When the truth lies buried in the past...Finding herself pregnant, Julia Winter is forced to leave home rather than bring shame on her family. Reduced to living in the slums of Liverpool, she eventually finds work in a respectable hotel where Eunice Hawkins, the manager's wife, is also expecting. For a while, Julia dares to hope for a better life for herself and her unborn child. But soon tragedy strikes - Julia's baby is stillborn at the same time as Eunice gives birth to a healthy baby girl, Amanda. Although heartbroken at the death of her own baby, Julia helps to look after Amanda. However, Paul and Eunice Hawkins hide a secret too terrible to reveal and it is only after their untimely deaths and teenage Amanda's sudden disappearance that Julia finds out the truth. And just when she might have a chance of happiness at last, she is faced with the hardest decision of all...

    When Adina and her family are forced to flee Cologne to escape the vicious menace of German invasion in 1938, leaving their luxurious lifestyle is painful. Harder still is finding herself a refugee in a foreign country. But Adina is a compassionate and determined girl and as they settle into a new life in the Midlands she finds the strength to survive. However, her brother and sister aren't so lucky and their family ties are stretched to breaking point. And then Adina runs the risk of losing her family forever when she is drawn towards the one man she should never fall in love with...

    Their beloved sons are coming home at last and their eldest children are planning to marry each other. When a double wedding is announced, Molly is determined to give her two beautiful daughters a day to remember for the rest of their lives. Meanwhile Nellie's daughter Lily has a boyfriend whom no one likes. When he brings trouble to their door, Nellie's friends in the street are ready to face it. And there's a handsome young chap just waiting in the wings for Lily...

    He comes ashore in Liverpool when his ship needs repairs and meets lovely young Stella Bennett on the quayside, searching for her lost kitten. The young couple fall in love and want to marry but the Bennetts have other plans for Stella and when she gives birth to a baby, Ginny, Michael is dismayed by the child's ginger hair and convinced she is not his. He returns to Ireland, leaving the slovenly Granny Bennett to rear Ginny. The child accepts her lot, expecting little from life but knowing that, in order to escape from the slums, she must attend school. Granny Bennett prefers Ginny to skivvy for her, but when a sympathetic teacher comes into her life, Ginny decides she must better herself and the obvious way to do so is to find her father...A Kiss and a Promise is classic Katie Flynn, full of warmth and passion and sure to please the many fans of the beloved saga writer.

    Her family is gone and her own life hangs by a thread after a desperate season seeking work. By the time Lew and his kindly neighbors have nursed Clare back to health, he is hopelessly in love with the frail Irish girl. But though she will always care for Lew, another man comes between them. Martin Heywood, a rich, young farmer sweeps Clare off her feet; however, he cannot marry a mere servant girl, even if it breaks both their hearts.

    But then things get a whole lot worse when Josie's inheritance is stolen and her granddmother's death brings eviction from the only home she's ever known. Determined to rise above these bitter blows, Josie struggles to support herself, and, desperate for affection, stumbles into an ill-fated love affair. But there are those around who do recognise Josie's worth, and, although she is unaware of it, one man in particular is keeping a close eye on her progress...

    His romantic ways make Lily go weak at the knees, and although she sticks by her husband, her heart belongs wholly to her flying Dutchman.Torn between his native homeland and his yearning for 'Lily, my lovely', Kasie sweeps in and out of her life throughout the post-war years and the swinging Sixties, always on a tide of storms and passion. Only when that tide finally recedes does an older and wiser Lily settle down among her adored grandchildren to remember fondly her adventurous life.

    At thirty-six, Bella Porter is dependent on her abusive cousin, acting as an unpaid servant. When a kind relative leaves her a house in the village of Backshaw Moss, Thomas tries to take it from her, but she defies him and grasps this chance of a new start in Lancashire. It is not going to be easy, though. The house is on the edge of a slum and in a state of disrepair, let out to various people, some good, some bad. But if she succeeds in keeping her house, she might also gain other benefits.

    Hywel Fletcher was born the day his father was killed in the pit, and is bitterly resented by his mother. And Huw Pettigrew is the much-loved and hard-working eldest child in a respected working family. Dot and Hywel dream of a contented future caring for their land, while Huw's dreams are more like nightmare . . . Yet when tragedy strikes it is Huw's vision which brings the three together and gives each of them, in the end, their heart's desire.

    

    Sentenced to transportation she has to grow up fast to survive prison, the long journey and then life as an assigned servant in Van Diemen's Land of the 1820s. She is sustained by real friendships with other prisoners, Sarah and Helen. Can anyone of them overcome the pitfalls of convict life to become pioneering settlers of modern day Tasmania?

    Her lovely singing voice and good looks lead her to her great ambition - to go on the stage and see her name top of the bill. She becomes a music hall star both in her native town and in the south, after an appearance in the theatre at Brighton - she even performs in Paris, to tremendous acclaim. But when her first love, an ambitious shoemaker in her home town, becomes engaged to someone else Poppy is devastated. She disappears, believing that she will never return to her life of stardom. But her fame cannot be kep a secret...

    In the tiny front parlour fourteen-year-old Laura Blake watches her beloved father die. But not before he tells her she will make something of her life. Laura never forgets his words. Yet her path to success proves to be a rocky one. Forced to trundle a cart around the back streets, selling other folk's cast-offs to support her family, Laura learns enough to start work in her uncle's furniture shop. But then fate deals another cruel blow when Laura is brutally raped. Bearing the child of her attacker in secret, she vows to make the world pay for its injustice towards her.As she grows older her protective shell hardens even as her beauty blossoms, and her new toughness helps her forge a successful career in the antiques business. But it is in affairs of the heart that Laura stumbles...

    Funny and touching, these monologues from original live broadcasts of A Prairie Home Companion focus on the summer season.Includes: "The Living Flag," "The Tollefson Boy Goes to College," and "Tomato Butt."

    She was thirty-nine, had a good job in a factory, lived in a flat off Camberwell Green, and had never married. Her fiancé had drowned in the Thames when she was a girl and since then she had been on her own, though not from choice. Everyone loved Aunt Edie - but especially the Andrews family. Jack Andrews was having a tough time. He'd come back from the First World War to find his wife had 'got religion'.She'd got it so badly that she finally went off, left Jim and the three children and joined Father Peter's League of Repenters. She never really came home again. Jack and the children managed as best they could, but things were pretty tough when Aunt Edie turned up. The first thing she did was give her cousin, Maud Andrews, a piece of her mind for running off and leaving her family. But when that didn't do any good, Edie moved in and took over the Andrews family. For the first time in years life began to look good again. Aunt Edie was warm, generous, kind, and, above all, she was their very own Pearly Queen.