-
Home Fires
- The Story of the Women's Institute in the Second World War
- Narrated by: Juliet Mills
- Length: 12 hrs and 20 mins
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $20.25
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Publisher's summary
The basis for the PBS masterpiece series starring Samantha Bond (Downton Abbey) and Francesca Annis (Cranford).
Away from the frontlines of World War II, in towns and villages across Great Britain, ordinary women were playing a vital role in their country's war effort. As members of the Women's Institute, an organization with a presence in a third of Britain's villages, they ran canteens and knitted garments for troops, collected tons of rosehips and other herbs to replace medicines that couldn't be imported, and advised the government on issues ranging from evacuee housing to children's health to postwar reconstruction. But they are best known for making jam: From produce they grew on every available scrap of land, they produced 12 million pounds of jam and preserves to feed a hungry nation.
Home Fires, Julie Summers' fascinating social history of the Women's Institute during the war (when its members included the future Queen Elizabeth II along with her mother and grandmother), provides the remarkable and inspiring true story behind the upcoming PBS Masterpiece series that will be sure to delight fans of Call the Midwife and Foyle's War. Through archival material and interviews with current and former Women's Institute members, Home Fires gives us an intimate look at life on the home front during World War II.
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Goodbye Piccadilly
- War at Home, 2014
- By: Cynthia Harrod-Eagles
- Narrated by: Penelope Freeman
- Length: 12 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1914, Britain faces a new kind of war. For Edward and Beatrice Hunter, their children, servants and neighbours, life will never be the same again. For David, the eldest, war means a chance to do something noble; but enlisting will break his mother's heart. His sister Diana, nineteen and beautiful, longs for marriage. She has her heart set on Charles Wroughton, son of Earl Wroughton, but Charles will never be allowed to marry a banker's daughter.
-
-
Prissy and Slow In One Grand Sweeping Motion
- By Sara on 01-11-15
-
All Creatures Great and Small
- The Warm and Joyful Memoirs of the World's Most Beloved Animal Doctor
- By: James Herriot
- Narrated by: Christopher Timothy
- Length: 15 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this first volume of his memoirs, then-newly-qualified vet James Herriot arrives in the small Yorkshire village of Darrowby, and he has no idea what to expect. How will he get on with his new boss? The local farmers? And what will the animals think? This program is filled with hilarious and touching tales of the unpredictable Siegfried Farnon, his charming student brother Tristan, and Herriot's first encounters with a beautiful girl named Helen.
-
-
A Wonderful Listen--Stories That Never Get Old
- By Sara on 09-10-14
By: James Herriot
-
The Winds of War
- By: Herman Wouk
- Narrated by: Kevin Pariseau
- Length: 45 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Herman Wouk's sweeping epic of World War II stands as the crowning achievement of one of America's most celebrated storytellers. Like no other books about the war, Wouk's spellbinding narrative captures the tide of global events - and all the drama, romance, heroism, and tragedy of World War II - as it immerses us in the lives of a single American family drawn into the very center of the war's maelstrom.
-
-
A Masterpiece
- By Robert on 05-24-13
By: Herman Wouk
-
A Very English Murder
- A Lady Eleanor Swift Mystery, Book 1
- By: Verity Bright
- Narrated by: Karen Cass
- Length: 8 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
England, 1920. Eleanor Swift has spent the last few years travelling the world: taking tea in China, tasting alligators in Peru, escaping bandits in Persia and she has just arrived in England after a chaotic 45-day flight from South Africa. Chipstone is about the sleepiest town you could have the misfortune to meet. But then, from the edge of a quarry, through the driving rain, Eleanor is shocked to see a man shot and killed in the distance. Before she can climb down to the spot, the villain is gone and the body has vanished.
-
-
I wanted to like this so much.
- By BossyFatBabe on 06-23-20
By: Verity Bright
-
Franklin and Winston
- An Intimate Portrait of an Epic Friendship
- By: Jon Meacham
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 13 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill were the greatest leaders of “the Greatest Generation.” In Franklin and Winston, Jon Meacham explores the fascinating relationship between the two men who piloted the free world to victory in World War II.
-
-
Franklin and Winston Review
- By Ronald Hull on 01-29-04
By: Jon Meacham
-
Sunflower Sisters
- A Novel
- By: Martha Hall Kelly
- Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld, Shayna Small, Jenna Lamia, and others
- Length: 17 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Georgeanna “Georgey” Woolsey isn’t meant for the world of lavish parties and the demure attitudes of women of her stature. So when war ignites the nation, Georgey follows her passion for nursing during a time when doctors considered women on the battlefront a bother. In proving them wrong, she and her sister Eliza venture from New York to Washington, DC, to Gettysburg and witness the unparalleled horrors of slavery as they become involved in the war effort.
