Showing results by narrator "Nicolette Mckenzie" in All Categories

New Zealand, 1921. Bright, feisty, and pretty, 16-year-old Lottie O’Brien lives with her troubled family in an impoverished part of Wellington. Life at home is hard for Lottie, her younger sister Bella and brother Jack – their father has returned from the war a mental and physical invalid, for whom their mother has neither sympathy nor affection. Ambitious Lottie dreams of a better life and is befriended by her class teacher, Madeleine Carson, who introduces Lottie to her affluent family.

The scorching-hot New Year's Eve romp Mia Parker spent with a sexy stranger was reckless, amazing... and never to be repeated. So why did she agree to marry him three years later? Benedict del Castillo had visited the lush Parker Retreat in New Zealand to recover from an injury. He didn't expect to see the one-night stand he'd never forgotten. Nor did he expect to pick up where they'd left off...

Western Australia, 1890. Fourteen-year-old Sarette Maitland is orphaned when her father dies of a snake bite on the goldfields. Left to fend for herself by her father’s villainous partner, she is rescued by a wealthy adventurer, John Kern, and takes the place in his heart of his own dead daughter.

Several years later, he reluctantly sends her back to England, to the manners society expects of a beautiful young woman.

Milly and Micky are sent away to France on holiday. From the start Milly is worried that it’s not going to work. Uncle Kevin and Auntie Jackie are all right, but they don’t really understand children – and they certainly don’t understand Micky who has never been exactly ‘good’.Milly and Micky decide to go home. The trouble is, they are now in the middle of France! And that is just the start of their adventures…

Following in the pioneering footsteps of the women who have gone before her, Ruby and her new husband James brave a long and treacherous journey to start their new life together. However, they soon discover that there are many more dangers than just those that meet the eye. When James is tempted away by the gold rush, Ruby must join forces with the Aborigine girl Kumali and learn to adapt.

In 1939, Cathy lives happily with her family in Australia, oblivious of the onset of WWII in Europe. In England, young Tom, devastated when his mother leaves the family home in Leeds, is determined to enlist as soon as he is of age. He joins the Royal Navy and is sent to the Far East, arriving in Sydney. Tom meets dance teacher Cathy at a ballroom, and it soon becomes obvious they are destined to be together. But what are their chances of keeping their romance alive when it is inevitable that, once the war is over, Tom must sail back to England?

Hortense Beauharnais finds herself rubbing shoulders with royalty as her mother remarries to become Napoleon Bonaparte's wife. As Napoleon struggles for power on the battlefields of Europe, so Hortense charts her way through the French court - a chessboard world where the motives are jealousy and greed and the prizes are thrones of conquered countries.

Sigmund Freud is suspected of having raped one of his patients. The young woman is in a vegetative state and unable to communicate. The Public Prosecutor investigates Freud, and there is no shortage of witnesses willing to testify against the Professor. Anna starts to suspect that her father is the victim of a conspiracy.

Shots echo through Vienna's streets at dawn. A sniper has holed up in a church tower and threatens to shoot anyone who dares to show themselves on the square below. Constable Karl Gruber can persuade Freud to help him find a diplomatic solution to the situation. Under time pressure and against strong resistance from Karl's police colleagues, Freud negotiates with the man who - just like Karl - fought in the front lines in World War I.

A young girl stands alone in the cobbled market place of a small Lincolnshire town, bedraggled, soaked through and very afraid. Who is she? Where has she come from and from whom is she running away? No one knows or cares. Only kindly farmer, Eddie Appleyard, recognises something in the girl that touches his heart. In a drunken haze and scarcely realising what he is doing, Eddie takes her home even though his wife is a tyrant, who will believe the worst.

Charlotte is an only child, reared by a brutal father who cannot forgive her for not being the son he desires. Loved by most that she meets, Charlotte has a gift for friendship, and it is her work as a Sunday School teacher that gives her hope - and an escape from home. When Charlotte meets Miles Thornton, she is instantly drawn to him. He is new to the area and a widower, with three lovely young sons to look after but the one thing he has longed for is a daughter. As they grow to understand each other, it seems that Miles and Charlotte have more in common that meets the eye.…

When Florrie Maltby defies her father by refusing to marry Gervase Richards, she sets off a chain of events that will alter her life. Instead she goes to London and becomes involved with the suffragette movement. She's imprisoned for her militant actions, and goes on hunger strike. With her health deteriorating, there is one person who can save her - Gervase. After a brief stay in the countryside to recuperate, Florrie returns to London to continue her fight for women's rights. Only the outbreak of the Great War puts a halt to her activities....

Judith is suddenly all alone in the world. Her husband, Jack, has left her - why, she doesn't really know. Her two sons are in Australia, and both her mother and her best friend Naomi have recently died. Embarking on a journey to Exmoor to meet the famous artist Robert Haussman, with an oddly assorted group of fellow-enthusiasts, Judith finds herself a prey to all sorts of irrational fears. Chief amongst them is the increasing conviction that Jack is dead. Why did he leave her? Where has he gone? And why does Robert Haussman exert such a strange influence on her?

It is 1945, and victory marches fill the streets of London. Brenda and her friends, happy that at long last the war is over, hope that they'll soon leave the days of rationing and worry behind. Before long Brenda's skills as a real life Mary Poppins are in demand again. Moving from house to house, Brenda never stays long, but just enough time to sprinkle a little magic. Word quickly spreads of this wonder nanny, who gets up to feed fretful babies in the middle of the night, who delivers quiet wisdom, and calmly restores order and happiness.

When Maggie and Bill’s eldest son Jake dies suddenly, they're swept away on a tide of grief that fractures their marriage. Maggie and the children are left clinging to the wreckage of their family. Enter Kate, housekeeper, companion, and shoulder to cry on. She's here to pick up the pieces and fix what isn't completely broken. But can Maggie trust Kate? And why is Kate so keen to help?

A house carved fine as a jewellery box, a painted garden, an angel in a palm tree. These are only some of the marvels of the Russian estate on which Nina Karsavina grows up, surrounded by her beautiful mother, her eccentric father, her elder sister Katya, and the housekeeper Darya who teaches her the old Russian folk tales and traditions. But when her father gradually loses his mind after the death of her mother, Nina takes the difficult decision to leave her homeland and marry a complete stranger.

When the news of the death of her ex-husband reaches Binnie, it seems that her tranquil life in the West Country must come to an end. He had left her the island in the beautiful archipelago off the coast of Cornwall where he had spent his childhood. Binnie has to take her family to the island, revisiting it for the first time in years, and work out what to do. Leaving behind the mysterious stranger who had turned up in the village only the day before, Binnie has to embark upon a whole new life.

1912, Henley-on-Thames. Twenty-Four-year-old Marianne Lefevre is alone in the world: her parents both dead and her brother in faraway India. She is pleased to be taken on as governess in the affluent Matlowe household and hopes the position will become permanent. But as Marianne grows closer to the young twin girls and to the rest of the staff, she becomes increasingly concerned. Why are the children forbidden to go near the boat house at the end of the garden?

'When had I a choice to be other than I was?' From childhood Alice Salisbury has learnt obedience in all things and at fourteen dutifully marries the man her father has chosen for her – at the cost of losing the love of her mother forever and the family she holds dear.

Che is raised in isolated privilege by his New York grandmother, the precocious son of radical Harvard students in the sixties. Yearning for his famous outlaw parents, denied all access to television and the news, he takes hope from his long-haired teenage neighbour who predicts "They will come for you, man. They'll break you out of here."