Audiobooks by Margaret Dickinson

Wartime Friends is a tale of unbreakable bonds in times of strife, by bestselling author Margaret Dickinson. As the storm clouds of war gather over Britain, two brave, young women will discover the value of true friendship as they deal with troubles of their own while the lives of those they love are put at risk. It is 1940’s coastal Lincolnshire and Carolyn Holmes is keen to do what she can for the war effort. Raised on the family farm, she battles with her mother, Lilian, to further her education although nothing is too good for her brother, Tom. Phyllis Carter, a bitter widow from the Great War, lives close by with her son, Peter, who works on the farm. When Peter decides to volunteer, a distraught Phyllis blames Carolyn who leaves to join the ATS where she meets Beryl Morley who will become a lifelong friend. Carolyn and Beryl are posted to Beaumanor Hall in Leicestershire as ‘listeners’, the most difficult of signals intelligence gathering. As the war unfolds and their work becomes even more vital, Carolyn and Beryl’s friendship deepens and in the dangerous times that follow, they support each other through some of the darkest days they will ever know.

Margaret Dickinson (Author), Colleen Prendergast (Narrator)

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Secrets at Bletchley Park

In Secrets at Bletchley Park by Margaret Dickinson, two young women from very different backgrounds meet in the Second World War and are plunged into a life where security and discretion are paramount. But both have secrets of their own to hide . . . In 1929, life for ten-year-old Mattie Price, born and raised in the back streets of Sheffield, is tough. With a petty thief for a father and a mother who turns to the bottle to cope with her husband’s brutish ways, it is left to the young girl and her brother, Joe, to feed and care for their three younger siblings. But Mattie has others rooting for her too. The Spencer family, who live at the top of the same street, and Mattie’s teachers recognize that the girl is clever beyond her years and they, and Joe, are determined that she shall have the opportunity in life she deserves. Victoria Hamilton, living in the opulence of London’s Kensington, has all the material possessions that a young girl could want. But her mother, Grace, a widow from the Great War, is cold and distant, making no secret of the fact that she never wanted a child. Grace lives her life in the social whirl of upper-class society, leaving Victoria in the care of her governess and the servants. At eleven years old, Victoria is sent to boarding school where, for the first time in her young life, she is able to make friends of her own age. Mattie and Victoria are both set on a path that will bring them together at Bletchley Park in May 1940. An unlikely friendship between the two young women is born and together they will face the rest of the war keeping the nation’s secrets and helping to win the fight. They can tell no one, not even their families, about their work or even where they are. But keeping secrets is second nature to both of them . . .

Margaret Dickinson (Author), Willow Nash (Narrator)

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The Spitfire Sisters

Family and friendship mean everything under the darkening skies of wartime Britain, by Sunday Times bestselling author Margaret Dickinson. It is the 1930s and the Maitland family have spent the years following the Great War struggling to come to terms with its catastrophic aftermath, and their hopes now lie with the next generation. Their Lincolnshire village of Doddington suffered terrible loss and it has taken great courage for the bereaved families to rebuild their lives without their loved ones. When war is declared again, it is Daisy Maitland and her peers who must now take up the fight for freedom. Feisty and a daredevil like her beloved Aunt Pips, who spent World War One on the front line serving with a flying ambulance corps, Daisy had persuaded a family friend to teach her to fly as a young woman. Now her country is at war, she is determined to put her skills to good use, enlisting in the Air Transport Auxiliary. There she forges new friendships – but she never forgets her childhood friend and cousin, Luke, who has joined the RAF as a fighter pilot. As war rages in the skies and on the ground, Daisy, her friends and her family – at home and across the Channel – will find their bravery and strength tested to the very limits in their determination to save their country. And they have learned one of the most valuable lessons of all: true love will find a way.

