Birmingham Friends cover art

Birmingham Friends

 Preview
Try Premium Plus free
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Birmingham Friends

By: Annie Murray
Narrated by: Annie Aldington
Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £22.99

Buy Now for £22.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

 Anna Craven grew up captivated by stories of her mother's childhood in Birmingham and of Kate's friend, Olivia. Theirs was a magical friendship and Anna always regretted that, with Olivia's tragic death during the war, she would never meet the woman her mother loved so deeply. But when Kate dies, she leaves her daughter one final story: the whole truth of her life with Olivia Kemp. Anna is shocked to discover how little she really knew about the mother with whom she once felt so close. With Kate's words of caution ringing in her ears, she goes in search of the one woman, very much alive, who can answer the urgent questions she now has.©1996 Annie Murray (P)2005 Soundings 20th Century Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Historical Fiction Romance

Listeners also enjoyed...

 Where Earth Meets Sky cover art
Now the War Is Over cover art
The Narrowboat Girl cover art
Poppy Day cover art
War Babies cover art
Sisters of Gold cover art
My Daughter, My Mother cover art
A Place of Hope cover art
The Letter Reader cover art
The Bad Penny cover art
The Three Sisters of Victory Walk cover art
The Wartime Bookshop cover art
A Mother's Secret cover art
A Daughter's Heartbreak cover art
The Blitz Girls cover art
A Thimble for Christmas cover art
All stars
Most relevant  
took a while to get going but understood why as story got going. overall I enjoyed it

different

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
An engrossing story that conjours the characters and places depicted beautifully.

Vivid depiction

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Would you listen to Birmingham Friends again? Why?

No

Did Annie Aldington do a good job differentiating each of the characters? How?

No. I was disappointed with Annie's narration. Her portrayal of dialects local to the setting were very poor - including the main voice which sounded more like Essex - or London, rather than Birmingham. Sometimes the correct voices seemed to be totally forgotten, and in places the sense of particular sentences was misread.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No. Sadly, the story became tedious. A better narration might have helped. So sorry Annie. I hate to be so critical,

Disappointing

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Overall thought it was great but on several occasions, the narrator is abruptly cut short and the next paragraph starts - bit odd and doesn’t flow well when this happens, it’s like it hasn’t been edited properly.

Abruptly clips end of sentance

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Would you try another book written by Annie Murray or narrated by Annie Aldington?

Annie Murray is a brilliant writer, usually. Have listened to many stories read by Annie Aldington, she is a wonderful story teller

What was most disappointing about Annie Murray’s story?

It was so disjointed, and the characters were totally weird

Did Annie Aldington do a good job differentiating each of the characters? How?

Annie Aldington is very clever with the voices

What character would you cut from Birmingham Friends?

Olivier. I know she is the main character, but she was horrible.

Very disappointing

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I have read several of the Annie Murray books about the Bournville girls etc., and have really enjoyed reading them and was happy to find this story, which is a different premise, but sounded really interesting and downloaded it in anticipation..... But what a disappointment. The Narrator was very poor in my opinion and I haven't managed to get past the first listen, which lasted for a good forty minutes and I have not been able to face listening to it again as I find even the thought of it makes me weirdly frustrated and peeved, a strange reaction I know, but such a shame for a good author to have her work represented in this way in my opinion.

Disappointing narrative

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.