How It Was
- Author Janet Ellis
- Narrator Janet Ellis
- Publisher John Murray Press
- Run Time 10 hours and 48 minutes
- Format Audio
- Genre Modern and contemporary fiction, Relationships and families: advice and issues.
Titles Purchased
- 1-5
- 6-10
- 11-15
- 16-20
- Over 20
Price p/Title
- £15.99
- £14.99
- £13.99
- £12.99
- £11.99
Listen to a sample
What to expect
'JANET ELLIS WRITES WITH TENDERNESS AND WISDOM' ERIN KELLY
'AN ATMOSPHERIC, CLEVER NOVEL THAT WILL GET UNDER YOUR SKIN' RED
Marion Deacon sits by the hospital bed of her dying husband, Michael. Outwardly she is, as she says, an unremarkable old woman. She has long concealed her history - and her feelings - from the casual observer. But as she sits by Michael's bed, she's haunted by memories from almost forty years ago . . .
Marion Deacon is a wife and mother, and not particularly good at being either. It's the 1970s and in her small village the Swinging 60s, the wave of feminism, the prospect of an exciting life, have all swerved past her. Reading her teenage daughter's diary, it seems that Sarah is on the threshold of getting everything her mother Marion was denied, and Marion cannot bear it - what she does next has terrible and heart-breaking consequences for the whole family.
Janet Ellis writes of the exquisite pain of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, the complexity of family and a mother-daughter relationship that is as memorable as it is utterly believable.
'ELLIS WRITES BEAUTIFULLY' DAILY MAIL
'AN EMOTIONAL EPIC' GOOD HOUSEKEEPING
'AFFECTING, ENGAGING AND READABLE' OBSERVER
'A TALE OF SILENCES, SECRETS AND MISUNDERSTANDINGS' MAIL ON SUNDAY
(p) 2019 Hodder & Stoughton Ltd
Critics Review
-
You will love this – immersive, amazing, remarkable, I could barely breathe. I cried – and I never cry.
Marian Keyes -
Ellis has a knack for depicting the way in which families struggle to communicate . . . engaging and readable
Observer -
Ellis writes beautifully, with a great eye for detail. She has a wry comic touch and all the emotions are spot on.
Daily Mail -
An atmospheric, clever novel, which will get under your skin
Red -
A tale of silences, secrets and misunderstandings, of marital infidelities and of paths not taken . . . A fluent, convincing depiction of the poignant intricacies of family life
Mail on Sunday -
An emotional epic. The former TV presenter’s debut novel, The Butcher’s Hook, was great, and this second one is also terrific, particularly in the way she writes about mother-daughter relationships.
Good Housekeeping
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