-
-
It is a hard book to "listen" to.
- By Anna on 04-09-21
-
Goodbye Piccadilly
- War at Home, 2014
- By: Cynthia Harrod-Eagles
- Narrated by: Penelope Freeman
- Length: 12 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1914, Britain faces a new kind of war. For Edward and Beatrice Hunter, their children, servants and neighbours, life will never be the same again. For David, the eldest, war means a chance to do something noble; but enlisting will break his mother's heart. His sister Diana, nineteen and beautiful, longs for marriage. She has her heart set on Charles Wroughton, son of Earl Wroughton, but Charles will never be allowed to marry a banker's daughter.
-
-
Prissy and Slow In One Grand Sweeping Motion
- By Sara on 01-11-15
-
All Creatures Great and Small
- The Warm and Joyful Memoirs of the World's Most Beloved Animal Doctor
- By: James Herriot
- Narrated by: Christopher Timothy
- Length: 15 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this first volume of his memoirs, then-newly-qualified vet James Herriot arrives in the small Yorkshire village of Darrowby, and he has no idea what to expect. How will he get on with his new boss? The local farmers? And what will the animals think? This program is filled with hilarious and touching tales of the unpredictable Siegfried Farnon, his charming student brother Tristan, and Herriot's first encounters with a beautiful girl named Helen.
-
-
A Wonderful Listen--Stories That Never Get Old
- By Sara on 09-10-14
By: James Herriot
-
The Winds of War
- By: Herman Wouk
- Narrated by: Kevin Pariseau
- Length: 45 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Herman Wouk's sweeping epic of World War II stands as the crowning achievement of one of America's most celebrated storytellers. Like no other books about the war, Wouk's spellbinding narrative captures the tide of global events - and all the drama, romance, heroism, and tragedy of World War II - as it immerses us in the lives of a single American family drawn into the very center of the war's maelstrom.
-
-
A Masterpiece
- By Robert on 05-24-13
By: Herman Wouk
-
A Very English Murder
- A Lady Eleanor Swift Mystery, Book 1
- By: Verity Bright
- Narrated by: Karen Cass
- Length: 8 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
England, 1920. Eleanor Swift has spent the last few years travelling the world: taking tea in China, tasting alligators in Peru, escaping bandits in Persia and she has just arrived in England after a chaotic 45-day flight from South Africa. Chipstone is about the sleepiest town you could have the misfortune to meet. But then, from the edge of a quarry, through the driving rain, Eleanor is shocked to see a man shot and killed in the distance. Before she can climb down to the spot, the villain is gone and the body has vanished.
-
-
I wanted to like this so much.
- By BossyFatBabe on 06-23-20
By: Verity Bright
-
Franklin and Winston
- An Intimate Portrait of an Epic Friendship
- By: Jon Meacham
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 13 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill were the greatest leaders of “the Greatest Generation.” In Franklin and Winston, Jon Meacham explores the fascinating relationship between the two men who piloted the free world to victory in World War II.
-
-
Franklin and Winston Review
- By Ronald Hull on 01-29-04
By: Jon Meacham
-
Sunflower Sisters
- A Novel
- By: Martha Hall Kelly
- Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld, Shayna Small, Jenna Lamia, and others
- Length: 17 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Georgeanna “Georgey” Woolsey isn’t meant for the world of lavish parties and the demure attitudes of women of her stature. So when war ignites the nation, Georgey follows her passion for nursing during a time when doctors considered women on the battlefront a bother. In proving them wrong, she and her sister Eliza venture from New York to Washington, DC, to Gettysburg and witness the unparalleled horrors of slavery as they become involved in the war effort.
-
-
It is a hard book to "listen" to.
- By Anna on 04-09-21
-
The Chosen (Revised and Expanded)
- I Have Called You by Name
- By: Jerry B. Jenkins
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 8 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Based on the acclaimed video series The Chosen, the most amazing story ever told—the life of Jesus—gets a fresh new telling from New York Times best-selling author Jerry B. Jenkins. What was it like to encounter Jesus face-to-face? Journey to Galilee in the first century. See the difference he made in the lives of those he called to follow him and how they were forever transformed. Experience the life and power of the perfect Son of God as never before—through the eyes of everyday people just like you.
