Showing results by narrator "Julia Franklin" in All Categories

On the set of The Suffolk Seagull nobody really knows what is going on - least of all Felix Smythe, whose bit part is constantly changing, much to Felix’s chagrin. But the unambiguous death by gunshot of a female cast member brings a drama to proceedings lacking in the film itself, and Lady Fawcett, Rosy, Felix and even Cedric Dillworthy are once again at the centre of a murder mystery in which further victims may face the cut.

Manchester, November 1940. As the war continues and secrets threaten the railway girls, they will discover the true meaning of friendship. For Dot, her job on the railways is everything. Transporting parcels around the country gives her pride that she is doing her bit for the war effort, but a growing friendship causes problems when home and work collide. Joan loves her boyfriend Bob dearly, but when tragedy strikes, her heart is torn apart, and she is forced to make a decision that could hurt those she loves most.

In theory, nothing could be better than a summer spent basking in the French sun. That is until you add in three teenagers, two love interests, one divorcing couple, and a very unexpected pregnancy. Admittedly, this isn't exactly the relaxing holiday Leah Beaumont was hoping for - but it's the one she's got. With her sister Michele's family falling apart at the seams, it's up to Leah to pick up the pieces and try to hold them all together.

As time ebbs and flows over the summer both Katie Teague and her godmother Mattie Cranford discover their lives are at a crossroads. Mattie shackled to the family wool shop for over 50 years, feels life has passed her by. She dreams of seeing the world and shaking off a lifetime of regrets. When Katie is made redundant, Mattie seizes the moment and asks Katie to move back to her home town of Dartmouth and breathe new life into the rundown wool shop and to her surprise Katie agrees.

After tragically losing her husband, Nicola Jacques and her teenage son, Oliver, relocate to his father’s family's Olive Farm in the hills above the French Riviera. Due to a family feud, Oliver has never known his fathers’ side of the family, and Grandpapa Henri is intent that Oliver will take over the reins of the ancestral farm and his rightful inheritance. Determined to keep her independence from a rather controlling grandpapa, Nicola buys a run-down cottage on the edge of the family's Olive Farm and sets to work renovating their new home and providing an income.

Gabriella Jacques, is happy to be back in her childhood home, Villa Espoir in the South of France ready to embrace fresh experiences with friends new and old and to heal some deep family scars. Recently widowed Harriet Rogers, hopes to rebuild her family life and reconnect with Elodie, the daughter she abandoned into her mother Gabby’s care to follow her heart. But when an acquaintance from the past seeks her out, Harriet fears a secret from her past will ruin her plans. Elodie Jacques, adores her new life in her Grandmothers old home as a freelance journalist.

Lancashire, 1936. With her son Gabriel finally married, and her youngest following his dreams of becoming a doctor, Gwynneth Harte finds herself with an empty nest—until a fire forces her to move in with Gabriel and his wife, Maisie, at their home on Daisy Street. Arthur Chapman has been at a low ebb ever since the death of his wife. Turning to drink in his grief, he lost both his job and contact with his grandchild, Beatie—but now the inheritance of a house from a distant relative is the fresh start he needs.

1942: Saba Tarcan is a talented young singer with big dreams. So when an opportunity arises to entertain the troops in the Middle East, she jumps at the chance, cutting short a burgeoning love affair with a young RAF pilot, Dom. It soon becomes clear that entertaining won’t be Saba’s only mission. It's a move that will jeopardize not only her own safety, but also the love of her life.

Two very different women are starring in their own real-life dramas behind the scenes of the Cannes Film Festival. Newly in love, Anna Carson returns to the Festival for the first time in nearly 40 years hoping to reconcile her past with her present-day happiness. Journalist Daisy Harris is looking for a big scoop at her first Festival and is determined to embrace her new single status amongst all the glitz and glamour.

A compelling and deeply moving novel of friendship, family and the power of love, from the Sunday Times top ten bestseller. Now available as an audiobook. How would you cope with the threat of losing someone you love? Josie Clark is a loving wife and mother. She and her husband Jeff don’t have much and it’s often difficult to make ends meet. But Josie will do anything to protect her family and keep them safe. Bel Monkton is a successful property developer, living in a beautiful house by the sea.

