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The Whalebone Theatre
- Narrated by: Olivia Vinall
- Length: 18 hrs and 23 mins
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The Whalebone Theatre
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Summary
Brought to you Penguin.
'Maudie, why are all the best characters men?'
Maudie closes the book with a clllump. 'We haven't read all the books yet, Miss Cristabel. I can't believe that every story is the same.'
Cristabel Seagrave has always wanted her life to be a story, but there are no girls in the books in her dusty family library. For an unwanted orphan who grows into an unmarriageable young woman, there is no place at all for her in a traditional English manor.
But from the day that a whale washes up on the beach at the Chilcombe estate in Dorset, and 12-year-old Cristabel plants her flag and claims it as her own, she is determined to do things differently.
With her step-parents blithely distracted by their endless party guests, Cristabel and her siblings, Flossie and Digby, scratch together an education from the plays they read in their freezing attic, drunken conversations eavesdropped through oak-panelled doors, and the esoteric lessons of Maudie their maid.
But as the children grow to adulthood and war approaches, jolting their lives on to very different tracks, it becomes clear that the roles they are expected to play are no longer those they want. As they find themselves drawn into the conflict, they must each find a way to write their own story....
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What listeners say about The Whalebone Theatre
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- MRS. LUCINDA LEWIS
- 28-06-22
The best family saga in years
I cannot believe this is a first novel. The characters develop so individually over the long stretch of years that you want to know what happens to each of them.
Beautifully read.
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4 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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- Eunice Gray
- 19-01-23
Loved every word
This book is a delight. The reader is excellent and the story is one that you need to keep listening too. The characters are believable, in turn infuriating and heartbreaking. Highly recommend listening
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- S Lewis
- 09-12-22
Fantastic experience
I loved this story, from its beginnings of Christa’s childhood, her terrible parents and her love for her siblings. Then onto ww2 which was almost like a different book, very exciting and interesting to hear about the French resistance. The ending brought the story round full circle bringing tears to my eyes.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Anonymous User
- 13-12-22
An epic and beautiful story
Beautifully read, I loved this book. It’s written so well and captures the characters well.
Takes you through the stages through the wars and in between. As one review said, it has a quality of ‘I capture the castle’. Highly recommend
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Heather Wight
- 27-12-22
The Whalebone Theatre
This book was ok you couldn’t fault the writing and the narration was first class but it was very long. It would make a good TV series. I wish the writer had somehow included more about Christabelle’s maternal ancestry thus revealing more of her obviously inherited formidable spirit. I would have liked to have had more of an insight into her mother’s life and I would’ve thought someone like Christabelle would have been desperate to find out about her.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- cb
- 28-07-22
Excellent!
A superb and intelligent read in which the characters are beautifully brought to life by Olivia's performance.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Anonymous User
- 03-10-23
Excellent in every way
This is a great story, fabulous characters and beautifully narrated. Definitely a story to get lost in.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Emma Davies
- 16-12-23
Wonderful characters
Loved it all. Emotional to the end but real and thought provoking. Highly recommend to everyone.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Kamila
- 08-04-24
Totally engaging
A beautifully written tale with a wonderful line-up of characters. It convincingly portrays the inter-war years in a rather shabby country house, then changes gear as the story moves into the murkier waters of the activities of undercover operations in France during the war.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Rachel Keeling
- 20-03-24
Kaleidoscopic description, entrancing and compulsive
Wonderfully written wonderful storytelling, at times the foreboding made me want to stop reading but the story gently pulls you through to brave it out. Life and death in all their misery and glory.
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