September 1941, Bath - three friends are about to find that some of the biggest battles are to be found on the home front... As war rages and brave soldiers returning home from the frontline need nurses more than ever, fiercely proud redhead Sylvia Roberts is...

With the echoes of war reverberating around London, Cordelia, Mavis, and Jane are delighted to be blessed with some good news: the King and his Queen will be making a visit to the East End. As excitement builds, so does their apprehension. With each passing...

In Regency England, twenty-seven-year-old Leonora Appleby is considered by many - herself included - to be beyond her most eligible marrying years. With her childhood home, Hasterleigh Manor, soon to be taken over by the heir to the land, George Lockwood,...

"Nuneaton, 1880. Twenty year old Daisy Armstrong lives a happy life with her loving father, Jed. They have a special bond, particularly after losing her beloved Irish mother and younger brother. But when Jed falls in love with a local widow, everything is set...

"South Africa, 1899. The smouldering hostility between the Boers of the Transvaal and Orange Free State and the British colonies of the Cape and Natal is about to burst into flame. War is coming and no one can prevent it. Colonel Penrod Ballantyne is sent to...

Venice, 1486. Across the lagoon lies Murano. Time flows differently here - like the glass the island's maestros spend their lives learning to handle. Women are not meant to work with glass, but Orsola Rosso flouts convention to save her family from ruin. She...

Paris 1946. A young woman, Eve Archer, has come to Paris to find the father she never knew. She is soon caught up in a desperate race to prove her father's innocence against the accusation that he sold a French national treasure to Hitler during the war, and...

After the death of her husband, Sarah Cooper becomes betrothed to Robert Billings and moves her family back to Colchester. But with Robert away on-board ship, somehow Sarah must hold the family together and pray that her man will come back to her. Struggling...

Two women, one community, everyone's war... With the arrival of English prisoners of war on Marchese Ginori's farmhouse estate, Rosa is immediately wary. Her husband was killed by the Allies and she will not trust any inglesi around her daughter. The...

After the death of his wife, Sarah Nightingale marries Dan Cooper and becomes mother to his three little boys. They move to a fine house of their own and Sarah has never been happier with a family to finally call her own with maybe a baby of her own on the...

She toils behind the scenes to keep those on the frontlines safe. But she might be the one in danger... England, 1941. When a sudden reassignment gives Lily Baker only three days to report to mysterious Bletchley Park, she's confused but excitedly answers...

A governess bound by her own strict rules, a movie-star tormented by grief, a forbidden love story you won't forget. Hollywood, 1937 Hester Carlye has no wish to look after the pampered offspring of the rich anymore, in spite of being a highly sought-after...

Caught between enemy lines - can they survive? 1914, Hampshire Jack Barlow has a dream. For generations his family have been in service at Trenwith Estate. If he can survive the ravages of war, hell return home to build his own mechanic business and become...

1963: When Clara Samuels buys Butterfly Cottage, she knows the scandal she'll cause. A single woman buying property is not the 'done thing', especially not in a village like Carybrook. But Clara has been in love with Butterfly Cottage, and its garden, since...

1940: When Daisy, a paintress at the local pottery, looks out across Poole Harbour, waiting for the 'little ships' to bring the retreating soldiers home from Dunkirk, she prays her husband will be among them. But Alfie is declared missing, presumed dead, and...

A country at war. Friends in trouble. Lily may be off the bomb-blasted streets, but the danger's not over... England, 1941. Reunited briefly with her husband-to-be before he returns to fighting, Lily Baker now finds her mundane army office work dreary. But...

A secluded house. A lost notebook. A wartime secret. 1942: Young Irish nurse Ellen arrives at May Day House, tasked with helping the men there rehabilitate. But there's something strange about the house, surrounded by water, on its own island in the Thames....

As World War II takes its toll on Liverpool, only friendship and community can keep the women of Weaver Street smiling. The neighbours on Liverpool's Weaver Street have always looked after each other, but when the Second World War takes many of the husbands,...

Somerset, March 1930. Born in the workhouse and adopted by a former suffragette, Frances Brakespeare was encouraged from an early age to be strong, independent and to pursue a career as a doctor. The tragic loss of the love of her life in the Great War propels...

