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
Ellindale Saga Book 4: One Perfect Family
Author: Anna Jacobs
Author Anna Jacobs
Narrator Anne Dover
SeriesEllindale Saga, Book 4
Duration 10h 46m
Lancashire, 1934. When Tam Crawford is unexpectedly bequeathed some money, he can finally realise his dream of settling down in the beautiful village of Ellindale. Tam knows he can be impulsive - his nickname isn't Crazy Tam for nothing! - but this time he is determined not to be ruled by his big heart and hot head. Yet somehow, within just one day...
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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...
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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...
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Author: Rosella Postorino
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...
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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...
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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...
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Author: Hilary Mantel
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...
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Village Secrets Book 1: The Christmas Wedding
Author: Dilly Court
Author Dilly Court
Narrator Annie Aldington
SeriesVillage Secrets, Book 1
Duration 10h 42m
The first book in the dramatic new saga from the Sunday Times bestselling author. The village of Little Creek, the long winter of 1867. The first flakes of snow are falling when Daisy Marshall, secretly engaged to her master's son, finds herself jilted at the altar. Heartbroken, Daisy flees to the small village of Little Creek, nestled on the coast...
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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...
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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...
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