Showing results by author "Leah Fleming" in All Categories

In the shadow of loss, disgrace and ill-health, unmarried mother Netta Nichol must watch her child being brought up by her farming father and stepmother. Exiled from her beloved Galloway, she seeks refuge in a Yorkshire mill town where she finds solace in sewing for her son. With the help of local friends, she makes her dream of creating beautiful wedding dresses come true, believing this is the one dress she may never get the chance to wear - in a time of rationing and shortages, no small achievement.

From the acclaimed author of The Last Pearl and Dancing at the Victory Cafe, this is a beautiful novel about dark family secrets, betrayal, love and redemption. 1666. A child is born in the farmhouse at Windebank, in the West Riding of Yorkshire. Named Rejoice (Joy) by her dying father, Joy grows up witness to the persecution of the farming community for following a banned faith. Defying the authority of the local priest, she joins a group of Yorkshire pioneers travelling to the New World to form a colony close to Philadelphia - a passionate, rebellious and courageous woman fighting against the constraints of the time. Will she find peace and love?

Iris Bagshott strolls down the paths of her ancient garden, close to Lichfield in the heart of England, wondering if it is time to sell her house and land for development. She is unaware that around every corner myriad family secrets from the past unfold. From a Saxon clearing to a monastery, Tudor dwelling to the present day, this sacred plot has nurtured her ancestors. Generations of Bagshott women have found refuge and solace tending it through years of plague, civil war and beyond. This is their story.

On the beautiful island of Santaniki, close to Crete, it's not all white sands and sunshine. When retired bookseller Ariadne Blunt suggests the English residents form a choir, there are groans of resistance. After a little persuasion, the group gather in Ariadne's olive garden to rehearse, but each member of this choir has their own anxieties and secrets. Ariadne's partner, Hebe, is in failing health. Clive struggles to accept the loss of his wife while Della, the Pilates teacher, drinks too much and Chloe, Queen Bee of the village society, faces a family dilemma.

2002, Australia. When Melissa discovers a postcard addressed to 'Desmond' among her recently deceased father's effects, she is determined to discover this person's identity and his relationship to her father. She soon embarks on a journey that will take her across oceans and into the past...

York, 1879. Greta Costello must rely on her wits to survive. She finds refuge as a Saturday girl for an old jeweler, Saul Abrahams, and her eye for detail, her long fingers, and her appreciation of beauty persuade Saul to train her as a pearl stringer. This skill will lead her through hardship and pain toward a new life. Scotland, 1879. Jem Baillie knows the immense power of a perfect pearl. His father was a fisher on a tributary of the Tay River in Perthshire, Scotland, and together they found the rarest of pearls, a great white pearl they call Queenie.

High above the Mediterranean, on the French Riviera, stands a beautiful pink stucco villa. Once a playground for the rich and glamorous, now—in the aftermath of World War I—it is a convalescent home for sick and wounded nurses. Scottish Flora Garvie is here recovering from four traumatic years on the ambulance trains. And here she will meet again charismatic but troubled Kit Carlyle, a regimental chaplain who no longer believes in his calling and certainly doesn't believe himself worthy of Flora's love.

Sophia Seddon and Grace Thompson are poles apart - the one a member of the notorious Seddons of Plover Street, the other the vicar's spoilt only child. But their childhood friendship is revived when they find themselves fighting a common cause: women’s rights. And the ties of friendship prove stronger and more enduring than those of background or family, even in the face of danger. Both incredibly moving and engrossing, this is period drama for fans of Dilly Court, Margaret Dickinson and Annie Murray, from an experienced and acclaimed storyteller.

As children on the island of Phetray, Minn Macfee, a cottar's daughter, and Ewan Mackinnon, the Minister's son, are bound together by the accidental drowning of Ewan's sister. Ewan is blamed and Minn shunned. As the two children grow, they must go their separate ways grieving. Just before the outbreak of the Second World War Ewan returns to Phetray, now a handsome sailor. He falls in love with Minn's fragile beauty and enchanting singing voice. But they are separated again when Ewan joins the Special Boat Squadron and embarks for France.

Sara Loveday ditches her cheating fiancé at the altar and flees with her best friend to the beautiful island of Santaniki. Here, amid olive groves and whitewashed stone villas, where dark cypress trees step down to a cobalt blue sea, Sara vows to change her life. Spotting a gap in the local tourist market, she sets up a wedding-planning business, specialising in 'second time around' couples. For her first big wedding, she borrows the olive garden of a local artists' retreat, but almost at once things begin to go wrong.