Showing results by narrator "Penelope Freeman" in All Categories

The May Day celebrations are underway and offer some light relief from the daily hardships and a glimmer of hope for a brighter future for the folk of Norton Dene. Conscientious Sister Edith Harrison has her fortune told and a handsome, tall dark stranger is predicted to be on the horizon for her affections. Imagine her surprise when a mysterious stranger arrives in town with a hidden agenda that will upset those at Orchard Manor House. It seems like there are some ghosts from the past that need to be put to rest.

When Lizzie Stevens was eighteen, life took a wrong turn. While her best friends Harriet and Anna went interrailing across Europe, Lizzie stayed behind—shunted into a dusty bank job and a sensible life that never quite got back on track. Now sixty-four, freshly divorced from terminally dull Freddie and wondering how she ended up here, Lizzie is unexpectedly reunited with the friends who left her behind. This time, she's not missing the train. Their plan? A gloriously reckless rail adventure across Europe.

Dot Brightmore has never been one for lists. But now she's been given one of her own, by the love of her life, with whom she's finally been reunited. Dot's list has just two words on it: Marry me. The problem is, Dot can't get married. Because what Dot hasn't yet told anyone is that she's still married. To a man she hasn't seen in years. But her beloved Mabel isn't a woman who can be stopped easily. After all, her own last list helped her find Dot again.

Your next perfect listen from Jill Mansell, Sunday Times bestselling author of MAYBE THIS TIME. Not to be missed if you love the novels of Katie Fforde and Milly Johnson. Daisy MacLean runs the country house hotel owned by her flamboyant father, Hector. When she hears who's about to get married...

But the summer days seemed to go on forever – and British families were determined to make the best of their paralysed country. For evacuated children, this meant freedom that is unimaginable today: discovering wildlife, foraging from orchards and hedgerows and swimming in the streams. Elsewhere, country estates were requisitioned for the war efforts. Caroline Taggart shows us how Britons succeeded in keeping spirits up with this entertaining collection of first-hand reminiscences from people who lived through those six long years.

In the dead of night, a young woman is abandoned on the steps of Orchard Country Hospital and a man is seen fleeing. Nobody knows their identities. When the young woman dies, Doctor Frances Brakespeare is keen to solve the mystery of her identity and find those responsible for her fatal injuries. With her mother’s failing health and a very patient admirer, the last thing Frances needs is a dream job offer from a top London hospital. Torn, Frances must decide what matters more to her; her career or remaining in a small town she’s become attached to surrounded by those who need and love her…

Whispers in the servants' hall, scandals in the drawing room - at Ashmore Castle, everyone has something to hide... England, 1904. Christmas at Ashmore Castle should be a time of celebration - but scandal arrives with snow. The Earl's uncle returns from Italy with a beautiful young bride on his...

1901. When the Earl of Stainton dies in a tragic hunting accident, Giles, the eldest son of the noble Tallant family, must step forward to replace him as the head of the family. But Giles has avoided the Castle and his stifling relatives for years, deciding instead to forge his own path away from the spotlight. Now, he must put aside his ambitions and honour his duty to the family.

A captivating comic novel from Angela Thirkell's much-loved 1930s Barsetshire series: trainee barrister Colin Keith makes an ill-advised foray into teaching at Southbridge School. To his parents' dismay, Colin Keith - out of the noble but misplaced sense of duty peculiar to high-minded young university graduates - chooses to quit his training for the Bar and take a teaching job at Southbridge School.

Nurse Millie Sullivan is now Nurse Millie Smith, having married aspiring MP Jim Smith. The war has ended and the NHS has just come into action, so the nurses are busier than ever as the community realise that they no longer have to pay for the services. Minor ailments need attention, babies need to be helped into the world and some of the larger-than-life characters need keeping in line so Millie has enough drama to deal with without having to deal with more from home.

She is a servant girl... When her father becomes ill, Emily Carter finds herself sent into service at Priorsfield Manor in order to provide the family with an income. He will be the Lord of the Manor... Emily strikes up an unlikely friendship with the daughters of the house, as well as Nicolas, son of the Earl. But as the threat of war comes ever closer, she becomes even more aware of the vast differences between upstairs and downstairs, servant and master...If you like Downton Abbey you’ll love this!

Mabel Beaumont’s husband Arthur loved lists. He’d leave them for her everywhere. ‘Remember: eggs, butter, sugar’. ‘I love you: today, tomorrow, always’. But now Arthur is gone. He died: softly, gently, not making a fuss. But he’s still left her a list. This one has just one item on it though: ‘Find D’. Mabel feels sure she knows what it means. She must track down her best friend Dot, who she hasn’t seen since the fateful day she left more than sixty years ago.

In 1914, Britain faces a new kind of war. For Edward and Beatrice Hunter, their children, servants and neighbours, life will never be the same again. For David, the eldest, war means a chance to do something noble; but enlisting will break his mother's heart. His sister Diana, nineteen and beautiful, longs for marriage. She has her heart set on Charles Wroughton, son of Earl Wroughton, but Charles will never be allowed to marry a banker's daughter.

Brought to you by Penguin. A heartbreaking story of love and forgiveness from Sunday Times bestselling author Donna Douglas. Perfect for fans of Call the Midwife! London's East End, 1940: a frightened young woman gives birth to a tiny baby. Clearly alone, she refuses to hold the child: she...

Three very different girls sign up as trainee nurses at a big London teaching hospital in 1934. Dora leaves her overcrowded, squalid working-class home for a better life. But has she got what it takes to keep up with other, better-educated girls? And will her hated stepfather ever let her go? Helen is born for the job; her brother is a doctor, her all-powerful mother a hospital trustee. But will Helen’s secret misery be her downfall? An aristocratic rebel, Millie’s carefree attitude will find her up in front of Matron again and again. Will she ever care enough to make a nurse? Or will she go back to the glamorous life she was born to?

It is 1946 in Birmingham: the Second World War is over and three young women face a new kind of life. But peacetime brings its own pressures . . . Read by Penelope Freeman (Her Wartime Secret) Katie O'Neill's childhood has been dominated by her temperamental mother and by frightening secrets...

The day we lost Josh, a part of me broke. He was only three-and-a-half years old. His twin, Ruby, suddenly an only child. But then I see him too. A boy with Josh's same pale blue eyes, the silvery-white hair that falls across his forehead in exactly the same way. I know I have to listen to my rational brain, that this must be my grief messing with my mind. But I can't let go of the feeling that something is going on. Who is this boy? And does someone know more than they're letting on?

As the war takes its toll, the Nightingale nurses must do their bit for king and country... Dora is the devoted mother of twin babies, but, determined to help the war effort, she goes back to work at the Nightingale Hospital. More used to nights out in the West End, Jennifer and Cissy volunteer in the hope of tending to handsome soldiers. They soon find out that nursing isn’t quite what they were expecting.

No turkey. No fruit to make a decent pudding. No money for presents. Your children away from home; your husband, father and brothers off fighting. How in the world does one celebrate Christmas? That was the situation facing the people of Britain for six years during the Second World War. From the family whose dog ate the Christmas roast, leaving them to enjoy “Spam with all the trimmings”, to the exhibition of handmade toys for children in a Singapore prison camp, these firsthand stories are by turns tragic, poignant and funny.

In 1984 two young mothers meet at a toddler group in Birmingham. As their friendship grows, they share with each other the difficulties and secrets in their lives: Joanne, a sweet, shy girl, is increasingly afraid of her husband. The lively, promising man she married has become hostile and...