Showing results by narrator "Lucy Scott" in All Categories

There are those who never grow old because they are taken too soon. There are those who grow old without worries, enjoying everything life has to offer. There are those who desperately try to slow down the ticking clock. And then there's Betty - Betty, who mysteriously stops growing old on her 30th birthday, the same age at which her mother died. The years leave no trace on Betty's face, but as everyone around her is transformed by the relentless march of time, her once golden life begins to come apart.

Three-a-Penny describes what it is like to be a woman in a man's world - about the ups and downs of earning a living as a writer in the 1920s and '30s. Lucy Malleson wrote over 70 crime novels and was part of what is often referred to as the Golden Age of crime writing. But in order to be published she used a male pseudonym and successfully concealed her true identity for many years.

When Boyd moves back into the family home with his amicably estranged wife, Vita, and his young, beautiful girlfriend, Honey, it seems the perfect solution: Boyd can get his finances back on track and deal with his ailing mother; Honey can keep herself safe from her troubled past; and Vita can carry on telling herself she doesn't mind her marriage is over. But the house is small and full of memories, and living together is unsettling. For Vita, Boyd and Honey, love proves to be a surprising, dangerous thing and, one year on, their lives are changed forever.

Max Weston, 21, leaves for his first army posting in central Africa. What happens to him changes the lives of his family forever. At home, his parents struggle to cope. The overwhelming love Caroline has always felt for her only child is now matched by the intensity of Max's absence. The silence is broken by the arrival of Caroline's mother-in-law, Elsa, who at the age of 98 can no longer look after herself. After years of living in fear of putting a foot wrong in front of this elegant, cuttingly courteous lady, finally, Caroline has the upper hand.

Elizabeth Canham accepts a position at Burndale Academy, an isolated girl's school where she meets mysterious widower Griffin Fairfax, a man dogged by dark rumors who both frightens and fascinates her. Soon, a woman is found dead in the nearby woods - the victim of a brutal murder...a murder that bears terrifying similarity to others. Then Beth discovers all the victims were intimately connected to Griffin. Beth’s heart tells her Griffin cannot be the charming, seductive killer stalking the night, stealing women’s hearts...and lives.

Isabel, born into the British Raj, and Asha, a young Hindu girl, both consider India their home. Through mischance and accident their stories intersect, and circumstances will bring them from the bustling city of Delhi to the shores of the Andaman Islands, from glittering colonial parties to the squalor and desperation of a notorious prison, and into the lives of men on opposing sides of the fight for self-rule. As the shadow of the Second World War falls across India, Isabel, caught up in growing political violence, has to make impossible choices.

Mary Bennet does not dream of marriage. Much to her mother's horror, Mary is determined not to follow in the footsteps of her elder sisters, Jane (now Mrs Bingley) and Lizzy (now Mrs Darcy). Living at home with her remaining sister, Kitty, and her parents, Mary does not care for fashions or flattery. Her hopes are simple - a roof over her head, music at the piano, a book in her hand and the freedom not to marry the first bachelor her mother can snare for her. But Mrs Bennet is not accustomed to listening to her daughters.

Miss Elisabeth Elham is an unlikely heiress. She never knew the curmudgeonly uncle who died suddenly and left her a fortune. She's proud, outspoken, and independent - a definite challenge for London's fortune hunting suitors. As various determined gentlemen vie for her attention at balls, routs, picnics, and parties, Elisabeth finds herself embroiled with a charming rake, a mysterious nabob, and an elegant neighbor. This would all be great fun, if only she wasn't so fascinated by the one man in London who's not trying to woo her....

Barney and Hattie Frank are 12-year-old twins who play football together on the school team. The team is trying to win the County Cup. Hattie is the better player but Barney thinks he can see where the school team is going wrong. So, when a TV talent show is looking for a new manager to help a failing Premiership team to start scoring again, Barney's sure he knows the answer. Maybe, to demonstrate his skills, he could train Hattie to be a top goal scorer.