Margaret Dickinson (Author), Kate Rawson (Narrator)

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The Brooklands Girls

The Brooklands Girls is the heartfelt sequel to The Poppy Girls from Margaret Dickinson, the Sunday Times top ten bestselling 'Queen of Saga' (Daily Express) It is the early 1920s and the Maitland family are still coming to terms with the aftermath of the Great War. After her brave work as an ambulance driver and nurse close to the Front, Pips is restless and without purpose. Determined to enjoy life after the years of misery, and to help her forget a broken love affair, she seeks excitement in the London parties and balls of the Roaring Twenties. No family or community escaped the ravages of this war, and Pips knows her own has its share of troubles. Her brother, Robert, returned injured and is now battling demons of his own. Struggling to find a purpose in life, he is convinced his career as a doctor is over. It is Pips's young niece, Daisy, on whom the family dotes, who brings them joy and hope for the future. But when faces from the past reappear, Pips is posed with a dilemma. Can she ever trust a man's promises and allow herself to love again? Fans of Dilly Court and Rosie Goodwin will love The Brooklands Girls.

Margaret Dickinson (Author), Kate Rawson (Narrator)

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The Poppy Girls

The Poppy Girls is the first title in The Maitland Trilogy, by bestselling author Margaret Dickinson. Even amidst the horror of the trenches, friendship will survive . . . Thwarted in her desire to become a doctor like her brother Robert, Pips Maitland rebels against her mother's wishes that she settle down and raise children. However, when Robert brings home a friend from medical school, Giles Kendall, it seems perhaps Pips might fall in love with an acceptable suitor after all. But the year is 1914 and the future is uncertain. Hearing that her father's friend, Dr John Hazelwood, is forming a flying ambulance corps to take to the front lines, Pips is determined to become one of its nurses and asks Alice Dawson, her maid, to go with her. Robert and Giles offer their services as doctors, and Alice's brother William joins them as a stretcher bearer. Nothing could have prepared them for the horrific sights they encounter. Moving their unit close to the fighting to offer first aid as quickly as possible puts them all in constant danger. But even amidst the barrage of shelling and gunfire, the unending stream of injured being brought to their post, the love between Pips and Giles survives and blossoms just like the poppies of Flanders fields.

Margaret Dickinson (Author), Kate Rawson (Narrator)

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Daughters of Courage

Love blossoms under the storm clouds of war Following the gripping story of the Ryan family in Margaret Dickinson's top ten bestseller The Buffer Girls, Daughters of Courage sees Emily and Trip fight to keep their new life afloat in the turbulent 1930s. Emily Ryan has gone up in the world since her arrival in Sheffield. Brought there by her mother's ambitious schemes for her brother, Josh, she had found work as a buffer girl polishing cutlery for the city's famous trade. With the help of a friend, Nell, Emily eventually set up her own buffing business employing those with whom she had once worked. Married to Thomas Trippet - 'Trip' to his friends - they plan to build a life together, but when Lucy, Nell's daughter, disappears it seems that the menace from the past is never very far away. Trip is now a partner with his half-brother in the Trippet family's cutlery manufacturing business, but their success is threatened by the Great Depression of the 1930s. Can Emily keep their family and friends safe from the shadow of unemployment? And then comes the threat of another war . . .

Margaret Dickinson (Author), Julie Teal (Narrator)

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The Buffer Girls

The Buffer Girls is an inspiring tale of love, heartache and ambition from bestselling author Margaret Dickinson. It is 1920 in the Derbyshire dales. The Ryan family are adjusting to life now that the war is over. Walter has returned home a broken man and so it falls to his son and daughter, Josh and Emily, to keep the family candle-making business going. The Ryan children grew up with Amy Clark, daughter of the village blacksmith, and Thomas 'Trip' Trippett, whose father owns a cutlery business in Sheffield. Romance blossoms for Josh and Amy while Emily falls in love with Trip, but she is unsure if the feeling is mutual. Martha Ryan is fiercely ambitious for her son and so she uproots her family to Sheffield, but all Josh wants is to continue the family business and marry Amy. As the Ryans do their best to adapt to city life, their friendly neighbour, Lizzie, helps Emily find employment as a Buffer Girl polishing cutlery at a local factory. It turns out that it is Emily who is best equipped to forge a career but, as time goes on, problems and even dangers arise that the Ryan family could not possibly have foreseen.

Margaret Dickinson (Author), Anne Dover (Narrator)

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Sons and Daughters

Charlotte is an only child, reared by a brutal father who cannot forgive her for not being the son he desires. Loved by most that she meets, Charlotte has a gift for friendship, and it is her work as a Sunday School teacher that gives her hope - and an escape from home. When Charlotte meets Miles Thornton, she is instantly drawn to him. He is new to the area and a widower, with three lovely young sons to look after but the one thing he has longed for is a daughter. As they grow to understand one another, it seems that Miles and Charlotte have more in common that meets the eye . . . Sweeping from the early 1920s through to the end of World War II, Sons and Daughters by Margaret Dickinson is a compelling, traditional saga set against the Lincolnshire landscape that Margaret Dickinson portrays so well.

