Showing results by narrator "Caroline Guthrie" in All Categories

When the residents of a Highland care home discover that the new owners are about to put up the fees substantially they know that dramatic action is called for. But what can a group of senior citizens do against a big organisation? For Dorothy, the situation is serious, if she can't raise the money she'll have to leave her friends, like dear Miss Ross. In protest, the residents barricade themselves into the lounge. However, their rebellion fails! So worldly wise Joan suggests a most unusual way to cover the rise....

This is a book about memories, love, sex and the power of the imagination to see us through the most difficult times. The women of Reality, Reality are mesmerising, whether in love or in solitude. Jackie Kay’s newest and most luminous of collections is full of compassion, generosity, sorrow, and joy. In 15 extraordinary stories, she celebrates the richness and power of dream-life to inspire, to repair, and to make real.

When her Maltese love affair turns sour, Lara McDonald returns to her quiet Scottish hometown of Fairview, heartbroken yet determined. Instead of looking for another PR position, she decides to follow her dream of baking. She impulsively takes the first job offered and finds herself working for local dragon Kitty Walker in her tearoom True Brew. Lara's life is full of surprises, however, not the least being an unlikely friendship forged with one of Kitty's elderly customers, the Laird Hugo Carmichael.

"You can do anything if you have nothing left to lose." Struggling to come to terms with the suicide of her teenage son, Ellie lives in the shadows of the Forth Road Bridge, lingering on its footpaths and swimming in the waters below. One day she talks down another suicidal teenager, Sam, and sees for herself a shot at redemption, the chance to atone for her son's death. But even with the best intentions, she can't foresee the situation she's falling headlong into - a troubled family, with some very dark secrets of their own.

When Anna Cameron is promoted to Chief Inspector and moved to a new division, it should be a turning point for her. Then her mother goes into a coma in a foreign country and an old woman disappears from a Glasgow care home under suspicious circumstances, and Anna's career and personal life both threaten to implode. The gang-related murder of a young Asian boy and an assault on one of her officers only serve to turn the screws tighter – can Anna be both a good cop and a good person?

A tender and sad BBC Radio 4 comedy drama about losing your past, starring Richard Briers. 'The Moment You Feel It' was originally broadcast as the 'Afternoon Play' on 18 May 2009. Alf's memories come in flashes with great blank holes, along with a running commentary from the voices of his past...

'You need to get back in the saddle…' Alice despises that phrase. She's fine being single – with two slothful teenage boys and a meringue business to run, she has enough on her plate without negotiating the troublesome world of modern dating. However, Alice's three best friends have other ideas. Each one will present her with an utterly delicious, eligible man – all Alice has to do is pick her favourite.

Dog Soldiers tells the story of two brave young ‘dog soldiers’ (Army bomb dog handlers), killed in action in Afghanistan with their dogs by their side, through the inspirational words of their mothers. Lance Corporal Kenneth Rowe and Lance Corporal Liam Tasker were both dog lovers from...

Philippa is a librarian from a long line of librarians. When her father dies and her mother loses her wits, Philippa tries the only language Vera understands, that of the Dewey cataloguing system, to guide her back to sanity. Starring Olivia Colman as Philippa, Sheila Reid as Vera, Caroline...

Catherine Depford is the wealthiest heiress in London, and she is all but promised to a proper English lord...so why is she having dreams of a Scottish warrior claiming her for his own? She can't imagine that her heated fantasies would come true, until she locks eyes with the stranger of her dreams in a crowded ballroom.

A protest group hits the headlines when unrest at a women's peace camp explodes into murder. Already on the scene, journalist Lindsay Gordon desperately tries to strike a balance between personal and professional responsibilities. As she peels back the layers of deception surrounding the protest and its opponents, she finds that no one - ratepayer or reporter, policeman or peace woman - seems wholly above suspicion. Then Lindsay uncovers a truth that even she can scarcely believe.

In Jackie Kay’s first collection of stories, ordinary lives are transformed by secrets. Her world might seem familiar – sex, death and family cast long shadows – but the roles of mothers, daughters and lovers are imagined and revealed in the most surprising of ways. Jackie Kay sees the extraordinary in everyday life, and lights it up with humour and generosity in a way that is uniquely her own.

Juliet is used to wielding power and influence in her line of work, but when her beloved niece dies, she finds herself powerless in the face of her grief and has doubts over the coroner’s report of suicide. She travels back to her family’s remote coastal home where Beth was found. As Juliet delves deeper into the investigation, her personal and professional lives collide, and she unwittingly finds herself pitted against dangerous opposition who seem intent on silencing her.

Meet Martha. It's the first day of her new job as an intern at Edinburgh's The Standard. But all's not well at the ailing newspaper, and Martha is carrying some serious baggage of her own. Put straight onto the obituary page, she takes a call from a former employee who seems to commit suicide while on the phone, something which echoes with her own troubled past, setting in motion a frantic race around modern-day Edinburgh.

Lindsay Gordon finds herself dragged into a sordid world of blackmail, prostitution, lies, and murder when she investigates the case of a former colleague jailed for killing a notorious Glaswegian journalist.

In 1891, Edinburgh's Henderson Close is a seething mass of humanity, poverty, crime, and degradation. Even murder. Miss Carmichael is a middle-aged spinster, living in the prosperous New Town. She regularly takes food, money, and clothing to families living in the Closes, deep within the slums of the Old Town. In the present day, Henderson Close, having been buried under the foundations of newer buildings a century earlier, is a major tourist attraction. In the depths of Edinburgh, an evil presence is released.

In a remote hill farm in beautiful Scotland, Ellen and her father Duncan are enjoying a peaceful life. In time they're joined by rugged farmhand Tom, come to lend some muscle to Ellen's ageing father. Almost inevitably romance grows between Ellen and the new arrival but once married however, Ellen discovers that Tom has a brutish side to his character.

Why would anyone want to kill Penny Varnavides, best-selling author of the Teen Dreams series? Her demise can't be the freak accident it first appeared - it's an exact replica of the murder method in her forthcoming book. Only three people knew the plot of Penny's unpublished novel: her literary agent, her editor, and her ex-girlfriend Meredith. In an effort to clear Meredith, Lindsay Gordon delves beneath the glittering facade of the seemingly glamorous world of London publishing in search of a murderer. While hobnobbing with industry notables, Lindsay encounters an unsavoury mix of soured relationships, desperate power plays, fraud, and seething rivalries.

When union leader Tom Jack falls to his death from her bedroom window after a spectacularly public row with Lindsay, it seems the only way to prove her innocence is to find the real culprit. Leaving her new home in California for a trade union conference in Sheffield, Lindsay Gordon finds herself in the company of old friends and enemies, including Tom Jack. When this unethical union leader is found dead, having catapulted out of Lindsay's 10th-floor hotel room, she is taken in for questioning by the police.

Maggie Yates tells her best mate Moya everything. She tells her about Mum losing her job - how Mum’s taken to crying in secret. She even tells her about her foolproof plan to cheer Mum up: find her a fella with cash to splash. Moya’s with her every step of the way. I’ll help, she smiles. Though you're surfing a rainbow if you think someone like that exists round here. But at the back of her mind Maggie knows that Mum's crying is more than sadness. That there are no easy fixes. And that she shouldn’t be speaking to Moya any more. Because Moya died months ago.