-
-
Delicious! Taste and see...
- By A Happy Sort Of OCD on 03-06-24
By: Jerry B. Jenkins
-
Servants
- A Downstairs History of Britain from the Nineteenth Century to Modern Times
- By: Lucy Lethbridge
- Narrated by: Helen Stern
- Length: 12 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the immense staff running a lavish Edwardian estate and the lonely maid-of-all-work cooking in a cramped middle-class house to the poor child doing chores in a slightly less poor household, servants were essential to the British way of life. They were hired not only for their skills but also to demonstrate the social standing of their employers - even as they were required to tread softly and blend into the background. More than simply the laboring class serving the upper crust - as popular culture would have us believe - they were a diverse group that shaped and witnessed major changes in the modern home, family, and social order.
-
-
Interesting but gaps in info, narration difficult
- By redsrule1 on 01-11-15
By: Lucy Lethbridge
-
Call the Midwife
- A Memoir of Birth, Joy, and Hard Times
- By: Jennifer Worth
- Narrated by: Nicola Barber
- Length: 12 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At the age of 22, Jennifer Worth left her comfortable home to move into a convent and become a midwife in postwar London’s East End slums. The colorful characters she met while delivering babies all over London - from the plucky, warm-hearted nuns with whom she lived to the woman with 24 children who couldn't speak English to the prostitutes and dockers of the city’s seedier side - illuminate a fascinating time in history.
-
-
The best book I've listened to this year
- By Richard on 06-12-13
By: Jennifer Worth
-
The Wedding Dress Sewing Circle
- A Novel
- By: Jennifer Ryan
- Narrated by: Sophie Roberts
- Length: 12 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After renowned fashion designer Cressida Westcott loses both her home and her design house in the London Blitz, she has nowhere to go but the family manor house she fled decades ago. Praying that her niece and nephew will be more hospitable than her brother had been, she arrives with nothing but the clothes she stands in, at a loss as to how to rebuild her business while staying in a quaint country village.
-
-
Delightful historical fiction
- By Kindle Customer on 01-01-23
By: Jennifer Ryan
-
Empire of the Summer Moon
- Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History
- By: S. C. Gwynne
- Narrated by: David Drummond
- Length: 15 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Empire of the Summer Moon spans two astonishing stories. The first traces the rise and fall of the Comanches, the most powerful Indian tribe in American history. The second entails one of the most remarkable narratives ever to come out of the Old West: the epic saga of the pioneer woman Cynthia Ann Parker and her mixed-blood son, Quanah, who became the last and greatest chief of the Comanches.
-
-
Difficult to endure narrator
- By fowler on 12-21-19
By: S. C. Gwynne
-
Prairie Fires
- The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder
- By: Caroline Fraser
- Narrated by: Christina Moore
- Length: 21 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Millions of fans of Little House on the Prairie believe they know Laura Ingalls - the pioneer girl who survived blizzards and near-starvation on the Great Plains, and the woman who wrote the famous autobiographical books. But the true story of her life has never been fully told. Now, drawing on unpublished manuscripts, letters, diaries, and land and financial records, Caroline Fraser masterfully fills in the gaps in Wilder's biography.
-
-
Don’t read if you don’t want your fond memories...
- By NMwritergal on 11-24-17
By: Caroline Fraser
-
A Quiet Life in the Country
- A Lady Hardcastle Mystery, Book 1
- By: T E Kinsey
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Knowelden
- Length: 7 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Lady Emily Hardcastle is an eccentric widow with a secret past. Florence Armstrong, her maid and confidante, is an expert in martial arts. The year is 1908 and they've just moved from London to the country, hoping for a quiet life. But it is not long before Lady Hardcastle is forced out of her self-imposed retirement. There's a dead body in the woods, and the police are on the wrong scent. Lady Hardcastle makes some enquiries of her own, and it seems she knows a surprising amount about crime investigation...
-
-
excellent!
- By J.L. on 02-27-17
By: T E Kinsey
-
The Splendid and the Vile
- A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz
- By: Erik Larson
- Narrated by: John Lee, Erik Larson
- Length: 17 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On Winston Churchill’s first day as prime minister, Adolf Hitler invaded Holland and Belgium. Poland and Czechoslovakia had already fallen, and the Dunkirk evacuation was just two weeks away. For the next 12 months, Hitler would wage a relentless bombing campaign, killing 45,000 Britons. It was up to Churchill to hold his country together and persuade President Franklin Roosevelt that Britain was a worthy ally - and willing to fight to the end. In The Splendid and the Vile, Erik Larson shows how Churchill taught the British people "the art of being fearless."
