Showing results by narrator "Lesley Mackie" in All Categories

It's 1925. Attractive and strong-willed 23-year-old Isla Scott leaves her job as a nurse in Edinburgh to return to her hometown of Edgemuir and take up a vacancy at Dr Lorne's fashionable spa, where she is reunited with her handsome brother, Boyd. Revelling in her new role and being close to Boyd, all seems well for Isla and the Scott family. But the siblings soon find that romance threatens to cloud their future. Boyd is bowled over by pretty new waitress Trina Morris, but is she playing games with his affections?

. She is content there until, suddenly, she must make decisions that will change everything. Fraser Kyle, the owner of the florist’s, proposes marriage. Should she accept, or renew her childish love for Mark Lindsay the doctor from the orphanage who first showed Shona the Handkerchief Tree that inspired her?

As the drums of war begin to beat louder on the continent, 17-year-old Jeannie McIver heads to the wilds of the Scottish Uplands to start life as a Land Girl. Jeannie soon falls in love with life on the busy Scottish hill farm. She even finds her interest piqued by the attractive Tam, the son of the neighbouring farmer. But even in the barren hills, they can't avoid the hell of war and Jeannie's idyllic life starts to crumble.

Intelligent, ambitious Elinor Rae, maid at an exclusive ladies’ club in the idyllic Primrose Square, dreams of a better future. Encouraged by her kindly manageress, Elinor enrols in an evening course, where she soon falls for her handsome tutor, Stephen Muirhead. But it is her attraction to charismatic Barry Howat that turns her life upside down. Breaking Stephen’s heart is bad enough, but when Barry signs up to the war effort and reveals his true feelings, Elinor is devastated.

Alfie McCreadie wants his twin sister, Nessa, to have the best wedding ever, but he’s not happy at being roped in as wedding planner - especially as, unbelievably, his main assistant seems to be Nessa’s cat, Schubert. Anyway, Alfie is a scientist. He might know his protons from his neutrons, but what does he know about weddings? It’s Nessa who points him in the direction of Bea’s Garden. It’s there he meets Fae Brimham, who might be prettier than any bouquet bloom but doesn’t seem impressed by Alfie’s sensible, scientific side.

May 1945. In post-war Leith, the Anderson family must come to terms with the reality of peacetime Britain. Johnny's hopes of a life in politics finally come true, but will his vows to remain a dutiful husband and father be kept? Peacetime is not easy for Johnny's Polish brother-in-law Hans, either. Meanwhile, nurse Kitty - Johnny's daughter from his first marriage - gets caught up in a sensational trial when her friend Laura's brother is accused of murder.

It's January 1955, and for the residents of Meadow Lane, a small community of seven terraced houses, each household has its own story.... When Sadie returns to Meadow Lane from Canada with her son and no husband, she throws the small community into turmoil. She tries to rekindle an old flame, despite him now being married with two children. Then Sadie's son, unhappy with his mother, runs away, desperate to get back to Canada to be with his father. Depressed by how life is turning out, Sadie starts drinking, with tragic consequences for those in Meadow Lane....

1895. With five children as well as her husband Sandy to care for, Katy Fraser’s life is always fully occupied. Yet, Katy longs for something else. And when the new minister moves into the manse he agrees to take her on as a housekeeper. Soon she is given a rare opportunity to fulfil her dreams, but Sandy begins to resent her new-found confidence... Eight years later, Katy and Sandy’s brood are fast growing up.

When attractive redhead Lorna Fernie is taken on to play saxophone in a post-war Glasgow dance band, she is at first over the moon – especially when she and likeable trumpet player Rod Warren fall in love. But then disaster strikes. Things go wrong between her and Rod. He leaves her life, she loses her job, and it only when she forms her own band – the Melody Girls – that the future gradually brightens.

Margaret Kerr of Perth is living in Edinburgh with her uncle Murdoch during the summer of 1297. She'd come to search for her long-absent husband who is in the service of Robert the Bruce. Margaret herself is still loyal to the deposed King John Balliol. Then terrifying raids and a brutal murder on the Kerr property bring the wrath of the English down on the heads of Margaret and her uncle.

