Resultado narrado por "Julia Franklin" em Todas as categorias

Six children - Bernard, Susan, Rhoda, Neville, Jinny and Louis - meet in a garden close to the sea, their voices sounding over the constant echo of the waves that roll back and forth from the shore. The book follows them as they develop from childhood to maturity and follow different passions and ambitions; their voices are interspersed with interludes from the timeless and unifying chorus of nature.

After the death of her mother, whom she had spent her life caring for, Ruth Latham is lucky to find work as a typist at the Potteries Tramway Company in Stoke. While conscription forces more men to leave for the battlefields, Ruth finds herself growing closer to shy, but kind, mechanic, Stan Bristow. . . even if their courtship makes her enemies in the office. But the Great War causes scars at home and abroad and when trouble comes to The Potteries, tearing families apart and causing heartache for her greatest friends, Ruth must play her part in the difficult times ahead.

Simmy is four months pregnant, working partly from home and partly from her Windermere florist shop when her husband Christopher asks her to take flowers to Eleanor Padgett. Eleanor has helped him in his auction house, as she is an expert in antique textiles. She lives near the church at Dacre, and Simmy meets her in the nearby churchyard. But when they notice the body of a young man by one of the gravestones, the happy outing turns dark. It is not long before Simmy once again finds herself in a complex and puzzling investigation, led by DI Moxon and aided by her friends Ben and Bonnie.

As Christmas draws nearer, Simmy Henderson is invited to a party in Glenridding at the heart of the Lake District. However, the festivities are overshadowed by two alarming discoveries: a man's body in the beck above the village, and a vulnerable newborn baby, apparently abandoned by its mother. Caught in the crosscurrents and tensions of the inhabitants of Glenridding, Simmy is drawn into the investigation. The season of goodwill has been eclipsed by far darker emotions, and a murderer must be found.

Manchester, 1941. Kept apart by war work, bombs and blackouts, Lorna and her beloved George cherish every precious moment together. George's vital role working for the War Office keeps him in London, while Lorna rolls up her sleeves to do her duty each day at the Manchester Salvage Depot, alongside her dearest friends, Sally and Betty. When George proposes, Lorna is happier than she could ever have imagined. But her high spirits are soon dashed when she hears that the War Office is sending George to America.

When Agnes Agistini receives a phone call from Theo, her brother-in-law informing her that her estranged, abusive husband Oscar has died in an accident, she feels nothing but relief. But that relief is short-lived as Oscar’s vengeance from an early grave forces Agnes to return to the place she fled from over forty years ago. A place and time she’s not keen to revisit. At the request of a French notaires dealing with Oscar’s last will, Agnes travels to Cannes in the South of France alongside their daughter Francine and her grand-daughter Jasmine.

Kitty learned early on in her marriage that her husband, Bill Dunbar, isn’t reliable with money. So when they inherit the Dunbar family hotel at the start of the war, she's hopeful that their financial worries are over… until the bailiffs turn up! With Bill away fighting, it’s up to Kitty to turn things around for her family, or risk ruin. Lily worked as a chambermaid at Dunbar’s before the war. She met Daniel there, but their relationship was complicated by class differences and the disapproval of Daniel’s mother.

June 1998. Elodie Marshall has committed a terrible crime. But when she’s deemed unfit to plead, she is sentenced to living within the confines of a mental health facility. Present day. Sleuthing librarian Pru Pearce and her friends from the Winterbottom Women’s Institute are about to embark on their annual getaway. The 1960s Butlins style Harmony Hollows Resort has caught their attention for a few reasons: the northern ballroom championships and the unsolved double murder from 1983.

Richard and Christine Clay have been married for decades. Their relationship has stood the test of time despite Christine appearing passive while her husband is unmistakably dominant - at times bullying and controlling. Nurse Florence Shaw has seen Christine at the surgery a number of times with minor complaints over the past year, none of which has led to a serious diagnosis. But when Florence hears that the couple appear to have entered into a suicide pact, she is shocked, though not surprised that Richard has survived.

Buying and relocating to the Château du Cheval in rural France has fulfilled one of Peter and Ingrid Chevalier’s lifelong ambitions. Despite never being able to trace a missing link in Peter’s French ancestry he feels he has finally come home. Now they must renovate the Château to its former glory and make it pay for itself…With money getting tight, they take the decision to sell a couple of cottages on the estate. Can the Château begin to pay for itself and be sustainable for the future?

