Showing results by narrator "Laura Kirman" in All Categories

The war continues to rage, but for now, Harbour House continues to keep the Roby family safe from harm. Not so for new lodger Richard Stoneleigh. As one of the few men who can captain a ship, Richard is called to help with the dangerous evacuation of troops from Dunkirk – it’s a perilous voyage that almost costs Richard his life…

Maureen Jackson knew life as a trainee nurse wouldn't be easy, but she didn't expect her hospital to be badly bombed on her first shift. Plus Maureen still has her family and friends in Mulberry Lane to keep her busy - she's needed as much there as she is by her patients. Running the pub on the corner of Mulberry Lane, Peggy Ashley is used to taking in all sorts of waifs and strays. But the arrival of a dashing American captain has got tongues wagging about Mulberry Lane's favourite landlady....

Times are hard for all on Mulberry Lane as the war rages into yet another year. Desperate times push people into dangerous situations, and the residents of Mulberry Lane are not exempt. Menacing shadows lurk on dark street corners, threatening the safety of those who are alone and vulnerable. When Peggy's twins are born early, Maureen and Nellie are there to lend a helping hand. The mothers of Mulberry Lane stick together despite the grim conditions of war-torn London and a shadowy fear that stalks their lives. Neighbours and friends look out for each other, and new life brings hope and joy to the lane.

Lady Morwenna Trelawny Penvenan indulged in her fair share of dalliances in her youth, but now that she's the widowed mother to the heir of the Penvenan title, she's desperate to polish her reputation. When she's accused of deliberately luring ships to crash on the rocks to steal the cargo, Morwenna begins an investigation to uncover the real culprits and stumbles across an unconscious man lying in the sea's foam - a man wearing a medallion with the Trelawny crest around his neck.

You’ve heard of the Afterlife. Welcome to the Beforelife. There are four of us: Samuel, Lucy, Thomas, and me – Eliza. We came into being the day Becca Valentine was born. We’ve been by her side ever since. What she doesn’t know yet, is that one day she might become our mother. Then two men come into her life. Both seeking her heart. And then we realise: everything rests on Becca’s love story. Because one of the men is Lucy and Thomas’s father. And the other is mine and Samuel’s. And there’s simply no way we can all be born.

Clara King is left in sole charge of a fabulous new clifftop hotel for the summer. The owner has barely left the country when Clara realises that someone is hell bent on putting the Bluebell Cliff out of business. It becomes a race against time to hunt down the sneaky saboteur before they succeed in bringing the hotel to its knees. Meanwhile Clara’s family is in crisis following her grandfather’s affair.

Lady Madeline Sheldon has no intention of making a precipitous marriage. However, she has no objection to visiting Lord Grey Carshalton and his grandmother when the opportunity arises. His lordship is only recently returned from the Peninsular where he was serving as an intelligence officer. Grey isn't looking to set up his nursery – he’s more concerned with discovering the identity of the person dogging his every move. Because Grey is certain that someone is trying to kill him and he believes it to be associated with his time in the military.

When investigative journalist, Alexi Ellis, falls victim to cutbacks, she and Cosmo, her anti-social feral cat, head for beautiful Hopgood Hall, where they plan to lick their wounds in the boutique hotel run by her old friends, Cheryl and Drew Hopgood. But when she arrives Alexi discovers Cheryl and Drew both distraught. Their close friend, Natalie Parker, who recently settled in the area, has gone missing. Alexi’s sure the woman has just taken a trip somewhere, but she still has a nose for a story and agrees to look into it.

When Rosie Harper leaves behind her ordinary life in England to open a flower shop on Amsterdam’s water, she expects nothing less than a fairytale. But the city’s canals have their own currents, bringing far more than she bargained for. Max, her handsome but brooding artist neighbour, prefers to keep the world at arm’s length – and living on a nearby houseboat, he’s not too thrilled about the new company. As Rosie’s business blossoms, so do her feelings for Max, who’s stuck in his past.

Sophy Stevens is moving to Australia. Turning thirty has found her unexpectedly out of a job, out of a relationship, and just in need of Something Different - and Australia, where she can finally meet her grandparents and surprise them on their wedding anniversary, looks like the perfect answer...if she can save up the money for the plane ticket. So when her feckless, absent dad Johnno offers her a job at his vintage clothes shop in Primrose Hill, she can't turn it down.

