauty and ruthless expertise to eliminate an inconvenient member of the government.

Can she follow her dreams when she has lost everything? Young Bridie O'Hara is torn away from her native Ireland by her father - a freedom fighter turned traitor - when he has to flee the wrath of the republicans. Violated by those who should protect her and betrayed by her dashing gypsy lover, Seamus Finney, she struggles to find her way in Victorian England.