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  • Legacy

  • By: Carole Hayman
  • Narrated by: Zara Ramm
  • Length: 8 hrs and 58 mins
  • 3.5 out of 5 stars (40 ratings)

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Legacy

By: Carole Hayman
Narrated by: Zara Ramm
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Summary

At a moment when powerful men everywhere are being exposed for their crimes, Celia receives an email out of the blue, accusing her ex-husband of committing a rape decades before. She feels compelled to investigate, but where should she even begin? Together with Carly, her millennial colleague at the Harland Herald, she revisits a past she thought she’d left behind, full of partying, drugs and free love. At the time, she’d thought she was at the centre of something - she’d been swept up in the maelstrom of the summer of love - but did she miss something rotten at its core?

From writer, producer and presenter Carole Hayman comes this insightful, compulsive thriller. Told through a series of flashbacks to Celia’s wild youth, Legacy examines the ideas of memory, feminism and changing sexual politics. Former associate director of the Royal Court Theatre and author of the Warfleet Chronicles and Hard Choices, Hayman’s writing includes the hit Radio 4 series Ladies of Letters, The Refuge with Sue Townsend and Rides, the first ever all-female TV drama.

Hayman was a research fellow at Kings College London, where she conducted a study on women and serial killers. This intelligent, provocative #MeToo mystery is perfect for fans of Gillian Flynn and Emma Cline’s The Girls.

©2020 Carole Hayman (P)2020 Audible, Ltd
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Critic reviews

"Hailed as THE audiobook of 2021." (Daily Mail)

What listeners say about Legacy

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  • Overall
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A story for our time

This is a timely and necessary book - a fascinating study of the relationship between past and present, about remembering and misremembering, about seeing what we want to see rather than what is happening, and about how we have to reconstitute the 'narrative' of our lives when we are shocked into seeing something clearly for the first time. It's a powerful novel for our time and read with the energy and sensitivity that the writing deserves. It asks us essential and sometimes uncomfortable questions and makes us think deeper, and better, about the nature of truth.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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A joy!

Another brilliant book by this author, very entertaining and witty even though touching upon very contemporary issues

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8 people found this helpful

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Wow

Was nervous in case this was a "band wagon"-tyoe thing...but I was looking for something from a female voice that wasn't written about trying to attain wholeness from a love interest, something real and interesting. This did Not disappoint.
Excellently narrated, the reading totally carried the story.

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  • Overall
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Gripping

I loved the characters and got totally drawn in by the decades-old mystery, I don't have a lot of time to read novels and have a history of half finishing them, but.. this is one I just had to get to the bottom of.. Fascinating!

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  • Overall
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A Gripping Yarn

This skilfully written narrative is a must for anyone whose late teen years spanned the seventies. A fond trip down the hazy paths of memory lane soon reveals a more disturbing truth and questions our own recollection of times past.

Alternating between then and now, this thought provoking tale for our time raises some important questions about why the work of seminal feminist pioneers such as the late Kate Millett, are deemed of no or little value in today's #metoo world, where ostracism seems preferable to debate, casting them into a twilight of penury and oblivion. So much for sisterhood!

Perfect for the screen, I look forward to this being dramatised soon!

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Prosecco for the soul

Highly recommended as an antidote to mediocrity. Entertaining, witty, erudite and thought-provoking. "I never go lower than a bass player." Priceless! Hats off to the brilliant Carole Hayman. Legacy should be adapted into a TV mini-series.

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This brilliant novel

This brilliant novel describes the hedonism of the seventies in glorious, colourful detail, but also brings us up to date with a mystery to unravel, posing questions about cultural norms and boundaries through the lens of a modern generation. As the story unfolds we question our own viewpoint, our own perspective and past and, indeed, our own legacy.

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Pacy tight thriller

I had to binge listen. Totally drawn into the story telling. Compelling and thought provoking.

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  • Overall
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Story is gripping....

...but I'm going to have to abandon as the narrator isn't my cup of tea - hopeless American and Canadian accents which is annoying when two characters are those nationalities....will buy the book to read instead.

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  • Overall
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Carole Hayman “Legacy”

Fondly-remembered but edgy, and populated by a crew of characters one saw in the bars and parties of the time, Legacy lets us relive the fun but also prompts a reconsideration of the darker sides of the times, particularly as experienced by women.

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