Oscar Hammerstein is asked to write the lyrics to a musical based on the life of Maria von Trapp: a novice nun sent to teach a widowed baron's sickly child. What should have been a ten-month assignment, however, unexpectedly turned into a marriage proposal....

Agnes Cavanaugh has watched her mother, Kitty struggle to put food on the table ever since they crossed the sea from Ireland. So when she sees an opportunity to help earn some money by selling cheese at the local market she begins to work with the local farm...

In the brooding north country hills, a man and a woman fought for the passion they felt for each other that the world branded a disgrace... Agnes Thorman - the proud but forlorn mistress of a once-grand estate, whose society forbade her the man who was her...

Liverpool, 1847. At 17, Delilah Shaw is the eldest of the eight Shaw siblings, and the one who must take charge when her mother and brother die in a tragic manner, and her father is left disabled in an accident at the docks. When they can no longer afford to...

1952. As a telephonist in the Royal Household, Helen Hill hears many private conversations daily. And whilst the sad death of King George preoccupies the minds of those around her, Helen is battling with some difficult family news alone. When she meets Jake, a...

1944, the darkest days of the war. Trixie and Vi are back in Gosport and doing their bit to help Britain win the war. Felling trees is backbreaking, but at least they know they're doing vital work. Trixie has a new boyfriend, Eddie. He's charming, handsome,...

Can she overcome her family's doubts to achieve her dream? Meg Turner has a hard life. She lives on a lonely farm in the Lake District and her only company is her bully of a father and her brother, who resents her. They want to keep her at home, but Meg is...

London, October 1940. Dot is finding her independence and takes a full-time role as an ARP warden. As she finds new courage in the blackouts, her past might still be lurking in the shadows... Peggy makes it her mission to help children caught up in the bombing...

London, 1921 - Jean Buckman, a young and innocent American heiress arrives in England to find a society decimated by war but resolutely clinging to the status quo. She marries Edward Warre an engaging but complex man and the owner of a once great but now...

Jean Parris was a child when her adored father was taken away by the Nazis. As she and her mother wait anxiously for news, Jean starts to question everything around her. Now, in the immediate aftermath of the liberation of Jersey in the summer of 1945, a...

French chef Sylvie was sent to Paris as part of the resistance, while German soldier Christoph is doing his duty to save his sister. As the two begin to discover the people beneath their uniforms, the rest of the world, and the war raging on, fades away. But...

Western Australia, 1909. William Watson's beloved father is set on an expedition to the north-west to map water sources in the Pilbara. Invited along as an assistant, fifteen-year-old William embarks on the outback journey of a lifetime. At sea and on land,...

Bolton, Lancashire: 1943. Livvy knows that her family's survival rests on her shoulders - with her parents gone, it falls to her to support her grandfather, Morris, and younger sister, Joan. Times are tough, largely due to the hardships of war, and Livvy knows...

Sylvia, Joy and Pearl are preparing to compete in a major national ballroom competition - not easy in wartime when travelling is difficult and air raids might mean that events can be cancelled at the last minute. But 'live for the day' is the motto for the...

Sarah is lonely. Living in a small Yorkshire village with just her grandmother for company, she longs to be reunited with her mother and sisters in Manchester. When she meets the mysterious Joe Bancroft, she feels her luck might be changing. And, before long,...

To outsiders, Dr Paul Higgins' life appeared to be happy and contented. Everyone had a good word for him and his home life appeared to be ideal. At 36, Bett Higgins could still pass for a much younger woman, not just in looks but in the way she loved the...

Victoria is on her way to Churchwood, looking for a life away from the dangers of wartime London for herself and two orphaned children. But the village residents are already dealing with their own problems... Alice is working hard to get the village bookshop...

Six lavish BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisations of Anthony Trollope's much-loved novels, plus a bonus documentary about Trollope himself. Anthony Trollope's series of witty, gently satirical stories of provincial life are set in the fictional town of...

The world's longest-running drama, The Archers has delighted audiences ever since its launch on 1 January 1951. Today, over five million fans across generations and across the world tune in, hooked on the epic saga of everyday life in the rural village of...

