Showing results by narrator "Anne Dover" in All Categories

Yorkshire Dales, 1850. As a terrible storm rages, Annabelle Wallis is shocked to find a distressed young woman at her cottage door, heavy with child. Moments later a baby girl is born. But by dawn, the mother has vanished, leaving behind the helpless child wrapped only in a silk peacock shawl. When news spreads that Lady Eliza Hartley, sister to a wealthy estate owner, has been found dead, Annabelle realises the terrible secret she has stumbled on. Terrified she’ll be blamed for Eliza’s death, Annabelle flees to the slums of York, where she plans to raise the orphan as her own.

Every time Kate Duggan looks in a mirror she's reminded of the night her life changed forever. Kate managed to walk away from the car accident that ruined the lives of her siblings, but questions still remain about what really happened on that dark stretch of road. Since then Kate’s life has been spiralling. On the surface her fiancé Rob is supportive, but the reality is he’s controlling and manipulative and Kate knows she has to get away. So, when Kate begins work at a firm of private investigators, she hopes this is her chance to shake off her guilt and start again.

Hull, 1856. James Ripley and his wife Moira have always looked out for the poor of Hull. When, during one stormy night, there is a flood in a nearby cellar—a popular shelter for the homeless—James rushes to help. Among those rescued is a dark-haired little girl who speaks a language no one can understand. Some say that she came to the cellar with her mother, but no one knows where the mother is now. Concerned for the child's safety, James is unsure of what to do.

Nell Whitaker is 15 when war breaks out and her mother sends her to live with her Auntie Kath in a remote farmhouse on Anglesey. At first Nell hates it, but her friendship with Bryn, who works on the farm whilst waiting for his call-up papers, helps a lot. So when he leaves to join his ship, Nell is counting the days to his return. But her heart is broken when news reaches her that Bryn’s ship has been bombed and he has been drowned. Determined to bury her grief in hard work, Nell finds herself growing closer to Auntie Kath.

Marjorie is the pretty one of the Preston sisters. So pretty that when a performer at her sister's music room breaks her leg, Marjorie is asked to fill in as the assistant to the singer Denby Sinclair. He offers to take her with him, away from Lancashire and into London theatres. It seems as if her dreams will come true, but Denby is not what he seems. He has a dangerous secret which, if it were to be revealed, would ruin her. Marjorie, however, is reckless and will take any risk for a chance to work on the stage.

When Lucy's parents are killed in a train crash, her kindly uncle steps in to look after the little girl - to the initial apprehension of his wife and her son. However, Lucy's sweet, spirited charm slowly wins over her new family, and as she overcomes the trauma of her childhood, she grows up inspired to become a doctor, just like her father. But studying medicine in London takes Lucy far from her home in Hull and the people she loves, and she has to battle to be accepted in a man's world.

When Polly Anna's mother died when she was just three years old, it seemed the workhouse was the only place for her to go. But with the help of Jonty - a young misfit who soon became her best friend - she managed to escape, running away with the fairground folk. She became a horserider and acrobat, travelling all around the country. Her friends became the circus people, and her home the caravans and travellers' tents.

Annie Swinburn had killed a man - the killing was timely and well-deserved, for Francis Morton had been evil in every possible way. But Annie knew that however justified her crime, only the rope and the gibbet awaited her if she remained in the slums of Hull. And so she ran - up river, along the wild and secretive paths of the great Humber - a new and unfamiliar territory which was to lead her into a new and unfamiliar life.

Liverpool, 1934. Hester Lowe agrees to act as governess to spoiled, self-willed little Lonnie Hetherington-Smith when they leave India to live with Lonnie’s elderly aunt in Shaw Street, Liverpool. Hester speedily realises that her new employer dislikes her niece and means to make life uncomfortable for both of them. Things improve a little when they meet the poor but happy Bailey family, who live in a court off Heyworth Street. Hester likes Dick Bailey very much, but her employer does not permit 'followers', and Lonnie and young Ben Bailey are deadly enemies.

