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Portrait of an English Village in the 21st Century
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Narrated by:
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Stephen Thorne
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By:
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Craig Taylor
About this listen
The result reverberates with the voices of the villagers: young farmers, retired orchardmen, and Eastern European migrant workers talk about farming in an age of globalisation; commuters, weekenders, and retirees discuss the realities behind the rural idyll; and the local priest, teacher, and pub owner describe the daily pleasures and tribulations of village life.
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-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 198
George Bowling, an insurance salesman, hits middle age and feels impelled to “come up for air” from his life of quiet desperation. With seventeen pounds he has won at a race, he steals a vacation from his wife and family and pays a visit to Lower Binfield, the village where he grew up, to fish for carp in a pool he remembers from thirty years before. But the pool is gone, Lower Binfield has changed beyond recognition, and the principal event of Bowling’s holiday is an accidental bombing by the RAF.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Orwell Flirts and Fishes w/ Nostalgia & Modernity.
- By Darwin8u on 07-10-12
By: George Orwell
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Londoners: The Days and Nights of London Now - As Told by Those Who Love It, Hate It, Live It, Left It, and Long for It
- By: Craig Taylor
- Narrated by: Anna Bentinck, Stephen Crossley, Sartaj Garewell, and others
- Length: 14 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 46
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 38
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 38
Here are the voices of London - rich and poor, native and immigrant, women and men. From the woman whose voice announces the stations on the London Underground to the man who plants the trees along Oxford Street; from a Pakistani currency trader to a Guardsman at Buckingham Palace - together, these voices paint a vivid, epic and wholly fresh portrait of 21st Century London.
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5 out of 5 stars
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An interesting look at what makes London tick.
- By tim on 12-11-12
By: Craig Taylor
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The Book of Ebenezer le Page
- By: G. B. Edwards
- Narrated by: Roy Dotrice
- Length: 21 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 247
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 225
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 223
Ebenezer Le Page, cantankerous, opinionated and charming, is one of the most compelling literary creations of the late 20th century. Eighty years old, Ebenezer has lived his whole life on the Channel Island of Guernsey, a stony speck of a place caught between England and France yet a world away from either. Ebenezer himself is fiercely independent, but as he reaches the end of his life he is determined to tell his own story and the story of those he has known.
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5 out of 5 stars
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I miss Ebenezer
- By Mel on 01-15-18
By: G. B. Edwards
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Home Fires
- The Story of the Women's Institute in the Second World War
- By: Julie Summers
- Narrated by: Juliet Mills
- Length: 12 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 108
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 94
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 94
Away from the frontlines of World War II, in towns and villages across Great Britain, ordinary women were playing a vital role in their country's war effort. As members of the Women's Institute, an organization with a presence in a third of Britain's villages, they ran canteens and knitted garments for troops, collected tons of rosehips and other herbs to replace medicines that couldn't be imported, and advised the government on issues ranging from evacuee housing to children's health to postwar reconstruction. But they are best known for making jam.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Tread Carefully & Be Amazed
- By Sara on 12-27-15
By: Julie Summers
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Made in Scotland
- My Grand Adventures in a Wee Country
- By: Billy Connolly
- Narrated by: Gordon Kennedy
- Length: 6 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 216
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 198
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 197
Billy Connolly may be a citizen of the world, but in his heart he's never been far from his homeland. Made in Scotland is Billy's unique and intimate portrait of his native Scotland, a love letter to the places and people that made him. It's an adventure inspired by a single incident: the moment Billy received his Knighthood and was asked, 'How does it feel to have achieved all this when you came from nothing?' His response was, 'But I did come from something!'
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1 out of 5 stars
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I can't believe I wasted a credit on this blather.
- By J. M. Popa on 01-23-20
By: Billy Connolly
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The Town House
- By: Norah Lofts
- Narrated by: Juliet Prague, Martyn Read
- Length: 17 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 72
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 65
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 67
"It was in the first week of October in the year 1391 that I first came face to face with the man who owned me… the man whose lightest word was to us, his villeins, weightier than the King’s law or the edicts of our Holy Father…” So began the story of Martin Reed - a serf whose resentment of the automatic rule of his feudal lord finally flared into open defiance.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Another winner by Norah Lofts
- By Bird Lady 147 on 10-03-17
By: Norah Lofts
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Wait for Me!
- Memoirs
- By: Deborah Mitford Duchess of Devonshire
- Narrated by: Anne Flosnik
- Length: 14 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 125
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 90
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 92
Deborah Mitford, Duchess of Devonshire, is the youngest of the famously witty brood that includes the writers Jessica and Nancy, who wrote when Deborah was born, "How disgusting of the poor darling to go and be a girl." Deborah's effervescent memoir chronicles her remarkable life, from an eccentric but happy childhood in the Oxfordshire countryside, to tea with Adolf Hitler and her controversially political sister Unity in 1937, to her marriage to the second son of the Duke of Devonshire.
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5 out of 5 stars
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The last of the Mitford Sisters
- By Irene on 01-11-11
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Dancing Bears
- By: Witold Szabłowski, Antonia Lloyd-Jones - translator, Claire Bloom - director
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 6 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 75
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 63
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 63
For hundreds of years, Bulgarian Gypsies trained bears to dance, welcoming them into their families and taking them on the road to perform. In the early 2000s, with the fall of Communism, they were forced to release the bears into a wildlife refuge. But even today, whenever the bears see a human, they still get up on their hind legs to dance. In the tradition of Ryszard Kapuściński, award-winning Polish journalist, Witold Szabłowski uncovers remarkable stories of people throughout Eastern Europe and in Cuba who, like Bulgaria’s dancing bears, are now free but who seem nostalgic for the time when they were not.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Intelligent, entertaining, & insightful
- By Kait on 07-23-19
By: Witold Szabłowski, and others
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The Good Food Revolution
- Growing Healthy Food, People, and Communities
- By: Will Allen, Charles Wilson - with, Eric Schlosser - foreword
- Narrated by: Mirron Willis
- Length: 8 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 36
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 29
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 29
A pioneering urban farmer and MacArthur "Genius Award" winner points the way to building a new food system that can feed - and heal - broken communities. An eco-classic in the making, The Good Food Revolution is the story of Will's personal journey, the lives he has touched, and a grassroots movement that is changing the way our nation eats.
