Showing results by narrator "Nicolette McKenzie" in All Categories

November 1920. Russia may have endured the Revolution, but a brutal war still rages. Distant relatives of the Romanovs, the Kirilov family is closer to danger than most. When tragedy strikes, four-year-old Lydia is separated from her family. Struck by the child's plight, the diplomat Sir Edward Stoneleigh brings her to England, where she grows up well-educated, wealthy and surrounded by a loving family.

A poignant, touching and epic tale of lost love, set against the drama and danger of World War Two. 1947. One wet and chilly November afternoon a woman stands at the edge of a lake forced into a heartbreaking choice between her past and her future. 2008. Police diver Martha makes an incredible discovery in a local lake of a package containing a series of lost mementoes which reveal a story of intrigue, betrayal and heartbreak. As the threads of the past and present are drawn together, Martha's world, and that of her family, is changed forever.

A new patient appears on Sigmund Freud's roster. The initial session soon takes a dramatic turn when the man pulls a gun on Freud. The day before, he murdered his own father, and now he demands absolution from the Professor. While Anna contacts Karl and they both hold an emergency session right outside the therapy room in an effort to put an end to the hostage situation, Sigmund tries to use all means at his disposal to persuade the man to surrender before a disaster occurs.

A mysterious homicide case leads to Constable Karl Guber to seek out psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud for the first time. The daughter of the director of the Wiener Burgtheater has been murdered under gruesome circumstances: the corpse has been drained of all its blood. Detective Gruber suspects that a vampire is on the loose in Vienna.

Brenda Ashford is 91 years old and spent 62 years working as a Norland Nanny. Brenda began training at the Norland Institute in 1939 at the age of 18, shortly before war was declared. Even as a nervous young trainee, Brenda was determined to give the children in her care a wonderful childhood. She worked with evacuees from the East End, as well as in the nurseries of smart Kensington homes. She frequently put her life at risk, dashing to air raid shelters with her charges clutched to her chest. But the war was also a time when people pulled together like never before or since.

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…

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 Cemetery of the Nameless in Vienna is where those who take their own lives are buried - suicide victims who jumped into the Danube to kill themselves. But when the obvious victim of a murder washes up on the banks of the Danube, Karl initiates a homicide investigation. Supported by Anna and Sigmund, Constable Gruber heads into the world of prostitutes and pimps in Vienna's red-light district.

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...

The number 1 international bestseller. Millie Bird is a seven-year-old girl who always wears red wellington boots to match her red, curly hair. But one day, Millie’s mum leaves her alone beneath the Ginormous Women’s underwear rack in a department store, and doesn’t come back. Agatha Pantha is an eighty-two-year-old woman who hasn’t left her home since her husband died. Instead, she fills the silence by yelling at passers-by, watching loud static on TV, and maintaining a strict daily schedule.

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.

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.

One name links Betrand Russell and Axel Munthe, Augustus John and Henry Lamb, H.H. Asquith and Duncan Grant, Aldous Huxley and Lytton Strachey. To some she was a lover, to others a confidant and adviser. To many she was a mother substitute. But wherever the phrase ‘Bloomsbury group’ is spoken, Lady Ottoline Morrell’s name is not far behind.

Castroux, France, 1939. In a bare farmhouse above the village, Oriane lives in desperate poverty. When the Germans invade, her simple world crumbles. Passions erupt, moral boundaries break down , and rebellion is soon in the air. Castroux, France, 2000. In an idyllic gîte overlooking the river, Claudia sunbathes on the terrace. She’s pregnant, trapped, and terrified of the future. She confides only in a reclusive neighbour, Oriane, and discovers that she too carried a shameful secret.

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?

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?

After Julius Caesar's murder, his mistress Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt, fled to Alexandria where she gave birth to their son. Civil war broke out in Rome, and Mark Antony, Caesar's friend, was given control over the East. Summoned to his headquarters, Cleopatra made her entry at dusk on a scented, candle-lit barge: and so began one of the greatest love stories of all time.

Kit Mercer smoothes down her skirt, preparing to face her boss the morning after spending the most amazing night of her life with him! Surely he can’t wait to sweep her into his arms again? Actually, Alex Hallam tells her what a mistake he’s made! It’s the right thing to do – after his ex-wife’s lies, is Hallam really ready for new love? But Kit has an even more unexpected secret…

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.