Showing results by narrator "Patricia Gallimore" in All Categories

Virginia Woolley is a determined lady, focussed on improving her lot in life by taking on the airs and graces of the middle classes. By doing so, she manages to snare herself a rich husband. But why stop there? A husband gained can easily be lost. Once a wealthy widow, she would be free to marry again, for even more money. But when two rich husbands die in suspicious circumstances, Virginia becomes the focus of a police investigation.

1933. Tessa and Frederica Nicolson enjoy one last idyllic summer at the beautiful Villa Millefiore, overlooking Florence. Four years later, Italy is a distant memory and Tessa is revelling in the glamour and excitement of modelling in London, until a passionate affair with married author Milo Rycroft leads to tragic consequences. Tessa returns to Florence, and, missing her sister desperately, Freddie, too, travels to Italy, where she is swept up in adventure, danger and romance and makes a chance encounter that will change her life.

Modern notions were all well and good - but where did one find a man to share them? Though Frederica chafes at the restricted life she lives as the adopted daughter of an infamous bluestocking, she does agree with the philosophy: until men learn to appreciate women as intellectual equals, Frederica is better off without them! But her sister’s recent elopement sparks fires of romance in Frederica’s well-educated head.

Cambridge, 1952. When Ellen Kingsley embarks upon an exciting career in scientific research she soon finds herself caught in a bitter world of rivalry and ambition. Resisting the advances of charismatic Mark Pharaoh, who will stop at nothing in his pursuit of success, she moves to London and falls in love with dashing Alec Hunter. Then a chance encounter introduces Pharaoh to Ellen's old school friend, the captivating India Mayhew, and they embark upon a passionate love affair that leaves destruction in its wake.

A bloody gang war has erupted in the World Heritage designated city of Bath, leading DCI James Carrick to enlist the help of his old friends, husband and wife team Patrick Gillard and Ingrid Langley, late of MI5 and now working for the Serious Organized Crime Agency, to hunt down the criminals. One for the country’s most notorious and feared crime lords, “Uncle”, is spotted in the city, and they are soon embroiled in a dangerous game of cat and mouse to catch him and his gang.

To decide to holiday in Bath, when you live not ten miles down the road, might be regarded as eccentric – but Ingrid Langley and her husband and colleague Patrick Gillard, badly need a break. Patrick is recovering from being seriously ill, and Ingrid is getting over having a baby. Although the holiday proceeds sedately enough, trouble, their old friend, is never far away.

Wind, rain and hail lashed the cottage. And Bun had just run out of knitting wool. What to do? Far too wet for walking up to the shops, she decided to have a poke at their drawing-room walls. Surely there must be alcoves hidden either side of that huge fireplace? Digging revealed a woman’s body…getting rid of it should have been easy, but for a young detective and a scoop-happy newspaper reporter. But when Bun’s younger sister has afternoon tea with their murder suspect, Bun is worried for her safety.

Ingrid Langley isn’t pleased when her husband, Patrick Gillard, late of MI5 and now with the Serious Organized Crime Agency, is sent on assignment just days after the birth of their son. She has no time to dwell on it though, what with nursing a newborn, overseeing house renovations – and discovering a dead body in the Church vestry.

A Cornish saga, perfect for fans of Poldark. In the Cornish mining village of Meryen, a secret never stays a secret for very long.... No one knows this more than Tara Nankervis. Beautiful yet pained, she is forced to share a devastating secret with her much older and destructive husband Joshua. Out of options, she plans to leave once and for all, taking her daughter, Rosa Grace, with her. But will she have the courage to leave everything behind, or is home truly where the heart is?

Having been deceived by her father and her fiance, Jenefer Trevanion values honesty above all things. After losing her father and her home in a devastating fire, Jenefer supports herself by book-keeping for various businesses in the Cornish village of Porthinnis and acting as agent for the Guernsey merchants who supply local smugglers. But her independence appalls the village’s well-to-do families.

