Lily cover art

Lily

A Tale of Revenge

 Preview
LIMITED TIME OFFER

3 months free
Try for £0.00
£8.99/mo thereafter. Renews automatically. Terms apply. Offer ends 31 July 2025 at 23:59 GMT.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.

Lily

By: Rose Tremain
Narrated by: Hattie Morahan
Try for £0.00

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Offer ends 31 July 2025 23:59 GMT. Cancel monthly.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

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

Brought to you by Penguin.

Nobody knows yet that she is a murderer....

Abandoned at the gates of a London park one winter's night in 1850, baby Lily Mortimer is saved by a young police constable and taken to the London Foundling Hospital. Lily is fostered by an affectionate farming family in rural Suffolk, enjoying a brief childhood idyll before she is returned to the hospital, where she is punished for her rebellious spirit. Released into the harsh world of Victorian London, Lily becomes a favoured employee at Belle Prettywood's Wig Emporium, but all the while she is hiding a dreadful secret....

Across the years, policeman Sam Trench keeps watch over the young woman he once saved. When Sam meets Lily again, there is an instant attraction between them, and Lily is convinced that Sam holds the key to her happiness - but might he also be the one to uncover her crime and so condemn her to death?

©2021 Rose Tremain (P)2021 Penguin Audio Historical Fiction Fiction Crime Emotionally Gripping Scary Tear-jerking Heartfelt England

Listeners also enjoyed...

 The Colour cover art
Restoration cover art
Music and Silence cover art
The Fascination cover art
The Revolution of Marina M. cover art
The Winter Spirits cover art
Mother's Boy cover art
The Tuscan Secret cover art
Ingenious Pain cover art
Coram Boy cover art
An Orphan Called Christmas cover art
The Wheelwright's Daughter cover art
All stars
Most relevant  
Really enjoyed listening and superbly read. Rather melodramatic with very colourful characters - more penny dreadful than Dickens but I was quite hooked throughout and sad to say farewell to the cast of characters at the end. Will tug your heart strings.

Enjoyable beautifully written

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I loved this most recent book, written with the utmost sympathy for the poverty and disgrace of Victorian London. The narration is perfectly in tune with the story and illuminates Lily’s thought processes and motivations.

Rose Tremain’s standards remain high

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I loved this book had me hooked from start to finish Rose Tremain good work

captivating

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
An enjoyable read. Interesting reading of Lily and her journey through life. What she learned to trust and no; ultimately relying on herself.

Lovely

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Such an amazing story, with intense descriptions that evoke vivid images that really transports you into lilys world.
Lilly’s childhood really tugs at your heart strings. Loved it

Beautiful

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I so enjoyed this book . Realistic story of life in a Victorian orphanage. So well written and wonderful narration.

A Wonderful Story

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
It is said that there's an anticlimactic end to this story, and that it could offer more than it did. But sometimes this is the end a story needs to have, and this story was written brilliantly in a way that keeps the reader (or in this case listener) firmly invested into the fortunes -or misfortunes- of Lily, and how her Odyssey might lead her to her salvation or her demise.
Historical accuracy and details of a life that could truly have existed at some point, of a girl that perhaps did exist, are woven into a story with the steady surety of a master of her craft that is Rose Tremain.
There might be some imperfections, some question left partially unanswered, but there's a flow so natural, so real as we dwell into the thoughts and feelings of the young girl, sharing her sorrows, and longing for her wishes, hearing her thoughts and understanding her confusions, that all render these little imperfections a part of life as easily accepted as a little cloud on a clear sky.

As for the narrator, I don't think there could have been a better choice. Hattie Morahan (which I remembered from Beauty & the Beast live-action remake) breathes life into the pages and perfectly captures Lily as well as the other characters.

Brilliantly narrated and beautifully written story

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This story is full of very evocative discrpion. you feel like you are there with Lilly. it's a sad story and the ending is not what you expect.

very well told story.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This is a captivating novel that draws readers deep into the heart of Victorian London, weaving a tale that is both haunting and beautiful. The story centres around Lily, a foundling, who is abandoned at birth and raised in the harsh environment of a foundling hospital. Tremain masterfully portrays Lily's struggles as she navigates the complexities of life in Victorian England, capturing the reader's attention from the very first page.

One of the novel's greatest strengths is its ability to immerse the reader in the atmosphere of Victorian London without overwhelming them with excessive detail. The characters are well-developed, contributing to the novel's emotional depth.

The moral ambiguities and the difficult choices faced by Lily and those around her are portrayed with a sensitivity that adds layers of complexity to the narrative.

Having read *Lily*, I am certainly eager to explore more of Rose Tremain's work.

Great Novel

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Well thought through plot and storyline. Deep and Realistic Characters. Gripping and extremely emotional, had me weeping and proclaiming I couldn't listen anymore, but I couldn't stop listening till the end.

Outstanding performance. A Tale that resonates.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews