Penny Everingham

A young girl inhabits an isolated island with her scientist father and communicates with a reclusive author of the novel she's reading.

When 15-year-old Vicky Austin, her sister Suzy and little brother Rob visit their grandfather on Seven Bay Island, Vicky faces several unexpected challenges. Her beloved grandfather, retired Reverend Eaton, seems to be seriously ill, but tries to pretend that nothing is wrong. Vicky met the rich but emotionally troubled Zachary Gray the previous summer, and he reappears to renew the acquaintance. Another boy, 17-year-old Adam Eddington, recruits Vicky to help him with a research project, working with a dolphin called Basil. Vicky discovers she can communicate telepathically with the dolphin and his mate - and possibly with Adam as well

An ancient talking macaw named Mac becomes the saving grace for an elderly man threatened with a nursing home, when it is discovered that the talking bird knows the whereabouts of a buried treasure from its days with a pirate. His grandson decides to go off on the hunt only to discover that a resort now exists where the treasure is buried.

Three generations of a family with separate but intersecting obsessions - trying to figure out how to die with dignity, live with none and make it count.

Set during the 1960s in the fictional North Yorkshire village of Aidensfield, this enduringly popular series interweaves crime and medical storylines.