When Sheila Malory reluctantly agrees to help out in a charity shop for a few weeks, her friend warns her about the "control freak" manager Desmond Barlow. It is not without some trepidation that she begins her volunteer work. Before too long, she begins to get the measure of her fellow volunteers, including the bossy Norma Stanley; no-nonsense Jean; and Desmond’s mousey wife, Wendy. When Desmond’s lifeless body is discovered after an apparent botched robbery, Sheila finds herself at the heart of the investigation as Inspector Bob Morris seeks her help.

The murder of Richard Daws, 14th Earl of Hartwood and a senior official at the National Crime Agency at his home - the highly secure Hartwood Castle - has sent shock waves through MI5, MI6 and the Met. Patrick Gillard and his wife, Ingrid Langley, face their most formidable task to date when Patrick vows to find his killer.

Cornwall, 1882. Now owner of her late father's shipyard, Caseley has drifted apart from her husband, Captain Jago Barata. Following the loss and heartbreak they have recently suffered, their marriage is at risk of collapse. When Jago is commissioned to undertake an important voyage to turbulent Egypt, Caseley - convinced she is about to lose him - risks everything by deciding to go with him. Will their marriage survive the dangers they are sailing into - and will they ever make it back to England?

Santo Innis is developing a revolutionary engine to counter the effects of high-pressure steam. His backer is Richard Vaughan, heir to Frederick Tregarron, owner of the Gillyvean estate. His world is turned upside down by the unexpected arrival at Gillyvean of Melanie Tregarron, Frederick's illegitimate youngest daughter. Desperate to prove the viability of his invention, Santo persuades Richard to let him fit one at Gillyvean's brewhouse.

Currently on leave, Patrick Gillard is considering whether to carry on in his hazardous job as "adviser" to the National Crime Agency when his father, the local rector, asks for his help. A parishioner, Mrs Anne Peters, has paid him a visit, convinced that the wrong body was cremated at her late husband’s recent funeral. Patrick promises to investigate with the help of his wife and working partner, Ingrid Langley.

Eva Jackson is Rosemary’s cousin ("umpteen times removed"), and she has moved back to her childhood home in Taviscombe after the untimely death of her beloved husband, Alan. As is the way of the village, Eva has been pounced upon by the local charities, and it is during a coffee morning that she mentions to Sheila Malory that she fears Alan might have died an unnatural death.... Sheila is intrigued and sets out to find out more.

For twelve-year-old Mary Ann Clark life has always been tough. The pretty daughter of a wife-beating drunk, it is no surprise that she has grown up afraid of her own shadow. That is until 'Battling Bessie Ruddick' takes the young girl under her wing and into the heart of her bustling family. Growing into an attractive young woman, Mary Ann yearns to be loved and when her affection for Bessie's son, Dan, is finally returned and she becomes a skipper's wife.

This journey through the changing seasons at Rowfoot Farm - tupping time in the autumn, winters as wet, bleak and cold here in Cumbria as elsewhere, lambing and the glories of spring, a bucolic, bee-filled Eden Valley summer with its many shows and fairs - will reveal much that you need to know about the countryside, its quirky customs and ways, and most likely a great deal that you don't.

1949: one year in the childhood of Candida Lycett Green in the remote village of Farnborough in Berkshire. Here she lives with her father John Betjeman and her mother Penelope Chetwode, in one of the bleakest and highest spots on the windswept downland.Candida runs wild with the 'gang' of village children. Stimulated by regular excursions to the cinema in Wantage, Candida and her best friend June became fascinated by the idea of love.

Ingrid Langley’s career as a crime author provides great cover when she is asked by the Serious Organised Crime Agency, for whom she works part-tim alongside her husband Patrick, formerly of MI5, to attend an international writers’ festival in Cannes to investigate fellow author, Clement Hamlyn, who is suspected of using the event to meet with a wanted criminal.