AuthorDilly Court
NarratorAnnie Aldington
Duration12h 3m
CategoriesAdult Fiction, Historical Novels, Family Sagas
PublisherRandom House
VersionUnabridged
When seventeen-year-old Belinda Phillips falls in love with a handsome Anglo-Indian officer, she knows that he is a man she can never hope to marry. When he is reported missing, believed killed in action, Belinda discovers that she is pregnant. Facing disgrace and ruin, she has no option other than to accept an arranged marriage with a middle-aged widower, knowing she must keep the secret of her child's birth for ever. Reluctantly she sends her beloved daughter to a foster mother in Cripplegate, little realising she has entrusted Cassy's care to Biddy Henchard, a woman who runs a notorious baby farm in an area full of poverty and disease. Despite her terrible upbringing, Cassy survives the old woman's cruel neglect. All the while she dreams of a mother she has never known, hoping she will come and save her from her dreadful fate. But when Biddy dies suddenly, ten-year-old Cassy finds herself destitute and with little hope of ever finding the mother she so longs for...
***EXTRA CONTENT***
Listen to episode 8 of our podcast to hear our chat with narrator Annie Aldington! https://www.listening-books.org.uk/extra/the-listening-books-podcast/series-4
Author: Vanora Bennett
Author Vanora Bennett
Narrator Lucy Scott
Duration 13h 48m
As the Wars of the Roses draw slowly to a close, England is a place of turmoil. Edward IV is on the thrown but his position is unstable and he finds himself challenged by a man who would become Henry VII. But Isabel, a silk weaver to the court and mistress to Richard II, can cut through the turmoil with her clever ways and her pretty smile. Her sis...
View Book
Author: Vanora Bennett
Author Vanora Bennett
Narrator Lucy Scott
Duration 19h 27m
Fourteenth century England. The country is in turmoil. The King is in debt to the City, and the old order had broken down. The King's mistress, Alice Perrers, becomes the virtual ruler of the country. Dislaked and despised by the Black Prince, her strong connections to the merchants maker her a natural ally for the King's ambitious second son, John...
View Book
The Confessions of Frannie Langton
Author: Sara Collins
Author Sara Collins
Narrator Roy Mcmillan
Duration 12h 14m
Penguin presents the audiobook edition of The Confessions of Frannie Langton read by Sara Collins. They say I must be put to death for what happened to Madame, and they want me to confess. But how can I confess what I don't believe I've done? 1826, and all of London is in a frenzy. Crowds gather at the gates of the Old Bailey to watch as Frannie La...
View Book
Author: Dilly Court
Author Dilly Court
Narrator Annie Aldington
Duration 11h 40m
Lily Larkin is the youngest of six and the least important member of her family. With their father dead and their mother a stranger to them, she must stay at home and keep house whilst her elder siblings go out to work. As she goes about her daily chores, her head is full of dreams. And she longs for the day she can have a life of her own. When a f...
View Book
Author: Dilly Court
Author Dilly Court
Narrator Annie Aldington
Duration 13h 1m
Eighteen-year-old Irene Angel lives with her parents in a tiny room above the shop where her crippled mother ekes out a living selling pickles and sauces, whilst her charming but feckless father Billy gambles away what little money they do manage to earn. And it is all Irene can do to keep the family together. Billy's addiction soon leads him into...
View Book
Author: Dilly Court
Author Dilly Court
Narrator Annie Aldington
Duration 22h 26m
Taking deep breaths of the cold city air, Katherine whispered, 'This isn't the London I know.' East-End London, 1858. In London's twisting streets, it's hard to tell friend from foe. And for Katherine Martin, arriving back in London after years away, the city is far crueller than she remembers. Her eyes opened to the plight of London's poor, Kate i...
View Book
Author: Dilly Court
Author Dilly Court
Narrator Annie Aldington
Duration 13h 4m
Since the untimely death of her husband, young mother Effie Grey has been forced to live on a narrowboat owned by her tyrannical father-in-law Jacob. In spite of her own despair, she is determined to protect her brother Tom and her baby son Georgie from Jacob's bullying ways - for she is all they have in the world. But when Jacob hires villainous S...
View Book
Author: Pam Jenoff
Author Pam Jenoff
Narrator Various
Duration 11h 42m
From the internationally best-selling author Pam Jenoff, The Lost Girls of Paris is an emotional and powerful journey through friendship and betrayal during the Second World War, inspired by true events. 1940s. With the world at war, Eleanor Trigg leads a mysterious ring of female secret agents in London. Twelve of these women are sent to aid the r...
View Book
Author: Isabella Hammad
Author Isabella Hammad
Narrator Fiona Button
Duration 20h 31m
As the First World War shatters families, destroys friendships and kills lovers, a young Palestinian dreamer sets out to find himself. Midhat Kamal picks his way across a fractured world, from the shifting politics of the Middle East to the dinner tables of Montpellier and a newly tumultuous Paris. He discovers that everything is fragile: love turn...
View Book
Author: Michel Houellebecq
Author Michel Houellebecq
Narrator John Sackville
Duration 8h 10m
Dissatisfied and discontent, Florent-Claude Labrouste begrudgingly works as an engineer for the Ministry of Agriculture, and is in a self-imposed dysfunctional relationship with a younger woman. When he discovers her ongoing infidelity, he decides to abandon his life in Paris and return to the Normandy countryside of his youth. There he contemplate...
View Book
