Birmingham Friends cover art

Birmingham Friends

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Birmingham Friends

By: Annie Murray
Narrated by: Annie Aldington
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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

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All stars
Most relevant
An engrossing story that conjours the characters and places depicted beautifully.

Vivid depiction

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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

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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

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took a while to get going but understood why as story got going. overall I enjoyed it

different

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The story was good but abit long for me @ 12 hours, by the time I had realised the length of the story I wanted to finish it.

Too long

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