Showing results by narrator "Anne Dover" in All Categories

1929, London. In the darkness before dawn, a London railway porter discovers a man's body as he unloads a special goods train from Yorkshire, all means of identification stripped away. Hitting a dead end, Scotland Yard call on indomitable sleuth Kate Shackleton, hoping her local Yorkshire knowledge and undoubted skills at winkling out information will produce the results they need. 1929, Yorkshire. Fears of unrest in the Yorkshire coalfields mean that Kate must conduct her investigation with the utmost secrecy.

There were plenty around Fellburn who said Maggie Rowan was as plain as a pikestaff, a woman consumed with jealousy at her sister's good fortune in marrying well. But Maggie Rowan, with her dogged determination to succeed, had two raging ambitions beneath a cold and forbidding exterior: to become the mother of a child whom she could love and to escape from the life of the miner's cottage to one of the big houses on Brampton Hill. When she marries the easy-going Chris Taggart, her marriage is planned shrewdly and without sentiment.

In the brooding north country hills, a man and a woman fought for the passion they felt for each other that the world branded a disgrace. . .Agnes Thorman - the proud but forlorn mistress of a once-grand estate, whose society forbade her the man who was her equal in all but name. . .Robert Bradley - a gifted craftsman, as visionary and challenging as the dawning new age. He had yet to seize his dream, which could destroy the woman he loved. . .And Milicent Thorman - the strange, wise girl-child fated to play a part in the lovers' unfolding destiny. . .

Martha is seventeen and alone in the world. Of Irish decent, her flashing green eyes see into your soul. Foretelling the future is a gift passed down by her late grandmother and is how she earns her living on Blackpool Promenade. Though she spends hours in a little tent, waiting and hoping for a customer. Trisha is Martha's neighbour and quickly becomes her dearest friend, but she is pregnant and married to a brutal man. And when tragedy strikes, she finds herself alone, her future uncertain.

Nothing ever happens in August, and tenacious sleuth Kate Shackleton deserves a break. Heading off for a long-overdue holiday to Whitby, she visits her school friend Alma, who works as a fortune-teller there. Kate had been looking forward to a relaxing seaside sojourn but upon arrival discovers that Alma's daughter, Felicity, has disappeared, leaving her mother a note and the pawn ticket for their only asset: a watch-guard. What makes this more intriguing is the jeweller who advanced Felicity the 30 shillings is Jack Phillips, Alma's current gentleman friend.

Laura Collins is struggling to make a good life for her daughters, Tess and Tina. So when she is offered a good job, with accommodation, she is delighted. Life is very different for the Brewsters who live on Manor Farm in Herefordshire. Danny plans to marry one day so that he can take over the farm, whilst his cousin, Phil, longs to escape the world of farming as soon as possible. War changes all their plans.

It wasn't a privileged childhood, but it was a happy one. Sybil and Lizzie Cream, brought up in a fisherman's cottage on the edge of the cold North Sea, were content to leave privilege where it belonged: with their friends the Wintertons. Christina Winterton was the same age as Sybil, and the two girls were inseparable, but it was Lizzie whom Ralph Winterton, three years older, found irresistible. Then war came to East Anglia, and so did Manchester-born Fenn Kitzmann, now of the American Army Air Force.

All Mary wants to do is protect her family. But how can she, when their father keeps tearing it apart? Grieving for their mother and abandoned by their father, Mary and her siblings seek refuge at the foundling school. But the school has its own struggles, short-staffed since Hilary married. When the nuns hire Mary's father, and he arrives with the pregnant 16-year-old he left their mother for, Mary's newfound world is shaken. Can she make a new life for her siblings when their father is set on disrupting it?

Working at a tiny village school in rural Yorkshire has its own unique set of challenges - but when teachers Lydia Knight and Jake Immingham are tasked with getting the children to put on a Christmas play for the local elderly people’s home, they know they’re in for a tricky term! But in between choreographing sugar plum dance routines, reindeer costume malfunctions and trying to contain Rory Scott’s wannabe rap star aspirations, Lydia realises that, even as a teacher, she isn’t past being taught a couple of things - and one of those things is a much-needed lesson in Christmas spirit.

A story from The Prisoner’s Defence, a collection of First World War short stories. In 'Paraphernalia' a nurse describes the difficulty in distancing herself from her patients and their suffering.

