Listen free for 30 days
-
The Secret Child
- Narrated by: Emma Spurgin Hussey
- Length: 10 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged Audiobook
- Categories: Literature & Fiction, Genre Fiction
Add to basket failed.
Add to wishlist failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Listen with a free trial
Buy Now for £18.99
No valid payment method on file.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
After the Lie
- By: Kerry Fisher
- Narrated by: Emma Spurgin-Hussey
- Length: 8 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Lydia was a teenager, she made a decision that ruined her family's life. They've spent the last 30 years living with the consequences and doing their best to pretend it never happened. Lydia's husband, the gorgeous and reliable Mark, and her two teenage children know nothing about that summer back in 1982. And that's the way Lydia wants it to stay. The opportunity to come clean is long gone, and now it's not the lie that matters; it's the betrayal of hiding the truth for so long.
-
-
The secret is too tame!
- By Ann D on 28-08-17
-
The Mother I Could Have Been
- By: Kerry Fisher
- Narrated by: Emma Spurgin Hussey
- Length: 8 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As a child, Vicky Hall never had the sort of family she wanted. The least important person in her new step-family, ignored by her mother in favour of her two younger half siblings, Vicky was always an afterthought. Sitting alone at her graduation ceremony at the age of 21, she vows to create her own family and her own life, one which is full of the love and attention she has always craved.
-
-
I feel like Kerry Fisher knows my story
- By Sarah Reynolds on 09-02-20
-
Other People's Marriages
- By: Kerry Fisher
- Narrated by: Emma Spurgin Hussey
- Length: 8 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Steph has spent decades building a family with her husband, Mal, and putting their family first. She is the glue that holds them all together, and she has convinced herself that she’s been happy...most of the time. But as she stands at her birthday party watching her husband talking about a wonderful marriage she doesn’t fully recognise, the doubts that she has been pushing down for so long begin to grow.
-
-
Brilliant Author
- By dianef on 02-10-21
-
The School Gate Survival Guide
- By: Kerry Fisher
- Narrated by: Sally Orrock
- Length: 9 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Feisty Maia Etxeleku is a cleaner for ladies who lunch. She spends her life wiping up spilt Sauvignon and hoovering around handbags before rushing back home to skivvy after her children's feckless father on an estate where survival depends on your ability to look the other way. But an unusual inheritance catapults her into a different world where no child can survive without organic apricots and Kumon maths classes - and no woman can contemplate a week without Pilates and pedicures.
-
-
Funny and wonderful
- By scatty on 12-07-17
-
The Silent Wife
- By: Kerry Fisher
- Narrated by: Emma Spurgin-Hussey
- Length: 9 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Lara's life looks perfect on the surface. Gorgeous doting husband Massimo, sweet little son Sandro and the perfect home. Lara knows something about Massimo. Something she can't tell anyone else or everything Massimo has worked so hard for will be destroyed: his job, their reputation, their son. This secret is keeping Lara a prisoner in her marriage. Maggie is married to Massimo's brother Nico. She knows all of Nico's darkest secrets - or so she thinks. The one day she discovers a letter in the attic....
-
-
Better analysis of coercive control than The Archers!
- By Frances Locke on 21-09-17
-
Another Woman’s Child
- By: Kerry Fisher
- Narrated by: Emma Spurgin Hussey
- Length: 8 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jo had thought that her life - and her heart - was full. With a busy job, a husband and a teenage daughter who is going off the rails, keeping her life running smoothly had already felt hard enough. But now Jo sits at the funeral of her best friend, Ginny, crushed by the loss of a friendship that had endured for 30 years: from college and their first days at work through to settling down and raising their own children. Against her husband’s wishes, Jo has made a life-changing decision: to take in Ginny’s teenage son, Victor, and raise him as her own.
-
-
A Mixed Bag
- By SCBDC on 14-08-20
-
After the Lie
- By: Kerry Fisher
- Narrated by: Emma Spurgin-Hussey
- Length: 8 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Lydia was a teenager, she made a decision that ruined her family's life. They've spent the last 30 years living with the consequences and doing their best to pretend it never happened. Lydia's husband, the gorgeous and reliable Mark, and her two teenage children know nothing about that summer back in 1982. And that's the way Lydia wants it to stay. The opportunity to come clean is long gone, and now it's not the lie that matters; it's the betrayal of hiding the truth for so long.
