Audiobooks narrated by Abigail Thaw

Noel Streatfeild: Ballet Shoes & more: A BBC Radio 4 Children’s Drama Collection

Full-cast dramatisations of three of Noel Streatfeild's classic children's books Rising to fame with her 1936 novel Ballet Shoes, Noel Streatfeild soon became one of the most popular authors of her day. She was one of the first winners of the Carnegie Medal and was awarded an OBE in 1983. She died in 1986, but her stories continue to captivate children today. Included here are three of her very best - Ballet Shoes, The Growing Summer and When the Siren Wailed. Ballet Shoes - Adopted by Great Uncle Matthew on his archaeological expeditions, Pauline, Petrova and Posy Fossil grow up as sisters, and vow to make their name famous. When they enrol at the Children's Academy of Dancing, the Fossil girls share a future of a dazzling life onstage, where their dreams and fears will soon come true.... Rosemary Leach, Alexandra Mathie, Victoria Shalet and Lucy Curtis star in this delightful dramatisation. The Growing Summer - It is 1965, and the young Gareth children's lives are about to change for ever. When their father falls dangerously ill, they are sent to Ireland to stay with their eccentric Great-Aunt Dymphna for the summer. There, in her crumbling mansion on the west coast, they face dangers and adventures they could never have imagined... Starring Ann Rye, Holly Grainger, Will Haigh, Emily Fleeshman and Paul Herriott. When the Siren Wailed - When World War Two breaks out, Laura, Andy and Tim Clark are evacuated to the countryside. Brought up in poverty, they find a happy, comfortable home with the Colonel - but then tragedy occurs, and the children decide to run away back to London. Caught up in an air raid, can they make their way through the blackouts and bombed-out streets to find their mother? Narrated by Wendy Richard, this gripping, moving adventure story stars Norman Bird, John Church, Nicholas Courtney and Keeley Hawes. Text copyright © Noel Streatfield 1936 (Ballet Shoes), 1966 (The Growing Summer), 1974 (When the Siren Wailed) Copyright © Beneficiaries of Noel Streatfeild 1986 Cast and credits Written by Noel Streatfeild Ballet Shoes With Rosemary Leach, John Ringham, Alexandra Mathie, Victoria Shalet, Lucy Curtis, Lia Williams, Charles Edwards, Abigail Thaw, Alison Skilbeck, Olivia Breeze, Max Digby, Jonathan Dryden Taylor and Miriam Berry Adapted by Ellen Dryden Directed by Don Taylor First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 27-31 Dec 1999 The Growing Summer With Ann Rye, Holly Grainger, Will Haigh, Emily Fleeshman, Paul Herriott, James Caplin, Catherine Keane, Vincent Patrick Dramatised by Julie Wilkinson Directed by Sue Sutton Mayo First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 9 Aug 2000 When the Siren Wailed Narrated by Wendy Richard With Norman Bird, John Church, Nicholas Gatt, David Goudge, Keeley Hawes, Joan Matheson, Marc Murphy, Judy Parkin, Christopher Scott, Joan Walker, Melinda Walker, Howard Ward, Nicholas Courtney, Malcolm Hebden and Eva Stuart Dramatised by Richard Pinner Produced by Mary Kalemkarian Researcher: Lis Roberts First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 15 Jan-19 Mar 1989 © 2023 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd. (P) 2023 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

Noel Streatfeild (Author), Abigail Thaw, Ann Rye, Charles Edwards, Emily Fleeshman, Full Cast, Holliday Grainger, Joan Matheson, Keeley Hawes, Lia Williams, Malcolm Hebden, Nicholas Courtney, Norman Bird, Rosemary Leach, Victoria Shalet, Wendy Richard (Narrator)

Audiobook

Free Love: ‘So real and humane and utterly transporting’ - Meg Mason, author of Sorrow and Bliss

Brought to you by Penguin. From Tessa Hadley, bestselling author of Late in the Day and The Past, comes a compulsive new novel about one woman's sexual and intellectual awakening in 1960s London 1967. While London comes alive with the new youth revolution, the suburban Fischer family seems to belong to an older world of conventional stability: pretty, dutiful homemaker Phyllis is married to Roger, a devoted father with a career in the Foreign Office. Their children are Colette, a bookish teenager, and Hugh, the golden boy. But when the twenty-something son of an old friend pays the Fischers a visit one hot summer evening, and kisses Phyllis in the dark garden after dinner, something in her catches fire. Newly awake to the world, Phyllis makes a choice that defies all expectations of her as a wife and a mother. Nothing in these ordinary lives is so ordinary after all, it turns out, as the family's upheaval mirrors the dramatic transformation of the society around them. With scalpel-sharp insight, Tessa Hadley explores her characters' inner worlds, laying bare their fears and longings. Daring and sensual, Free Love is a compulsive, irresistible exploration of romantic love, sexual freedom and living out the truest and most meaningful version of our lives. 'She has such great psychological insights into human beings, which is rare. She is one of the best fiction writers writing today.' Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 'Tessa Hadley recruits admirers with each book. She writes with authority, and with delicacy: she explores nuance, but speaks plainly; she is one of those writers a reader trusts.' Hilary Mantel © Tessa Hadley 2022 (P) Penguin Audio 2022

Tessa Hadley (Author), Abigail Thaw (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Blazing World and Other Writings: Penguin Classics

