Audio - Fiction 2002

File Updated: 21/12/02

Tangled Web UK: New Audio - Fiction Titles 2002

Maeve Binchy Quentins Published April 2002 by Orion Audio at Ł12.99 ISBN: 0-75285 318 X
Read by Kate Binchy
Ella Brady wants to make a documentary about Quentins, the renowned Dublin restaurant that has captured the spirit of a generation and a city in the years it has been open. After all, every table in Quentins has a thousand stories to tell: tales of love, betrayal, revenge, hope and despair. And the restaurant itself has had times when it looks set fair for success and others when it seems as if it must close in failure.
In Maeve Binchv’s magical story you will meet old friends: the twins from The Scarlet Feather, the Signora from Evening Class, Ria from Tara Road - and a host of new ones too: Mon, the ever-cheerful Australian waitress, and Blouse Brennan, whose simplicity disguises a sharp mind and a heart of gold. The whole place is presided over be the apparently imperturbable Patrick and Brenda Brennan, who have made Quentins such a legend. But even they have a story and a sadness which is hidden from the public gaze.
As Ella uncovers more of what has gone, she wonders about the wisdom of bringing it to the screen. Are there some stories which are too sacred to be told? Should the restaurant keep its secrets?
Kate Binchy has worked in every sort of theatre from West End to fringe, on television (Big Bad World, Screen Two, Father Ted, Casualty and Fair City), in over five hundred radio plays and in films Mrs Dalloway and The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne.) She is Maeve’s cousin.
4 Cassettes Running Time: approx. 6 hrs
About The Author
Maeve Binchy was born in Co. Dublin and was as educated at Holy Child Convent in Killinev and at UCD. After a spell as a teacher in various girls’ schools, she joined the Irish Times, for which she wrote for many years. Her first novel, Light a Penny Candle,w\as published in 1982, and since then she has written more than a dozen bestseller novels and short story collections. Her most recent novels are Tara Road - an Oprah pick of the month - and Scarlet Feather. Several have been adapted for cinema and television, most notably Circle of Friends in 1995. In 1999 she received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the British Book Awards. She is married to the writer and broadcaster Gordon Snell.

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Joanne Harris Blackberry Wine Published April 2002 by Hodder Headline Audio at Ł8.99 ISBN: 1-84032-499 6
Read by Derek Jacobi
Disillusioned by adulthood, and longing for the past, Jay Mackintosh’s memories are revived by the mysterious delivery of home-brewed bottle of wine, from long vanished friends.
Intoxicated by the recollections it evokes, Jay escapes to a derelict farmhouse in France, only to find himself facing old demons. There is also the beautiful Marise - a woman who hides a terrible secret - and their deepening, mutual attraction to contend with.
Sir Derek Jacobi is highly respected for his work in theatre, television and film. His theatrical work includes the title roles in Macbeth, Hamlet, Richard III and Cyrano de Bergerac, his acclaimed TV and film performances include I, Claudius, The Day of the Jackal, Henry V, Little Dorrit, Dead Again and Hamlet.
2 Cassettes Running Time: approx. 3 hrs Abridged by Peter Mackie Produced by Heavy Entertainment

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Joanne Harris Five Quarters of the Orange Published March 2002 by Hodder Headline Audio at Ł8.99 ISBN: 1-84032-494 5
Read by Rula Lenska
When the widowed Framboise moves back to the villa of Les Laveuses, where she grew up, she pleased to discover that no one recognises her. She so forges a new life for herself there and before long has established a profitable cręperie.
All is going well, until her profiteering nephew realises that money can be made by publishing a collection of Framboise‘s increasingly popular recipes, left to her by her mother - a woman despised throughout the village. For the book to be a success, her true identity must be revealed, opening the flood gates to a past life and painful childhood memories.
Rula Lenska is well-known for her outstanding wok on television, radio and the stage. She is also much in demand for recording books and for television narrations.
2 Cassettes Running Time: approx. 3 hrs Abridged by Peter Mackie Produced by Heavy Entertainment