-
-
The secret is too tame!
- By Ann D on 28-08-17
-
The Mother I Could Have Been
- By: Kerry Fisher
- Narrated by: Emma Spurgin Hussey
- Length: 8 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As a child, Vicky Hall never had the sort of family she wanted. The least important person in her new step-family, ignored by her mother in favour of her two younger half siblings, Vicky was always an afterthought. Sitting alone at her graduation ceremony at the age of 21, she vows to create her own family and her own life, one which is full of the love and attention she has always craved.
-
-
I feel like Kerry Fisher knows my story
- By Sarah Reynolds on 09-02-20
-
Other People's Marriages
- By: Kerry Fisher
- Narrated by: Emma Spurgin Hussey
- Length: 8 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Steph has spent decades building a family with her husband, Mal, and putting their family first. She is the glue that holds them all together, and she has convinced herself that she’s been happy...most of the time. But as she stands at her birthday party watching her husband talking about a wonderful marriage she doesn’t fully recognise, the doubts that she has been pushing down for so long begin to grow.
-
-
Brilliant Author
- By dianef on 02-10-21
-
The School Gate Survival Guide
- By: Kerry Fisher
- Narrated by: Sally Orrock
- Length: 9 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Feisty Maia Etxeleku is a cleaner for ladies who lunch. She spends her life wiping up spilt Sauvignon and hoovering around handbags before rushing back home to skivvy after her children's feckless father on an estate where survival depends on your ability to look the other way. But an unusual inheritance catapults her into a different world where no child can survive without organic apricots and Kumon maths classes - and no woman can contemplate a week without Pilates and pedicures.
-
-
Funny and wonderful
- By scatty on 12-07-17
-
The Silent Wife
- By: Kerry Fisher
- Narrated by: Emma Spurgin-Hussey
- Length: 9 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Lara's life looks perfect on the surface. Gorgeous doting husband Massimo, sweet little son Sandro and the perfect home. Lara knows something about Massimo. Something she can't tell anyone else or everything Massimo has worked so hard for will be destroyed: his job, their reputation, their son. This secret is keeping Lara a prisoner in her marriage. Maggie is married to Massimo's brother Nico. She knows all of Nico's darkest secrets - or so she thinks. The one day she discovers a letter in the attic....
-
-
Better analysis of coercive control than The Archers!
- By Frances Locke on 21-09-17
-
Another Woman’s Child
- By: Kerry Fisher
- Narrated by: Emma Spurgin Hussey
- Length: 8 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jo had thought that her life - and her heart - was full. With a busy job, a husband and a teenage daughter who is going off the rails, keeping her life running smoothly had already felt hard enough. But now Jo sits at the funeral of her best friend, Ginny, crushed by the loss of a friendship that had endured for 30 years: from college and their first days at work through to settling down and raising their own children. Against her husband’s wishes, Jo has made a life-changing decision: to take in Ginny’s teenage son, Victor, and raise him as her own.
-
-
A Mixed Bag
- By SCBDC on 14-08-20
-
The Marriage Mender
- By: Linda Green
- Narrated by: Sarah Durham
- Length: 11 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Alison is a marriage mender. Her job is to help couples who fear they have reached the end of the road. So when her husband's ex, Lydia, arrives on the doorstep demanding to see her son, Alison thinks she can handle it. But what Alison doesn't realise is that Lydia is the one person who has the ability to destroy their happy family. And sometimes the cracks run too deep to ever be repaired.
-
-
Gimme more
- By Hayley Ward on 03-08-21
-
The Woman I Was Before
- By: Kerry Fisher
- Narrated by: Emma Spurgin Hussey
- Length: 9 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What if the perfect life you envy was rotten to the core? Three brand-new friends. Three very different families. Way too many secrets. Gisela, Sally and Kate become close when they move into the same new housing estate. But behind their shiny front doors, each has something to hide. Three lives collide in this gripping story about friendship, motherhood and marriage and the façade of perfection people present to the world.
-
-
Beautiful - Kerry, thank you so much
- By DD on 24-05-19
-
The Island Escape
- By: Kerry Fisher
- Narrated by: Lucy Paterson
- Length: 11 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Can one woman's marriage survive her best friend's divorce? Fans of Veronica Henry and Erica James, this is the next book to add to your reading list. It's time to get back to where it all began.... Octavia Sheldon thought she'd have a different life. One where she travelled the world with an exotic husband and free-spirited children in tow. But things didn't turn out quite like that.
