Showing results by narrator "Juliette Burton" in All Categories

Harpers is beginning to flourish once more after the end of the war but for Sally Harper the problems continue. Husband Ben is moody, sometimes distant, and she feels he is shutting her out at home and at work, but why? It takes a terrible tragedy to make them realise their love and respect is still true. The ladies and girls who work at Harpers continue to battle with problems in their own lives. Marion is still trying to reach her war-damaged husband and Lilly is battling with her pain and shame. It’s a period of transition for all.

On the heels of Autumn and Winter comes Spring, the continuation of Ali Smith's celebrated Seasonal Quartet, a series of stand-alone novels, separate but interconnected (as the seasons are), wide-ranging in timescale and light-footed through histories. 

When Sally, Beth, Margaret and Rachel meet at a job interview for the wonderful new store in Oxford Street, they have no idea they will become lifelong friends. When all four girls are lucky enough to be selected as sales staff their exciting new adventure begins. Join them as they overcome heartbreak and grief, find love and happiness and remain united in their friendship, whatever life throws at them.

Sally Harper is busy juggling running London’s Oxford Street Store Harpers and looking after her beautiful new-born daughter, whilst husband Ben is overseas on another dangerous mission; this time to rescue a friend in need. Young Becky Stockbridge finds herself in a difficult situation, which could bring shame to her and her family. Will Becky, with the help of her friends, find her happy ever after and keep her secret?  Marion Jackson is blessed with a son as she eagerly awaits the return of her husband, Reggie. But all is not right when Reggie returns.

The shop girls of Harpers Emporium on Oxford Street are happy in their work, and their lives are moving on at quite a pace. United by the suffragette cause and now living under one roof, some will find love and marriage whilst others experience heartache and tears. Harpers is the bond that holds them together, bringing strength through hardship and pain and friendship and love.

London, 1938: Lizzie Larch is a 20-year-old hat maker in London's east end. She is happy and popular, but she carries a secret. Seven years ago she was viciously attacked and recovered in a private sanatorium where she miscarried a child. Lizzie has no memory of the night of the attack, but secrets cannot stay secret for too long. When she starts courting her boss' nephew, a shocking revelation surfaces; threatening to destroy their new-found happiness.

Here is the exciting culmination of Ali Smith's celebrated Seasonal Quartet, a series of stand-alone novels, separate but interconnected (as the seasons are), wide-ranging in timescale and light-footed through histories.

One very ordinary day, Maya Flowers sees a new commuter board her train. Maya knows immediately and irrevocably that he is 'the one'. But the beautiful man on the train always has his head in a book and never seems to notice Maya. Eventually she plucks up the courage to give the stranger a note asking him out for a drink. And so begins a story of missed opportunities and finding happiness where you least expect it.

Frazzled mum Alice Ray likes to think she’s on top everything - she has four bags-for-life in the boot of her car for heaven's sake. But after spectacularly embarrassing herself at work, she finally gives in to her sister’s pleas to take a much-needed break. But this is not the luxury spa holiday Alice hoped for - instead, she finds herself in Denmark, in the middle of nowhere, on a ‘How to be a Viking’ getaway. Can the two sisters finally learn to get along, or will learning to embrace their inner warriors just make them better at fighting?

Phoebe, Eliza, and Rose are three identical sisters who couldn’t be more different. When they’re seventeen, a beautiful boy moves in next door and nobody is surprised when Angus and Phoebe fall in love. Everybody loves Phoebe. But is she the sister he’s meant to be with? When Phoebe spends a summer in the French Alps, she meets a man who makes her wonder the same question.

Lizzie adores her beautiful and clever daughters and will do anything for them. Betty, the elder, is headstrong like Lizzie's first husband whilst Francie is talented and easily influenced. When Betty runs away after an argument with Sebastian, heartbreak and worry descend on the family. Sebastian is plunged into a dangerous overseas mission using his old contacts to track Betty to Paris and to the lair of the rogue who seduced her.

In 1890, artist Edward Burne-Jones finished a monumental series of paintings inspired by Sleeping Beauty. Told through the eyes of the five women in his life - wives, daughters and mistresses of famous artists - this is the astonishing story behind that famous painting - a story of love, obsession, scandal and betrayal.

Award-winning director Clover Phillips is riding high when she encounters Kit Foley; a surfer and snowboarder as well-known for controversy as he is for winning championships. Involved in an accident that had devastating consequences for a bitter rival, Kit has never spoken about what really happened that day. Determined to find out the truth, Clover heads to the snowy wilderness of the Austrian Alps, sharing a romantic winter wonderland with a man who can’t stand her.

The war is over, but trouble is brewing.... Wynsdown, 1949. In the small Somerset village of Wynsdown, Charlotte Shepherd is happily married and now feels settled in her adopted home after arriving from Germany on the Kindertransport as a child during the war. Meanwhile, the squire's fighter pilot son, Felix, has returned to the village with a fiancée in tow. Daphne is beautiful, charming...and harbouring secrets. After meeting during the war, Felix knows some of Daphne's past....

Ashley is a time-travel journalist who has fought to prove herself in a world that that believes her road in life was paved by her parents' fortune. After winning a prestigious award, she is selected to travel through time and interview a historical figure. Choosing her childhood hero, Alexander the Great, she voyages back in time for less than a day to interview a man whose legend has survived to the present day. He mistakes her for Persephone, goddess of the dead, and kidnaps her. Stranded in the past, cold and aloof, Ashley has to learn to befriend, to trust...and to love.

It's a big day for Charlie Bell - the grand reopening of her aunt Pansy's long-closed tea rooms in Tremevissey, a quaint Cornish seaside resort. But not everyone is chuffed for Charlie. The tea rooms are cursed, locals say. For Pansy was cruelly jilted by her lover and walked out into the Atlantic Ocean, never to return. Charlie dismisses the 'curse' as superstitious nonsense, of course. But by the end of the first day, her world is in tatters, and she's not even sure the tea rooms can open for a second day of trading. 

Spring will come. The leaves on its trees will open after blossom. Before it arrives, a hundred years of empire-making. The dawn breaks cold and still but, deep in the earth, things are growing.

Against the devastating Blitz of London, normal life must continue for Lizzie Larch. With Sebastian returning to war, Lizzie must make a success of her business in order to survive and to care for her young child. Silently in the shadows, her secret enemy watches and waits, threatening to ruin Lizzie and everything she holds close. Lizzie is soon battling against shortages whilst her hat business explodes.... But soon Lizzie begins to realise that success can mean nothing without the man she loves.

Phoebe is caught between a rock and a hard place: either settle down and get married or return to the French Alps to pursue her passion. Eliza is in love with someone who is no longer hers. In fact he probably never was.... Rose is out of a job and out of a boyfriend. But these very different girls have one thing in common: Angus. The one they fell in love with....

In the present, Sacha knows the world's in trouble. Her brother, Robert, just is trouble. Their mother and father are having trouble. Meanwhile the world's in meltdown - and the real meltdown hasn't even started yet. In the past, a lovely summer. A different brother and sister know they're living on borrowed time. This is a story about people on the brink of change. They're family, but they think they're strangers. So: where does family begin? And what do people who think they've got nothing in common have in common?