Showing results by narrator "Caroline Lennon" in All Categories

Alison's American dream is in tatters. Her high-flying career is on the skids, and her Upper East Side apartment is now way beyond her means. But pride prevents her from telling her family back home just how bad things are.

Like any married couple, Allie and Tony have had their fair share of heartache. But when Tony's actions force Allie and her young sons out of their home, things take a turn for the worse. Without her husband around, Allie must cope with two inquisitive children - as well as the reappearance of her estranged father. So when her eldest Mark befriends next-door neighbour Jeremy, Allie's glad he's found a distraction. The trouble is that Mark believes Jeremy is Santa Claus and that he can put the family back together.

Deirdre Weston, a London journalist, returns to her family home in Armagh to come to terms with the death of her mother. Faced with painful memories of her own past, Deirdre almost despairs of the task she has set herself. At the point of her deepest need, she is comforted by Deara, a mysterious young woman from fifth-century Ireland who draws her into the Druidic world of Tara, where the conflicts echo those of troubled 20th-century Ulster.

1971. With the troubles in Belfast at their height, a happy domestic life is something that Tess Maguire yearns for. Yet the political and social unrest are sending ripples of uncertainty through every aspect of her life. Whilst her partnership with her friend Theresa Cunningham in a dressmaking firm is successful, it's beginning to affect her romantic interests. Theresa's boyfriend Bob always seems to be near Tess. Near enough, one night, to declare his true feelings for her....

Life is looking up for Saffy. After six years it seems like her boyfriend, Greg, is going to propose. Things couldn’t be more different for Conor and Jess. Even after seven happy years and two kids, she won't get married. But everyone's keeping secrets, and things aren’t quite what they seem. It's going to take some tough questions, and even tougher answers, before anyone's being honest - even with themselves. Postcards from the Heart is a book about four friends in their thirties. It's about love, lust, life, death, balloon rides and missing hamsters.

Bruno, an American, has come to Ireland to search for his roots. Addie, an out-of-work architect, is recovering from heartbreak while taking care of her infirm father. When their worlds collide, they experience a connection unlike any they've previously felt, but soon a tragedy will test them - and their newfound love - in ways they never imagined possible.

When Eva and Kate find an old diary, they end up determined to right old wrongs! But they can't spend all their time living in the past as the present, too, is throwing all sorts of challenges at them....

A young man is found in a riverside park, his head bashed in with a rock. The only clue to his identity is an admission stamp for the local gay club. DS Lucy Black is called in to investigate. As Lucy delves into the community, tensions begin to rise as the man's death draws the attention of the local gay rights group to a hate-speech pastor who, days earlier, had advocated the stoning of gay people and who refuses to retract his statement.

Having lost her mother at a young age, Maria Conti is close to her father, Leo, who owns an Italian restaurant, Leonardo’s. Secretly, however, she worries over Leo's drinking and gambling binges. Maria has no one to advise her as Leo's family is in Italy and her mother's family in Ireland rejected her when she married a foreigner. Then Leo is tragically killed. In the dark days that follow it emerges that he has left them deeply in debt. Maria has no choice but to turn to her estranged Irish family.

It is 1960, and Clare Hamilton is returning home to her beloved Armagh to marry Andrew Hamilton, her childhood sweetheart. They plan to live in Andrew’s ancestral home, which they intend to run as a guest house. Their ambition is to buy back the land of the former family estate so that Andrew can quit his hated job and farm the land. At first, things go well, and the guest house prospers, but the 1960s are a time of change. Air travel becomes increasingly affordable and bookings decline. And the increasing political turmoil and religious tensions too close to home make them wonder if, despite all their efforts, their project might fail.

Childhood friends Juliet, Rebecca, Rose, and Matthew grew up in a small village outside Dublin. Now privileged, wealthy, and powerful, they appear to have it all. But when Juliet is involved in a suspicious accident and lies trapped between life and death at the bottom of a cliff, a secret that has been hidden for years threatens the seemingly perfect lives of the close-knit group.

When a young girl is discovered dead on an isolated Irish country road, it seems to be a simple hit and run. Then the cops see the tattoo on her back - a pair of beautifully wrought angel wings. Forensic investigator Reilly Steel is soon on the scene and she suspects that there is more to this case than a straightforward murder. Then the angel tattoo is traced to other children - both dead and alive - who are all similarly marked.…

An ordinary day. An ordinary bank. An ordinary street in an ordinary town. Nothing ever happens until one day a shocking robbery turns life upside down for five people - Cillian, a police detective; Martha, the woman he thought was the love of his life; Tobias, who came to Ireland after World War II and now lies in a coma, shot in the bank robbery; Roman, the young Polish teenager who is suspected of pulling the trigger; and his mother, Rosa the cleaner, who dreamed of a better life for herself and her son - and things will never be ordinary again.

Fun, feisty Eva Gordon's never been one to shy away from helping her friends - whether they want her help or not - but this time she might have found a problem that's too big even for her.... When Eva and her family head to Seacove for their summer holidays, she's looking forward to seeing Kate again, but it turns out things have gone very wrong for Kate. Her granny's in the hospital, and with no else to look after her, Kate's hiding out at home by herself, afraid she's going to be taken into care.

After an eventful year, Persimmon "Simmy" Brown is adjusting to life in Windermere, running her florist shop and trying to put her tragic past behind her. But just when Simmy thinks her life is quietly coming together, it begins to unravel at the seams. With the delivery of a bouquet of flowers to an elderly lady - complete with mysterious message attached - old secrets come creeping into the light. When another old woman is found murdered in her own home, Simmy is drawn into the centre of a murder investigation.

Andrea and Lexi thought they would be best friends for ever. Through thick and thin, growing pains and wild nights out, they were inseparable. But it was their biggest adventure that was to tear them apart: travelling through Australia, Andrea and Lexi are involved in a catastrophic accident. Andrea is left scarred but her best friend is nowhere to be found. What happened to Lexi? Two years later, Andy's scar means she's too scared to go out into the real world.

Late 1960s, Tullamore, County Offaly. Life is full of exciting possibilities for Fiona Tracey as she prepares to leave Ireland to work for a wealthy family in New York. Then a sudden tragedy forces Fiona to postpone her departure. As her mother sinks into illness and depression, Fiona's responsibilities mount, and she uncovers information which explodes old family secrets....

When her mother leaves the family home in Belfast for her lover, Louise McGuigan is left feeling betrayed. It is up to Louise to look after her brother and sister while her father loses himself to alcohol. Returning to work at the local linen factory, she has to endure the cruel gossip about her so-called righteous mother and when Conor O'Rourke, the man of her dreams, continues to drag his heels about their future together, Louise doesn't know how much more she can take.

County Armagh, 1845. Married to the local blacksmith, young Sarah Hamilton spends her days looking after John and his apprentices at the forge, and her happiness is strengthened by the steady love of her husband and the beautiful green landscape of her home on Drumilly Hill. But when tragedy strikes, her life is changed forever. As the crops across Ireland begin to fail and the textile industry struggles to adapt to new methods, Sarah isn't the only one enduring hardships.

Children today grow up in an increasingly volatile, complex and uncertain world. Theirs is a generation disempowered from steering their lives while society’s systems are failing to provide the support they need. Yet, a country only prospers when its children—from all walks of life—thrive, meaning that the United Kingdom now faces some consequential choices. Raising the Nation builds a compelling case showing why we must nurture smart, strong and kind children to one day inherit the stewardship of society.