The Purple Swamp Hen and Other Stories
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The Purple Swamp Hen and Other Stories
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Narrated by:
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Davina Porter
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By:
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Penelope Lively
About this listen
A glimmering collection of new short fiction from the Booker Prize winner and national best-selling author of How It All Began
In such acclaimed novels as The Photograph, Family Album, and How It All Began, Penelope Lively has captivated readers and listeners with her singular blend of wisdom, elegance, and humor. Now, in her first story collection in decades, Lively takes up themes of history, family, and relationships across varied and vividly rendered settings.
In the title story, a Mediterranean purple swamp hen chronicles the secrets and scandals of Quintus Pompeius' villa, culminating with his narrow escape from the lava and ash of Vesuvius. "Abroad" captures the low point of an artist couple's tumultuous European road trip, trapped in a remote Spanish farmhouse and forced to paint a family mural and pitch in with chores to pay for repairs to their broken-down car. Other stories reveal friends and lovers in fateful moments of indiscretion, discovery, and even retribution - as in "The Third Wife", when a woman learns her husband to be a serial con artist and turns a house hunting trip into an elaborately staged revenge trap.
Each of these delightful stories is elevated by Lively's signature graceful prose and eye for the subtle yet powerfully evocative detail. Wry, charming, and keenly insightful, The Purple Swamp Hen and Other Stories is a masterful achievement from one of our most beloved writers.
©2016 Penelope Lively (P)2017 Recorded BooksListeners also enjoyed...
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-
Story4 out of 5 stars 46
Althea Farraday, a 38-year-old divorced mother of three, has a teenage son who’s a Buddhist, a hypercritical sister who knows how to push all her buttons, a job on the endangered species list, and a love life to match. Just as she’s settling in to a comfortable level of chaos, a near-perfect man enters her life. Equipped to steal her heart and help turn her passion for designing gardens into a new career, Patrick Donahugh may be too good to be true.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Perhaps a tad old-fashioned, but lovely!
- By Laura on 10-15-20
By: Katie Fforde
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The Dark Flood Rises
- A Novel
- By: Dame Margaret Drabble
- Narrated by: Anna Bentinck
- Length: 13 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 136
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 124
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Story4 out of 5 stars 125
Francesca Stubbs has a very full life. A highly regarded expert on housing for the elderly who is herself getting on in age, she drives restlessly round England. Amid the professional conferences she attends, she fits in visits to old friends, brings home-cooked dinners to her ex-husband, texts her son, who is grieving over the sudden death of his girlfriend, and drops in on her daughter, a quirky young woman who lives in a floodplain in the West Country.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Life Observed By An Exceptional Writer
- By Sara on 03-22-17
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Maeve's Times
- In Her Own Words
- By: Maeve Binchy
- Narrated by: Kate Binchy
- Length: 11 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 99
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 87
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 87
From the royal wedding to boring airplane companions, Samuel Beckett to Margaret Thatcher, "senior moments" to life as a waitress, Maeve's Times gives us wonderful insight into a changing Ireland as it celebrates the work of one of our best-loved writers in all its diversity - revealing her characteristic directness, laugh-out-loud humor, and unswerving gaze into the true heart of a matter.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A GLIMPSE THROUGH MAEVE'S LOOKING GLASS
- By jstrfic on 08-08-17
By: Maeve Binchy
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My Real Children
- By: Jo Walton
- Narrated by: Alison Larkin
- Length: 9 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 128
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 110
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Story4 out of 5 stars 112
It's 2015, and Patricia Cowan is very old. "Confused today," read the notes clipped to the end of her bed. She forgets things she should know - what year it is, major events in the lives of her children. But she remembers things that don't seem possible. She remembers marrying Mark and having four children. And she remembers not marrying Mark and raising three children with Bee instead.
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3 out of 5 stars
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A strange take on an otherwise simple story.
