
Valentine Grey
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Narrated by:
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Joanna Bending
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Peter Kenny
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By:
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Sandi Toksvig
About this listen
From the author of Between the Stops and Toksvig's Almanac.
London, 1897. A young girl, Valentine Grey, arrives in England. She's been brought up in the remote and sunny climes of India and finds being forced into corsets and skirts in damp and cold country insufferable. The only bright spot: her exciting cousin Reggie. Reggie and his lover, Frank, seek out the adventure the clandestine bars and streets of London offer and are happy to include Valentine in their secret, showing her theatre, gardens - even teaching her how to ride a bicycle.
And then comes the Boer War, and Reggie's father volunteers him; the empire must be defended. But it won't be Reggie who dons the volunteer regiment's garb. Valentine takes her chance, puts on her cousin's uniform, leaves Reggie behind and heads off to war. And for a long while, it's glorious and liberating for both of the cousins, but war is not glorious, and in Victorian London, homosexuality is not liberating....
Longlisted for the Green Carnation Prize
©2022 Sandi Toksvig (P)2022 Hachette Audio UKCritic reviews
"Teasing out untold stories of the battlefield...follows the footsteps of the likes of Sarah Waters and Pat Barker." (Independent)
Worth a listen
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Moving story
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Magnificent
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I was surprised at first as I expected it to be the author.
The female narrator has a husky voice and tends to trail off in her sentences and drops ‘d’ and ‘t’ at the end of a word so made it difficult to hear/understand her. I found myself rewinding a lot to understand what it was she had read.
The male narrator was ok.
This took away from my enjoyment of the story (which I could visualise being adapted for tv).
Narration was irritating
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Pronunciation
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