-
-
Good listen
- By Anna Fern on 26-08-18
-
Take My Hand
- Two Best Friends, Two Sons Fighting for Their Lives, One True Story About Motherhood, Grief and Hope
- By: Kerry Fisher, Pat Sowa
- Narrated by: Sarah Durham, Karen Cass, Kerry Fisher, and others
- Length: 8 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Friends for over 30 years, Kerry and Pat’s worlds came crashing down when their teenage sons were both diagnosed with life-threatening illnesses within weeks of each other.
-
-
Perspective
- By WHEN on 31-10-21
-
The Girl She Wanted
- By: K.L. Slater
- Narrated by: Kristin Atherton
- Length: 9 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What was my sister doing standing over Florence’s cot in the middle of the night?I trust my sister, Carrie, with my daughter’s life. But then she’s accused of a terrible crime. Carrie lives under our roof, she pushes my daughter on the swings, she takes her out for ice cream. You might ask, why do I let her? Why would I risk my darling baby? How could I let my sister stay? Because I have a dangerous secret too. One that only Carrie knows about. And if that secret gets out, I could lose my little girl....
-
-
Alexa
- By Jools on 27-12-20
-
The Second Child
- By: Caroline Bond
- Narrated by: Antonia Beamish
- Length: 10 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Why do you love your child? Is it because they're a straight A student, a talented footballer? Or is it simply because they're yours? Sarah and Phil love both their children, James and Lauren. The couple have the same hopes and aspirations as any parent. But their expectations are shattered when they discover that their perfect baby daughter has been born with a flaw: a tiny but life-changing glitch that is destined to shape her future, and theirs, irrevocably.
-
-
Fantastic
- By Hollister on 08-11-20
-
Single
- By: K. L. Slater
- Narrated by: Lucy Price-Lewis
- Length: 9 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When single mother Darcy’s son falls from a rope bridge at a local playground, life stands still. She clutches his small, limp body, frozen, until a pair of strong hands push her aside, and she watches as George, a local doctor, saves her son’s life. George, with his twinkling hazel eyes, easy charm and lack of wedding band is almost too good to be true, but coffee becomes lunch, lunch becomes dinner, and soon they can’t go an evening without seeing each other.
-
-
Disappointing
- By E Marlborough on 30-12-19
-
My Sweet Revenge
- By: Jane Fallon
- Narrated by: Jenny Funnell, Antonia Beamish
- Length: 11 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Paula has had Robert's back since they got together as drama students. She gave up her dreams so he could make it. Now he's one of the nation's most popular actors. And Paula's just discovered he's having an affair. She's going to remind Robert just what he's sacrificing, and then she's going to break his heart like he broke hers. It will be her greatest acting role ever. Revenge is sweet. Isn't it?
-
-
Revenge is definitely sweet
- By Sue R. on 08-09-17
-
Liar
- By: K. L. Slater
- Narrated by: Lucy Price-Lewis
- Length: 8 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
How far would you go to protect your family? Single dad Ben is doing his best to raise his children, with the help of his devoted mother, Judi. And then Ben meets Amber. Everyone thinks this is a perfect match for Ben, but Judi isn't so sure.... There's just something about Amber that doesn't add up. Ben can't see why his mother dislikes his new girlfriend. And Amber doesn't want Judi anywhere near her new family. Amber just wants Ben and the children.
-
-
Superb narration and tense plot
- By Lee on 09-07-17
-
I Came to Say Goodbye
- By: Caroline Overington
- Narrated by: Tai Hara, Jennifer Rani
- Length: 7 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It was four o'clock in the morning. A young woman pushed through the hospital doors. Staff would later say they thought the woman was a new mother, returning to her child - and in a way, she was. She walked into the nursery, where a baby girl lay sleeping. The infant didn't wake when the woman placed her gently in the shopping bag she had brought with her. There is CCTV footage of what happened next, and most Australians would have seen it, either on the internet or the news.
-
-
my favourite by this author so far!
- By Caroline on 03-02-22
-
Forget My Name
- By: J. S. Monroe
- Narrated by: Olivia Mace
- Length: 11 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
She arrived into Heathrow after a difficult week at work. Her bag had been stolen. Her whole life was in there - passport, wallet, house key. When she tried to report the theft, she couldn't remember her own name. All she knew was her own address. Now she is at the door of Tony and Laura, a young couple living in Wiltshire. She says she lives in their home. They say they have never met her before. One of them is lying. But which one?