After three months of travelling, all entrepreneur Connor Preston wants to do is return to his holiday home in the South of France, sink into his own bed and shut the world out temporarily. The last thing he expects is to find a stark-naked woman already there….Forced by her business partner to take a break in her sumptuous French farmhouse, workaholic Josie Marchpane wasn't anticipating company either. So imagine her shock when six foot four inches of pure muscle with a disturbingly sexy smile stranger and apparent co-owner of the house walks in and tells her to leave!

Stranded in Rome, with all planes grounded due to volcanic ash, Callum gratefully accepts a lift back to London with a friend-of-a-friend who's on her way home after a European road trip in a campervan. But when he meets her, his heart plummets - she's Emma, his ex, The ex, and he can't be stuck in a van with her. When Emma sees Callum again, she's horrified. It's taken so many years to heal her heart - she really doesn't want to spend the next few days in close quarters with him.

As one of the Navy’s most skilled mapmakers, Merry knows the very lives of men far away depend on her work in the War Office. But when a family crisis draws her back to her beloved Cornwall, Merry finds herself working alongside an enigmatic American officer on secret operations spanning the rugged coasts of Cornwall and Brittany which she knows so well. But not everything is as clear as the maps she draws. As rumours and suspicion swirl around her family, Merry is increasingly drawn to Jake, despite the defences she’s built around her heart.

The hedonism of London in the Roaring Twenties is a world away from Annabel Tarleton's ordinary country existence. Until a chance meeting with the charming Richard Hansen at a society ball changes her life for ever. Annabel finds herself trapped inside a marriage that behind closed doors is cruel. Annabel has no choice but to flee and will do everything to save herself and her unborn baby. But the very powerful expect to get what they want....

Lady Madeline Sheldon and her cousin, Miss Elizabeth Freemantle, are given permission to visit Bath if they agree to take Lord Rushton's daughters with them. The two girls have been running wild in London and it is believed that a change of scene will be of benefit to them. But Beau, the Duke of Silchester, soon comes to regret his decision to allow his youngest sister and cousin to leave home supervised only by his man of affairs..

Christmas in Cornwall is just around the corner. But after last Christmas revealed a shocking family secret, Scarlett’s hardly feeling merry and bright. All she wants this Christmas is to know who her real father is. So Scarlett heads to the little Cornish town of Porthmellow, where she believes the truth of her birth is hidden. She just didn’t bargain on being drawn into the Christmas festival preparations - or meeting Jude Penberth, whose charm threatens to complicate life further.

For Sam Lovell, organising the summer festival in her hometown is one of the highlights of her year. It’s not always smooth sailing, but she loves to see Porthmellow’s harbour packed with happy visitors and being on the committee has provided a much-needed distraction from the drama in her family life (and the distinct lack of it in her love life). When their star guest pulls out with only a few weeks to go, everyone’s delighted when a London chef who grew up locally steps in at the last minute.

Miss Grace DuPont has no wish to marry. However, her father is determined to gain entrance to the drawing rooms of the ton and believes his wealth and Grace’s beauty will be enough to attract an aristocratic suitor. Lord Bennett Sheldon is the perfect match for Grace - whether the gentleman wants her or not.

Lady Catherine de Bourgh has invited herself to Pemberley, intent upon bringing about an engagement between her daughter Anne and Colonel Fitzwilliam. But her ladyship has failed to take into account the remarkable improvement in her daughter's health and spirits since the arrival of her new tutor, the charismatic Mr Asquith. Meanwhile, Colonel Fitzwilliam is becoming more enchanted by the widowed Celia Sheffield and is perturbed to learn that her fortune is being contested by an individual in Jamaica - from whence Mr Asquith also hails.

Opening with the shooting of Lady Virginia 'Ginie' Courtauld in her tranquil garden in 1950s Rhodesia, The Dragon Lady, so called for the exotic tattoo snaking up her leg, tells Ginie's extraordinary story. From the glamorous Italian Riviera before the Great War to the Art Deco glory of Eltham Palace in the thirties, and from the secluded Scottish Highlands to segregated Rhodesia in the fifties, the narrative spans enormous cultural and social change.