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High Wages

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About this listen

In Dorothy Whipple's High Wages, a determined young woman makes her way in the world against the looming backdrop of World War I. High Wages is more than a tale of savvy entrepreneurship: Jane’s thoughts, feelings, adventures and disappointments in love and friendship are all laid bare.

Jane Carter sees an advertisement for a live-in shop assistant and jumps at the chance to leave her old life behind. After Chadwick the draper takes her on, Jane learns all there is to know about fabrics and dressmaking. She proves a talented saleswoman and befriends Maggie and Lily, the other employees.

The girls struggle under exploitative conditions: meagre pay; tiny portions of food; the boss cheating them out of commissions. When the young man Maggie is seeing falls in love with Jane, a bitter falling-out results in Maggie threatening to leave Chadwick’s. Armed with initiative and ideas, Jane decides to set up her very own clothing shop, but it’s not all plain sailing – far from it.

High Wages is part of the Persephone Audiobook Collection, a series of forgotten classics including neglected fiction and non-fiction by women writers. First published in 1930, this edition includes a new preface by author Jane Brocket.

20th Century Classics Coming of Age Genre Fiction Historical Historical Fiction
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This is the third whipple book I’ve listened to and this woman is not afraid to not write a happily ever after but her writing will always leave you hopeful of something unwritten.

Dorothy whipple

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Another absolute joy. Sad I have now no more Dorothy Whipple to read. They are all fabulous

Another cracker from Dorothy Whipple

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Loved the sense of time and place. Excellently read. Gripping. I was really rooting for the feisty and principled heroine.

Gently feminist

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An absorbing and atmospheric story, sweet and fresh despite being nearly 100 years old. Another reviewer mentioned it was gently feminist - I would echo this. Great narration with lots of feeling but never over the top.

Wonderful story, vibrant voices in this tale from the past.

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I have loved this book since before Persephone republished it. I found an old copy from the 1940s before DW lost her popularity.

I must have read it a dozen times. Then I bought the Persephone print.

So I hesitated to spend a credit on this, in case it was badly read and spoiled the version of it, in my head.

But it was wonderful. So even if you’re a fan of the book, I’d say listen to this too. It added a lot for me. Beautiful narration, pitch perfect.

Probably in my top ten audio books

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