Listen to a sample
On This Spot Fell One Tear of Love
- Author
- Louise Doughty
- Narrator
- Louise Doughty
- Publisher
- Orion
- Publish Date
- 27 August 2026
- Run Time
- 9 hours 40 minutes
- Format
- Audiobook
Not available in your country
We don't have the rights to sell this audiobook where you are. If it's already in your library you can still listen to it in My Books.
What to expect
'One of the most beautiful memoirs I have ever read' JOANNA CANNON
'Astonishing' KIT DE WAAL
'What a brave book, haunting, visceral and beautifully written' DBC PIERRE
'Loving, generous and unflinching' BERNARDINE EVARISTO
In her first memoir, acclaimed novelist Louise Doughty introduces us to her parents, Ken and Avis, and tells their story in reverse - beginning at the end of their lives and tracing them back over fifty years to uncover the secret origin of their love affair.
After her parents' deaths, Louise and her siblings embark upon the extended process of clearing out the East Midlands bungalow where they had grown up. Just before its sale is completed, she stumbles upon a battered black suitcase containing a treasure trove of letters, in which she discovers how her parents had broken each other's hearts and mended them, and how most of her views about them are wrong.
Honest and tender, heartbreaking and funny, this is a story about grief and loss and family, but most of all, it's a story about love. Transporting us to the 1950s to meet two young, working-class people with a mountain to overcome but who are full of hope and spirit, it explores one of life's great mysteries - the lives of our parents before we existed - and the joyful impossibility of unravelling the secrets of the human heart.
Critics Review
-
Tender, thoughtful, beautifully written, this is a wonderful and gentle memoir about childhood and class, loss and memory - I loved it
Kate Mosse
-
I relished reading this loving, generous and unflinching recollection of the life cycle of a suburban family and the secrets the parents hid from their children. It is quietly elegant and deeply reflective
Bernardine Evaristo
-
A mystery, a love letter, a family history, this astonishing memoir is written with compassion and humour, a tribute to two people caught in the conventions of the time and a lesson in forgiveness and understanding. A wonderful book by a great writer
Kit de Waal
-
When the foreword gives you goosebumps, you know you're on a winner . . . This isn't just a fabulous trip down memory lane, it's a brilliant exploration of norms and expectations of that time, a lens on how those norms and expectations affected ordinary people and how, with the slightest shift, our family trees could have grown so very differently. It's also the most beautiful love story . . . I adored every single page, and it is, quite simply, one of the most beautiful memoirs I have ever read . . . Reading this book felt like sitting with a friend and having a truly wonderful conversation. The kind of conversation you don't want to end
Joanna Cannon
See more reviews See fewer reviews
-
What a brave book, haunting, visceral and beautifully written - it will surely stir everyone's feelings around family and the hazy depths of the lives behind us
DBC Pierre
-
Tender and clear-eyed, Doughty opens the Pandora's box of 1950s England, class, family and loss and forbidden love and - oh god - that great mysterious secret: our parents before us. It will make you laugh and make you cry
Louisa Young
-
Beautiful and oddly thrilling: a heartfelt meditation on something we all know but rarely talk about - the fact that people, even those closest to us, are ultimately unknowable, that our pasts make strangers of us all. I was very moved and stayed up late into the night to finish it
Julie Myerson
User Reviews
No reviews yet.
Details
- Author
- Louise Doughty
- Narrator
- Louise Doughty
- Duration
- 9 hours 40 minutes
- Release Date
- 27 August 2026
- ISBN
- 9781399639767
- Format
- Audiobook
- Publisher
- Orion
- Genre
- Memoirs, Narrative theme: death, grief, loss, Local and family history, nostalgia, Family history, tracing ancestors
Synopsis
'A wonderful memoir - I loved it' KATE MOSSE'One of the most beautiful memoirs I have ever read' JOANNA CANNON'Astonishing' KIT DE WAAL'What a brave book, haunting, visceral and beautifully written' DBC PIERRE'Loving, generous and unflinching' BERNARDINE EVARISTOIn her first memoir, acclaimed novelist Louise Doughty introduces us to her parents, Ken and Avis, and tells their story in reverse - beginning at the end of their lives and tracing them back over fifty years to uncover the secret origin of their love affair.After her parents' deaths, Louise and her siblings embark upon the extended process of clearing out the East Midlands bungalow where they had grown up. Just before its sale is completed, she stumbles upon a battered black suitcase containing a treasure trove of letters, in which she discovers how her parents had broken each other's hearts and mended them, and how most of her views about them are wrong.Honest and tender, heartbreaking and funny, this is a story about grief and loss and family, but most of all, it's a story about love. Transporting us to the 1950s to meet two young, working-class people with a mountain to overcome but who are full of hope and spirit, it explores one of life's great mysteries - the lives of our parents before we existed - and the joyful impossibility of unravelling the secrets of the human heart.
About xigxag
xigxag is an independent, UK-based audiobook platform and the UK's only B Corp certified audiobook company. We offer nearly 150,000 audiobooks, all with professional human narration. No AI-generated voices. xigxag is rated an Ethical Consumer Best Buy for audiobooks and a top-rated ethical bookshop.
There is no subscription. You buy the audiobooks you want, you own them permanently, and prices start at $13.95. The more you listen over the year, the less you pay per book, and there is always a selection in Listen for Less from $7.95. You can also send audiobooks as gifts using our audiobook gift cards or in-app gifting.
Every audiobook on xigxag has honest reviews covering both the book and the narration, and our community features make it easy to share what you are listening to, discover what others recommend, and find your next listen.
Download or stream on iOS, Android, or in your browser. Browse the full catalogue at xigxag.co.uk.