Showing results by narrator "Annie" in All Categories

London 1941. Sirens warn of danger as German bomber planes approach the city. Ever cautious, Kathy and her mother head immediately for the nearest public air raid shelter, and when the building is destroyed in a direct hit, it is a miracle Kathy survives. Finding herself alone, Kathy is left with nothing but a burning fury and a determination to join the war effort.

Once, Lan had a different name. Now, she goes by the one the Elantian colonizers gave her when they invaded her kingdom, killed her mother, and outlawed her people’s magic. She spends her nights as a songgirl in Haak’gong, a city transformed by the conquerors, and spends her days scavenging for remnants of the past. For anything that might help her understand the strange mark burned into her arm by her mother, in her last act before she died.

As one of Britain's best known TV and radio personalities, Gloria Hunniford requires little introduction. From chat show and current affairs host to presenter of consumer and lifestyle programmes, Gloria is one of the few broadcasters who can genuinely claim to embrace the spectrum of popular culture. Her elusive ability to communicate with people from all walks and backgrounds has earned her a rare iconic status in the hearts and minds of the British public.

The three Bentley children are used to fending for themselves. Their widowed mother has been forced to take a night job at Grant's clothing factory and sees them only at breakfast and on Sundays. But at nearly 18, with a job of her own, Dora is well able to look after her younger siblings. Then one morning their mother fails to appear for breakfast.

Eliza Miller grew up in Australia as the only daughter of a troubled young mother, but with the constant support of two watchful godmothers, Olivia and Maxie. Despite her tricky childhood, she always felt loved and secure. Until, just before her 18th birthday, a tragic event changed her life. Thirteen years on, Eliza is deliberately living as safely as possible, avoiding close relationships and devoting herself to her job. Out of the blue, an enticing invitation from her godmothers prompts a leap into the unknown.

Molly lives with her repugnant father, who has betrayed her many times. From a young age, living on the streets of London's East End, she has seen the harsh realities of life.... When she's kidnapped by a gang and forced into their underworld, her future seems bleak. Flo spent her early years in an orphanage and is about to turn her hand to teacher training. When a kindly teacher at her school approaches her about a job at Bletchley Park, it could be everything she never knew she wanted.

The Second World War is finally over when Lola Brown meets Harry Riggs at a dance. It is love at first sight, but when Harry tells Lola that he is a policeman, her heart sinks. Lola's father is a petty criminal, and if Harry ever finds out and turns him in, it will destroy her family. Harry reluctantly accepts that Lola doesn't want to see him again, and eventually starts to find happiness without her. In the meantime, Lola encounters the eccentric Pickford sisters and sets about transforming their run-down tea rooms in London's West End, only to find her own life transformed as well.

After a night of drunken debauchery following the defeat of the academy's headmistress, Lucas awakens to trouble on all fronts. The steady balance of power within the Imperium has been shaken by his presence, and the resulting aftermath is a town full of heavily armed and well-staffed enemies that seek Lucas' death. Lucas must not only survive their assault but also manage his own slowly crumbling internal affairs when his party begins to fracture. Angered by Lucas' increasingly selfish actions, some of his closest allies are tempted to turn against him.

1813. Haunted by her father's death and tired of watching her mother struggle, Meg Marsh will do anything to keep a roof over her family's head. Even if that means getting involved in a dangerous smuggling operation. When Meg catches the eye of a dashing gentleman above her station, things start to look up, and she can't help but start dreaming of a life away from the shingle and boats of Castle Bay. Blinded by flattery and coin, Meg can't see the danger on the horizon - and the cost just might be her life.

Sue Wilsher, author of When My Ship Comes In, makes an emotional return to 1950s Essex. Tilbury, 1950s. The Empire is a boarding house run by Vi, Doris's mother - the Empire Girls of the title. When Doris becomes pregnant out of marriage, she is kicked out of the house and forced to fend for herself. Desperate to look after her daughter, she takes any job going. She falls in with the Windrush immigrants and finds herself helping one to a new life in Britain.

