Showing results by narrator "Helen Lloyd" in All Categories

As a child Catherine Monsigny was the only witness to a heinous crime. Now she is an ambitious rookie attorney in sophisticated modern-day Paris. On the side she does pro bono work and hits the jackpot: a major felony case that could boost her career. A black woman is accused of poisoning her rich farmer husband in a peaceful village in central France, where the beautiful, rolling hills hold dark secrets. While preparing the case, Catherine's own past comes back with a vengeance.

Autumn 1941, and as female conscription looms, three women arrive at the Bell Works Factory in Hucknall to work on the Spitfire production line. Lily soon realises her real dream is to pilot the planes; Edna longs to be reunited with her evacuee daughter, but soon discovers she has a much bigger problem; and Jeannie fears the worst after weeks of no news from her fiancé. Despite all the heartache, with a bit of festive cheer and 'can do' attitude, The Engine Girls will pull together and do all they can to ensure Britain's safe for the New Year.

At 16, Nancy, the only member of her family to survive the Great Famine, leaves her small island for the mainland. Finding work in a grand house on the edge of Cork City, she feels irrepressibly drawn to the charismatic gardener Michael Egan, sparking a love affair that soon throws her into a fight for her life. In 1920, Nancy's son Jer has lived through battles of his own as a soldier in the Great War. Now drunk in a jail cell, he struggles to piece together where he has come from and who he wants to be.

Good parents everywhere know the tension of wanting our kids to be curious, to have rich experiences and friends...but to be perfectly safe while doing it. Little Fox knows all about it! His father warns him of the danger everywhere. But Little Fox still frolics with butterflies, scavenges for food, and searches for new friends. Then one day he takes a tumble, bumps his head, and starts dreaming of things that reflect both the beauty he's seen and the scary things he's heard. And when Little Fox wakes up, he's perhaps a little wiser, but still every bit as curious and full of life.

Gosport, Hampshire, 1943, and even in the middle of war the local pub provides a warm welcome, thanks to its trio of barmaids. Ruby has been living and working at the Point of No Return pub since her parents were killed by a bomb. She loves the bustle of the pub; it helps take her mind off worrying about her fiance, Joe, away fighting in France.

Vee Smith is 22 when she starts work on Gosport's ferries, taking a job left vacant by the men gone off to war. She soon makes friends with the other women workers, and together they enjoy nights out dancing in Gosport. Vee even feels herself falling for Sam, the skipper of the ferry and her unhappily married boss. But Vee has a secret: her real name is Violetta Schmidt, and she is half German. If her true nationality is discovered, she and her mother could find themselves interned as enemy aliens.

Rosa has arrived in London from Poland to look for her younger brother, Mikhail. He is supposed to be staying with their English father, but when she visits the house she finds it's locked up, and there's no sign of either of them. Stef is running away from her boyfriend, Oliver. Frightened, friendless and far from her family, she needs somewhere to hide. All three find refuge at 11 Bellevue Gardens. Here its owner, Leonie, once herself found sanctuary and now opens her house to others in need.

It is June 1940, and as the bombs fall the women at home must dig deep. Tucked on the edge of the Lake District lies Mary Vale, a Mother and Baby Home open to unmarried women and their children. But tensions arise when three very different women walk through the doors.

Mary Vale, a grand and imposing Mother and Baby Home, sits on the remote Fylde coast in Lancashire. Its doors are open to unmarried women who come to hide their condition and find sanctuary. Women from all walks of life pass through Mary Vale, from beautiful waitress Emily, whose boyfriend has vanished without trace, to young Isla, cast out by her wealthy family after her first year at university goes horribly wrong. Awaiting them is Nurse Ada and Sister Anne who work tirelessly to aid the mothers and safely deliver the babies.

1980s Cork. Jack Shine is sorting through his mother's belongings when he discovers a shoe box full of love letters and newspaper clippings. Jack's mother, Rebekah, was a young woman when the Second World War broke out, and she came to Cork alone as a Jewish refugee from Vienna. She died when Jack was young, and he never learned of his father's identity. So, who wrote these love letters to Rebekah and why did she keep newspaper clippings about a famous Austrian footballer player? Who was 'The Paper Man'?

Professor Olivia Sweetman has worked hard to achieve the life she loves, with a high-flying career as a TV presenter and historian, three children and a talented husband. But as she stands before a crowd at the launch of her new best seller, she can barely pretend to smile. Her life has spiralled into deceit, and if the truth comes out, she will lose everything. Only one person knows what Olivia has done.

This skillfully wrought examination of character and relationships opens with macabre impact. A bland newspaper report describes the discovery of two dead women - one of them a skeleton - in a North London house. The author teases the reader toward the known, grisly ending by cutting back and forth in time and gradually constructing the complex pattern of emotions and events that define even the most mundane-seeming lives.

Kirstie lives in exile on the small Shetland island of Yell after the end of yet another torrid affair. This time, she knows she went too far. Her desperate behavior caused the breakdown of her lover’s marriage. Taking up residence in her grandparents’ croft, which has lain empty since their deaths, wanting time to reflect on her life and disastrous relationships, Kirstie begins to write about her obsessive behavior. What she hasn’t realized is that the island is full of relatives she never knew she had.

In Ashley Crownover's debut, the classic tale of Beowulf is retold from the point of view of Wealtheow, Queen of the Danes. After a century of silence, Wealtheow provides a woman's perspective on the issues facing her people, raising intriguing literary questions.

In The Love Game, Eva and Gracie travel the journey of extreme love learning. On the way, they will discover their love and lust lists, their intrinsic issues, and experience some hilarious and jaw-dropping dates in pursuit of the wealthy ideal.

It's time for Eva and Gracie to love hunt, and their "targets" are rich men - the golden sperm. Such exciting escapades would provide the pair with entertaining discussions during their dull office hours - or so they thought. What they did not anticipate was the discovery of the "booby man"; humorous but very hard truths about wealth, themselves, power; and the RichIdiot.com phenomenon.

Saying Yes to Life lifts our focus from natural, everyday concerns to issues that are having an impact on millions of lives around the world. As people made in the image of God, we are entrusted to look after what he has created.

We're living in some incredibly dark and strange times, but whatever coronavirus throws at us, it's failed to dent the great British spirit. Every day, we're heartened by incredible stories of rare and wonderful people going above and beyond - and some sadly losing their lives in the process. With celebrities turning their hands to educating our children with daily sports and music lessons and weekly community doorstep celebrations for our incredible NHS and service industries who are stalwartly keeping us fed and nurtured, our get-up-and-go attitude is in full swing!

On 28th March 1944, Italian sisters Tati (six) and Andra (four) were roused from their sleep and taken to Auschwitz, to the infamous Kinder Block, presided over by Josef Mengele, the Angel of Death. By the time Auschwitz was liberated, 230,000 children had been murdered, and Andra and Tati were among 70 child survivors. They were sent to Lingfield House in Britain, a home for children orphaned or lost at the end of the war.

The limitless possibilities of the world outside our windows - and the warmth and comfort of home - are explored in this thoughtful meditation on the imagination, as seen from the point of view of a wise old dog.