Sign In Join Now
User Accessibility
  • Increase Font

  • Invert Colours

Search for a Book Browse Books Menu
Valentine Grey Cover Play Sample

Sample may contain unsuitable content.

Stream / Download

Audiobook streaming provided by:

OverDrive Logo

Share this book:

Valentine Grey

AuthorSandi Toksvig

NarratorPeter Kenny, Joanna Bending

Duration10h 51m

CategoriesAdult Fiction, Historical Novels

PublisherLittle, Brown

VersionUnabridged

  Save to Wish List
  Add to Favourites List

From the author of Between the Stops and Toksvig's Almanac. London, 1897. A young girl, Valentine Grey, arrives in England. She's been brought up in the remote and sunny climes of India and finds being forced into corsets and skirts in damp and cold country insufferable. The only bright spot: her exciting cousin Reggie. Reggie and his lover, Frank, seek out the adventure the clandestine bars and streets of London offer and are happy to include Valentine in their secret, showing her theatre, gardens - even teaching her how to ride a bicycle. And then comes the Boer War, and Reggie's father volunteers him; the empire must be defended. But it won't be Reggie who dons the volunteer regiment's garb. Valentine takes her chance, puts on her cousin's uniform, leaves Reggie behind and heads off to war. And for a long while, it's glorious and liberating for both of the cousins, but war is not glorious, and in Victorian London, homosexuality is not liberating...

0 (0 Reviews)
0
0
0
0
0

Related Titles

Serotonin Cover

Serotonin

Author: Michel Houellebecq

Serotonin

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
The Women At Hitler's Table Cover

The Women At Hitler's Table

Author: Rosella Postorino

The Women At Hitler's Table

Author Rosella Postorino

Narrator Kristen Atherton

Duration 10h 51m

East Prussia, 1943. Hitler hides away in the Wolfsshanze - his hidden headquarters. The tide is turning in the war, and his enemies circle ever closer. Ten women are chosen. Ten women to taste his food and protect him from poison. Twenty-six-year-old Rosa has lost everything to this war. Her parents are dead. Her husband is fighting on the front li...

View Book
Figures In Silk Cover

Figures In Silk

Author: Vanora Bennett

Figures In Silk

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
The Last Kingdom Book 12: Sword of Kings Cover

The Last Kingdom Book 12: Sword of Kings

Author: Bernard Cornwell

The Last Kingdom Book 12: Sword of Kings

Author Bernard Cornwell

Narrator Matt Bates

SeriesThe Last Kingdom, Book 12

Duration 13h 27m

England is in turmoil as Vikings and Saxons battle for territory. Rumours build about the fatal sickness of the King, and the country awaits an heir. A violent clash at sea forces the warrior lord Uhtred to lead his men from his Northumbrian fortress to London and plunge into the eye of the storm. For two kings claim the empty throne and a new king...

View Book
The Lost Girls of Paris Cover

The Lost Girls of Paris

Author: Pam Jenoff

The Lost Girls of Paris

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
Hitler's Canary Cover

Hitler's Canary

Author: Sandi Toksvig

Hitler's Canary

Author Sandi Toksvig

Narrator The Author

Duration 4h 31m

It's April 1940 and German troops are pouring onto the streets of Denmark. 12-year-old Bamse is ordered by his father to keep his head down and stay out of trouble. But Bamse and his daring friend Anton can't resist playing the occasional practical joke on the invading soldiers. When it becomes clear that the trouble isn't just going to pass them b...

View Book
The People's Queen Cover

The People's Queen

Author: Vanora Bennett

The People's Queen

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 Cover

The Confessions of Frannie Langton

Author: Sara Collins

The Confessions of Frannie Langton

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
The Mirror and the Light Cover

The Mirror and the Light

Author: Hilary Mantel

The Mirror and the Light

Author Hilary Mantel

Narrator Ben Miles

Duration 37h 55m

The long-awaited sequel to Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies, the stunning conclusion to Hilary Mantel's Man Booker Prize-winning Thomas Cromwell trilogy. 'If you cannot speak truth at a beheading, when can you speak it?' England, May 1536. Anne Boleyn is dead, decapitated in the space of a heartbeat by a hired French executioner. As her remains ar...

View Book
The Parisian Cover

The Parisian

Author: Isabella Hammad

The Parisian

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