In September 1870 a train leaves Manchester bound for London. Onboard is Lizzie Burns, a poor worker from the Irish slums who is embarking on the journey that will change her forever. Sitting in the first-class carriage beside her lover, the wealthy mill owner Frederick Engels, the vision of a life of peace and comfort takes shape before her eyes: finally, at nearly 50, she is to be the lady of a house and the wife to a man. Perhaps now she can put the difficulties of the past behind her and be happy.

"Schoolgirl missing", the ticker reads, and the camera cuts to a girl’s face. Blonde hair waterfalling over her shoulders, serious eyes, lips a little parted like she’s about to speak. That’s when I realize I’ve been holding my breath, because the gasp when I inhale almost chokes me. Sadie Kelly has lost her job. Until last month, she was a teacher at Horton College - the same high school she went to 10 years ago along with her best friend, Fiona.

Becky, Bernie and Rose - three best friends from very different backgrounds - are working hard to establish themselves in prewar Spitalfields. Becky, the daughter of a Jewish tailor, wants to become a nurse, but her father has more traditional plans for her. Aching to leave the East End and travel the world, Bernie feels trapped by her vast family of poor Irish dock workers. And then there is Rose. Tiny and thin, she lives with her drunken mother and a revolving selection of surrogate fathers who exploit and brutalise them both.

War would change them forever. When World War II broke out, no one could predict the impact it would have on their lives. As the conflict begins to take its toll, the lives of four families become entwined. The Duchamps, the Spurgeons, the Sowersbys, and the Tooleys are all faced with personal struggles while the world around them is torn apart. Families become fragmented, love is found, and the young are forced to grow up too quickly - but all are determined to remain defiant and united against the upheaval.

After the war to save Ultramar from the traitor hosts of Horus ended, formerly disgraced Ultramarines Sergeant Aenoid Thiel believes that enemies still linger within the borders of the empire. Finding other men of purpose, fellow Space Marines known as the ‘Red-Marked’, Thiel wages a guerrilla war to root out these enemies and vanquish them for good. Following the threads of a previous mission, the Red-Marked arrive on the moon of Bael. There they find an underwater rigging station that has seemingly been abandoned.

Besieged by an army of bloodthirsty orcs and goblins, unlikely heroes Jack, Gooch, Topher, Geoe, and Dobby must find a way to save the city of Edinburgh and its inhabitants. Riding high on the success of wresting a power source away from Ravanan control, the team finally arrives in Edinburgh. Instead of the expected heroes’ welcome, they are captured and thrown in prison. To save the city, they must first win over its rulers and inhabitants, remove a decade long curse, and find a traitor.

Shocked beyond measure at her wrongful imprisonment, Phoebe Pardoe finds it hard to adjust to the harshness of life in the infamous Handsworth Prison. She struggles to maintain her unconquered spirit, little suspecting that her arrest is the work of her jealous Aunt Annie. Phoebe has a guardian angel in the form of Sir William Dartmouth, who eventually engineers her release. But even so, cruelly disinherited, Phoebe must strive to make a living for herself in a man's world.

One summer day Clara Marshall vanished without trace. A few days later, her children, six-year-old Lorraine and five-year-old Janine, also disappeared and were never seen again. Richard Marshall, Clara's heartbroken husband, claimed he had discovered his wife was having an affair with an Australian backpacker and that she had run away with him, taking the children with her, destroying the family for ever.

Everyone wants to be the chosen one. The job's perks often involve overpowered abilities, world-breaking equipment, and an eager line of bodacious partners. But due to a goddess' clumsy meddling, a struggling musician named Perry ends up accidentally transmigrated alongside her true chosen one with none of the above. Demanding a portal home or reparations for his bereaved family doesn't win him respect either. Instead, he finds himself thrust into a world of magic, monsters, and a wisecracking System.

Scarlet Stone has everything: a doting fiancé, a spacious London flat, and a legitimate job offer. In a single breath, everything becomes nothing, and she finds herself on a plane to Savannah, Georgia in search of the meaning of life. After securing a six-month lease for a beachfront house on Tybee Island, Scarlet changes the way she looks, thinks, eats—basically her entire outlook on life. She needs peace, but what she gets is a housemate who looks like Thor, acts like a warden, and smells her proximity like a bloodhound.