-
-
Great story. Superb narration.
- By Bee Hale on 07-02-21
-
Two Thousand Minnows
- A Young Girl's Story of Separation, Forgiveness, and Hope
- By: Sandra Leigh Vaughan
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Evans
- Length: 17 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Sandra Leigh was seven years old, she fell into the role of protector of her mother and three younger siblings. One winter night, she ushered her mother out of the house during one of her father’s tirades, and then snuck her back into the dark home through a window. Sandra was used to events like these; what she wasn’t used to were the mountains and nature surrounding her new home in West Virginia.
-
-
Really good
- By Amazon Customer on 14-03-22
Summary
'Just for a moment, I was young and invincible again, back before I made the decision that changed the rest of my life....'
Susie did something that she knows she will always regret: giving her baby son up for adoption, to keep her infidelity secret from her family. Louise, Susie's daughter, feels the effects of that decision echoing down through the years - her mother has always been difficult, too strict with her but not strict enough with her sister, Grace, who is wild and out of control. And Danny, Susie's husband, adores her but has always sensed something wrong at the heart of their marriage.
When tragedy strikes the family, and a chance discovery threatens to bring the truth to light, the sisters' relationship is put to the test as they are faced with an impossible choice.
From the best-selling author of The Silent Wife, The Secret Child is a heartbreaking novel about family secrets and lies. Perfect for fans of Liane Moriarty, Jojo Moyes and Diane Chamberlain.
More from the same
What listeners say about The Secret Child
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Frances Locke
- 25-02-18
A really thought provoking story
I truly loved this book and need to get friends to read it so that I can talk about it. I have three adoption experiences in my family - all from the 1960s too - so was very interested in the exploration of all the impossibly difficult issues surrounding whether or not to trace, either way round.
Kerry Fisher’s observations of parenting are so true - or so like mine! How you can love a child so much and it all go wrong...
This was a great story and rang so many bells with me. Thank you. I must find and read some others by this author.
27 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Amazon Customer
- 21-02-18
absorbing
great story but sad reflection on humanity years ago, the struggle to hide and keep secrets from those around you.
20 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Trina
- 21-02-18
Unputdownable
Well written, gripping and thoroughly enjoyable. A good discovery.
Good characters and well developed plot.
12 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Penelope
- 28-02-18
Easy good feeling read
I really enjoyed this book, easy to listen to, great story, one of those cant put down cause I need to know the ending...
9 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Lindy SH
- 25-02-18
So real could be a biography
Emotional insight into giving up a child for adoption and the effects this has on the rest of a family and a persons life. Fiction but could be a biography. Reflects on the changing times and the cruelty inflicted on unmarried mothers in the 1960 s
8 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Susan
- 07-03-18
Susan
What a truly wonderful book, it had me laughing and crying. A joy to read.
6 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Amazon Customer
- 17-03-18
Decent story - terrible narration
This story was seriously let down by the dreary narration with no differentiation between characters. I am an avid audible listener but this story was made boring by the expressionless reader. The story itself was fine but I will be avoiding anything else read by Emma Spurgin Hussey.
12 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Pimak
- 03-03-18
Very Real
Fascinating, found it very real and right at the heart of so many questions I have hears about adoption
5 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- ICU. Nurse
- 25-02-18
Excellent
I really enjoyed this book showing the personal agony of giving a child up for adoption and how damaging secrets are within families. Good pace. Great read. Could stop listening.
5 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Oscars mum
- 01-04-18
Oscars mum
I have loved listening to another of Kerry’s fantastic stories. So well written and I can’t wait to find out what happens but equally don’t want to finish the book. The narration by Emma is fantastic too. Looking forward to my next Kerry book.
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Amazon Customer
- 23-05-18
Beautiful story
A very emotional book. I loved how well developed the characters were. It is a very realistic book. Kerry Fisher is a very good writer. The book didn’t have any unnecessary details. It flowed beautifully. I highly recommend this book.
16 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- ~Portia
- 25-07-18
I liked it WAY more than I thought I would
I almost stopped after the first hour. I found the main character to be whiney and I couldn't bear a whole book of it. I'm so glad I stuck with it! I loved it! So many complicated emotions. Beautifully done.
