When Dan, one of the farm vets, is seriously injured in a car accident everyone at Barleybridge Animal Hospital is shocked. But they have even more to cope with when Scott Spencer, back from Australia, steps in to cover for him.

Joy, the Practice Manager, remembers the hearts he broke when he last worked there and also his abrupt departure. She refuses to agree to this appointment, however temporary it turns out to be. So Joy leaves, and Scott slips seamlessly into the Practice routine. But Scott is in for a shock himself, when secrets are revealed which turn his life upside down and amend his attitude to women...

COUNTRY PASSIONS is a wonderfully compelling and tender novel in which Rebecca Shaw weaves her magic around the animals and the people in this busy veterinary hospital, bringing them to life and sharing with us their troubles and triumphs.

Read by Susannah Harker

(p) 2004 Orion Publishing Group