Showing results by narrator "Lesley Mackie" in All Categories

On a night out in Edinburgh, single mum Liza-Belle Graham finds herself revealing her hopes and dreams to a green-eyed stranger. Liza always wanted to run an 'arty-crafty-booky' business, and she’s seen the perfect empty shop to make her dreams a reality. No harm in telling the stranger. It’s not like she’ll see him again.... But Scott McCreadie is no mystery man - he’s an interior designer looking for new premises. And who does Liza bump into when she arranges a viewing? None other than Scott trying to steal her perfect shop!

Seventeenth-century century Scotland. A young Border Reiver is preparing to raid a town along the Anglo-Scottish border. But after he is deceived by his band of raiders, he is wounded and left to pay the penalty for his trespassing. Upon receiving the news of her brother's harrowing fate, Isabella battles the Scottish elements in a race against time to offer up her own life to William Douglas as a ransom for her brother’s. Captivated by Isabella’s courage and beauty, William Douglas excuses both Isabella and her brother’s execution, but at the cost of her freedom....

May 1945. In post-war Leith, the Anderson family must come to terms with the reality of peacetime Britain. Johnny's hopes of a life in politics finally come true, but will his vows to remain a dutiful husband and father be kept? Peacetime is not easy for Johnny's Polish brother-in-law Hans, either. Meanwhile, nurse Kitty - Johnny's daughter from his first marriage - gets caught up in a sensational trial when her friend Laura's brother is accused of murder.

It's 1925. Attractive and strong-willed 23-year-old Isla Scott leaves her job as a nurse in Edinburgh to return to her hometown of Edgemuir and take up a vacancy at Dr Lorne's fashionable spa, where she is reunited with her handsome brother, Boyd. Revelling in her new role and being close to Boyd, all seems well for Isla and the Scott family. But the siblings soon find that romance threatens to cloud their future. Boyd is bowled over by pretty new waitress Trina Morris, but is she playing games with his affections?

Raised by her father Angus and her Aunt Lizzie, Rona Maclaren is a flighty young woman, with dreams of becoming a model and no plans to continue in the family business. But when she is sacked from her job as a companion, she is set to work in the bakery. Inspired by the coronation, she sets out to improve the bakery and begins to promote the family business. When her Auntie Lizzie leaves, Rona finds herself thrown into looking after the house as well.

When her employer Miss Macintosh dies, Alice Findlay is forced to look for work elsewhere. She has no family to turn to, relying instead on the help of her former teacher at the orphanage, Miss Lennox. Alice dreams of being an artist, and to her the first step to this is learning a craft. Miss Lennox helps her find work at Simpson's Pottery, painting the where she befriends Nannie and Bet. Despite doing well at work, Alice is determined to further herself as an artist.

Emma Greig has seen little of the world when she leaves school to become a maid at Bonnybrae Farm. The Sinclair family in turn welcome and reject her: Maggie is kind and warm, and the two girls quickly become close. Her brothers Jim and William are more playful, gently teasing Emma for her youthful innocence. The haughty and aloof Mrs Sinclair, disturbed by her children's friendships with the new maid, resolves to remind Emma of her place on the social divide.

Edinburgh, 1937. Attractive, dark-eyed Jinny Hendrie is happy enough in her job in the accounts office of a large bakery - until handsome Viennese cake expert Viktor Linden walks into her life. Although her father and her kindhearted boss, Ross MacBain, warn against it, Jinny is determined to marry Viktor, but when war is declared, all her plans are in ruins. Austria has joined forces with Hitler; Viktor has become an enemy and must return home to fight.

Balmoral Castle, 1905. For Rose McQuinn, a handsome cottage on the Royal estate promises a summer holiday of unaccustomed luxury. As Rose travels by train with her little stepdaughter, Meg, and her trusty dog, Thane, she wonders what exciting adventures await them at the Royal household. The holiday takes a darker turn when Rose is warned not to interfere in two deaths that occur soon after her arrival. When they’re dismissed as accidents, she suspects foul play.

