Showing results by narrator "Colleen Prendergast" in All Categories

Molly McKenzie is only eleven years old when her abusive father beats her to within an inch of her life. Escaping from the hovel she calls home, Molly is found by kind fisherfolk, sick and near death. With them she experiences the love of a family for the first time and, even though life is hard, she is content. Time passes and Molly’s looking ahead to a future with the boy she loves, but then a terrible tragedy rips her life apart. Once again she’s cast adrift in an uncaring world, but Molly is made of stern stuff and is determined to survive.

1867: Nicola Douglas attends a lecture given by Miss Maria Rye, the founder of the Female Middle Class Emigration Society, which inspires her to change her life. With no family, but a good education, she boards a ship to Australia with high hopes of a fresh start in a new country as a governess. Sydney is full of young women with similar ambitions and poor prospects - but when a wealthy benefactor appears, she finds a foothold. What she never anticipated was the attention of two suitors: Nathaniel, a privileged and attractive English gentleman; and Hilton, a beguiling American.

Parenting may be our most important and rewarding task, yet dealing with the everyday pressures of family life is a constant challenge. Mindfulness is the number-one tool for staying present and calm amidst the chaos. So how can we parents be more mindful when raising our children? In this personal yet extremely practical guide, Amber Hatch will show you what mindfulness is, how you do it and how it will help you rise to the challenges of parenthood.

Twenty-five years in showbiz is a good run, right? Because after tonight, when her small (read: huge) wardrobe malfunction was broadcast to the nation's living rooms, Daisy's time in the spotlight might be over. It's all about damage control now, and Daisy needs an escape route. Especially when her boyfriend publicly announces their engagement - the one she hasn't actually agreed to tell the world about. All she needs is space from prying eyes and time for the press to move on. The only place she can run to at short notice is the Cotswolds cottage she used to own with her ex-husband.

Sheffield, 1892. Patrick Halliday rules his family with a rod of iron. He’s hard on both his wife and his elder daughter, Flora, but he spoils his youngest, Mary Ellen, because she reminds him of his beloved mother. When Mary Ellen, aged seventeen, finds that she is pregnant, Patrick throws her out of the family home and Flora goes with her. After wandering the Derbyshire countryside for miles, they find shelter on a farm, working for their keep. When Flora must return to her job as a buffer girl in Sheffield’s cutlery trade, she is reunited with her friend, Evelyn Bonsor.

Nina has devoted her life to making it as an actress, although her agent thinks she’s more best friend than leading lady. But with her onscreen character about to be killed off, it might be time for a new role (on and off screen). Lucky for Nina, life has a way of shoving you in the right direction. A falling out with her agent and his new star client leaves Nina’s life in tatters and her name in the papers. She is left with no choice but to flee the city, leaving nothing but an empty bottle of hair dye and her tiny bedroom behind.

She was only nine when her world fell apart. The struggle to understand took a lifetime.In 1960s Bristol, Susan's family was like any other with its joys and frustrations, and fierce loyalties. Then tragedy struck and left a legacy that was to last a lifetime.Susan was only nine when her mother died. A year later she was sent away to school. She didn't want to go, and didn't understand why she had to. In her struggle to cope with an uncertain world - a world where nothing seemed to make sense any more....

A missing boy. A missing book. A missing husband. A woman who must find them all to find herself. On the night Bernadette finally has the courage to tell her domineering husband that she's leaving, he doesn't come home. Neither does Conor, the little boy she's befriended for the past five years. Also missing is his lifebook, the only thing that holds the answers.

When single mum Ruth has a brief fling with Rob, she's mortified to discover that he lied to her. He lied to her, because he's married. Worse still, he's the husband of Janine, head of the PTA at the primary school where Ruth works as secretary, and when the truth of their fling is discovered, Ruth suddenly has a lot of enemies at the school gates. Threatening texts begin to arrive, rumours abound and the staff room becomes hostile.

Liverpool, 1910. When Patch runs up the gangway of the steamship, RMS Glorious, she isn't planning to hang around. But if she leaves her hiding place, the constable might catch her, so sitting tight is worth the risk. Her plan is spoiled when she realises too late that the ship is setting sail, and Patch finds herself an accidental stowaway. Luckily, Patch's unconventional past has made her pretty fearless when it comes to fending for herself, and besides there are friends in high and low places to be made onboard.