Manchester, December 1940: this winter, the girls boarding at Star House - Betty, Sally and Lorna - are determined to keep a stiff upper lip. But for Lorna - who is dedicated to caring for the wounded with the Women's Voluntary Service - the past is about to come calling. Lorna is heartbroken when the devastating Christmas Blitz reunites her with her ex-fiancé George. . .As air raids and rescue missions throw George and Lorna together time and again, it becomes clear that nothing about his visit to Manchester is what it seems.

Lena just moved to Mandalay Close. She needed a new start, since her boyfriend cheated her out of the happy-ever-after she’d believed they were always going to share. But on the day Lena moves in, letters begin to arrive for all her new neighbours. Letters that promise to expose everyone’s deepest, darkest secrets. Every house has received one - except for Lena’s. Someone clearly wants to implicate her, to ruin her new life and turn everyone against her. She’s made an enemy, but who, and why?

It’s early summer on the French Riviera when Vivienne Wilson arrives for a one-woman writers’ retreat after her philandering husband informs her that their 30-year marriage is over. There to collect the shell-shocked Vivienne is recently widowed Maxine Zonszain, who is struggling to come to terms with her empty life following the sudden death of her husband. Florist extraordinaire, Olivia Murray, shares the Villa that Vivienne is renting. She’s pretty content with life - but longs to meet ‘The One’. Life under the summer sun in Antibes becomes a challenging time for all three women.

Manchester, 1940: the minute war was declared, best friends Sally and Debs volunteered for the home guard. An Auxiliary Fire Service girl by night, Sally ends up stationed at the salvage depot by day. When Sally meets Andrew, a quiet carpenter with a heart-breaking smile, she finally feels as though her efforts are making a difference. As love blossoms, Sally feels herself opening up to Andrew in a way she'd never imagined possible. But then, a devastating air raid threatens everything she holds dear.

Manchester, 1940. By day, Betty works cheerfully with her best friend Sally, now the manager of the salvage depot. By night, they both do their bit for the war effort as Auxiliary Fire Service girls. But Betty wishes she could do more. So when Samuel, a kind and gentle young bookseller, needs help sorting out novels to entertain the boys overseas, Betty volunteers. Anything for the troops! But then Sally's home is destroyed, and her surviving possessions stolen by looters. Desperate to help her friend, Betty could never have expected the guilt when she uncovers what really happened.

Nurse Florence Shaw is worried about her patient and friend, elderly widow Nora Selleck. When she encounters Nora in the market town of Stone seeming confused, Florence decides to pay her a visit in more familiar surroundings. But at Nora's house she meets Ben Evans, a mysterious young stranger who has befriended Nora. Who is Ben, and why is he encouraging Nora to miss her surgery appointments? Florence doesn't trust Ben. She's sure he doesn't have Nora's best interests at heart and is a threat to her vulnerable patient.

Two days before an auction of the contents of High Gates House in Borrowdale, Christopher Henderson bumps into Jennifer Reade, the heir to the entire estate, and the expected recipient of the proceeds of the house clearance sale. She discovers a dead man in the cellar of the house but threatens and cajoles Christopher into remaining silent about it until after the auction to avoid complications and delays. The auction begins but is soon halted by the police with the news that a murder has been committed.

During her lifetime Violet Paget, who wrote as Vernon Lee, was referred to as 'the greatest of modern exponents of the supernatural in fiction', and yet today she remains on the periphery of the genre. This collection of her uniquely weird short stories and dark fantasies proves why she was once considered among the best of the genre, and why she deserves to return to those ranks today.

Manchester, 1944 Alison is thriving in her rewarding role at the railways. But when family tragedy strikes, her world is turned upside down. Persephone is struggling with matters of the heart. Can she muster up the courage to tell Matt how she truly feels? Colette is slowly learning to embrace life again after she left Tony. But will he ever let her move on?

Christmas Eve, 1989. A couple is found slumped in front of their twinkling Christmas tree in an apparent murder-suicide. Today. Librarian Pru Pearce is preparing for her wedding to police detective Andy Barnes. But after one of her Women's Institute friends suffers a suspicious accident at Rookery Grange, a home for the elderly and infirm, Pru and the other ladies are on alert. And when one of the residents is asphyxiated with a pillow, no one can rest easy. With her wedding taking a disastrous turn and a killer on the loose, the part-time detective makes another vow: to solve the mystery.