Showing results by narrator "lesley Mackie" in All Categories

Raised by her father Angus and her Aunt Lizzie, Rona Maclaren is a flighty young woman, with dreams of becoming a model and no plans to continue in the family business. But when she is sacked from her job as a companion, she is set to work in the bakery. Inspired by the coronation, she sets out to improve the bakery and begins to promote the family business. When her Auntie Lizzie leaves, Rona finds herself thrown into looking after the house as well.

When sisters Lynette and Monnie accompany their father, Edinburgh widower Frank Forester, to the Highland village where he is to be a youth hostel warden, they find the change from city life traumatic…until they find jobs, new friends – and love. Handsome fisherman Torquil captures Monnie's heart, while Lynette, after a fiery start, falls for stern but vulnerable hotel manager Ronan. When Frank, too, finds unexpected happiness with Ishbel, of the village shop, all promises well. But storm clouds gather, and there are choices to be made…

When attractive redhead Lorna Fernie is taken on to play saxophone in a post-war Glasgow dance band, she is at first over the moon – especially when she and likeable trumpet player Rod Warren fall in love. But then disaster strikes. Things go wrong between her and Rod. He leaves her life, she loses her job, and it only when she forms her own band – the Melody Girls – that the future gradually brightens.

Kilt maker Kirsty Muir finds life hard in 1960s Edinburgh, where money is tight and excitement hard to find. When a charming Scottish fiddler, Jack MacIver, comes into her life and introduces her to a glamorous new world, it seems she has finally found her way out. But Kirsty is left broken-hearted, when he disappears off on tour. Her heart is mended by Andrew Macrae, owner of the kilt shop, and it seems as though Kirsty will find happiness after all.

Fiercely independent, Marguerite Sinclair has the opportunity of a lifetime to become a nurse and contribute to the war effort. Meanwhile, Rick, who has loved her from the first moment he saw her, asks her to marry him before being shipped off to the war front. Despite their distance, he pursues her in a romantic cross-country courtship. She refuses him but soon after begins to realise how strong her feelings for him are in his absence. Rick somehow manages to survive the carnage of the war unscathed, but Marguerite has an accident, becoming very ill as a result.

When 17-year-old Marie Sinclair travelled to Strathlinn in Scotland in 1920 to visit her brother and his new family, all she was looking for is rest and recuperation after the death of Lady Hanley, for whom she had been caring for over the past 18 months. But when her pregnant sister-in-law is rushed to hospital, Marie is forced to take on a far greater role in the lives of her Scottish family. And who is Mark Blackford, the new, young Estate owner? Meeting him on the train to Strathlinn, Marie's life becomes entwined with his, as friend, help-meet, and, maybe, something more?

Feisty, hardworking Catherine McDonald knows what's best for everyone and tries to make it happen. To keep her aristocratic family's heads above water, she's turned their Scottish Highland home, Annat House, into a hotel, but it's a struggle. And things don't improve when a woman goes missing in the nearby mountains and the media moves in.

It's 1925. Attractive and strong-willed 23-year-old Isla Scott leaves her job as a nurse in Edinburgh to return to her hometown of Edgemuir and take up a vacancy at Dr Lorne's fashionable spa, where she is reunited with her handsome brother, Boyd. Revelling in her new role and being close to Boyd, all seems well for Isla and the Scott family. But the siblings soon find that romance threatens to cloud their future. Boyd is bowled over by pretty new waitress Trina Morris, but is she playing games with his affections?

Janet Scott loves books and learning and is happy living at the schoolhouse where her grandfather is the dominie. When her grandfather dies suddenly, everything changes, and she is sent to work for farmer Wull Foster. Life with no one to protect her is tough. So when philanthropist Josiah Saunders, an old friend of her grandfather's, takes her in, they both relish the companionship.

Edinburgh, 1937. Attractive, dark-eyed Jinny Hendrie is happy enough in her job in the accounts office of a large bakery - until handsome Viennese cake expert Viktor Linden walks into her life. Although her father and her kindhearted boss, Ross MacBain, warn against it, Jinny is determined to marry Viktor, but when war is declared, all her plans are in ruins. Austria has joined forces with Hitler; Viktor has become an enemy and must return home to fight.