Winifred Maxwell is found guilty of treason, and her brother William could be found guilty of the same charge for helping her escape from London... She has been persecuted throughout her life for her family's loyalty to the exiled Stuart dynasty. Winifred and...

1910. Halley's Comet is coming. Harry Houdini, the most celebrated escape artist in the world, has sold-out seasons in Australia. Houdini has a new obsession: aviation. He has brought with him from Europe his own Voisin biplane, being put together and prepared...

France, 1351: Kemp and his men are captured in a skirmish near Calais, and subsequently imprisoned in a French castle. All attempts at escape are punished with death. Then Sir Hugues de Beauconray comes to Kemp with an offer: escort a Dominican friar on a...

Northern England, 2010. After a tragic accident upends her life, Kate Mercer leaves London to work at an old guest house near the Scottish border, hoping for a fresh start. When she arrives, she begins to unravel the truth about her past, but the mysterious...

After Pearl's home is destroyed in the Exeter Blitz, so too are her dreams of performing onstage. Finding work as a bus conductress instead, a chance encounter revives her hopes once more, and soon she is singing for the troops alongside new friend Ivy. When...

Summer, 1916. Despite the misery of war in the air, some things in the small hamlet of Strawbridge remain unchanged. The strawberry harvest is nearly ready and friends Leah, Alice and Dora still have each other. Before the war, the three women had found a...

England, 1941. Dedicated local vet Laura cares for the farm animals of the little village of Bramble Heath. But falling bombs aren't the only danger as the war hits close to home... Laura is not afraid to serve her country by caring for animals and protecting...

There were plenty around Fellburn who said Maggie Rowan was as plain as a pikestaff, a woman consumed with jealousy at her sister's good fortune in marrying well. But Maggie Rowan, with her dogged determination to succeed, had two raging ambitions beneath a...

Many years ago, Odysseus sailed to war and never returned. For 20 years his wife Penelope and the women of Ithaca have guarded the isle against suitors and rival kings. But peace cannot be kept forever, and the balance of power is about to break... A beggar...

Kent, 1822. Fearing for his life, Thomas Marsh has fled Castle Bay and found work as a mill hand, deep in the countryside. Here he comes across the unconventional Isabel Cavendish and is captivated by her beauty and wildness. But Isabel's father has ambitions...

Young toy maker and dreamer Abbas is whisked away to Tipu Sultan's glorious palace in Mysore and ordered to create a musical tiger to delight Tipu's sons. When he is apprenticed to eccentric clockmaker Monsieur Du Leze, Abbas finds an unexpected friend who...

A 16-part dramatised reconstruction of a landmark moment in history - the groundbreaking trial of the 22 most notorious Nazi war criminals. Summer, 1945. The war is over, and Germany has surrendered. Across Europe, the top surviving Nazis are being tracked...

The beautiful bastide at Beaulieu-sur-Mer has always been an idyllic retreat for the Challant family, a place of glorious memories and sun-drenched summers. But the summer of 1928 changes everything. One humid, stormy night, a young local boy suffers a fatal...

"Three young women. Two families united. A bond that can't be broken. Sheffield, 1892. Patrick Halliday rules his family with a rod of iron. He's hard on both his wife and his elder daughter, Flora, but he spoils his youngest, Mary Ellen, because she reminds...

1941. Whilst London is battered by air raids, Felicity 'Fliss' Carmichael has troubles of her own. Still reeling from catching her fiancé cheating, she flees to her childhood home at St. Winifred's Rectory, reuniting with her sister Prue and Hester Katz, a...

"Two thousand years ago, a Roman poet picked up his pen and dared to wonder what a heroine might sound like. Now, the women of Greco-Roman myth are speaking once more. And they have stories to tell... A murderous Medea stalks the streets of Belle-Epoque...

"Powerful, hard-hearted Leonard Mears ruthlessly presides over his wife and children, exiling them from the outside world and brutally punishing any disobedience. But he is also a man with a dark secret - an illegitimate daughter that he forced his sister to...

"Kelly knew that, although Barney would always love her, his restless soul would never allow him to stay, but she could never have envisaged how his leaving would alter her life. Alone once more, Kelly finds herself remembering the past - in particular, what...

"War separates them, but it cannot dampen their spirits ... Spring, 1940. Annie's new husband Ricky leaves to fight, but she soon discovers battles brewing closer to home. As her sister Janey begins to unravel, only Annie can pick up the pieces - and, with...

"Can a secret sister help her find her way? Worthing, 1931. Raised in the grandeur of Muntham Court, young Millicent has always felt like the black sheep of her family. Between a vindictive mother and a conceited older sister, her only ally is her doting...

"September 1939. Friends Maggie Shaunessy and Lizzie Taylor are heartbroken to be evacuated from their Liverpool homes to rural Yorkshire. Lizzie is sent to live with a vicar in the village of Gargrave while Maggie finds herself delivered by chauffeur to...

"France, 1939. In the quiet village of Carriveau, Vianne Mauriac says goodbye to her husband, Antoine, as he heads for the Front. She doesn't believe that the Nazis will invade France ... but invade they do, in droves of marching soldiers, in caravans of...

"In the 1960s, a tropical island in the Coral Sea hides dark secrets behind its primordial beauty. Thalia 'Tally' Ramsey has grown up barefoot, wild and free on the island purchased by her maternal grandfather. It is a paradise with two faces - an idyllic...

Yorkshire, 1959. Reminiscing over times gone by at Number 1 Byland Crescent, Jenny Cowgill takes a break from her baking to sit and enjoy the long-awaited postcard from Spain from her son, Andrew. But she is soon disturbed by a knock at the door. The policeman...

"London 1833. The cast-out child of an aristocratic mother, Hannah 'Birdie' Bird is a laundry maid with a hidden past and a suspicion that the wealthy family she serves is hers. Longing for beauty and liberation, Birdie risks everything to change her...

"Thornwood Village, 1910. Anna, a young farm girl, volunteers to help an intriguing American visitor, Harold Griffin-Krauss, translate 'fairy stories' from Irish to English. But all is not as it seems, and Anna soon finds herself at the heart of a mystery that...

"Dolly Maunder was born at the end of the 19th-century, when society's long-locked doors were starting to creak ajar for women. Growing up in a poor farming family in country New South Wales but clever, energetic and determined, Dolly spent her restless life...

"Norway, 1940. Liv has lived a quiet life on her family farm, dreaming of a happy life after the war is finally over. But all of her dreams vanish when the Nazi soldiers arrive in her village and a senior officer sees something special in her ... something...

"London, 1839. With the cemeteries full and money to be made in death, tricksters Crawford and Bonnie survive on wicked schemes and ill-gotten coin. But one blistering evening, their fortunes flip. A man lies in a pool of blood at Bonnie's feet and now she...

"1925, Berlin. Englishman Philip Gibson, in Germany to seek the answers to a tantalising mystery surrounding the Grand Duchess Anastasia, witnesses an attack on Natasha, a young woman who has fled from Russia. When Philip takes the fragile, lonely Natasha in...

Warwick, 1468. One drowsy summer afternoon, Sir Thomas Malory - politician, courtier, outlaw, renowned author of Le Morte D'Arthur - is seized from his garden and dragged to Newgate Prison for reasons unknown. Shivering in his foul-smelling, filthy old cell,...

When German forces invade the Channel Islands and the citizens of Jersey are cut off from the rest of the UK, the island's residents bond together to resist the enemy. East London native Helen Bowman was never meant to be here, but when she found herself alone...

Eilis Lacey is Irish, married to Tony Fiorello, a plumber and one of four Italian American brothers, all of whom live in neighbouring houses on a cul-de-sac in Lindenhurst, Long Island, with their wives and children and Tony's parents. It is the spring of 1976...

October, 1891. Butte, Montana. A hard winter approaches across the Rocky Mountains. The city is rich in copper mines and rampant with vice and debauchery among a hard-living crowd of immigrant Irish workers. Here we find Tom Rourke, a young poet and ballad...

Henry dreams of silence. A world without the clattering of carriages through cobbled streets, the distant cries of drunken brawls, the relentless ticking of the clock. Then he meets a fascinating, mysterious gentleman who sells just that. Precious silk that...

Berry Chambers and her co-workers have joined the Women's Timber Corps - known as the Lumberjills - to do their bit for Britain. On their first day felling trees, they rescue an RAF pilot and become entangled in the loveless marriage of her new landlords....

A fun and gripping faux-memoir book club listen from an internationally bestselling author of historical fiction, perfect for fans of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. Everyone knows Ruby Devereaux's books. But no one knows her story. Until now. From a...

The unmissable new story from bestseller Val McDermid. A thousand years ago in an ancient Scottish landscape, a woman is on the run with her three bosom companions a healer, a weaver and a seer. If the men hunting her find them, they will kill her because she...

The first in a page-turning historical series about survival, love, and family loyalty. England, 1665. It is five years since King Charles II returned from exile, the scars of the Civil Wars are yet to heal and now the Great Plague engulfs the land. Alethea...

The storm that dismantles a dynasty... 1780. Wild and windswept Yorkshire. Sixteen-year-old Heathcliff runs from the only home he has ever known in a squall of pain and fury. Blown into an inn on the edge of the moors, sodden, rejected, and hankering for...

From the acclaimed author of the Miles Franklin longlisted Madukka: The River Serpent (UWA) and the Barbara Jefferis Award shortlisted Benevolence, Compassion continues Julie Jansons emotional and intense literary exploration of the complex and dangerous lives...

As the Great War engulfs Europe, 21-year-old Ruby Archer decides to 'do her bit' at an East End munitions factory. The work is dangerous, relentless - and deafening - but the camaraderie of the other girls carries her through. But wartime is hard for everyone,...

A surprise phone call from her late fiancé's family sends Vivien Lowry of Bloomsbury Girls off on her next adventure. Struggling as a playwright, she moves to Italy both to reckon with her past and create a new future as a scriptwriter at the Cinecittà Studios...

Power is shifting. Queen Elizabeth I is dying, James waiting to become King. Everywhere, there is opportunity to ascend. But who will thrive, and who will fail, under the new King? Will it be the scholar Francis Bacon, whose brilliant mind is the envy of the...

On the east coast of Ireland 13-year-old Finn finds the sword of a slain Norseman, and with Odin's raven watching, is given the name Stormcrow. When Finn's family is torn apart by a random act of violence, and the sword is lost, he embarks on a quest for...

Liverpool, 1848. Meg Shaw is the middle child of eight siblings, not old enough to bring in a wage to help her struggling family, but not young enough to be a babe to be cared for. When the family realise they can't feed all the children, Meg makes a choice....

Lake Como, 1919. The garden of Villa Marchese was once a sight to behold. Now, overgrown and unloved, the flowers that once bloomed are nothing but a reminder of the tragic events of Flora Marchese's death. When horticulturist Violet Honeywell is commissioned...

Glasgow, 1943. After becoming pregnant out of wedlock, only to find out her betrothed was already married, Kathy feared for her future. Her mother agreed to pass off baby Dennis as her own, treating Kathy as his older sister instead. Then a chance meeting with...

When World War II breaks out, Carrie Anderson sets up a bookstall at her local train station in the hope of providing a sense of escapism for travellers, troops and evacuees. Driven by an entrepreneurial spirit and armed with a colourful array of Penguin...

Missing home, Rachel seizes the opportunity to train as a district nurse in a village near Rochdale, even though it will take her closer to the trouble she left behind. She is shocked to find Eastby End little more than a slum. It's clear she will need to work...

1842, Hunter Valley. Lucy Stewart's life turns chaotic when she finds herself caught up in a murder investigation in order to save her brother-in-law, Joe, from the hangman's noose. Constable Sam Donovan believes the accusations levelled at Joe Stewart are...

1842, Hunter Valley. Lucy Stewart's life turns chaotic when she finds herself caught up in a murder investigation in order to save her brother-in-law, Joe, from the hangman's noose. Constable Sam Donovan believes the accusations levelled at Joe Stewart are...

"Lily Valance wants to forget the war. She's determined to enjoy the world of the 1920s, with its music, singing, laughter and pleasure. When she meets Captain Stephen Winters, a decorated hero back from the Front, she's drawn to his wealth and status. In Lily...