A Dubious Legacy cover art

A Dubious Legacy

 Preview
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free
Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.
Prime members: New to Audible? Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Just £0.99/mo for your first 3 months of Audible.
1 bestseller or new release per month—yours to keep.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, podcasts, and Originals.
Auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
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.

A Dubious Legacy

By: Mary Wesley
Narrated by: Anna Massey
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly. Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.

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

Buy Now for £13.99

Buy Now for £13.99

LIMITED TIME OFFER | £0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Premium Plus auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Terms apply.

About this listen

Henry Tillotson, a generous, genial man, rescues Margaret from a disastrous marriage in Egypt and brings her home to the West Country as his new wife. On the threshold she gives him a black eye and retires straight to bed where she remains, apart from the occasional malevolent outburst, for the rest of her life.

Over the years, two young couples become regular if uneasy houseguests, listening, speculating, keeping a watchful eye on Margaret’s door until finally, piecing together the gossip, the rumours and the mystery, they find themselves tangled in the web of Henry’s life.

©1992 Mary Wesley (P)2014 Audible, Inc. Contemporary Fiction Genre Fiction Fiction Marriage Feel-Good

Listeners also enjoyed...

 The Penelopiad cover art
A Man Lay Dead cover art
Fruit of the Lemon cover art
An Imaginative Experience cover art
The Vacillations of Poppy Carew cover art
Barbara Pym: A BBC Radio Drama Collection cover art
Kiss and Kin cover art
Staying On cover art
Children of Chance cover art
The Pride cover art
Dangerous Pleasures cover art
Chasing Rainbows cover art
Still Waters cover art
Jenny Alone cover art
The Best of Friends cover art
Wish You Were Here cover art
All stars
Most relevant
I love Mary Wesley especially when read by Anna Massey. It's an escape back into the not too distant past. A very easy listen with interesting characters.

a relaxing listen

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Anna Massey’s variation in volume and tone causes word endings to disappear and can often sound harsh in male conversations. I rewound one short section three times but still didn’t get it. Maybe time to refresh and re-record using a different narrator.

It kept my Interest

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This is just what you would hope for, and expect from Mary Wesley. Every character is fleshed out and explained fully. The story is set post World War II and centres around the lovelife of Henry Tillotson and Cotteshaw, the house and farm he owns. I was pleased that Calypso is also part of the story, having loved her from the Camomile Lawn.

Every character has a story

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Really good book, well written and hood plot. Keeps you guessing to the end even if the truth not spelt out

A winding story over several generation’s

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Mary Wesley has no time for those of delicatel sensibilities, she's acerbic and mordantly funny, and her characters are frequently horrid to each other. Her books are sort of Aga sagas for cynics. Most enjoyable.

Anna Massey is a good reader too - very expressive and the voices of different characters can be easily distinguish.

Not for the sentimental

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