The Night Watch cover art

The Night Watch

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.

The Night Watch

By: Sarah Waters
Narrated by: Juanita McMahon
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 £16.99

Buy Now for £16.99

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

Shortlisted for the British Book Awards, Book of the Year, 2007.
Shortlisted for Audible's Listen of the Year, 2006.
Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, 2006.
Shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction, 2006.

Moving back through the 1940s, through air raids, blacked out streets, illicit liaisons, sexual adventure, to end with its beginning in 1941, The Night Watch is the work of a truly brilliant and compelling storyteller. This is the story of four Londoners, three women and a young man with a past, drawn with absolute truth and intimacy.

Kay, who drove an ambulance during the war and lived life at full throttle, now dresses in mannish clothes and wanders the streets with a restless hunger, searching; Helen, clever, sweet, much-loved, harbours a painful secret; Viv, glamour girl, is stubbornly, even foolishly loyal, to her soldier lover; Duncan, an apparent innocent, has had his own demons to fight during the war. Their lives, and their secrets connect in sometimes startling ways. War leads to strange alliances.

Tender, tragic, and beautifully poignant, set against the backdrop of feats of heroism both epic and ordinary, here is a novel of relationships that offers up subtle surprises and twists. The Night Watch is thrilling. A towering achievement.

©2006 Sarah Waters; (P)2006 Time Warner AudioBooks
Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Historical Fiction Literary Fiction Literature & Fiction Romance War Tear-jerking

Listeners also enjoyed...

The Winter Spirits cover art
A Bird in Winter cover art
After the Storm cover art
We That Are Left cover art
The Miseducation of Cameron Post cover art
The Oceans Between Us cover art
Cal cover art
Exposure cover art
The Things We Never Said cover art

The Pride List of Queer Storytelling

To mark Pride 2023 Audible teamed up with non-profit organisation, Out on the Page, supporter and champion of LGBTQIA+ writers and writing, to release an extensive Pride List of Queer Storytelling. Featuring contributions from some of the UK’s most important and exciting voices from the LGBTQIA+ community, this audiobook is one of the many featured on the list that is available to listen to on Audible.

Critic reviews

"A truthful, lovely book that needs no conjuring tricks to make you want to read it again." (Observer)

"Brilliantly done....A tour-de-force of hints, clues, and dropped threads." (Independent on Sunday)

All stars
Most relevant
Wonderfully engaging characters; I loved the way details were gradually revealed, mysteries explained and misconceptions corrected.

I was taken aback when I realised that we were going backwards in time. Once I'd adjusted to that, though, I found this to be a fascinating meditation on how the characters reached their rather dull starting points - and of course, an interesting depiction of the way WWII affected ordinary people in Britain.

Engaging

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

This is a dauntingly long recording, and at first I wondered whether I would last the course, but I persevered and was ultimately rewarded. The cast of characters covers a range of social class and gender types, and, although the war is the background, it is also a major influence on all of them. The novel begins in the early post war, and much of the novel is a linked series of episodes taking place during the war, which puts into place the behaviours, concerns, quirks and relationships of the characters in their post war guise. The ordinariness of most of the characters set against a background of extraordinary events is an effective way of situating daily life in London during the air raids, and it effectively conveyed the way in which life and relationships had to be carried on in the face of disruption and danger. It also shows how conventions were challenged and social divisions were being undermined. This is not a book, however, for the reader wanting quick gratification, as it requires some commitment from the reader/listener. Juanita McMahon's reading is outstanding.

The Night Watch

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Very well-written empathetically crafted
Characters amazing very believable.
The narrator was wonderful and
Brought the whole story to life

Good lsten

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

This book wouldn't have been half such a good listen if it hadn't been for the excellent reader Juanita McMahon. She brings all the characters alive. And has a different voice for them all.
The story line is interesting from the point of view of life in London during WWII and especially the ambulance service. Also the difficulties of being gay in that era. It was just not acceptable.

Beautifully read

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

What made the experience of listening to The Night Watch the most enjoyable?

Atmospheric, but not trite. Characters are SO believable and stay with one long after the book's ending.I

What did you like best about this story?

I thoroughly enjoyed all of this book.

What does Juanita McMahon bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?

Juanita McMahon is possibly the best audio book reader. She always brings her all to every audio book I have heard her read. I do hope she gets well deserved plaudits in this years reader awards.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes!

Any additional comments?

Must read her next books.

captures the war and post war London atmosphere.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

See more reviews