Showing results by narrator "Juanita McMahon" in All Categories

Willow and Holly are identical twins. They’re alike in every way, except one - Willow is afraid on the inside. And it is all because of a secret - one that binds the sisters closely together. For a very long time Willow has felt separated from Holly by one terrible moment in time - a moment that meant Willow’s life was never the same again. And when the past catches up with her, Willow realises it’s finally time for her to face her fears, and learn to laugh again.

It's February, and Carnival time in Venice. Bright blue skies and freezing temperatures welcome forensic pathologist Teresa Lupo to the city. Teresa has taken time out from her job to find her beloved bohemian aunt Sofia who has mysteriously disappeared. There seem to be no clues as to her whereabouts, but a visit to Sofia's very strange apartment in the Dorsoduro confirms Teresa’s suspicions that all is not well....

Never has an unexpected guest caused such chaos! Three couples take it in turns to host a monthly dinner party. Beth, Sarah and Marie have been friends forever. Now they are grown up, with busy lives, busy husbands, busy kids...but they still find time to meet up over dinner once a month. A cosy, comfortable gathering of happy couples - or so they thought. Until one night, someone brings along a last-minute guest whose wife has just left him.

79-year-old Gloria Frensham is a hoarder. She lives amongst piles of magazines, cardboard boxes and endless knickknacks that are stacked into every room of her home and teeter in piles along the landing and up the stairs. She hasn’t left the house in years, but when a sudden smell of burning signifies real danger, she is forced to make a sudden departure and leave behind her beloved possessions. Determined she’s not ready for a care home, Gloria sets out to discover what life still has to offer her.

Beautiful, proud Roxana is terrified of being poor. When her husband leaves her penniless with five children, she must choose between being a virtuous beggar or a rich whore. Embarking on a career as a courtesan and kept woman, Roxana passes from man to man in order to maintain her lavish, glamorous lifestyle. But this life comes at a cost; she is torn between sinful prosperity and the respectability she craves.

November, 1957: Six teenage girls walk in the churning Derbyshire mists. Their voices carrying across the fields, they follow the old train tracks into the dark tunnel of the Cutting. Only five appear on the other side. October, 2014: a dying mother, feverishly fixated on a friend from her childhood, makes a plea: 'Find Valerie.' Mina's elderly mother had never discussed her childhood with her daughter before. So who was Valerie? Where does her obsession spring from? DC Connie Childs is partnered up with new arrival to Bampton, Peter Dahl.

The class of ’72, Sara, Ally, Jo and Mitch were as close as sisters, then life intervened and the four friends lost touch. Now in her 60s, Sara has realised - late in the day - that those women were the best friends she’d ever had and is determined to get the gang back together. Ally is facing a huge turning point in her life and Jo, after years of being chief cook and bottle washer, needs to put herself first after a wake-up call. None of them know what happened to Mitch.

Cam Langley, a sharp-witted codebreaker at Bletchley Park, dresses like a man and makes no secret of who she is. Gloria Edwards, eager to escape her domineering father, joins the war effort and is quickly drawn into Cam's orbit.

Beryl Jenkinson is a young dreamer determined to break free. Though bound to her family’s garage, her heart dreams of taking flight with Attagirls, the brave women piloting planes across the nation to play a vital role in the war effort. Odette de Lavigne embodies the allure of a World War Two pin-up girl: glamorous, seductive, and a masterful pilot. But beneath her carefree demeanor lies a poignant secret.

In the 17th century, a wall is built around the deer park of a great house. Wychwood is a world in itself, its ornamental lakes and majestic avenues planned by Mr Norris, a master of the new art of landscaping. A world where, after decades of civil war, everyone has something to hide or something to fear, where dissidents hide in the forest and Londoners fleeing the plague are at the gate.

When Rocco de Marco, legendary financier and billionaire, finds Gracie O’Brien breaking into his office he doesn’t believe in her innocence - so he decides to keep her close until he finds the truth. Yet it’s impossible for Rocco to stay angry with the sparky redhead - she’s making him feel emotions Rocco thought he’d buried for ever… And the sexual tension between them is explosive!

Maud Heaston has been in love with Beatrice Williams since they first met in 1939. They’ve been through hell and back; family, careers, and secrets have threatened to tear them apart, but their love has endured it all. Until now. Old age and illness have forced them into separate nursing homes and the family Maud trusted to take care of them are only out for themselves.

Sisters Sophie and Jess have grown up knowing that a few little lies are necessary. After all, everybody does it, don't they? But when Sophie discovers her father's secret, and Jess falls in love with the charismatic Jake, Sophie faces a difficult choice. Should she keep quiet, or tear her family apart with the truth? And if she tells, who will pay the ultimate price?

Fancy getting snowed in with your family over Christmas? No. Neither did the Thorne family. But that's what happens when, on Christmas Eve, the remote village where they've gathered together gets cut off by the worst winter storms of two hundred and fifty years. Temperatures plummet. Winds howl at ninety miles an hour. Snowdrifts pile high and freeze. Roads become impassable.

London, 1665. Hidden within the growing pile of corpses in his churchyard, Rector Symon Patrick discovers a victim of the pestilence unlike any he has seen before: a young woman with a shorn head, covered in burns, and with pieces of twine delicately tied around each wrist and ankle. Desperate to discover the culprit, Symon joins a society of eccentric medical men who have gathered to find a cure for the plague. Someone is performing terrible experiments upon the dying, hiding their bodies amongst the hundreds that fill the death carts.

Young Dot Allbones is the runt of a large Midlands family. Blessed with none of her sisters' beauty, she'll be lucky even to find a man to marry her. Whatever shall be done with Dot? When Kate Eddowes comes up from London and moves in next door, no one expects the pretty and popular orphan to take any notice of the plain-faced and provincial Dot, five years her junior. But against the odds, the girls strike up an unlikely friendship.

A long-rumoured Chinese plot to bring America to its knees…. As the question hangs, the pieces on the board begin to move.… A leading hedge fund manager rumoured to have links to the Chinese Government suddenly flies to Hong Kong. British Intelligence are onto him–are they the hunters or the hunted?

Here are six magical stories to thrill and enchant you. Listen as Blackberry Blue rises from the bramble patch; follow Emeka the pathfinder on his mission to save a lost king; and join Princess Desire as she gallops across the Milky Way on her jet-black horse. These beautifully written and original stories will delight listeners of all ages.

One night is enough to swallow a lifetime of lives. When Ruth Ardingly and her family first drive up from London and view The Well, they are enchanted by a jewel of a place. But the locals suspect foul play in its verdant fields and drooping fruit trees, and Ruth becomes increasingly isolated as she struggles to explain why her land flourishes whilst her neighbours' produce withers and dies. Fearful of envious locals and suspicious of those who seem to be offering help, Ruth grows less and less sure whom she can trust.

Life hasn’t always been kind to Emma, but now finally her life appears to be looking up. She and her childhood sweetheart, Seth Jago, are to marry. However, when Emma is haunted by mysterious circumstances surrounding her family, and Seth is hounded by a jealous ex-lover set on revenge, Seth plans for their escape to Canada. But Emma finds herself uncertain of whether a move to Canada is really what she wants…