This book contains violent and/or sexual content.
AuthorMaggie Hartley
NarratorPenelope McDonald
Duration6h 28m
CategoriesAdult Non-Fiction, Biography and Autobiography
PublisherOrion
VersionUnabridged
When Maggie's latest placement arrives on her doorstep, it is clear that Sean, Dougie and their big sister Mary have been through unspeakable traumas in their short lives. Violent and malnourished, the siblings have been left to fend for themselves by their drug-addicted parents. Maggie must use all of her skills and experience as a foster carer to help these damaged siblings to learn to be children again. But alarm bells start to ring when Maggie meets the couple who have been matched to adopt the siblings. It is clear that they're looking for the perfect, ready-made family, and they're not going to get it with these vulnerable brothers and sister. Despite raising her concerns with social services, Maggie is powerless to prevent the adoption from going ahead and she must put aside her own fears to help the siblings settle in with their new parents. But she can't shake the feeling of dread as she waves them goodbye.
Author: Maggie Hartley
Author Maggie Hartley
Narrator Penelope McDonald
Duration 5h 42m
What possesses a mum to kidnap her own child? That's what Maggie asks herself when she's asked to foster 13-year-old Saskia, the subject of a bitter custody battle between her parents. When Saskia's mum Rosa fears the courts are going to favour her ex-husband, James, she takes matters into her own hands. With Rosa facing criminal charges, and Saski...
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Author: Maggie Hartley
Author Maggie Hartley
Narrator Penny Mcdonald
Duration 6h 25m
Three young siblings arrive at Maggie's door after being taken into care. Teachers of eight-year-old Bobby spotted distinct hand-shaped bruises on his arm and his dad and stepmother are uncooperative and hostile to Social Services. While they investigate, Bobby, as well as Melodie and Poppy, are looked after in Maggie's home. As the children settle...
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Author: Maggie Hartley
Author Maggie Hartley
Narrator Penelope McDonald
Duration 5h 29m
When three brothers come to live with Maggie, she knows that it's going to be challenging. They are all already struggling with rejection after their dad abandoned them, their mum having died several years before. While four-year-old Billy is a delight, eleven-year-old Keegan is quiet and withdrawn, and teenager Cooper is a whirlwind of destruction...
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Author: Maggie Hartley
Author Maggie Hartley
Narrator Penelope MacDonald
Duration 5h 16m
When newborn baby Felix is found abandoned at a train station, the police launch a desperate search for his mum. It doesn't take long for their inquiries to lead them to Emily. While baby Felix is placed in Maggie's care, the police and Social Services try and work out why Emily, a single mum, who has gone through fertility treatment to get pregnan...
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Author: Maggie Hartley
Author Maggie Hartley
Narrator Penny Macdonald
Duration 7h 7m
Evie and Elliot are scrawny, filthy and wide-eyed with fear when they turn up on foster carer Maggie Hartley's doorstep. Aged just two and three years old, this brother and sister have hardly set foot outside their own home. They have been prisoners, locked in a terrifying world of abuse, violence and neglect. Maggie soon realises that Evie and El...
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Author: Maggie Hartley
Author Maggie Hartley
Narrator Penelope McDonald
Duration 6h 25m
Three young siblings arrive at Maggie's door after being taken into care. Teachers of eight-year-old Bobby spotted distinct hand-shaped bruises on his arm and his dad and stepmother are uncooperative and hostile to Social Services. While they investigate, Bobby, as well as Melodie and Poppy, are looked after in Maggie's home. As the children settle...
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Author: Maggie Hartley
Author Maggie Hartley
Narrator Penny Macdonald
Duration 6h 44m
Ruth was a ghost of a girl when she arrived into foster mother Maggie Hartley's care. Pale, frail and withdrawn, it was clear to Maggie that Ruth had seen and experienced things that no 11-year-old should have to, that she had been conditioned to 'see no evil, speak no evil'. Ruth is in desperate need of help, but can Maggie get through to her and...
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Author: Maggie Hartley
Author Maggie Hartley
Narrator Penelope McDonald
Duration 6h
Six-year-old Ralph has only been in the care system for three days and has already been rejected by three different foster carers. After hitting a teacher at his school and causing mayhem since he arrived four months ago, staff are unable to get a hold of his mum and her partner. Social Services are called and when Ralph turns up at Maggie's house,...
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Author: Maggie Hartley
Author Maggie Hartley
Narrator Penelope McDonald
Duration 6h 6m
Three-year-old Lexie, five-year-old Amelie and thirteen-year-old Leo come to Maggie after Leo confesses to a teacher that his mother's addiction problems and her latest violent relationship has left him as the sole carer to his younger sisters. Maggie welcomes the three children into her home, and is touched by the gentle care Leo shows to the two...
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Author: Maggie Hartley
Author Maggie Hartley
Narrator Penny Mcdonald
Duration 5h 57m
After a horrific car crash, thirteen-year-old Louisa is left fighting for her life in hospital. She wakes to find that her loving, happy family has been shattered overnight, with both of her parents now dead. With no one to care for her, Louisa is entirely alone. Britain's most-loved foster carer Maggie Hartley is called in to help Louisa cope with...
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