1895. With five children as well as her husband Sandy to care for, Katy Fraser’s life is always fully occupied. Yet, Katy longs for something else. And when the new minister moves into the manse he agrees to take her on as a housekeeper. Soon she is given a rare opportunity to fulfil her dreams, but Sandy begins to resent her new-found confidence... Eight years later, Katy and Sandy’s brood are fast growing up.

In 1939, the unexpected death of Sandra Anderson dramatically and ruthlessly changes forever the lives of the family she leaves behind. Kitty, her spoiled and pampered 15-year-old daughter, has to give up her dreams of a career as she becomes the family drudge. Sandra's heartbroken husband, Johnny, finds solace for his grief by becoming the main mouthpiece for his trade union in the shipyards, leaving little time for newborn Rosebud, whose birth caused her mother's death.

A young, disabled girl is lost on a winter's night in Leith, unable to help herself or find her way home. Someone is combing the streets, frantically searching for her. Within hours of her disappearance, a body is washed up on Beamer Rock, a tiny island in the Forth being used as part of the foundations for the new Queensferry Bridge. No sooner has DI Alice Rice managed to discover the identity of that body than another one is washed up on the edge of the estuary, in Belhaven Bay.

Orphaned Eliza Dunlop has been working as a companion to a rich but cantankerous old lady, Miss Gregory. When Miss Gregory dies, Eliza is found a new position by the old lady’s lawyer, the oily Mr Humbie. She moves to Fife to take up the job as companion to a young lady, Catriona Stuart, but the situation strikes her as unusal. Why does the housekeeper Mistree Kilbain feel like a jailer? Just who is the mysterious Catriona Stuart? And what role does she have to play in an elaborate plot?

. She is content there until, suddenly, she must make decisions that will change everything. Fraser Kyle, the owner of the florist’s, proposes marriage. Should she accept, or renew her childish love for Mark Lindsay the doctor from the orphanage who first showed Shona the Handkerchief Tree that inspired her?

While her mother is at home giving birth, 11-year-old Isa must look after her younger siblings, but when her little sister is killed in an accident on a train line she carries the guilt through the rest of her life. As Isa grows up, more tragedy strikes. Yet there is only so much Isa can endure over the years, and discovering her husband’s affair is the final straw. Believing she has failed as a sister, a daughter, a wife and a mother, she makes an irrevocable decision....

It was September 1962, and the building of the New Forth Road Bridge was bringing excitement to the small community of North Queensferry. For Nancy and Joe Mackay, it’s a time of change in their family, with Nancy’s new job and Joe’s work on the ferries under threat. Lorna, their daughter, is acting very secretively, much to the annoyance of her father. Their eldest son Matt is working on the new bridge as a welder, his safety constantly fretted over by his mother.

Four years on from discovering their true heritage, Sally and Luke have overcome their animosity to forge a trusting brother-sister relationship. So when Luke returns home from the Hong Kong police force, he asks Sally for help to prove the innocence of his friend Irish. But Sally already has her hands full. As well as tending her flourishing business empire, she must also pick up the pieces when her family - from her feckless sister Josie to her self-centred daughter Margo - runs into trouble.

Janet Scott loves books and learning and is happy living at the schoolhouse where her grandfather is the dominie. When her grandfather dies suddenly, everything changes, and she is sent to work for farmer Wull Foster. Life with no one to protect her is tough. So when philanthropist Josiah Saunders, an old friend of her grandfather's, takes her in, they both relish the companionship.

After the Second World War, Ellen and her daughter Netta make the journey from Germany back to Scotland. Nestled in the hills of the Southern Uplands is the farm where Ellen grew up – the home she left to be with the only man she's ever loved. She is still haunted by her memories...and the secrets she dare not share with anyone. Having grown up in Freiburg, farm life is new and exciting to Netta. Determined to be useful, she offers to help new shepherd Andrew Cameron. But doing so might put her bruised heart at risk....

As the drums of war begin to beat louder on the continent, 17-year-old Jeannie McIver heads to the wilds of the Scottish Uplands to start life as a Land Girl. Jeannie soon falls in love with life on the busy Scottish hill farm. She even finds her interest piqued by the attractive Tam, the son of the neighbouring farmer. But even in the barren hills, they can't avoid the hell of war and Jeannie's idyllic life starts to crumble.