Nicolette McKenzie

In the quiet of a New Zealand Winter's night, a rescue helicopter is sent to airlift a five-year-old boy with severe internal injuries. At first his injuries look like a horrible accident. Only his mother knows the truth. And she isn't telling. Not yet. Maybe not ever. Richard & Judy Bookclub

In this story of life in the Devonshire village of Burracombe in the 1950s, Stella Simmons arrives to take up her first teaching post. Alone after being orphaned as a child, and separated from her sister, Stella is soon immersed in village life. With the help of a local artist she tries to trace her missing sister. Book 1 of series.

In Western Australia, the Blake sisters are together again. For Cassandra, the Swan River Colony is a refuge after her ordeals, and two of her sisters have fallen in love with their new way of life. But the fourth sister, Pandora, decides to make her way back to the Lancashire moors that she misses so badly. The way home, though, will be even harder than the voyage to Australia. And when she reaches Outham, a devious enemy will do anything to prevent her from taking charge of her family's inheritance...  Book 2 of series.

Posy Montague is approaching her seventieth birthday and still living in her family home set in the glorious Suffolk countryside where she spent her own idyllic childhood catching butterflies with her beloved father. Despite the memories the house holds, the house is crumbling around her, and Posy knows the time has come to sell it. Then Freddie, who abandoned her and left her heartbroken fifty years ago re-appears but she is reluctant to trust in Freddie’s renewed affection. And unbeknown to Posy, Freddie and Admiral House have a devastating secret to reveal . . .

Veronica McCreedy can't resist the promise of adventure... Nine-year-old Daisy and nearly ninety-year-old Veronica make an unlikely pair of friends. Fiercely independent and impeccably dressed, Veronica has lived an incredible 87 years. Most of them alone, in her huge house by the sea. But with the arrival of brave and resilient Daisy into her life, Veronica finds she has a renewed thirst for adventure - and that they both share a passion for penguins! So when Veronica and Daisy are invited to travel to the other side of the world together and visit the penguins of the southern hemisphere, they both jump at the chance. Veronica had thought her days of new friendships, family and love were over, but perhaps it's never too late for one more adventure?

Wiltshire, 1910. With her stepfather threatening her with a forced marriage, Mattie Willitt flees home. But at the mercy of the elements, her life is saved by Jacob, a widower who takes her in and nurses her back to health. The pair soon grow close, but when pressure is put upon them to marry, they must face their fears and stand up to those who threaten their future happiness. Book 1 of series.

Anna has experienced passion, but is forced into a loveless marriage. Her daughter must never know who her real father is. Whilst secrets may never be spoken, diaries and letters can be time bombs waiting to explode.

Thirteenth-century France: Bridget has grown up mastering the mystical gifts of her ancestor, Mary Magdalene. But the Catholic Church has sworn to destroy Bridget for using her supernatural abilities. Her duty to continue the bloodline leads her into the arms of Raoul de Mountvallant - a Catholic. As war rages on, it is the children of these passionate souls, Magda and Dominic, who must strive to preserve the ancient knowledge for future generations...

Three Blake sisters remain in the Swan River Colony and two are quite happy to forge new lives for themselves there. The third, Xanthe, yearns to see the world. But even if she could afford to travel, could she persuade her beloved twin to let her go? Maia has fallen in love with their employer, and would surely be happiest staying behind. Xanthe's opportunity comes in the form of a handsome Irishman bringing some of the sisters' inheritance from England. But for Maia, the same man brings trouble in his wake - and has the power to make her life a misery. Both sisters' reserves of courage and endurance will be tested before they can finally find a home to call their own.  Book 3 of series.

After being driven from home by their brutal father, the Willett sisters find themselves facing greater heartache in the wider world. Nell, the middle daughter, has left home to be with her lover, Cliff. When tragedy strikes, Nell must build a new life for herself. Will she find happiness, or is she too damaged by her past to let herself love again? Book 2 of series.