In 1960s Scotland, the farming industry is on the brink of huge changes, becoming more mechanised and less dependent on manpower, but at Lochandee it’s a time of hope and promise. Ross and Rachel Maxwell are proud of their expanding family. Daughter Bridie and her Nick are happily married and working hard to build up their own farm, and eldest son Conan’s transport business is prospering.

In the years following the end of World War II, life at the Glens of Lochandee is tough. Many families in the village have been bereaved, and rationing is affecting business. Nevertheless, Conan Maxwell’s new garage is doing well, and he and business partner Nick are hoping to expand. But how will their partnership survive their differing ambitions? Conan’s young sister, Bridie, is faced with a dilemma. Is her desire for Nick going to pull her away from her other great passion - her animals and farm?

1949. Attractive and spirited Roz Rainey, who lives in post-war Edinburgh with her widowed mother, her sister, Chrissie, and brother, Douglas, enjoys working in a lawyer’s property office where she dreams, not of love, but of one day having a beautiful house of her own. After all, why shouldn’t she be ambitious? Then the unexpected happens when she falls in love with her new boss, the charming Jamie Shield. Full of happiness, it seems as though a blissful future beckons for Roz. Fate, however, has other ideas…

Orphaned Eliza Dunlop has been working as a companion to a rich but cantankerous old lady, Miss Gregory. When Miss Gregory dies, Eliza is found a new position by the old lady’s lawyer, the oily Mr Humbie. She moves to Fife to take up the job as companion to a young lady, Catriona Stuart, but the situation strikes her as unusal. Why does the housekeeper Mistree Kilbain feel like a jailer? Just who is the mysterious Catriona Stuart? And what role does she have to play in an elaborate plot?

. She is content there until, suddenly, she must make decisions that will change everything. Fraser Kyle, the owner of the florist’s, proposes marriage. Should she accept, or renew her childish love for Mark Lindsay the doctor from the orphanage who first showed Shona the Handkerchief Tree that inspired her?

It was September 1962, and the building of the New Forth Road Bridge was bringing excitement to the small community of North Queensferry. For Nancy and Joe Mackay, it’s a time of change in their family, with Nancy’s new job and Joe’s work on the ferries under threat. Lorna, their daughter, is acting very secretively, much to the annoyance of her father. Their eldest son Matt is working on the new bridge as a welder, his safety constantly fretted over by his mother.

When her employer Miss Macintosh dies, Alice Findlay is forced to look for work elsewhere. She has no family to turn to, relying instead on the help of her former teacher at the orphanage, Miss Lennox. Alice dreams of being an artist, and to her the first step to this is learning a craft. Miss Lennox helps her find work at Simpson's Pottery, painting the where she befriends Nannie and Bet. Despite doing well at work, Alice is determined to further herself as an artist.

After the Second World War, Ellen and her daughter Netta make the journey from Germany back to Scotland. Nestled in the hills of the Southern Uplands is the farm where Ellen grew up – the home she left to be with the only man she's ever loved. She is still haunted by her memories...and the secrets she dare not share with anyone. Having grown up in Freiburg, farm life is new and exciting to Netta. Determined to be useful, she offers to help new shepherd Andrew Cameron. But doing so might put her bruised heart at risk....

It's 1962, and Freda Scott and her five schoolmates are eager to embark on their life journeys. Madly in love with the dashing but unattainable Ewan, Freda instead throws herself into a hairdressing career, and soon she and her best friend, Robin, have established their own flourishing business. The future looks rosy - until Freda's life is turned upside down by a brutal attack. As Freda struggles to come to terms with what has happened to her, she relies on her old friends more than ever.

Seventeenth-century century Scotland. A young Border Reiver is preparing to raid a town along the Anglo-Scottish border. But after he is deceived by his band of raiders, he is wounded and left to pay the penalty for his trespassing. Upon receiving the news of her brother's harrowing fate, Isabella battles the Scottish elements in a race against time to offer up her own life to William Douglas as a ransom for her brother’s. Captivated by Isabella’s courage and beauty, William Douglas excuses both Isabella and her brother’s execution, but at the cost of her freedom....