1959. Her modelling career in tatters and her long-term relationship with her sailor boyfriend at an end, 19-year-old Maggie Gregory returns to her family in Liverpool to lick her wounds and decide what to do with the rest of her life. A chance encounter with a handsome stranger offers the possibility of new romance. But is the man who gives his name as Tim Murphy really all he seems? What secrets has he been keeping from Maggie? And will this new relationship only lead to more heartbreak?

From the best-selling author of Miss Appleby's Academy comes a gritty saga perfect for fans of Dilly Court, Maggie Hope and Nadine Dorries. Prue's heart beat hard - she had heard of the low seams of the mines of Northwest Durham, and she had always had a fear of being enclosed. This was her job, she told herself; this was what she had wanted. She must do it. So she picked up her bag and followed them to the cage which carried the miners belowground, praying that the man did not die, that she need not produce some miracle....

Young Harriet and her brother, Austin, have always been scared of the quarry where their stonemason father works. So when they find him dead on the cold ground, they scarper quick smart and look for some help. When help arrives, however, the quarry is deserted, and there is no sign of the body. Were the children mistaken? Is their father not dead? Did he simply get up and run away?

Margriet grew up as a lonely child in the old town of Hull. Her adored father often travelled by sea to the Netherlands, leaving her with an unaffectionate mother and only her imagination of a little Dutch girl to keep her company. When tragedy struck and her father's ship went down in a storm, devastation ravaged her tiny family. A few years later, Margriet is blossoming into a kind young lady. Keen to escape her mother and strike out on her own, she forms an unlikely friendship with some of the street children.

Best friends Bernie and Molly are just seventeen when they set off from Ireland in 1928, heading for Liverpool. They quickly find jobs and rooms; soon both women are in love with local men. Tragically, though, Bernie is widowed when she's still barely an adult, while Molly has chosen a bad 'un and faces the deepest shame when he deserts her. But this difficult start only reinforces the bond between the women, and gives them the strength to build a brighter future...

Life in 1920s Liverpool for sisters Gloria and Betty Jenkins is secure and comfortable. Elder sister Gloria finds romance with the boy next door, until her wealthy, but snobbish and interfering, Aunt Sybil steps in, offering her the opportunity of a lifetime. A trip to New York gives Gloria everything she desires - including a wealthy husband. Meanwhile, Betty chooses a career at sea, which offers challenges, personal danger, and romance. But with the Wall Street Crash of 1929, tragedy strikes for one of the sisters and through these trials they come to value the bonds of family more than ever.

The George pub in the backstreets of Liverpool lost its landlord when he ran off with the barmaid. Now his wife Eve runs the pub with the help of her three daughters and together they face up to all that life can throw at them. Warm-hearted, full of nostalgic descriptions of life in an earlier era, Lyn Andrews' latest has all the ingredients that her many thousands of fans look for and find in each new novel.

Angela O'Rourke is six when her parents hand her over to an aunt and uncle in a distant village. It's a common practice for large, hard-up families in 1950s Ireland, but for Angela it means that her mother and father don't love her any more. Still, she's well cared for till she's 16, when her uncle starts to take too much of an interest in her. Moving to Liverpool in the early 1960s, she becomes a success in the world of fashion design. The pain of a disastrous love affair sends her home to Ireland just after the death of her aunt. There, among old papers, Angela makes an astonishing discovery....

Mary McGann's marriage has always been difficult, thanks to her husband Frank's drunken, jealous nature. Only because the little money he earns in the docks keeps food in the mouths of their children is Mary prepared to put up with him. But when Frank throws them all out on the street, Mary flees to her family in Dublin. There she meets Richard O'Neill, a handsome though solitary man. Despite the attraction between them, Mary's not looking for love....

When best friends Dee Campbell and Jean Williams leave school, in 1959, it feels like every opportunity awaits them. Their families haven't long moved from a rundown part of the city to leafy Kirkby when Jean's father wins the Irish sweepstake and soon Jean's set up her own hairdressing salon, while both girls have fallen for good-looking lads with prospects. It's hard to imagine being any happier. But Dee's father is about to discover a disturbing truth about her fiancé. With one revelation, the Campbells are torn apart. As Dee flees to Ireland, Jean marries Tony, blissfully unaware that she's not the only pretty girl to catch his eye....