All Among the Barley cover art

All Among the Barley

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About this listen

Winner of the EU Prize for Literature

The autumn of 1933 is the most beautiful Edie Mather can remember, although the Great War still casts its shadow over the fields and villages around her beloved home, Wych Farm. Constance FitzAllen arrives from London to document fading rural traditions and beliefs. For Edie, who must soon face the unsettling pressures of adulthood, the glamorous and worldly outsider appears to be a godsend. But there is more to the older woman than meets the eye. As harvest time approaches and pressures mount on the entire community, Edie must find a way to trust her instincts and save herself from disaster.

Book of the Year New Statesman, Observer, Irish Times, BBC History Magazine

©2018 Melissa Harrison (P)2018 W. F. Howes Ltd Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Literary Fiction Fiction Village Heartfelt

Critic reviews

“A masterpiece.” (Jon McGregor, author of Reservoir 13)

"Impossible to forget." (The Times)

"Astonishing." (Guardian)
All stars
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slow burning story, really bought to life by the performance of Helen Ayres. some beautifully drawn characters

Beautiful writing

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Loved the story. I personally prefer more understated reading rather than acting the parts so wasn't hugely keen on the narration style but the book was worth it anyway.

Great book

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The story seemed to have a hidden message, like an untold secret, which was frustrating. One assumes Edith was a witch and had some sort of special powers?

Wonderful accent

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I adored this lyrical, bucolic tale. It pulls you in with it's gentle rural beginning before the dramatic end with it's unnerving echoes of today's brexit/immigration debate.

However, the narration badly lets it down with a portrayal of the people of Suffolk which is so bad it's offensive. It baffles me how a narrator who has read the passages about the nameless disquiet of the villagers who sense middle class Connie’s patronising of them can then break into a Pythonesque ‘rat bag woman’ voice when portraying those same villagers.

It's beyond being bad at a particular, notoriously elusive accent; the overall effect is an othering of working class people, portraying them as cartoonish and not quite real.

Helen Ayres is palpably much more comfortable with middle class accents.

Beautiful story let down by the narration

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Yes, it made me think. It was dark and mysterious at times, as well as evocative and well-researched. Did I enjoy reading it? No.

Excessively flowery and rather depressing

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