Showing results by narrator "Carole Boyd" in All Categories

Briony Marsden has led a hard life, forced to do the work of a grown man while enduring her drunkard father's taunts and blows. But when he goes too far, her fate becomes even worse as she makes her way alone in a heartless world. But Chad Cameron, the richest man in the district, has always admired Briony's spirit. When her fortunes are at their lowest, he falls in love with her and decides to make her his wife. Unfortunately, the only way he can do it is by trickery.

Harry always knew he would go back one day ... Eighteen years ago when he was a boy, he had made a decision that drove him from the place he knew and loved. In those early years, between boy and man, he had carved out a life for himself, and somehow, he had found a semblance of peace.Yet through every waking moment during those long aching years, he was haunted by what happened when he was a boy. He had never forgotten that warm, carefree girl with the laughing eyes.

In a small Lancashire cotton town in the 1930s, Daisy Bell dreams her life away. At twenty-six, still a spinster and heiress to her mother's potato pie shop, she's resigned to a lonely old age. But toiling over the bake-house fire she dreams of a better world- a world of glamour and romance as seen on the silver screen. Then she meets Sam, a dashing Clarke Gable look-alike and chauffeur to a wealthy London businessman- and suddenly her life is changed forever...

In the middle of the night, Evie is torn away from her beloved home and close-knit community as her family run away to the south. Her father's luck has finally run out, but what should mark a hopeful new beginning is just the start of young Evie’s troubles. With the weight of her family's future on her shoulders, Evie has no one to turn to. Her mother, worn down by life, runs off with a new man, and with her grandmother's sight failing, it's left to Evie to earn their keep and run the house. Holding her family together is only made harder when tragedy strikes at its heart.

It’s 1954 and Adam Carter is 12 years old, an only child with no friends nor any self-confidence. His father Edward is a bully of a man. A successful and ruthless businessman, he breeds fear into the heart of his family. Adam’s mother Peggy is too cowed to protect her son, so Adam’s only support comes in the shape of Jake Wallis, the school bus driver. One particular afternoon, when Adam is his last drop of the day, Jake decides to accompany him along the darkening wood land to his house.

It is New Year's Eve 1936 when Wesley Battersby leaves his pretty wife Amy to go and live with Clara Marsden. Ashamed and frightened, Amy struggles with loneliness and hardship while Wesley is spending his money on buying the love of the flighty Clara. But Amy's warmth and vitality win her friends who give her renewed courage and confidence.

Enjoy this perfect pair of quirky crime dramas featuring art theft, forgery, murder and double-dealing. Craft, tells the story of failed artist, Adam Bax. He is amazed when one of his paintings sells for a large sum, unexpectedly giving him overnight fame. Though still deeply disillusioned with the world of art, he embarks on a little nefarious money-making scheme, aided and abetted by his estranged wife, Tessa. Cashing-in in a way you wouldn’t quite imagine this comedy drama follows the twists and turns of the over-inflated underworld of the British art scene.

Our perception of Victoria the Queen is coloured by portraits of her older, widowed self – her dour expression embodying the repressive morality propagated in her time. But Becoming Queen reveals an energetic and vibrant woman, determined to battle for power. It also documents the Byzantine machinations behind Victoria’s quest to occupy the throne, and shows how her struggles did not end when finally the crown was placed on her head.

Catherine Dessin, a young French girl living in Paris during the occupation, falls for an older, married German officer. The novel examines the tensions this causes within her family of patriots and resistance workers. Meanwhile Klaus, the German officer, who is Oxford educated and a professed Anglophile, faces his own moral dilemma as he comes to realise, through his love for Catherine and a tragedy in his own family, the true nature of the regime he is serving.

When Lily Elliott's father dies she loses everything - not just a beloved protector and his wonderful ship the Lily-Jane, but also the way of life she has always known. As her mother sinks into a dream-world and the money which had always seemed sufficient turns out to have been mostly debts, Lily watches, bewildered, as destitution comes ever closer for the Elliott women and their loyal housekeeper. Then two rescuers appear.

Stephen Hawking is one of the most remarkable figures of our time, a Cambridge genius who has earned international celebrity as a brilliant theoretical physicist and become an inspiration and revelation to those who have witnessed his courageous triumph over disability. This is Hawking's life story by Kitty Ferguson, who has had special help from Hawking himself and his close associates and who has a gift for translating the language of theoretical physics for non-scientists.

The pretty Arnold sisters have grown up on their father's farm and yearn for something more out of life than drudgery and toil. Ellen, loyal and honest, is her father's favourite, but Georgina is impulsive and unreliable, and can't please a father who has never shown her love.The big house, Grindle Hall, offers them both a chance of betterment, but while Ellen follows the steady path, Georgina takes a darker road and soon, her actions will have fateful consequences for them all. Only Ellen can help them, but will a sister's love be enough?

Rose Beechworth is mistress of a charming country house - her own, left to her by her wealthy father. In the summer of 1914, Alice Weatherly turns Rose's world upside down. The young heiress longs to kiss Captain Charlie Summers goodbye and so she takes Rose to Liverpool's Lime Street station and into the heart of Charlie's brother Harry.

When beautiful Tessa Harrison and her twin cousins take over their parents' Lancashire cotton mill, their luxurious upbringing has left them unprepared for their new responsibilities. For Tessa, there is an added but forbidden attraction at the mill. Foreman Will Broadbent, with his genuine understanding of the business and its workers, could not be more different from the dashing cousins. Yet, like the twins, he is hopelessly in love with this untameable girl.

Tomboy Grace Tooley meets Rupert Bradley when her eldest brother's sudden death forces her to take on burdens beyond her years. From then on, Grace gives her heart to her brother's wealthy friend, but he sees her as a mere girl and marries a woman from his own station in life. They meet again when the Great War has changed them both. Grace has suffered loss and pain and emerged as a strong, passionate woman.

In the summer of 1952 when two lonely people arrive in the seaside hamlet of West Bay. Strangers from very different backgrounds, they are there for the same reason: to find peace and the chance to start a new life. Tom Arnold has left a highly paid job after his family died in a car accident. Kathy Wilson is recovering from a painful divorce. For both Tom and Kathy, it seems there is hope of rebuilding their lives. Yet even now, someone means to wreck both Tom's and Kathy's search for happiness.

As Barney Davidson watched the liner sail away with his beloved family on board, bound for America, he stood a devastated and broken man. His dream was over, but theirs was just beginning. They must never know what he had suffered to give them this opportunity, he thought. Now many years later, Barney is gone. Lucy Baker, now old and in ill health, knows the truth about what happened. She promised Barney she would never reveal his secret. But is it a promise she can keep?

Lisa Logan was still a girl when she learned that it was a man's world... A man's world and no place for the weak.When her beloved father deserted them, she and her mother were left with nothing. Her mother could not cope with this new and harsh reality, but Lisa swore her revenge.

One of the great novels of nineteenth-century England, Middlemarch is concerned with the blighted marriage of a young idealistic woman, but also presents a vivid portrait of England during the 1830s.

It’s 2013, and 80-year-old Frances (has-been writer) is sitting on the stairs of No.3 Chalcot Crescent, Primrose Hill, listening to the debt collectors pounding on her front door. From this house she’s witnessed five decades of world history. While she waits for the bailiffs to give up and leave, Frances writes. She writes about the boyfriends she borrowed and the husband she stole from Fay, about her daughters and their children. The problem is that fact and fiction are blurring in Frances’s mind.