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The Welsh Girl

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The Welsh Girl

By: Peter Ho Davies
Narrated by: Richard Mitchley
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About this listen

 Shortlisted for the British Book Awards, Richard and Judy Best Read of the Year, 2008.
A Richard and Judy Book Club selection.

In 1944, a German Jewish refugee is sent to Wales to interview Rudolf Hess; in Snowdonia, a 17-year-old girl, the daughter of a fiercely nationalistic shepherd, dreams of the bright lights of an English city; and in a nearby POW camp, a German soldier struggles to reconcile his surrender with his sense of honour. As their lives intersect, all three will come to question where they belong and where their loyalties lie.

©2007 Peter Ho Davies (P)2007 W F Howes Ltd. Historical Fiction Fiction Romance

Critic reviews

A Richard and Judy Book Club selection.
All stars
Most relevant
The accent of North West Wales (my father's) is extremely different from the accents of South Wales, where I grew up, to the extent that my friends used to say they couldn't understand a word my father said (in English). Hearing characters from Snowdonia giving voice in the tones of the south is like hearing Yorkshire characters given Somerset accents. It really is that different and destroys belief to the same extent in those of us who know - probably quite a large proportion of the likely audience for this book. PIty, because it's an interesting book and the reader is generally good.

Nice Welsh accent- pity it's the wrong one

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Her 'heart rattling like a box of matches in a shirt pocket': with wonderful lines such as this you know you're dealing with a craftsman of words. The story is quite straightforward, but told with a consummate skill thst draws you in and gives real dimension to the characters. As a Welshman of course, it's about home and characters that I recognise and all too easily identify with.

This may just earn me my ''Repeat Listener' badge<br />

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I wanted to read this for some time as on Richard and Judy list and I think it won overall prize for its year.
I read the details of the book with interest and was keen to see what would be said about Hess. I think the writing style was very good in parts but overall there was so much going on with the minute detail that was given and it moved so slowly that I felt I quite lost the will to live with it. Even the Welsh Girl did not have much to her character that would hold interest. I am not Welsh so the other reviewers comments re the wrong accent meant nothing to me It sounded Welsh when the reader read in Welsh but really that was very little and mainly read with a British accent. I will be asking Audible for a refund on this one. Very disappointed Could not recommend.

Considering the subject very disappointing

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