Showing results by narrator "Catherine Harvey" in All Categories

In the 18th century, Dawnay Price is an anomaly. An educated foundling, a woman of science in a time when such things are unheard of, she overcomes her origins to become a natural philosopher. Against the conventions of the day, and to the alarm of her male contemporaries, she sets sail to Portugal to develop her theories. There she makes some startling discoveries - not only in an ancient cave whose secrets hint at a previously undiscovered civilisation but also in her own heart.

A heartwarming, exhilarating novel about one young woman's determination to follow her dreams of becoming a pilot in the early 20th century. In Edwardian England, aeroplanes are a new, magical invention, while female pilots are rare indeed. When shy Della Dobbs meets her mother's aunt, her life changes forever. Great-Auntie Betty has come home from Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, across whose windswept dunes the Wright Brothers tested their historic flying machines.

Sylvia, a brilliant and successful eye surgeon is nevertheless amazed to find herself pregnant, despite taking no precautions. Iris is a timid young woman in love with a man from a different social stratum. And Ruby, a 1950s housewife, receives poison-pen letters, which she believes she thoroughly deserves. Linking these women is a fascinating thread that weaves their lives together in this powerful novel about love and the lack of it; about loss, mothering, sight and insight.

The summer of 1939 broke the Maudsley family. Cecily was only 13 years old and desperate to grow up, desperate to be as desired and reckless as her older sister, Rose. Now in her 40s, the family resemblance is uncanny, but Cecily is a shadow of her former self. A part of her died that fateful summer. Returning to the deserted family farm, Cecily recalls the light before the storm, before the war came and before the terrible family tragedy. She remembers how everyone was guarding a secret.

Literary fame beckons for Olga Pushkin, Railway Engineer (Second Class), when her self-help manual for hard-working women is published at last. But Olga's scheming superior, Boris Andreyev, forces her to babysit a special Romanov-themed murder mystery steam train doing the rounds of the local towns. Parked in a siding near Roslazny, the players deliver the first of several intended performances - only for a staged murder to become very real. Vassily starts a homicide investigation in conjunction with his boss but both are baffled when another murder follows on the heels of the first.

With the outbreak of War, the fishing fleet is confined to port, bringing hardship to the families and businesses of Fishers Wharf. Ruth Evans awaits the safe return of her father’s last trawler carrying her wayward brother Henry, the future of the family business. But unbeknown to their father, Henry sees war as a chance to break free from the constraints of his privileged background and follow his heart. Much is expected of Ruth. Her marriage to Arthur Marshall will help realise her father’s dream uniting two of the largest trawler companies in Grimsby.

Great Grimsby, 1912. After the death of his father and brother, newlywed fisherman Alec Hardy decides to make a fresh start with his young wife Letty and move from Lowestoft to the thriving fishing port of Grimsby in search of a brighter future. Young Letty is from farming stock and knows nothing of the hard life as a fishermen’s wife but is willing to leave behind her warm hearted and loving family and embrace the challenge. But where Alec goes, so does his widowed mother, Carrie and she has yet to come to terms with taking second place in her son’s life.

Sixteen-year-old Charlotte Kirby believes she's all alone in the world when her mother is killed in a bombing raid. But then a mysterious aunt comes forward and offers her a home in the small Yorkshire village where she and her husband George run the local pub. Charlotte finds it hard to adjust to rural life. She doesn't mind helping out in the pub, but she can't understand why her Aunt Hilda seems to resent her so. When a group of French orphans are brought to live in the big house, Charlotte volunteers to help look after them.