- By Lauren on 01-08-15
By: Jo Walton
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More Than You Know
- By: Penny Vincenzi
- Narrated by: Rosalyn Landor
- Length: 23 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 68
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 56
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Story4 out of 5 stars 58
A privileged girl from a privileged class, Eliza has a dazzling career in the magazine world of the 1960s. But when she falls deeply in love with Matt, an edgy working-class boy, she gives up her ritzy, fast-paced lifestyle to get married. By the end of the decade, however, their marriage has suffered a harrowing breakdown, culminating in divorce and a dramatic courtroom custody battle over their little girl. Also at risk is Eliza's gorgeous family home, a pawn in the game, which she can't bear to give up.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Like a box of chocolates...
- By Paul Hersh on 08-06-12
By: Penny Vincenzi
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The Forgotten Secret
- By: Kathleen McGurl
- Narrated by: Melanie MacHugh
- Length: 10 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 138
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 115
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 117
It’s the summer of 1919, and Ellen O’Brien has her whole life ahead of her. Young, in love and leaving home for her first job, the future seems full of shining possibility. But war is brewing, and before long, Ellen and everyone around her are swept up by it. As Ireland is torn apart by the turmoil, Ellen finds herself facing the ultimate test of love and loyalty. A hundred years later and Clare Farrell has inherited a dilapidated old farmhouse in County Meath.
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5 out of 5 stars
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The Forgotten Secret
- By Amazon Customer on 08-31-20
By: Kathleen McGurl
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Flesh Wounds
- By: Richard Glover
- Narrated by: Richard Glover
- Length: 7 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 35
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 34
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 34
A mother who invented her past, a father who was often absent, a son who wondered if this could really be his family...Richard Glover's favourite dinner-party game is called 'Who's Got the Weirdest Parents?' It's a game he always thinks he'll win. There was his mother, a deluded snob who made up large swathes of her past and who ran away with Richard's English teacher, a Tolkien devotee, nudist and stuffed toy collector.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Such a Meaningful Reflection
- By Awarenessing on 11-28-15
By: Richard Glover
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Hello from the Gillespies
- By: Monica McInerney
- Narrated by: Ulli Birvé
- Length: 16 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 170
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 153
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Story4 out of 5 stars 156
For the past 33 years, Angela Gillespie has sent to friends and family around the world an end-of-the-year letter titled ‘Hello from the Gillespies’. It’s always been cheery and full of good news. This year, Angela surprises herself - she tells the truth....
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4 out of 5 stars
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Engaging
- By mgn on 08-18-15
By: Monica McInerney
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Life Skills
- By: Katie Fforde
- Narrated by: Davina Porter
- Length: 11 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall3.5 out of 5 stars 120
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 71
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Story4 out of 5 stars 73
Suddenly released from her engagement and out of work, Julia Fairfax is looking for a new direction in life. When a classified ad catches her eye, she embarks on a hilarious trip through the English canals in a rickety hotel boat. Along the way, she encounters hard-to-please guests, an unsettling ex-boyfriend, and the challenges of cooking in a tiny galley with rattling crockery.
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2 out of 5 stars
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This book starts out great-
- By erin on 12-01-06
By: Katie Fforde
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Past Imperfect
- By: Julian Fellowes
- Narrated by: Richard Morant
- Length: 16 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,180
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,031
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,023
Damian Baxter is hugely wealthy and dying. He lives alone in a big house in Surrey, England, looked after by a chauffeur, butler, cook and housemaid. He has but one concern--his fortune in excess of 500 million and who should inherit it on his death.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Read Snobs instead
- By cristina on 02-14-13
By: Julian Fellowes
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Staying On
- By: Paul Scott
- Narrated by: Paul Shelley
- Length: 9 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 90
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 76
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 75
Tusker and Lily Smalley stayed on in India. Given the chance to return ‘home’ when Tusker, once a Colonel in the British Army, retired, they chose instead to remain in the small hill town of Pankot, with its eccentric inhabitants and archaic rituals left over from the days of the Empire. Only the tyranny of their imposing landlady threatens to upset the quiet rhythm of their days.