Erica Wright lives a quiet, lonely life in her two-bed end of terrace. Her front door hasn't been graffitied in more than a year, but that's soon about to change - her son, Craig, is being released from prison. Local journalist Luke Harding is determined to warn the public. As the person who covered the arrest and trial all those years ago, he knows the kind of predator Craig really is. When Luke's worst fears are realised after a woman is attacked days after Craig's release, he becomes obsessed with trying to prove that Craig was behind it.

Richard and Christine Clay have been married for decades. Their relationship has stood the test of time despite Christine appearing passive while her husband is unmistakably dominant - at times bullying and controlling. Nurse Florence Shaw has seen Christine at the surgery a number of times with minor complaints over the past year, none of which has led to a serious diagnosis. But when Florence hears that the couple appear to have entered into a suicide pact, she is shocked, though not surprised that Richard has survived.

Dedicating a monument to an eminent member of a Cambridge college should be a simple matter of course, but despite already commissioning an artist to complete the work, the meddling daughter of the deceased is determined to enlist her own sculptor to create the statue. It's convenient for her, then, when the university's chosen candidate turns up dead...Felix Smythe and Professor Cedric Dillworthy, a benefactor to the project, are invited to Cambridge to participate in the preparations. Unbeknownst to them, Rosy Gilchrist is also there, attending a reunion at Newnham College.

Viola hasn't had much luck with men. Her first husband, Marco, companion of her youth and father of her only child, left her when he realised he was gay. Her second, Rhys, ended his high-octane, fame-filled life by driving his Porsche into a wall. No wonder her family always believes she needs looking after, and her friends think she really shouldn't be allowed out on her own...Which is why, at the age of thirty-five, she finds herself shamefully back at home, living with Mum.

Manchester, 1920. Carrie Jenkins reels from the revelation that her beloved father was shot for desertion during the Great War, not tragically killed in heroic action, as she had previously been led to believe. Worse, Carrie's sweetheart jilts her on the eve of their wedding, despite her pregnancy. Facing some tough choices and needing to provide a home for her baby and invalid mother, Carrie is forced to accept the unsettling advances of Ralph Armstrong. It is a decision she will regret.

What's an editor to do with so many demands? Do you deal with the morning's pile of manuscript submissions first? Or do you concentrate on your ex-lover, whose business partner has just been found dead in their art gallery, slumped over his desk with a gun in his hand? It's another day at Timmins & Ross publishing house, but when sharp-tongued editor Samantha Clair's CID boyfriend is brought in to investigate Frank Compton's death, her loyalties become stretched.

Spring has brought many new beginnings into the world of Persimmon ‘Simmy’ Brown. Not only has her baby arrived, but she and her fiancé, Christopher, have moved to the historic village of Hartsop - and their forthcoming nuptials are only a short month away. But when a former acquaintance of Christopher’s reminds him of an undertaking made a decade previously that he hasn't fulfilled, their lives soon take a sinister turn. Yet even with a young baby to consider, Simmy cannot ignore her instinct to investigate.

Ben is, at last, leaving home. At 22, he’s the youngest of the family. His mother, Edie, is distraught. He husband, on the other hand, is rather hoping to get his wife back, after decades of family life. Ben’s brother is struggling in a relationship in which he achieves and earns less than his girlfriend. His sister is wrestling with debts and the end of a turbulent love affair. As the children’s lives become more complicated, they retreat to the simplicities of their childhood. But can you ever go home?

Nina Cattermole had an unusual death: headbutted by a horse as she protested against the local hunt. The official verdict is that it was a freak accident. But for the Cattermoles it is merely the start of their troubles. On the day of the funeral a family friend, himself a hunt saboteur, is found dead in a ditch. Local CID Detective Den Cooper is sent to investigate. It soon becomes clear that this is not another accident....

August 1939. Genie Watkins, a Birmingham kid, would love to have a proper happy family like her Italian friend, Teresa. But Genie hasn't reckoned with the outbreak of war, her already rocky family being split up and the strangely liberating effect it all has on her mother.... Under Birmingham skies darkened by blackout, Genie shares her fears and hopes with Teresa, keeps her spirits up with her nan and glamorous auntie Lil, and tries to hold her family together. And amid it all, she discovers love....