-
-
John Lee’s narration is a struggle
- By Leslie Rathjens on 03-05-20
By: Erik Larson
-
The Little Wartime Library
- By: Kate Thompson
- Narrated by: Sarah Durham
- Length: 12 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Clara Button is no ordinary librarian. While war ravages the city above her, Clara has risked everything she holds dear to turn the Bethnal Green tube station into the country’s only underground library. Down here, a secret community thrives with thousands of bunk beds, a nursery, a café, and a theater—offering shelter, solace, and escape from the bombs that fall upon their city. Along with her glamorous best friend and assistant Ruby Munroe, Clara ensures the library is the beating heart of life underground. As the war drags on, the women's determination is tested to the limits.
-
-
I learned so much
- By candi hurst on 06-15-23
By: Kate Thompson
-
Resistance Women
- A Novel
- By: Jennifer Chiaverini
- Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld
- Length: 20 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the New York Times best-selling author of Mrs. Lincoln’s Dressmaker, an enthralling historical saga that recreates the danger, romance, and sacrifice of an era and brings to life one courageous, passionate American - Mildred Fish Harnack - and her circle of women friends who waged a clandestine battle against Hitler in Nazi Berlin.
-
-
One of THE best historical fiction WW2 books!
- By JeanAnn Trombley on 06-04-19
-
The Scottish Ladies' Detective Agency
- By: Lydia Travers
- Narrated by: Helen McAlpine
- Length: 9 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Edinburgh, 1911: When Maud McIntyre and her lady’s maid, Daisy, form a detective agency, they never dream their first case will take place at a glamorous house in the Scottish Highlands. But when the duchess of Duddingston, concerned that a notorious jewelry thief will target her lavish weekend party, employs Maud to go undercover as a guest to find the culprit, the agency has its first case to solve....
-
-
Many mysteries in one!
- By Kathy W. on 07-12-23
By: Lydia Travers
-
American Duchess
- A Novel of Consuelo Vanderbilt
- By: Karen Harper
- Narrated by: Ann Marie Gideon
- Length: 8 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Karen Harper tells the tale of Consuelo Vanderbilt, her “Wedding of the Century” to the duke of Marlborough, and her quest to find meaning behind “the glitter and the gold”.
-
-
Surprisingly interesting life
- By labradoodler on 07-24-19
By: Karen Harper
Critic reviews
"Millions of words have been written about the military and social history of both world wars, but Summers carves out a little area of her own by examining the vital work performed by the Women’s Institute who, through its meticulous organizational skills and national network, found its finest hour in the face of conflict." (Daily Mail, London)
"That image of defiant jam making sums up the way many see the wartime contribution of the Woman's Institute." (The Economist)
Related to this topic
-
Servants
- A Downstairs History of Britain from the Nineteenth Century to Modern Times
- By: Lucy Lethbridge
- Narrated by: Helen Stern
- Length: 12 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the immense staff running a lavish Edwardian estate and the lonely maid-of-all-work cooking in a cramped middle-class house to the poor child doing chores in a slightly less poor household, servants were essential to the British way of life. They were hired not only for their skills but also to demonstrate the social standing of their employers - even as they were required to tread softly and blend into the background. More than simply the laboring class serving the upper crust - as popular culture would have us believe - they were a diverse group that shaped and witnessed major changes in the modern home, family, and social order.
-
-
Interesting but gaps in info, narration difficult
- By redsrule1 on 01-11-15
By: Lucy Lethbridge
-
Wait for Me!
- Memoirs
- By: Deborah Mitford Duchess of Devonshire
- Narrated by: Anne Flosnik
- Length: 14 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Deborah Mitford, Duchess of Devonshire, is the youngest of the famously witty brood that includes the writers Jessica and Nancy, who wrote when Deborah was born, "How disgusting of the poor darling to go and be a girl." Deborah's effervescent memoir chronicles her remarkable life, from an eccentric but happy childhood in the Oxfordshire countryside, to tea with Adolf Hitler and her controversially political sister Unity in 1937, to her marriage to the second son of the Duke of Devonshire.
