Showing results by narrator "Suzy Aitchison" in All Categories

Written as the letters of the five members of Squire Bramble's household sent as they journey around Britain, The Expedition of Humphry Clinker is a grouchy, very funny examination of how one story varies depending on who's doing the telling. The tale is centered around the arrival of Mr. Clinker into the otherwise uneventful household, who never speaks and does not even enter the novel until a third of the way through.

It's the summer holidays and Millie's bored stiff. Every week, she has to clean windows with her dad at a nearby laboratory. But she's sure something weird is going on inside. Then, one day, a cat comes hurtling through the lobby and asks her for help.

It's the new university term among the dreaming spires. The start of a whole new life. Meet Isabel, beautiful, clever, shy - and leaving home for the first time. Meet Olly, recently graduated, idealistic and a little hopeless, a man whose heart leads his brain and for whom opportunity just hasn't come knocking - yet. Meet Amber, the It girl who is soon partying with the fast set - and no-one is faster than Jasper de Borchy, glamorous leader of the notorious Bullinger club.

Ellie Hardwick is a young architect, specialising in ancient buildings. Working for a Suffolk practice, she spends her days amongst the architectural gems of East Anglia - great houses, cathedrals, medieval churche,s and castles. In her work, she trips over the occasional corpse, ghost or wrong-doer. Architecture has much in common with detective work and Ellie uses her investigative skills to unravel ancient mysteries.

Lucinda is a nice, middle-class girl fresh out of university, determined to 'repay her debt to society'. But when she signs up as a volunteer 'mentoring' ex-cons, it is not long before she is seduced by the darker side of life.

Thirty-nine year old CC is living the urban dream: a high-powered job in advertising, a beautiful flat, and a wild bunch of gay friends to spend the weekends with. And yet she feels like the Titanic - slowly, inexorably, and against all expectation, sinking. The truth is, CC would rather be digging turnips on a remote farm than convincing the masses to buy a life-changing pair of double-zippered jeans - rather be snuggling at home with the Missing Boyfriend than being in London's latest coke-spots.

CC is trapped by a job she no longer loves in an unfriendly city. So when her new boyfriend decides it's time to sell up and move to the South of France, she decides in seconds to change her life. After all, who wouldn't pick an azure sea, aperitifs, and sunshine over a dreary commute and a rainy climate? She hadn't expected a tumbledown farmhouse in the middle of nowhere. Or a motley assortment of surly builders, eccentric farmers, and a resentful, terrifying neighbour - who happens to be her boyfriend's aunt.

Jo Gilroy, an award-winning TV news reporter, has returned to work part-time at Spotlight North West after a lengthy maternity leave. But, to her dismay, she has been demoted to covering the ‘And finally’ stories at the end of the news. Even worse, her new boss is her ex-boyfriend Richard, who walked out on her and their son Alfie on his first birthday. And now Richard’s going out with the station’s celebrity weather girl.

The announcement of a grand treasure hunt sets the Lodes Valley ladies' hearts aflutter. The cash is only part of the appeal: A win could solve several romantic dilemmas. Pixie Guinness sees the quest as a route back to her wayward husband while Pheely is spurred into a covert affair. Faith hopes to snare true love, Rory; and Liv - well, Liv just wants distraction from the boredom of country life. But it is Trudy who finds the trail of clues leads her in quite a different direction and one closer and closer to temptation.

When Jo Green takes a nannying job in London to escape her small-town routine and perfect-on-paper boyfriend Shaun, culture shock doesn't even begin to describe it. Dick and Vanessa Fitzgerald are the most incompatible pair since Tom and Jerry, and their children glittery warrior pixie Cassandra, bloodthirsty Zak and shy little Tallulah are downright mystifying. Suddenly village life seems terribly appealing.

Two couples meet in an antenatal class and loathe each other on sight. Flashy Hugo and Amanda plan a five-star birthing experience with private hospitals and maternity nurses. Right-on Alice and Jack want a home delivery with whale music. But baby Theo has barely arrived before Hugo and Amanda hit problems: Hugo fails miserably to bond with his son and Amanda decides motherhood is boring.

When Claire Cooper was 15 she'd swear on her Wham! album that: big hair and rah-rah skirts were here to stay; Spandau Ballet would never split up; she would marry her idol, heart-throb footballer Andy Pailes. Fast forward 20 years and things haven't gone quite to plan. And when Claire discovers the 'dream list' she wrote as a teenager, she realises how far removed her life is from the one she'd imagined.

Sarah Roberts used to be good. Then she did something bad. Very bad. Now, years later, she’s living a good life. She works as a local newspaper reporter and lives with her saintly boyfriend, Jonathan. She has no reason to think her guilty past will ever catch up with her... until Nick walks back into her life. And suddenly, what’s good and bad aren’t so clear to Sarah anymore.

Alice wants her own art gallery. But at the moment. she’s running her nightmare boss Angelica’s, which is full of gold-sprayed wheelchairs, hairy pebbles, and heads made of frozen wee. Her love life’s just hit a major Blue Period as well. Worse, she has to cope with Zeb, a bad-boy artist whose works go for bazillions. But along comes Dan, a handsome, brilliant young portrait painter for whom life is far from easel.

Katie wants to be a film director. Last week, she wanted to be a writer, and the week before that, a florist. One thing Katie isn't short of is ambition, but she knows that none of her ambitions are to be a waitress. Unfortunately, Katie is a waitress!

When Sam, Jackie and Anna successfully campaign to save their children's school lollipop lady, they are asked by a TV reporter if they fancy standing in the general election. It is, of course, a crazy idea: Sam's youngest son has an incurable disease, Jackie is desperate for another child and her mum is struggling with Alzheimers, Anna's teenagers - and marriage - are in danger of going off the rails. But sometimes the craziest ideas turn out to be the best. And just think what they could do if they got to run the country...

Sadie Drew thinks she must be the world's worst wife. She only needs to walk into a room to make it untidy. She wears flannel pyjamas in bed. Furry things breed in her fridge. But she's a busy working mother, not a wifebot, and husband Tom loves her as she is. Until he gets a hot new job and things change. There are alpha-wives to entertain. Nuclear rows. Unsettling secrets. And the smell of another woman's perfume on his suit. Sadie risks losing everything if she can't transform herself into the perfect wife.... But what is a perfect wife anyway?

When Natalie's boyfriend Michael tells her that he "needs space", she's devastated. Natalie's friends drag her off speed-dating, but she's still yearning for Michael. One of her speedy dates is Guy and, despite the lack of chemistry, at least she's now got a date for her best friend's wedding. But past indiscretions are about to come to light. Natalie needs to escape.

Sophie seems to have a perfect marriage. She, her author husband, Mark, and their daughter live in a big house full of antiques. But as Mark's best-selling star rises, his best husband status is sliding out of the chart, and Sophie feels neglected.

Two weeks before her wedding Stevie Jonson has got the jitters. Is she finally growing up, or compromising horribly? In love or in denial? Yes, there are good reasons to get married. Babies, or at least the possibility of babies. A justification for staying in without feeling like a loser. Contentment, the shave-legs-in-front-of-him kind. And there are very good reasons not to get married. Not wanting to sleep with him unless nothing on telly. Never sleeping with anyone else ever again. His mother.