Cassandra Blake and her sisters are the pride of their father, Zachariah. When the American Civil War cuts off supplies of cotton to Lancashire, the mills fall silent, and an old feud tears the family apart. Cassandra is kidnapped and her sisters are forced to sail with a group of desperate cotton lasses to the Swan River Colony in Fremantle. Penniless and alone, Cassandra is determined to find them again - but when she is offered a way, will she be able to pay the painful price?  Book 1 of series.

The few years Mavis Gaunt spent in Shipleigh as a wartime evacuee were sufficient for her to conceive of the place as a heavenly retreat. In her twenties, Mavis decides to head back. But a tragic sequence of events one winter's day is set to turn her heaven into a living hell.

Ruth Wilson first encountered Pride and Prejudice in the 1940s and has returned to Jane Austen countless times over the course of a long life. After her sixtieth birthday, she took the radical decision to retreat from her conventional married life and live alone while confronting feelings of loss and unhappiness. As Wilson read between the lines of Austen’s six major novels, she felt herself reclaiming her voice and her sense of self.

An uplifting memoir of love, self-acceptance and the curative power of reading, The Jane Austen Remedy is an inspirational account of nine vivid decades, unravelling memories and searching for small truths to help explain the arc of a life that has been both ordinary and extraordinary.

Judith Potts is seventy-seven years old and blissfully happy. She lives on her own in a faded mansion just outside Marlow. There’s no man in her life to tell her what to do or how much whisky to drink. One evening, while out swimming in the Thames, Judith witnesses a brutal murder. The local police don’t believe her story, so she decides to investigate for herself, and is soon joined in her quest by Suzie, a salt-of-the-earth dog-walker, and Becks, the prim and proper wife of the local Vicar. Together, they are the Marlow Murder Club. When another body turns up, they realise they have a real-life serial killer on their hands.

1921. In the sleepy village of Charlton Ambrose, eight ash trees stand as a timeless memorial to the men killed in the Great War. On a dark and chilly night, a ninth tree appears. Who planted it and why? And who was 'the unknown soldier' for whom it is marked?

2001. Eighty years later, the memorial is under threat from developers. Local reporter, Rachel Elliott, is determined to save it, and to solve the mystery of the ninth tree. The trail will take her into the dark heart of her own family history; to a great, but tragic, love; and to a secret that has been kept since the war to end all wars. 

In the late 1940's Alice Pettiford takes a job as a railway secretary. At work she meets Joe Adair, a colleague, and soon falls in love with him, but he has to go overseas on National Service. While he is away Alice and a friend discover an abandoned railway coach, which Alice feels is a special magical place.

Property developer Mike Dormer arrives in Silver Bay, a small seaside town in Australia, not expecting to find any problems with his company's planned hotel development. But what he comes across challenges him romantically and professionally.

When Adelaide Anson-Gravetty finds out her father is not the man who raised her, she is both shocked and intrigued. Determined to find out more about her new family, she travels to the convent of Our Lady of Mercy in France to meet her aunt, the Reverend Mother. But when France falls to the German army, Adelaide and the nuns are soon in the thick of a war that threatens both their beliefs and their lives.

Collaborating with the Resistance, sheltering Jewish orphans, defying the rulings of Vichy France: these are dangerous activities in dangerous times. These courageous women must give all they've got in order to protect the innocent from the evil menace of the Nazi war machine. 

Brenda Ashford is the quintessential British nanny. Prim and proper, gentle and kind, she seems to have stepped straight out of Mary Poppins. For more than six decades Nanny Brenda swaddled, diapered, dressed, played with, sang to, cooked for, and looked after more than one hundred children.

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.

When Coronation fever grips post-war England, Libby King looks forward to hosting her first function at The Palace, the grand hotel in Kingshaven owned by her family. At the party events are set in motion that have far-reaching consequences.

It is 1945, the war is finally over and Brenda's skills as a real life Mary Poppins are in demand again. Brenda never stays long, but just enough time to sprinkle a little magic and happiness, never giving up on her quest to help the most troubled homes, changing hundreds of children's lives forever.