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Hardacre

Hardacre Family Saga Series, Book 1

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About this listen

Hardacre is the sweeping rags to riches story of the Hardacre family. This dramatic family saga follows generations of the Hardacres from Victorian times to the 1950s. Set against the backdrop of major historical events, Hardacre traces the family's humble beginnings to their position of great wealth.

Sam Hardacre makes a tough yet honest living as a fish gutter. But he has ambitions for a life far removed from the harsh existence on the quays of the north English coast. Through drive and determination he builds a business empire and amasses a fortune. His wife, Mary, once a poor street urchin, must learn to adapt to her new role as mistress of a grand house in Yorkshire.

Sam's sons, Joe and Harry, inherit some but not all of their father's qualities. Their opposing personalities lead them to make very different choices about their futures. Meanwhile, their younger sister, Jane, is born into a life of privilege and has no experience of her family's early struggles.

The three siblings and their offspring will know love, hate, passion and tragedy, as they live through the dramatic events of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The lives of the Hardacres are shaped by the extraordinary events of the Boer War, the Great War, the Wall Street Crash, the Second World War, Hitler's Germany, and the London Blitz.

©2014 The Estate of CL Skelton (P)2018 Tantor
Family Life Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction England War
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Good book, dreadful narration with many mispronunciations.
I’m afraid I skipped to the last chapter

Hardacre

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The sheer awfulness of the narrator’s voice and endless mispronunciation of words repeatedly. Most of the characters are meant to have Yorkshire accents. Whatever the accent the narrator uses it is not an accent anyone else uses. And then there were all the words the narrator presumably had never come across before. It became a game spotting them. In one place even the narrator‘a note to editor on what word she should use had been left in. In other places she changes the gender of characters. Still a good rags to riches story but the narration really gets in the way of the story. I got the book for free, if I had paid for it I would be most unhappy.

Ok book spoilt by bad editing and awful narration.

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loved this detail of this story of a rags to riches family. great depth and storyline. but the read was terribly. The awful attempt at Yorkshire and scotch accents would have ruined it for me had the story not been so good. There is also a note to the editor from the reader in the middle of it. such poor editing also
I would be furious if I had written this story.

great storey abysmal reading

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I read this book and it’s sequel many years ago and enjoyed listening to it again, but found the readers voice and pronunciation of some of the words most irritating. However, it did not stop me getting fully involved in the story.

Good read

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I read Hardacre years ago. It was in a pile of my Mother’s books and I always associate it with her. I thought I’d purchase it on audible. It’s a decent story, the earlier part of the novel being the most interesting showing the rise of Sam & Mary Hardacre through hard work and circumstances. However, the narrator really hasn’t got the slightest idea of how to speak in a Yorkshire accent. I write as a Yorkshireman and a performer. Sam and Mary Hardacre, the foundation of the family, seemed to range from the North East via Scotland and residing mostly in N Ireland. If you can’t pronounce “gradely” properly (‘greyedlee’ not ‘gradlee’) or pronounce “clerk” in the English way, then perhaps better to try something else. Still, it gave me a good laugh and would have entertained my Mother who’d have listened with a quizzical look. Easy and enjoyable novel.

Weird weird weird narration

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