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3 out of 5 stars
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A Pleasant Meander
- By Ian C Robertson on 09-22-14
By: Paul Scott
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Talking It Over
- By: Julian Barnes
- Narrated by: Steven Pacey, Alex Jennings, Clare Higgins
- Length: 7 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 95
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 85
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Story4 out of 5 stars 84
Introducing Stuart, Gillian and Oliver. One by one they take their turn to speak straight out to the camera - and give their side of a contemporary love triangle. What begins as a comedy of misunderstanding slowly darkens and deepens into a compelling exploration of the quagmires of the heart.
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5 out of 5 stars
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The Narrative Gimmick Works
- By Alan on 11-22-11
By: Julian Barnes
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One Bad Apple
- An Orchard Mystery
- By: Sheila Connolly
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 10 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 253
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 229
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 229
Meg Corey has come to the quaint New England town of Granford, Massachusetts, to sell her mother's old colonial home and apple orchard. Instead, she becomes embroiled in development plans that include her land - and her former flame from Boston. When he's found dead in the new septic tank on her property, the police immediately suspect Meg, whose only ally in town is the plumber Seth Chapin. Together, they'll have to peel back the layers of secrecy that surround the deal in order to find the real murderer.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Very slow mystery-wise, narrator okay
- By Debbie on 03-27-17
By: Sheila Connolly
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The Lost Girls of Ireland
- Starlight Cottages, Book 1
- By: Susanne O'Leary
- Narrated by: Jennifer Fitzgerald
- Length: 8 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 333
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 300
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Story4 out of 5 stars 299
A heart-warming story about family secrets and one woman’s escape to dreamy Sandy Cove on the stunning west coast of Ireland. The picturesque beach of Wild Rose Bay is the last place Lydia Butler thought she’d be. But having just lost everything, the run-down cottage she inherited from her Great Aunt Nellie is the only place she can take her daughter, Sunny. Hidden away in a tiny Irish village, she can protect Sunny from the gossip in Dublin, and the real reason they have nowhere else to live....
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5 out of 5 stars
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Great Read
- By Mary k.campbell on 12-02-22
By: Susanne O'Leary
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The Bookshop on Rosemary Lane
- By: Ellen Berry
- Narrated by: Gabrielle Glaister
- Length: 12 hrs
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 108
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 99
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Story4 out of 5 stars 101
Take a trip to the Yorkshire village of Burley Bridge, where a very special little cookbook shop is about to open its doors.... In the beginning...Kitty Cartwright has always solved her problems in the kitchen. Her cookbooks are her life, and there isn't an issue that 'Cooking with Aspic' can't fix. Her only wish is that she had a book entitled Rustling Up Dinner When Your Husband Has Left You. Forty years later.... On Rosemary Lane, Della Cartwright plans to open a very special little bookshop.
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4 out of 5 stars
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The Bookshop on Rosemary Lane
- By Nanette P. Riegert on 05-24-17
By: Ellen Berry
What listeners say about The Purple Swamp Hen and Other Stories
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- ronda danley
- 03-31-24
The reading
I couldn’t understand what this story was about. Seemed like a lot of little stories that went nowhere.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- mz
- 12-13-23
Great stories
Interesting writing style of straightforward telling. Scenes are a rarity. It is like listening to a fable. Many stories about couples and romance troubles. Relatable and interesting. Didn't like the ghost stories though... creepy and not very original.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Ruth Lambert
- 12-21-18
More wonderful stories by Penelope Lively
I enjoy everything this British author has written and this outstanding collection of short stories is no exception. Insightful, dignified, poignant & wise. Her use of language is economical and fine but it’s the intense scrutiny of the “interiority” of her characters that makes these pieces ring true, and move me.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- bill klibanow
- 04-24-18
Just OK
I guess Penelope Lively spoiled me with “How it All Began” (and also Katherine Kellgren spoiled me with her reading of it). But these short stories left me a little flat and though Davina Porter is clearly a very talented reader, I felt she was sometimes unable to create enough distinctions between characters, making it hard to always tell who was talking at that particular moment.
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