Available for the first time: audio editions of Milly's brilliant short stories 'Here Come the Boys', 'The Wedding Dress', 'Ladies Who Launch' and 'The Barn on Half Moon Hill'. Milly Johnson is the sparkling and irrepressible author of six best-selling novels. She is also a columnist, greetings card copywriter, poet and after-dinner speaker. Her books are about the universal issues of friendship, family, betrayal, babies, rather nice food and a little bit of that magic in life that sometimes visits the unsuspecting.

A takeaway, TV and tea with two sugars is about as exciting as it gets for 30-something Sophie Stone. Sophie's life is safe and predictable, which is just the way she likes it, thank you very much. But when a mysterious benefactor leaves her an inheritance, Sophie has to accept that change is afoot. There is one big catch: in order to inherit, Sophie must agree to meet the father she has never seen. Saying yes means the chance to build her own dream home, but she'll also have to face the past and hear some uncomfortable truths....

After being cheated on by her ex, Leanne Riley is trying her hardest to get her life back on track, which isn't easy without a job and living in a bedsit surrounded by a junkie and a madwoman. On a night out with her best friend, she meets Jake, a face from her past who has changed beyond all recognition. Jake is charming, handsome and loaded, a far cry from the gawky teenager he used to be. Weary of men, Leanne isn't easy to please, but Jake tries his best to break through the wall she's built around herself.

Trudy Watts has everything she's ever dreamed of: a job that she loves, a successful boyfriend, and an ultra-modern apartment in one of the most fashionable parts of London. With a long-awaited promotion due to come her way and her wedding just around the corner, Trudy's life is just perfect... That is until catastrophe strikes and her life is turned upside down. She's transferred to Turriff, a remote Scottish town to manage a small, struggling bank branch. Her arrival is traumatic and she wishes she was anywhere but here... Until she sees him, Ethan, the charming pub landlord.

When 15 year old Skye's mother finally does something so shocking that it can't be hushed up, the police turn her over to the social workers - and that's when the nightmare begins. No one will let her talk to her father; the woman who is supposed to be helping her dumps her in a terrifying 'home' that's more like a jail. But she still has one friend to turn to: the sympathetic girl she's met in an internet chat room, the one who seems to have a home life as unhappy as Skye's.

Jo Milne was profoundly deaf from birth, when she also began to lose her sight. Just before turning thirty, Jo was diagnosed with Usher syndrome, a rare genetic and progressive condition that will one day rob her of her sight altogether.

In 2014 she made a life-changing decision to undergo major surgery. She had cochlear implants fitted, allowing her to hear for the first time. Every moment of Jo's days since the operation has become a journey of discovery.

Lady Beatrice is fleeing an arranged marriage by stagecoach to Brighton, where the proud beauty meets her match in Miss Hannah Pym who is determined to find her a proper beau.

Abandoned as a baby, twenty-five-year-old Lizzie Bartholomew spent her childhood moving between foster homes and has had more than her fair share of troubles. Now a holiday in Morocco seems to be the perfect escape. Especially when she meets Philip, a fellow tourist. After a brief affair, Lizzie returns to England, only to find a solicitor's letter waiting for her. Philip Samson has died and has left Lizzie a gift of £15,000 in his will. But there are conditions attached to this unexpected legacy that will soon force Lizzie to confront terrifying secrets from her past life.

Flirtatious, straight-talking Jo Gold says she's got no time for love; she's determined to save her family's failing footwear business. New mother Sarah Hudson has cut short her maternity leave to return to work. She says she'll do whatever it takes to make partner at the accountancy firm. Bored, overeating housewife Carrie Radley says she just wants to shift the pounds - she'd love to finally wear a bikini in public. The unlikely trio meet by chance one winter's day and, in a moment of carpe diem madness, embark on a mission to make their wishes come true by September.

Someone had once told Emma Molinero, the daughter of an itinerant carnival performer, that she was made for trouble. Her earliest memories were of life with a travelling show - part fair and part circus - that toured the shires at the dawn of the Victorian era. But at the age of seven she found herself an orphan who, in accordance with her Spanish father's dying wishes, must now leave the warm and friendly community to live with an unknown English grandmother far to the north in County Durham. With her she took the whips and knives used with such dexterity by her father for his act.