Along a blacked-out wartime street a girl is scurrying, a basket on one arm. As sirens begin and bombs crash down, she is filled with panic and, with a heavy heart, abandons her burden in a sheltered doorway, meaning to return later. Even as she disappears in the resulting chaos, the bundle in the basket begins to wail.

The Batleys and the Caldwells owned neighbouring farms on the beautiful, wild Northumbrian coast. But there all similarity ended, and enmity began. For between the two families raged a violent and bitter feud. Into this stormy atmosphere came Linda Metcalfe, an agricultural student, who became involved in the tensions between the two households on her arrival. Employed by Ralph Batley, Linda soon found herself unwittingly a part of the feud, and began to feel a strange admiration for Ralph, who made it painfully clear that he didn't need her on the farm or in his life.

At the age of 21, Monica Baldwin - the niece of Stanley Baldwin - entered one of the most strictly enclosed contemplative orders of the Roman Catholic Church. At the age of 48, and after struggling with her vocation for many years, she left the convent. But the world Monica had known and forsaken in 1914 was very different from the world into which she emerged at the height of the Second World War.

One Of The Old Guard focuses on a small rural community as anxious lovers, parents, grandparents and children wait for loved ones to return home from the front.

As a longstanding fan of best-selling author Jivan Childering, aspiring young novelist Jessica Lord is dismayed on encountering the man himself to find him standoffish. But, some months later, many thousands of miles away in Western Australia, Jessica's path is destined to cross with Jivan's once more, and she begins to see a different side to this talented yet reserved and private man. For his part, Jivan finds himself increasingly drawn to the unpretentious Jessica and impressed by her single-minded determination to follow her dreams.

Ten years ago, deeply in love, I would have done anything for Thomas Kirkwood. But on the night of our graduation, fuelled by drink and drugs, Thomas’s lifeless body was found floating in the Kirkwood family lake. That weekend changed everything, and I swore I would never return to Kirkwood manor. Now, ten years later, I have been invited back to the place that holds such terrible memories for me, to a memorial weekend for Thomas, organised by his still-grieving mother Ada. But this is no ordinary weekend. This is a reunion to catch a killer.

London, 1939. When tragedy strikes, Libby Andrews is left homeless and destitute, fending for herself on the capital's most dangerous streets. Desperate times call for desperate measures, and Libby is on the cusp of making a decision that could jeopardise her future when a local boy saves her from ruin. The kindness of this stranger sets her on a different path, and Libby heads to Liverpool with a determined mind and hope in her heart. There, she reconnects with long lost family - but will she be able to uncover the truth that tore them apart all those years ago?

A short story from British Library Crime Classic The Christmas Card Crime and Other Stories. A Christmas Eve party at Clevere Hall ends in tragedy when the host is found stabbed to death. Major Ceely certainly wasn’t short of enemies, but who hated him enough to commit the crime?

Following the untimely death of her husband, Beatrix and her three children are finally free. While Ambrose has already determined his path in life, eldest son Laurie's future is less certain. Meanwhile, headstrong and independent Alicia is defying expectation and excelling at school. There, she befriends the enigmatic Olivia Snowdon and they quickly become inseparable. But Olivia's family past is shrouded in mystery and as she begins to dig deeper secrets come tumbling out.

What happens if you fall in love with the wrong person? Rose knows only too well the exhilaration and devastation of loving a married man. So she watches with a keen eye as Eve - her closest companion, the granddaughter she never had - meets Myles, the new tenant in her downstairs flat. Quietly and softly and against the backdrop of their own unsatisfactory marriages, Myles and Eve fall in love and, as they try to have the perfect affair like Rose did before them, they come to learn about the pain of lost opportunities.

Can two friends find hope in hard times? Ruby and Grace have grown up in the poorest slums of Hull. Friends since early childhood, they have supported each other in bad times and good. But their families are bound together by more than friendship, and secrets from the past threaten to make their lives even more difficult. The local cotton mill has provided work for Ruby and Grace since they were nine years old, and now, years later, both girls find themselves the objects of attention from the mill owner's sons.