Showing results by narrator "June Barrie" in All Categories

The Howards of Caxley begins on a fine May morning in the fateful year of 1939, and then follows the path of the two families and the little town through the Second World War, towards hope for happier times ahead.

A new excitement comes to the village of Thrush Green when Harold Shoosmith, a distinguished bachelor who has chosen the village for his retirement, takes the corner house on the green. Harold is soon enmeshed in village politics and becomes involved in the private lives of his neighbours as well. His presence has a dramatic effect on Dimity Dean and Ella Bembridge and is the cause of a serious misunderstanding between the two friends.

The first charming Caxley tale introduces the deep-rooted camaraderie between Septimus Howard, a calm and controlled man, and Bender North, a confident, successful but gruff ironmonger. Their argumentative sides often clash, displaying moments of fury and forgiveness with wonderful tenderness. Theirs is a friendship that survives misunderstandings, the tragedy of war, and the bitterness of loss. The story of their families continues through the generations. Read by June Barrie.

Storm in the Village, Miss Read, Headmistress of Fairacre School, learns of a proposed new housing development that soon has the citizens of Fairacre up in arms. In The Fairacre Festival, after a storm damages the church roof, the villagers must raise money for repairs.

It was in the middle of a snowstorm when Tiggy arrived at the remote house on Bodmin Moor. She was alone, her partner tragically dead in an accident, and Julia, her dearest friend, welcomed her into her warm and chaotic family.

The people of Fairacre are up in arms about the possible closure of the village school. This anxious time for Miss Read is made bearable by the support of all her friends and neighbours.

Clio is staying with her aunt, Hester, at Bridge House on the edge of Exmoor. A beautiful house, it is the scene of many happy childhood memories. But Clio has no idea that it was the setting for a terrible incident after the Second World War.

Nearly 25 years after a tragic accident forced Mim to give up her successful career as one of the world's leading ballerinas, history is repeating itself. Daisy, Mim's most talented former pupil, is suffering from injuries and she too will have to rethink her career. Mim arranges for Daisy to take a holiday in Cornwall, in the strange and beautiful house on the edge of Bodmin Moor where Mim's brother, Roly Carradine, is living.

Veteran scriptwriter Vincent McInerney draws on his lifelong knowledge of Liverpool and his background in the Merchant Marine in these engaging thrillers, in which the gruff, indomitable John Crust and his sidekick Minty probe the circumstances surrounding a missing husband, a stolen sculpture and a hidden treasure.

The Keep that beautiful, ancient family home where the Chadwick family had lived for generations is still a haven from the heartbreaks and storms of life. Jolyon Chadwick, a famous television presenter, takes his new girlfriend Henrietta home to meet his extended family and also to meet Marie, the mother who deserted him and his father many years ago, now reappeared and seeming to want forgiveness. Jolyon, however, is not in the mood for forgiveness.

From the rural festivities in 'Village Christmas' to the poignant tale of a white robin, these two stories demonstrate the wry wit and light touch of Miss Read. Two heartwarming and wonderfully festive listens.

This delightful novel describes the post-war summer of 1946 - and follows the growing-up of three young women in the months between leaving school and taking up their scholarships at university. Una Vane, whose widowed mother runs a hairdressing salon in her front room, goes bicycling with Ray, the boy who delivers the fish and milk. Hetty Fallowes struggles to become independent of her possessive, loving, tactless mother. And Lieselotte Klein, uncovers tragedy in the past and magic in the present.

In the big old house overlooking the sea, five small children listened as their mother read them a story. Theirs was an idyllic childhood, as they played on the beach, in the gardens and the woods, before the war and other tragedies disrupted their lives. Now, many years later, Nest and Mina still live at their beautiful childhood home, surrounded by the glorious Devon country side. But, when their sister Georgie comes to stay at Ottercombe, memories of their past start to revisit them.

Matt’s mother kept all his childhood memories in a small box, amongst the many photos of Matt as a child. But something about those photos has always puzzled Matt. Is that really him? Why does he not remember those clothes and toys? And where, in the photos, is his sister Imogen? Imogen, meanwhile, is living with her husband and their baby in a rented cottage.

Clarissa really falls in love with the house – a beautiful Tudor manor in the Welsh Marches – and marrying Thomas is simply the best way to get it. But life there isn’t quite the idyll she expects. Thomas is so busy with the farm that he doesn’t see the need for a social life, and his two elderly, eccentric aunts – though charming – aren’t the most stimulating companions. When Evan appears on the scene, Clarissa is ripe for a little diversion. But the complications that ensue demand Welsh magic to unravel them.

It was Felix who named it The Birdcage, the tall house in Bristol where Miss Pidgeon lived with her tenant, the beautiful and talented actress Angel, and Angel's daughter, Lizzie. It was Felix whom they all adored and who was so in love with Angel, but while Lizzie longed for a father, Felix had other commitments: to his insecure, possessive wife Marina and to their son Piers, both living at beautiful, mellow Michaelgarth, the family home on the edge of Exmoor.

When sweet, healthy, hearty Holly Fox dies suddenly in childbirth, the Surrey village reverberates with shock. She leaves behind a helpless, silent husband and a tiny daughter, Faith. Everyone assumes Holly's loving and capable mother will look after Faith, but when she unaccountably deserts her newborn grandchild, the baby must be packed off to her father's peculiar family in the North...

Based in Devon in the 1940s, these two dramas follow the lives and loves of a group of young women, all from different backgrounds, but all determined to do their bit for king and country in the Land Army. Billeted in a hastily converted farmhouse, they face cramped conditions and gruelling work - but there's always dances at the village hop and the chance of romance with a GI....

Paradise has been home to generations of Trevannions: paradise, the house at the head of a sheltered Cornish valley where Mrs Trevannion lives, surrounded by her family. Frail and elderly, Honor Trevannion, bedridden following a nasty fall, is inexplicably anxious and distressed by the arrival of a young American bearing an old black and white photograph of a double wedding and looking for a long-lost relation.

Looking at the sky one frosty night, Marty sees the Dog Star, in all its brilliance, for the first time. Although she has Tiggy, her cat, Marty longs for a dog; she’d call it Star.Later that night, when the Dog Star’s light beams into her room, she discovers a real, live dog beneath her bed, and it seems that her wish has come true. But will Star bring Marty and her family happiness?