59 people found this helpful
-
Overall

- zoolady
- 23-02-18
I've found a new favorite author!
This was a truly lovely book, filled with a roller-coaster of emotions and wonderful, engaging characters. I alternated between choking up at the touching interplay of the family, and laughing at the snarky wit so liberally sprinkled throughout. I immediately bought everthing of Kerry's I could find, and can't wait for more.
53 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Patty Ferguson
- 17-06-18
great story
I use to foster babies from an unwed Mothers home. I picked them up when they were 3 days old and kept them for 6 weeks to maybe 2 months. the home gave the mother 30 days to change her mind, then the adoption proceedings would begin. This book was very emotional for me because I did not consider what the mother had gone through to give away her baby. This was in the mid-1980s. After thinking back on that I can't imagine the hurt on the other side of that door that I never experienced. I shed quite a few tears listening to this book and I do really like the reader.
31 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- gimme some sugar
- 22-05-19
Can-You-Say Tedious?
This book is essentially about a married woman (Suzie) who - while her husband is deployed for more than a year - has a one-night-stand that results in a pregnancy. Suzie leaves her legitimate daughter with her mother while she hides-out at her Aunt's house and eventually at a home for un-wed mothers. She gives birth to the illegitimate child (a boy) and 3 months later he goes up for adoption. She then returns home to her daughter a few days before her husband returns from deployment. From that point on the entire story is a nauseating, tedious lament on Suzie's part about how the boy might look, about how she buys a birthday card for him on every birthday, about what his hair might look like, etc. This is all at the expense of her husband (now home for good and unaware) and daughter(s), who suffer from Suzie's prickliness and lack of attention. It's one of the most frustrating books I've listened to, and unless you can relate to Suzie I suggest you save your point for something with a broader story. I suspect that for many people the decision to give a child up for adoption is gut wrenching and results in a life-long battle with "I wonder". But at some point Suzie needed to embrace the life she had with her husband and her legitimate children (giving him up was her choice). A couple of hours of lamentation and gnashing of teeth would have been more than enough - this book contains nothing else. The reader is very good but sadly she couldn't elevate this story beyond tedius.
7 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- RALux
- 07-09-18
Decent Writing, but Excrutiating First Half
This was my first Kerry Fisher book. She is a talented writer, but I found the first half of this book excruciating. It was long and drawn out with a dislikable main character who professed to do something out of love for her family and then spent her life making them all miserable. Every chapter I hoped we would move forward in time, and sighed when only 6 months had passed. I listened at 1.65 which doesn't do justice to the narrator and wished I had this in print instead so I could speed read to the end. Finally around chapter 23, it leapt forward to the present day and the plot started moving, some of the characters came to life and the book reached its neatly tied up conclusion.
All the characters in the book are extremes - the extreme mother who has given up a child, the patient unknowing husband, the two daughters wildly different from each other, etc, etc. And the plot required some unrealistic coincidences to come together. That said - the characters are well developed and the coincidences work due to good writing and finally more development of other characters to make them sympathetic.
I could have skipped this one.
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Wendy
- 24-05-18
Wonderful book
I enjoyed the characters and the story. I was so sad to have this end. I can really recommend this book
9 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- 🌼🌸Sissy🌹🌷
- 26-06-19
Just couldn’t get into this one
I’m new to Kerry Fisher’s books. I see great ratings and figured I would try one when it went on sale. The Narrator was good, which kept me going, but this story didn’t have enough interest for me.
It just kept going on with nothing to pull you in to finish listening to the end.
I know I’m in the minority with this one, but wanted to share this review.
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Sheryl Weitz
- 22-09-18
Bleak
I enjoyed the history and some of the descriptions. But I'm not sure whether it was the story or the delivery that just didn't resonate or inspire. It was a sad story of a life unfulfilled and the casualties sustained as a result. The redemptive power wasn't enough to overcome what was lost. The central character was hollow and the storytelling was only alright.
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- PollyAnna2
- 25-02-18
Kerry Fisher is absolutely marvelous
After reading my first Kerry Fisher novel, I immediately looked for more. She has a way of writing that is completely relatable to the human spirit. This one is no different. A full range of emotions, internal conflict, and a wonderful understanding of the complexities, and dynamics of every family.
I’m sure I’ll be recommending this one to family and friends for years to come.
11 people found this helpful