It all starts with a young girl playing her ukulele in a dingy folk club. There is something different about the song she sings - a song called 'Life Is Beautiful'. It breaks hearts. It makes money. It might even change the world. But no story of beauty and success in our cruel modern world can be entirely innocent. Can it? Young Girl With a Ukulele is a dark and clever story of music and fame - and the sinister forces which can lie behind them.

It's Easter in the Suffolk village of Great Saxwold. Oliver Hardcastle is scraping an existence as an organic farmer. Miranda Marlow, high-earning international town-planner, is not looking forward to a weekend with her mother at a country-house hotel. But thanks to a teenage Goth, a wine-tasting at Chateau Saxwold, and an urban fox, love finds a way to change Miranda's mind.

Despite her broken heart, when Dilly Gently joins Magnus Olensen's new band, the chemistry between them is explosive. Both impossibly romantic dizzy blondes with the souls of poets, they could be made for each other. But before they have chance to declare themselves, Dilly's friend Nell confides that she has a huge crush on Magnus, and Dilly nobly steps down in order to play reluctant matchmaker.

Normality is so over-rated. Boat life is better. In her debut memoir Narrow Margins, Marie Browne saved her family from financial ruin by moving her long-suffering husband, three children, and a dog on to a houseboat called Happy Go Lucky in search of a less stressful, alternative way of life. Now in Narrow Minds the family find themselves sucked back into normality, they’re pretty much back where they started: horrible house, no boat, and the kids are beginning to threaten mutiny.

When Jake Jellicoe signs up as a cabin boy aboard the Flounder, Captain Dreadnought promises him a share of the loot. But he soon discovers that the captain isn't all he seems. And before he knows it, Jake is caught up in a race for the dread pirate Redbeard's treasures! Har-har, me hearties!

Rain designs exquisite stained glass windows.But the law is clear-girls cannot be part of the glassmakers' guild.Leaving home, she travels to Magharna.When Peri witnesses Rain's capture by a gang of bandits,his fate and heart become tied to hers.They escape the outlaws,but Peri's family of falconers and untouchables,scorned by all.Can Rain and Peri's love survive the prejudices against them?And with the country on the brink of disaster will they be able to stop their world from smashing apart?

When Alexandra discovers that her husband, Philippe, is having an affair, she can't believe he'd risk losing the love that has transformed both their lives. Still in shock, Alexandra finds herself powerfully attracted to a much younger man. Jean-Luc Malavoine is 23, intense and magnetic. He's also the son of Philippe's best friend. With every increasingly passionate liaison, Alexandra is pulled deeper into a situation that threatens everyone she holds dear.

As the Wars of the Roses draw slowly to a close, England is a place of turmoil. Edward IV is on the throne but his position is unstable and he finds himself challenged by a man who could become Henry VII. But Isabel, a silk weaver to the court and mistress to Richard III, can cut through the turmoil with her clever ways and her pretty smile. Her sister Jane is mistress to Edward IV. Could they hold the power?

Narrow Margins is the true story of one family's journey from the financial crash of the Rover car company to an alternative and better lifestyle. Faced with the loss of everything - the house, the cars, and more importantly, their rather lazy and indolent lifestyle - Marie Browne and her family took on the challenge of a whole new way of life. Strapped for cash, the family buy a decrepit 70ft barge called Happy Go Lucky which had been run as a floating hotel.

It's 1527 and Hans Holbein is welcomed as a guest at the splendid Chelsea home of Sir Thomas More to paint the family portrait. Unknown to them, it is the dawn of a tumultuous time in English history, affecting the family as well as Tudor society. Meg Griggs, a foster daughter of More, attracts the attention of two people, one of them being Holbein. She marries one - but loves the other.

Polish by birth, Fryderyk Chopin made his name in post-Revolutionary Paris and is often depicted as the archetypal Romantic artist–blessed with extraordinary talent but consumed by the flame of genius, tormented by intense and tempestuous relationships and doomed to an early death. But how much of this story is based on fact? This account of Chopin’s life and times separates myth and reality and, illustrated with numerous musical examples, takes us from his youthful beginnings as ‘a second Mozart’ to the darkness and light of his life and the brilliance of his work.