Brought to you by Penguin. This Penguin Classic is performed by Abigail Thaw, best known for her role as Dorothea Frazil in Endeavour. This definitive recording includes an introduction by Kate Lilley, also read by Abigail Thaw. Flamboyant, theatrical and ambitious, Margaret Cavendish was one of the seventeenth century's most striking figures: a woman who ventured into the male spheres of politics, science, philosophy and literature. The Blazing World is a highly original work: part Utopian fiction, part feminist text, it tells of a lady shipwrecked on the Blazing World where she is made Empress and uses her power to ensure that it is free of war, religious division and unfair sexual discrimination. This volume also includes The Contract, a romance in which love and law work harmoniously together, and Assaulted and Pursued Chastity, which explores the power and freedom a woman can achieve in the disguise of a man. (P) Penguin Audio 2020

Margaret Cavendish (Author), Abigail Thaw (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Snakes

Random House presents the audiobook edition of The Snakes, written by Sadie Jones, read by Abigail Thaw. 'I wonder if it hurts them to shed their skins,' she said. She didn't feel afraid standing in the darkness, imagining snakes, even with the smell of death in the air. Bea and Dan, recently married, rent out their tiny flat to escape London for a few precious months. Driving through France they visit Bea's dropout brother Alex at the hotel he runs in Burgundy. Disturbingly, they find him all alone and the ramshackle hotel deserted, apart from the nest of snakes in the attic. When Alex and Bea's parents make a surprise visit, Dan can't understand why Bea is so appalled, or why she's never wanted him to know them; Liv and Griff Adamson are charming, and rich. They are the richest people he has ever met. Maybe Bea's ashamed of him, or maybe she regrets the secrets she's been keeping. Tragedy strikes suddenly, brutally, and in its aftermath the family is stripped back to its heart, and then its rotten core, and even Bea with all her strength and goodness can't escape.

Sadie Jones (Author), Abigail Thaw (Narrator)

Audiobook

Late in the Day

Random House presents the audiobook edition of Late in the Day by Tessa Hadley, read by Abigail Thaw. Alexandr and Christine and Zachary and Lydia have been close friends since they first met in their twenties. Thirty years later Alex and Christine are spending a leisurely summer evening at home when they receive a call from a distraught Lydia. Zach is dead. In the wake of this profound loss, the three friends find themselves unmoored; all agree that Zach was the sanest and kindest of them all, the irreplaceable one they couldn't afford to lose. Inconsolable, Lydia moves in with Alex and Christine. But instead of loss bringing them closer, the three of them find over the following months that it warps their relationships, as old entanglements and grievances rise from the past, and love and sorrow give way to anger and bitterness. Late in the Day explores the tangled webs at the centre of our most intimate relationships, to expose how beneath the seemingly dependable arrangements we make for our lives lie infinite alternate configurations. Ingeniously moving between past and present and through the intricacies of her characters' thoughts and interactions, Tessa Hadley once again shows that she has 'become one of this country's great contemporary novelists. She is equipped with an armoury of techniques and skills that may yet secure her a position as the greatest of them.' (Anthony Quinn Guardian)

Tessa Hadley (Author), Abigail Thaw (Narrator)

Audiobook

My Husband's Wife: The Sunday Times Top 10 Bestselling Thriller

Penguin presents the unabridged, downloadable, audiobook edition of My Husband's Wife by Jane Corry, read by Lily Bevan and Abigail Thaw. FIRST COMES LOVE. THEN COMES MARRIAGE. THEN COMES MURDER. The addictive psychological thriller everyone's talking about! 'My head's still spinning from all the twists!' Mark Edwards What if your life was built on a lie? When lawyer Lily marries Ed, she's determined to make a fresh start. To leave the secrets of the past behind. But when she takes on her first criminal case, she starts to find herself strangely drawn to her client. A man who's accused of murder. A man she will soon be willing to risk everything for. But is he really innocent? And who is she to judge? MY HUSBAND'S WIFE is a thriller with so many twists you won't be able to put it down, perfect for fans of Liane Moriarty, Clare Mackintosh and C. L. Taylor. 'A rollercoaster of dramatic twists...chilling and suspenseful' Elizabeth Haynes 'Twisty, feverish and utterly gripping, My Husband's Wife is the perfect summer read' Eva Dolan 'This thrilling page-turner kept me guessing till the very end' Katerina Diamond 'A fantastic and powerful novel of heart-pounding suspense, expertly written to draw the reader in and never let go!' Kathryn Croft 'I have been thoroughly immersed in this novel...full of unexpected twists I didn't see coming! ' Luana Lewis 'My Husband's Wife had me gripped from the first page to the last. A fascinating cast of characters, each concealing a dark secret...' Ava Marsh 'Gripping and compelling, My Husband's Wife is a fascinating tale that you will think about long after turning the final page' Rowan Coleman 'My Husband's Wife is a thrilling page-turner that chronicles the nightmarish dynamics within a marriage.' Sarah Ward 'Corry has written a very impressive debut. I couldn't put it down!' LJ Ross 'A dark and gripping thriller that vibrates with tension. Jane Corry has created an exciting and complex tale that sank its teeth into me on the first page and never let go...A must-read for thriller lovers' Kate Furnivall '[A] roller coaster of suspense and intrigue... A cleverly constructed novel in which we have no idea who we can trust' Rosanna Ley 'The two strong women characters and the twists and turns of the plot will keep you on the edge of your seat right through to the surprising and shocking ending' Mavis Cheek 'Pick up this book and you won't be able to put it down. A fast-moving story of drama, suspense and emotional entanglement with a good sprinkling of evil threaded through' Sandra Howard 'A compelling thriller! I thoroughly enjoyed every fast turning page' Vanessa Ronan, author of The Last Days of Summer 'A gripping page turner that twists and turns right until the very end' Catherine Alliott

Jane Corry (Author), Abigail Thaw, Lily Bevan (Narrator)

Audiobook

Audiobooks Narrated by Abigail Thaw