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5 out of 5 stars
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This story teaches how to take back the soil
- By Shawn Borup on 11-09-19
By: Will Allen, and others
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The Yorkshire Shepherdess
- By: Amanda Owen
- Narrated by: Anne Dover
- Length: 10 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 72
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 65
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 66
Amanda Owen has been seen by millions on ITV's The Dales, living a life that has almost gone in today's modern world, a life ruled by the seasons and her animals. She is a farmer's wife and shepherdess, living alongside her husband, Clive, and seven children at Ravenseat, a 2,000 acre sheep hill farm at the head of Swaledale in North Yorkshire. It's a challenging life but one she loves.
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5 out of 5 stars
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I want to go and have cream tea and meet all the animals and the shepherdess herself
- By luvs aussies on 05-30-19
By: Amanda Owen
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An Hour Before Daylight
- Memories of a Rural Boyhood
- By: Jimmy Carter
- Narrated by: Jimmy Carter
- Length: 6 hrs and 50 mins
- Abridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 165
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 95
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 95
In an American story of enduring importance, former President Jimmy Carter re-creates his Depression-era boyhood on a Georgia farm, before the civil rights movement that changed the country.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A rare view of rural America
- By Samantha on 07-05-03
By: Jimmy Carter
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Beyond the Black Stump
- By: Nevil Shute
- Narrated by: Davina Porter
- Length: 9 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 161
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 138
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Story4 out of 5 stars 139
When Stanton Laird, American geologist, goes prospecting for the Topeka Exploration Company in the savage Australian outback, he finds something a good deal more precious than oil.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Davina Porter is a wonderful narrator
- By Brian PDX on 07-26-14
By: Nevil Shute
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Surviving Ireland
- By: Colm Tobin
- Narrated by: Colm Tobin
- Length: 4 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 37
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 31
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 31
It's exhausting being Irish. The constant self-flagellation is enough to put anybody off their breakfast. Why are we so hard on ourselves? Is it the postcolonial overhang following centuries of oppression at the hands of a litany of foreign invaders? Or is it collective guilt for sending Westlife out into the wider world? In Surviving Ireland, acclaimed comedy writer Colm Tobin takes the listener by the hand for a satirical romp through modern Irish life.
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5 out of 5 stars
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very fun
- By Rick on 06-12-19
By: Colm Tobin
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The Farmer's Son
- Calving Season on a Family Farm
- By: John Connell
- Narrated by: Alan Smyth
- Length: 7 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 40
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 32
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 32
Farming has been in John Connell's family for generations, but he never intended to follow in his father's footsteps. Until, one winter, after more than a decade away, he finds himself back on the farm. Connell records the hypnotic rhythm of the farming day - cleaning the barns, caring for the herd, tending to sickly lambs, helping the cows give birth. Alongside the routine events, there are the unforeseen moments when things go wrong: when a calf fails to thrive, when a sheep goes missing, when an argument between father and son erupts and things are said that cannot be unsaid.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Beautiful.
- By Kindle Customer on 05-22-19
By: John Connell
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Among Others
- By: Jo Walton
- Narrated by: Katherine Kellgren
- Length: 10 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 1,587
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 1,384
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Story4 out of 5 stars 1,386
Startling, unusual, and yet irresistably readable, Among Others is at once the compelling story of a young woman struggling to escape a troubled childhood, a brilliant diary of first encounters with the great novels of modern fantasy and SF, and a spellbinding tale of escape from ancient enchantment.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Subtle Character Piece
- By Eoin on 09-15-11
By: Jo Walton
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Autumn
- By: Ali Smith
- Narrated by: Melody Grove
- Length: 5 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 510
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 453
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Story4 out of 5 stars 449
Fusing Keatsian mists and mellow fruitfulness with the vitality, the immediacy, and the color hit of Pop Art, Autumn is a witty excavation of the present by the past. The novel is a stripped-branches take on popular culture and a meditation, in a world growing ever more bordered and exclusive, on what richness and worth are, what harvest means.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Incredible use of language
- By Mary on 03-06-17
By: Ali Smith
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Seedfolks
- By: Paul Fleischman
- Narrated by: full cast
- Length: 1 hr and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 999
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 847
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 851
Thirteen lives. One garden. Set in Cleveland, Newbery-Award-winning author Paul Fleischman's poignant book is a large lesson in connectedness and community for all. When a derelict vacant lot is gradually transformed into a community garden in inner city Cleveland, the people of this community find their differences are less apparent and their isolation dissolved. Performed by thirteen multicuturally and age-authentic voices, this audiobook is designed for listeners of all ages.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Excellent to listen
- By Rina on 10-12-09
By: Paul Fleischman
What listeners say about Return to Akenfield
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
- Gisele
- 09-17-09
What a pleasure!
Living in France I thought that I would discover a brand new world in rural England. In fact people have the same type of preoccupations or way of life. But it was a pleasure to hear that reader who makes us discover the different points of view of this small town inhabitants . Lively and very pleasant, a real bowl of fresh air.
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