It was September 1962, and the building of the New Forth Road Bridge was bringing excitement to the small community of North Queensferry. For Nancy and Joe Mackay, it’s a time of change in their family, with Nancy’s new job and Joe’s work on the ferries under threat. Lorna, their daughter, is acting very secretively, much to the annoyance of her father. Their eldest son Matt is working on the new bridge as a welder, his safety constantly fretted over by his mother.

Orphaned Eliza Dunlop has been working as a companion to a rich but cantankerous old lady, Miss Gregory. When Miss Gregory dies, Eliza is found a new position by the old lady’s lawyer, the oily Mr Humbie. She moves to Fife to take up the job as companion to a young lady, Catriona Stuart, but the situation strikes her as unusal. Why does the housekeeper Mistree Kilbain feel like a jailer? Just who is the mysterious Catriona Stuart? And what role does she have to play in an elaborate plot?

When her employer Miss Macintosh dies, Alice Findlay is forced to look for work elsewhere. She has no family to turn to, relying instead on the help of her former teacher at the orphanage, Miss Lennox. Alice dreams of being an artist, and to her the first step to this is learning a craft. Miss Lennox helps her find work at Simpson's Pottery, painting the where she befriends Nannie and Bet. Despite doing well at work, Alice is determined to further herself as an artist.

Feisty, hardworking Catherine McDonald knows what's best for everyone and tries to make it happen. To keep her aristocratic family's heads above water, she's turned their Scottish Highland home, Annat House, into a hotel, but it's a struggle. And things don't improve when a woman goes missing in the nearby mountains and the media moves in.

In 1960s Scotland, the farming industry is on the brink of huge changes, becoming more mechanised and less dependent on manpower, but at Lochandee it’s a time of hope and promise. Ross and Rachel Maxwell are proud of their expanding family. Daughter Bridie and her Nick are happily married and working hard to build up their own farm, and eldest son Conan’s transport business is prospering.

Alice Raikes takes a train from London to Scotland to visit her family, but when she gets there she witnesses something so shocking that she insists on returning to London immediately. A few hours later, Alice is lying in a coma after an accident that may or may not have been a suicide attempt. Alice's family gathers at her bedside and as they wait, argue, and remember, long-buried tensions emerge. The more they talk, the more they seem to conceal. Alice, meanwhile, slides between varying levels of consciousness, recalling her past and a love affair that recently ended.

When Sheena is forced to move back to Kiltie Street, she is unsure how she will start all over again. With the help of friends old and new, she finds work at a garment factory. And though she catches the eye of some local men, her fiance Jimmy, serving overseas, is never far from her mind. As life settles down, a surprise appears at Sheena's door: a woman named Amy, claiming to be her cousin. Amy has strange habits and a frantic personality - but Sheena agrees to house her for the time being.

Elsie Weir is trying hard to keep her family together. Living in Kiltie Street tenement in Glasgow with her mother and little sister, Jessie, isn't easy - not least because her mother spends most days in a drunken stupor. But life gets harder still when their mother dies suddenly, leaving Jessie and Elsie broken-hearted. The future looks bleak, until their mother's estranged family deigns to take them in. But their relief is short-lived as it becomes clear the Mearns family have taken in the orphan sisters only for appearances, treating them cruelly behind closed doors.

After the Second World War, Ellen and her daughter Netta make the journey from Germany back to Scotland. Nestled in the hills of the Southern Uplands is the farm where Ellen grew up – the home she left to be with the only man she's ever loved. She is still haunted by her memories...and the secrets she dare not share with anyone. Having grown up in Freiburg, farm life is new and exciting to Netta. Determined to be useful, she offers to help new shepherd Andrew Cameron. But doing so might put her bruised heart at risk....

Seventeenth-century century Scotland. A young Border Reiver is preparing to raid a town along the Anglo-Scottish border. But after he is deceived by his band of raiders, he is wounded and left to pay the penalty for his trespassing. Upon receiving the news of her brother's harrowing fate, Isabella battles the Scottish elements in a race against time to offer up her own life to William Douglas as a ransom for her brother’s. Captivated by Isabella’s courage and beauty, William Douglas excuses both Isabella and her brother’s execution, but at the cost of her freedom....