Showing results by narrator "Penelope Freeman" in All Categories

Three very different girls sign up as trainee nurses at a big London teaching hospital in 1934. Dora leaves her overcrowded, squalid working-class home for a better life. But has she got what it takes to keep up with other, better-educated girls? And will her hated stepfather ever let her go? Helen is born for the job; her brother is a doctor, her all-powerful mother a hospital trustee. But will Helen’s secret misery be her downfall? An aristocratic rebel, Millie’s carefree attitude will find her up in front of Matron again and again. Will she ever care enough to make a nurse? Or will she go back to the glamorous life she was born to?

She is a servant girl... When her father becomes ill, Emily Carter finds herself sent into service at Priorsfield Manor in order to provide the family with an income. He will be the Lord of the Manor... Emily strikes up an unlikely friendship with the daughters of the house, as well as Nicolas, son of the Earl. But as the threat of war comes ever closer, she becomes even more aware of the vast differences between upstairs and downstairs, servant and master...If you like Downton Abbey you’ll love this!

Staying at Daisy's from Sunday Times best-selling author Jill Mansell is essential reading if you love the novels of Cathy Kelly and Milly Johnson. Daisy MacLean runs the country house hotel owned by her flamboyant father, Hector. When she hears who's about to get married there, she isn't worried at all - her friend, Tara, absolutely promises there won't be any trouble between her and ex-boyfriend Dominic, whom she hasn't seen for years. But Dominic has other ideas....

Bristol 194. As the clouds of war grow bleaker both at home and abroad, the Tobacco Girls are determined to do their bit for king and country. To that end Maisie Miles and Bridget Milligan become voluntary ambulance drivers. As well as coping with the frequent air raids, Maisie is kept on her toes with three new junior employees, one of whom is particularly testing. Bridget’s heart becomes torn between family loyalty and Lyndon O’Neill III, the man she loves. Meanwhile Phyllis Harvey has joined the WAAF, opting to serve overseas whilst trying to escape her past.

All she wanted was a lovely family Christmas with perfect turkey and luxury crackers. Instead, daughter Sara announces she’s getting divorced...and where is the fizz? And son, John and perfect wife Vanessa announce they are leaving for New York… and are the vegetables organic? And not one of them has made her a cup of tea! So Joy decides she’s going to leave them all to it and head to France to visit her younger sister Isobel - a break from it all is just what she needs!

Recently retired, Denny Lambert is finding life just a little bit…well, dull. So when her stepsister Juliette announces she’s getting married – again! – and invites Denny on a hen do with the Old Ducks, Denny really can’t say no. Denny knows something about the Old Ducks and their wild exploits, but she’s just glad to be somewhere hot and sunny and away from her grey life back in the UK. She’s definitely not going to be pulled into any Old Duck mayhem. But when they arrive at their beautiful Mallorcan villa, Denny is in for a shock.

Mabel Beaumont’s husband Arthur loved lists. He’d leave them for her everywhere. ‘Remember: eggs, butter, sugar’. ‘I love you: today, tomorrow, always’. But now Arthur is gone. He died: softly, gently, not making a fuss. But he’s still left her a list. This one has just one item on it though: ‘Find D’. Mabel feels sure she knows what it means. She must track down her best friend Dot, who she hasn’t seen since the fateful day she left more than sixty years ago.

To the student nurses at The Nightingale hospital, the ward sisters are heartless and frightening, with impossibly high standards. But the sisters have troubles of their own...Dora, the student nurse is struggling with her heartbreak over Nick, the man who got away. A new arrival on the ward brings the chance to put a smile back on her face. But can she really get over Nick so easily? Dora's fellow student Millie is also torn between the two men in her life.

It's 1945 and, as the troops begin to return home, the inhabitants of London attempt to put their lives back together. For 25-year-old Millie, a qualified nurse and midwife, the jubilation at the end of the war is short-lived as she tends to the needs of the East End community around her. But while Millie witnesses tragedy and brutality in her job, she also finds strength and kindness. And when misfortune befalls her own family, it is the enduring spirit of the community that shows Millie that even the toughest of circumstances can be overcome.

Fearless Felicity Penrose thrives on adventure: she's one of the most experienced female sailors in the world. But one day, in the middle of the 1950s, her boat is found abandoned. Fliss has mysteriously vanished, tragically leaving behind her husband and baby girl. Nearly 30 years later, Emma's world is rocked when she is approached by journalist Mike Bond with an extraordinary revelation: that Fliss was seen in America after she was presumed drowned.

Molly Peel feels trapped by her family: her ex-husband Craig cannot seem to abandon his controlling ways despite abandoning her for a younger woman, her lazy son Brian has long been taking advantage of her generosity, and her selfish daughter Rachel is embarrassed by her. When she is blamed for ruining Rachel’s wedding in circumstances beyond her control, Molly decides enough is enough and makes a clean break to Wiltshire to begin a new life. However, the persistent interference of her ex presents difficulties. Can Molly find the courage to stand up for herself and finally move on?

Sisters Kitty and Jenny haven’t spoken since a very disappointing Carvery lunch. Kitty, sixty-two, thinks Jenny is turning grey. Jenny, sixty-six, thinks Kitty needs to grow up! So when both sisters inherit a farmhouse in rural France, it gives them the perfect chance to heal the rift between them. Except the farmhouse is a wreck, the garden is terrorized by a flock of chickens, not to mention a donkey with a serious flatulence problem!

London, 1899. As she prepares for a glittering ball, 20-year-old Gertrude Melrose considers her good fortune. Attractive, intelligent, with a loving family, her only concern is her brother, Edward, who seems intent on squandering his inheritance. A few days later the Melrose family's happiness is shattered when Edward's mounting debts threaten to destroy their prosperity, with the loss of both house and business.

No turkey. No fruit to make a decent pudding. No money for presents. Your children away from home; your husband, father and brothers off fighting. How in the world does one celebrate Christmas? That was the situation facing the people of Britain for six years during the Second World War. From the family whose dog ate the Christmas roast, leaving them to enjoy “Spam with all the trimmings”, to the exhibition of handmade toys for children in a Singapore prison camp, these firsthand stories are by turns tragic, poignant and funny.

But the summer days seemed to go on forever – and British families were determined to make the best of their paralysed country. For evacuated children, this meant freedom that is unimaginable today: discovering wildlife, foraging from orchards and hedgerows and swimming in the streams. Elsewhere, country estates were requisitioned for the war efforts. Caroline Taggart shows us how Britons succeeded in keeping spirits up with this entertaining collection of first-hand reminiscences from people who lived through those six long years.

A twisty collection of short stories from the master of classic crime fiction, Peter Lovesey, one of which stars his most popular creation, Peter Diamond. More than 50 years ago, Peter Lovesey published a short story in an anthology. That short story caught the eye of the great Ruth Rendell, whose praise ignited Lovesey's life-long passion for short form crime fiction.

A sequel to The Hopscotch Summer. Molly Fox has grown up in the back streets of Birmingham at the mercy of her cruel grandfather and her drunken mother. Though she has grown into a tall, beautiful woman, Molly is haunted by terrible family secrets. When she is found lying drunk in a gutter, Molly reaches a turning point. She decides to escape by joining the army as an ATS girl.

1901. When the Earl of Stainton dies in a tragic hunting accident, Giles, the eldest son of the noble Tallant family, must step forward to replace him as the head of the family. But Giles has avoided the Castle and his stifling relatives for years, deciding instead to forge his own path away from the spotlight. Now, he must put aside his ambitions and honour his duty to the family.

Clover Harrington might be sixty-one, but she’s still bossing it in the corporate world and can still run rings around her younger colleagues. And then she is made redundant…. Devastated and now suddenly the wrong side of sixty Clover doesn’t know what to do with her life or her corporate wardrobe! What does she wear if not red lippy and a power suit?! Rather than offer her any support, her partner, Jack announces he's off on a golfing weekend, leaving Clover completely adrift. Desperate to get away from it all, Clover decides to visit her cousin Zoe in the gorgeous Italian Lakes.

West Yorkshire, 1926. After completing her training in Steeple Street, Agnes is looking forward to making her mark as the village's first district nurse, confident she can make a difference in the locals' lives. But when she arrives, she's treated with suspicion, labelled just another servant of the wealthy mine owners. The locals would much rather place their trust in the resident healer, Nella Black.