Margaret Dickinson (Author), Nicolette Mckenzie (Narrator)

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Suffragette Girl

Suffragette Girl is an heart-wrenching tale of love and liberty by the author of The Clippie Girls, Margaret Dickinson. When Florrie Maltby defies her father by refusing to marry Gervase Richards, she sets off a chain of events that will alter her life. Instead she goes to London and becomes involved with the suffragette movement. She's imprisoned for her militant actions, and goes on hunger strike. With her health deteriorating, there is one person who can save her - Gervase. After a brief stay in the countryside to recuperate, Florrie returns to London to continue her fight for women's rights. Only the outbreak of the Great War puts a halt to her activities. It is when James, her younger brother, is shamed by their father into volunteering, that Florrie enlists as a nurse and is sent to the Front. Amidst the fear and horror of the hospital close to the trenches, she finds love. But when her beloved brother is accused of desertion, help comes from a very unexpected source.

Margaret Dickinson (Author), Nicolette Mckenzie (Narrator)

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Welcome Home

There are some things which even the closest friendship cannot survive . . . Welcome Home is an enthralling and moving drama from bestselling author Margaret Dickinson, set during the Second World War. Neighbours Edie Kelsey and Lil Horton have been friends for over twenty years, sharing the joys and sorrows of a tough life as the wives of fishermen in Grimsby. So it was no surprise that their children were close and that Edie's son, Frank, and Lil's daughter, Irene, would fall in love and marry at a young age. But the declaration of war in 1939 changed everything. Frank went off to fight, and Irene and baby, Tommy, along with Edie's youngest son are sent to the countryside for safety. With Edie's husband, Archie, fishing the dangerous waters in the North Sea and daughter Beth in London doing 'important war work', Edie's family is torn apart. Friendship sustains Edie and Lil, but tragedy follows and there's also concern that Beth seems to have disappeared. But it is Irene's return, during the VE day celebrations, that sends shock waves through the family and threatens to tear Edie and Lil's friendship apart forever.

Margaret Dickinson (Author), Anne Dover (Narrator)

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The Tulip Girl

Abandoned outside an orphanage as a newborn baby, spirited Maddie March has had to fight her way through life. So when she finds a home at Few Farm with Frank Brackenbury and his household, she welcomes the chance for a fresh start. Work on the farm is hard, but believing herself truly loved for the first time in her young life by the farmer's son, Michael, even the animosity of the housekeeper Mrs Trowbridge cannot mar Maddie's newfound happiness. 1947 brings harsh winter, sweeping devastation over the farm and threatening the Brackenburys' livelihood. All seems lost, until Maddie has an idea that might save them all from poverty. But then she discovers she is pregnant . . . The Tulip Girl is Margaret Dickinson's captivating Lincolnshire saga about the endurance of true love in the face of adversity.

Margaret Dickinson (Author), Julia Franklin (Narrator)

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Red Sky in the Morning

Red Sky in the Morning is an unputdownable historical story from Margaret Dickinson, richly evocative of the Lincolnshire landscape. A young girl stands alone in the cobbled market place of a small Lincolnshire town, bedraggled, soaked through and very afraid. Who is she? Where has she come from and from whom is she running away? No one knows or cares. Only kindly farmer, Eddie Appleyard, recognizes something in the girl that touches his heart. In a drunken haze and scarcely realizing what he is doing, Eddie takes her home even though his wife is a tyrant, who will believe the worst. 'Is this your fancy piece?' Bertha accuses and turns Anna out into the cold, wet night. Eddie hides the girl in the hayloft and, later, in a tumbledown shepherd's cottage that becomes her new home. Anna's arrival will change their lives; Eddie's, Bertha's and even that of their young son, Tony, torn between his warring parents and the mysterious stranger. It will take years for the secrets of Anna's former life to be revealed, but Bertha bides her time and awaits her moment, little realizing the tragedy her vengeance will unleash.

Margaret Dickinson (Author), Nicolette Mckenzie (Narrator)

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