Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

Preview

£0.00 for first 30 days

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.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Bright Day

By: J. B. Priestley
Narrated by: Hannibal Hills
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £18.99

Buy Now for £18.99

Pay using card ending in
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.

Summary

Gregory Dawson, a middle-aged and disillusioned writer, is holed up in a Cornish hotel working on a film script he must finish. A chance encounter with an old acquaintance in the bar sends him back to the England of 1913, when he was just 18 and longed to enter the seemingly magical world of the glamorous Alington family and its three lovely daughters.

Replaying the events of those days in his mind, Dawson relives a long-forgotten story that ended with a mysterious tragedy whose effects linger on in the present and threaten to shatter his placid existence.

In the vein of Proust’s In Search of Lost Time, J. B. Priestley’s Bright Day (1946) is one of his finest works and his own favorite of his novels, a haunting and unforgettable evocation of a vanished England as yet unravaged by the devastation of two world wars.

“One of the best of J. B. Priestley’s novels...provides an opportunity to revalue a writer not merely hugely popular in his own day but also, with more than 100 titles to his credit, hugely prolific.” (Francis King, The Spectator)

“A glow of the magic of poignant rediscovery.” (Kirkus Reviews)

“I do not think Priestley has ever written anything better than this book.” (News Chronicle)

©1946, 2019 J. B. Priestley (P)2020 Valancourt Books LLC
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Listeners also enjoyed...

The Good Companions cover art
The Plays of J. B. Priestley cover art
English Journey cover art
When We are Married (Classic Radio Theatre) cover art
The Other Place and Other Stories of the Same Sort cover art
Alan Bennett: Plays cover art
Anna of the Five Towns cover art
Orley Farm (BBC Radio 4 Classic Serial) cover art

What listeners say about Bright Day

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 3.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    3
  • 4 Stars
    4
  • 3 Stars
    2
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    1
Performance
  • 3.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    3
  • 4 Stars
    2
  • 3 Stars
    2
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    2
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    4
  • 4 Stars
    5
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    1

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A good book spoiled

What a strange narrator! He reads at a slower than normal pace which makes it sound like a bedtime story for toddlers. I didn’t struggle with the accents, though all the female voices were pitched at an embarrassing maiden aunt level, but the slowness of speech made all the characters sound a little simple. I googled him and found that he describes himself as a narrator so I shall be wary of getting any more books read by him!

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Nostalgia

In the last 60 years I read this wonderful Priestly novel twice. On the second occasion I soon found the context around the Allington Family familiar but was not inclined to stop reading it again to the end. The Title did not ring any bells when my failing eyesight drove me to Audible and although quickly recognising it I have thoroughly enjoyed reliving it through the Reader’s excellent performance. And as with Jane Austen, Charles Dickens and several other Authors it is possible to delight in gaining valuable new insights in a familiar work by revisiting it.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars
Listener received this title free

A really good read!

I love reading books written in a different time and place and this one was written right after World War II I found it fascinating. It is about a middle-age screen writer who sees an elderly couple in the hotel restaurant at the resort are you staying at the finish a screenplay. It is really nagging him that he knows these people and it takes a day or two but then it dawns on him they are Mr. and Mrs. Nick sleep The parents of three girls he was once friends with the year before World War I started. He is caught up in the memories of back then and it has and Epiphany that that was when life was good when the sun shone. The book is mostly am remembering those days and although that doesn’t sound exciting it is very entertaining especially with Hannibal Hill doing the audio he did so good in this book. I’m used to him not reading horror or sci-fi and this showed a whole new side to him that I loved. The whole book is absolutely excellent from the story to the performance, I wish she would do narration for more books like this. I highly recommend this book.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Had to waste a credit!

couldn't listen to it any longer than 1 hour. Narrator gave me a headache

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

the narator refined this book for me.

I read this book years ago and looked forward to a re-visit, with the added bonus of being read to. The accents attempted are something out of a month python sketch. A great book destroyed. Hear a sample before you bother.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!