Showing results by narrator "Julia Franklin" in All Categories

August, 1797. When Mary Wollstonecraft's labour begins everything appears normal, and she anticipates being back at her usual occupations before too long. However, after her baby girl, her second daughter, is delivered, both mother and child will fight for survival. In that time, Mary Wollstonecraft weaves the tale of her life to bind her frail daughter close and to give herself a reason to fight, even as her own strength wanes. She describes a life lived against the conventions and restrictions of her time.

Belinda Layton is a surplus girl. One of the many women whose dreams of marriage perished in the Great War, with the death of her beloved fiancé, Ben. After four years of mourning, she finally feels ready to face whatever her future holds without him. But Ben's family can't countenance her putting him to rest, while all her own family care about is getting hold of her meagre factory wages. When Belinda joins a secretarial class to try to better herself, little does she imagine that it will open up a whole new world to her.

She dislikes her children, detests her ex-husband and despises her colleagues. When her mother dies, Roberta is left with a pile of letters and a mystery surrounding her son. The letters reveal Roberta’s heritage is not what it seems, and she is soon on a mission to become a better person. Told with humour and emotion, this is the tale of one woman’s journey to find out where she came from. As she looks to the past for answers, more questions are raised. Will Roberta discover whom she really is?

Lily and Freddy have a wonderful relationship: passionate and fun. Freddy taught her to love again after the death of her father. But then Freddy becomes tense, snappy and distracted. Is he having an affair? The truth turns out to be much worse.... Freddy is addicted to gambling. He owes hundreds of thousands of pounds to loan companies; he's been helping himself to money from his own company, which has now gone bust; and, worst of all, his wife's money - given to him to invest - is gone. Devastated, Lily leaves him and moves to stay with her sister in Oxford.

Hester and Harriet lead comfortable lives in a pretty cottage in an English village. Having opened their minds, home and hearts to Daria, a mysterious migrant, and her baby son, Milo, the widowed sisters decide to further expand their own horizons by venturing forth to Italy for their annual holiday. With a huge secret hanging between the sisters, an unlikely new love on the landscape for Hester and new beginnings also beckoning for Harriet, Italy provides more opportunities for adventure than either of them could ever have imagined.

What's an editor to do with so many demands? Do you deal with the morning's pile of manuscript submissions first? Or do you concentrate on your ex-lover, whose business partner has just been found dead in their art gallery, slumped over his desk with a gun in his hand? It's another day at Timmins & Ross publishing house, but when sharp-tongued editor Samantha Clair's CID boyfriend is brought in to investigate Frank Compton's death, her loyalties become stretched.

In Minor Key, John Harvey returns to his old favourites - DI Resnick, jazz and Nottingham - explaining why they interest him before launching into a set of stories, hitherto uncollected. Unsurprisingly, jazz, Resnick and Nottingham feature. This limited edition collection ends with a set of John Harvey's poems about jazz.

Stella Ainsworth has settled for suburban peace with a pedantic husband, a dissatisfied daughter and a clutch of beloved grandchildren - who all take her presence in their lives for granted. Then Cameron Keene, her boyfriend from her teenage years who'd left for America to become a rock icon of the '60s, returns to England. Much to Stella's astonishment, Cameron announces in an interview that his most famous song, which became a legendary love anthem across the world, was written about Stella and that he has come back to find her.

Anna Grayson has been a dutiful daughter her whole life, but her world is transformed when she meets the lively Mitchell sisters, employees in her father's factory, who awaken her interest in the women's suffrage movement. This new world of excitement and freedom comes with risks. No longer protected by her father, Anna is forced to grow up quickly when tragedy strikes at a rally and Lily Mitchell is knocked down by a motorcar and killed.

In this small but perfectly formed collection of supernatural short stories, Sophie Hannah takes the comforting scenes of everyday life and imbues them with a frisson of fear, then a gust of terror. Why is a young woman so unnerved by the presence of a visitors book in her boyfriend's inner-city home? And whose spidery handwriting is it that fills the pages?

Newly retired Philip returns home to Cologne and is thrown into emotional turmoil upon bumping into his long-lost sweetheart. In the midst of a domestic crisis, Ricarda confides in Philip that she is looking for somewhere to live. And there and then, Philip suggests that she move in with him - he is setting up a flatshare. Will she join him with his mischievous dachshund named Ralf?

It is almost a year since Sean and Thea met, and it's been a roller-coaster ride: they're getting married on Christmas Day! Neither Thea nor Sean wants a big fuss - a simple wedding, with Christmas lights and just a few sprigs of mistletoe for decoration is all they need. But before they know it, things begin to get complicated.

August 1939. Genie Watkins, a Birmingham kid, would love to have a proper happy family like her Italian friend, Teresa. But Genie hasn't reckoned with the outbreak of war, her already rocky family being split up and the strangely liberating effect it all has on her mother.... Under Birmingham skies darkened by blackout, Genie shares her fears and hopes with Teresa, keeps her spirits up with her nan and glamorous auntie Lil, and tries to hold her family together. And amid it all, she discovers love....

When a minor adventure up the spire of Salisbury Cathedral makes Günter Glass a local celebrity, John Blades - window-cleaner to the stars - comes calling. He wants Günter to join him in London to clean Europe's tallest skyscraper, the newly constructed Shard in London Bridge. Günter soon finds himself among the bright lights of London but will his innocence put him on a collision course with the frequently baffling modern world?

Abandoned outside an orphanage as a newborn baby, spirited Maddie March has had to fight her way through life. So when she finds a home at Few Farm with Frank Brackenbury and his household, she welcomes the chance for a fresh start. Work on the farm is hard, but believing herself truly loved for the first time in her young life by the farmer's son, Michael, even the animosity of the housekeeper Mrs Trowbridge cannot mar Maddie's newfound happiness.

Thea’s parents decide to host a big family Christmas in a house by the sea… even though they are, in fact, about to split up. Thea herself is newly single - her sister and brother are both settled, with children, homes and a future. But Thea’s boyfriend has ditched her in favour of his pedigree dogs, and Thea can’t decide whether or not she minds. There will be copious food and drink, holly and mistletoe, lots of bracing walks and a wintry barbecue on the beach.

A poignant imagining of Thomas Hardy’s relationship with his last muse. A celebrated author, in the winter of his life, awaits a visit from a beautiful young actress – the leading lady in a staging of his most famous tragedy. But his wife is troubled. An anxious and sickly woman, she watches the growing intimacy between her husband and the young woman, and becomes tormented by the idea that they will betray her.

Iron-strong discipline had enabled Jay Courtland to reach the top against all odds, first as a professional footballer and then as a businessman - and he had always adhered to the rules strictly. Even in his private life he always made it clear at the outset that the ground rule was “no commitment” - which was exactly what he told Vanessa when they first met.

Lady Deborah, the dowager countess of Kinsail, has enough secrets to scandalise you for life! But no one has yet guessed that the famously icy-hearted widow is also the author of the shamelessly voluptuous romances currently shocking the ton! Only now she has another secret identity, one that she will risk her life to keep - accomplice to Elliot Marchmont, gentleman, ex-soldier and notorious London thief.

It’s 20 years since Miranda, then 16, holidayed in Cornwall and her life changed forever. Now she’s back again – with her mother Clare and the ashes of her stepfather Jack, whose wish was to be scattered on the sea overlooked by their one-time holiday home. The picturesque cove seems just the same as ever, but the people are different – more smart incomers, fewer locals, more luxury yachts in the harbour.