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Anita Shreve Resistance Published July 2002 by Orion Audio at Ł12.99 ISBN: 0-75285 103 9
Read by Francine Brody
As the wife of a Resistance member in German occupied Belgium, Claire Daussois has grown used to hiding strange men in her attic - dozens of Allied airmen, soldiers and other refugees, whom Claire nurses and harbours from the perpetual threat of discovery by the Gestapo.
Then a B-17 bomber crash-lands outside Claire’s village of Delahaut, and with it the severely wounded and semi-conscious US Air Force pilot Ted Brice. Claire is the pilot’s only hope of survival.
The month that follows will stay with them for the rest of their lives. It is a period in which the war recedes in the face of more powerful forces - before imposing itself once more with shocking suddenness.
‘Exceptionally fine… [an] amazingly evocative writer, Shreve writes with power and passion… you won’t be disappointed and that’s a promise’ Daily Express
Francine Brody trained at RADA, where she won the Flora Robson Prize. She has performed in theatres all over the United Kingdom in plays such as The Soldier’s Tale, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Death of a Salesman, The Importance of Being Earnest and The Glass Menagerie. Film and television work includes l Dreamed of Africa, Maigret and The Hotel Majestic and Lost and Found. She has also done voiceovers and has recorded a number of audio books including the RNIB unabridged version of Bridget Jones’s Diary.
4 Cassettes Running Time: approx. 6 hrs Abridged by Kati Nicholl Produced by Elspeth Santa Clara
About The Author
Anita Shreve is the author of the acclaimed novels Eden Close, Strange Fits of Passion, Where or When,, Resistance, The Weight of Water and the international number one bestsellers The Pilot’s Wife and Fortune’s Rocks. She teaches writing at Amherst College and divides her time between Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

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Anita Shreve Eden Close Published June 2002 by Orion Audio at Ł12.99 ISBN: 0-75285 102 0
Read by Francine Brody
When Andrew returns to his home town in upstate New York for his mother’s funeral, he does not intend to stay. But the dreams and memories of seventeen years ago persist and in the darkened farmhouse he relives that hot, bloody night when Eden Close was blinded - by the same gun that killed her father.
Eden and Andrew had been childhood companions - smoking, fishing, skating and fighting - until the day the tomboy turned temptress. Now Andrew is drawn again to this lost, blind girl of his youth, drawn to save her from the cruel neglect she has endured for seventeen sightless years without him. But first he must discover the grisly truth about that night ...
`... turns rural gothic horrors into a story of fine, high love ... beautifully rendered scenes . . . and a climax that will . . . put you on the edge of your chair’ - Kirkus Reviews
Francine Brody trained at RADA, where she won the Flora Robson Prize. She has performed in theatres all over the United Kingdom in plays such as The Soldier’s Tale, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Death of a Salesman, The Importance of Being Earnest and The Glass Menagerie. Film and television work includes l Dreamed of Africa, Maigret and The Hotel Majestic and Lost and Found. She has also done voiceovers and has recorded a number of audio books including the RNIB unabridged version of Bridget Jones’s Diary.
4 Cassettes Running Time: approx. 6 hrs 15 mins Abridged by Kati Nicholl Produced by Elspeth Santa Clara
About The Author
Anita Shreve is the author of the acclaimed novels Eden Close, Strange Fits of Passion, Where or When,, Resistance, The Weight of Water and the international number one bestsellers The Pilot’s Wife and Fortune’s Rocks. She teaches writing at Amherst College and divides her time between Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

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Anita Shreve Sea Glass Published April 2002 by Orion Audio at Ł12.99 ISBN: 0-75285 267 1
Read by Emilia Fox & Kerry Shale

`In the wet sand by her foot, a bit of colour catches her eye. She picks it up and studies it. The glass is green, pale and cloudy, the colour of lime juice that has been squeezed into a glass. The edges of the shard are weathered and smooth and do not hurt at all. She brushes the sand off and presses the sea glass into her palm, keeping it for luck. She thinks that she and Sexton might need the luck.’

` New Hampshire, 1929 - when Sexton Beecher proposes to Honora Willard, she lays aside his flaws `as one might overlook a small stain in a beautifully-embroidered tablecloth ... only later to discover, when it was on the table and all the guests were seated around it, that the stain had become a beacon while the beautiful embroidery lay hidden in everybody’s lap.’ As the couple begin their new life in the house at Fortune’s Rocks, their love is tested to the limit. For the Wall Street Crash has as little time for dreams as it does for the mill workers at nearby Ely Falls, readying for strike whatever the consequences ...
Emilia Fox has appeared in a variety of theatre, film and television productions. Her television appearances include Pride and Prejudice, Stephen Poliakoff's Shooting the Past, and a starring role in Rebecca.
Emilia Fox has "one of the sexiest recording voices in the world" according to The Independent
Kerry Shale has performed his acclaimed one-man shows around the world. Other theatre work includes Aunt Dan & Lemon, The Normal Heart, True West and The Odd Couple. His TV credits include Cracker, Sharpe’s Rifles and Sherlock Holmes. Films include Yentl, Little Shop of Horrors, Welcome to Sarajevo, 102 Dalmatians and Max. He has won three Sony awards for radio acting and writing.
4 Cassettes Running Time: approx. 6 hrs 45 mins Abridged by Kati nicholl Produced by Elspeth Santa Clara
About The Author
Anita Shreve is the author of the acclaimed novels Eden Close, Strange Fits of Passion, Where or When,, Resistance, The Weight of Water and the international number one bestsellers The Pilot’s Wife and Fortune’s Rocks. She teaches writing at Amherst College and divides her time between Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

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