-
-
The last of the Mitford Sisters
- By Irene on 01-11-11
-
The Housekeeper's Tale
- The Women Who Really Ran the English Country House
- By: Tessa Boase
- Narrated by: Tessa Boase
- Length: 11 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Housekeeper's Tale reveals the personal sacrifices, bitter disputes and driving ambition that shaped these women's careers. Using secret diaries, unpublished letters, and the neglected service archives of our stately homes, Tessa Boase tells the extraordinary stories of five working women who ran some of Britain's most prominent households.
-
-
Utterly intriguing
- By Pamela Jane on 09-14-17
By: Tessa Boase
-
Beatrix Potter: Artist, Storyteller, and Countrywoman
- By: Judy Taylor
- Narrated by: Patricia Routledge
- Length: 3 hrs and 8 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Starting with the publication of The Tale of Peter Rabbit, in 1902, Beatrix Potter went on to become one of the world’s most successful children’s authors. This biographical audiobook takes the reader through the whole of her life, from her Victorian childhood in London to her final years farming in the Lake District. Regarded as a standard work on Beatrix Potter’s life, this work has been updated regularly to include fresh material that has come to light as interest in Beatrix Potter continues to grow.
-
-
Loved it!
- By Kimberly on 06-14-17
By: Judy Taylor
-
Mussolini's Daughter
- The Most Dangerous Woman in Europe
- By: Caroline Moorehead
- Narrated by: Kathleen Gati
- Length: 16 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Edda Mussolini was the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini’s oldest and favorite child. At 19, she was married to Count Galleazzo Ciano, Il Duce’s Minister for Foreign Affairs during the 1930s, the most turbulent decade in Italy’s fascist history. In the years preceding World War II, Edda ruled over Italy’s aristocratic families and the cultured and middle classes while selling Fascism on the international stage. How a young woman wielded such control is the heart of Moorehead’s fascinating history.
-
-
Mind Blowing
- By Greg on 01-27-23
-
Black Diamonds
- The Downfall of an Aristocratic Dynasty and the Fifty Years That Changed England
- By: Catherine Bailey
- Narrated by: Gareth Armstrong
- Length: 15 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When the sixth Earl Fitzwilliam died in 1902, he left behind the second largest estate in 20th-century England, valued at more than three billion dollars in today's money - a lifeline to the tens of thousands of people who worked either in the family's coal mines or on their expansive estate. The earl also left behind four sons, and the family line seemed assured. But was it?
-
-
Could use a good editor...
- By Phyllis on 04-30-18
By: Catherine Bailey
-
Servants
- A Downstairs History of Britain from the Nineteenth Century to Modern Times
- By: Lucy Lethbridge
- Narrated by: Helen Stern
- Length: 12 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the immense staff running a lavish Edwardian estate and the lonely maid-of-all-work cooking in a cramped middle-class house to the poor child doing chores in a slightly less poor household, servants were essential to the British way of life. They were hired not only for their skills but also to demonstrate the social standing of their employers - even as they were required to tread softly and blend into the background. More than simply the laboring class serving the upper crust - as popular culture would have us believe - they were a diverse group that shaped and witnessed major changes in the modern home, family, and social order.
-
-
Interesting but gaps in info, narration difficult
- By redsrule1 on 01-11-15
By: Lucy Lethbridge
-
Wait for Me!
- Memoirs
- By: Deborah Mitford Duchess of Devonshire
- Narrated by: Anne Flosnik
- Length: 14 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Deborah Mitford, Duchess of Devonshire, is the youngest of the famously witty brood that includes the writers Jessica and Nancy, who wrote when Deborah was born, "How disgusting of the poor darling to go and be a girl." Deborah's effervescent memoir chronicles her remarkable life, from an eccentric but happy childhood in the Oxfordshire countryside, to tea with Adolf Hitler and her controversially political sister Unity in 1937, to her marriage to the second son of the Duke of Devonshire.
-
-
The last of the Mitford Sisters
- By Irene on 01-11-11
-
The Housekeeper's Tale
- The Women Who Really Ran the English Country House
- By: Tessa Boase
- Narrated by: Tessa Boase
- Length: 11 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Housekeeper's Tale reveals the personal sacrifices, bitter disputes and driving ambition that shaped these women's careers. Using secret diaries, unpublished letters, and the neglected service archives of our stately homes, Tessa Boase tells the extraordinary stories of five working women who ran some of Britain's most prominent households.
-
-
Utterly intriguing
- By Pamela Jane on 09-14-17
By: Tessa Boase
-
Beatrix Potter: Artist, Storyteller, and Countrywoman
- By: Judy Taylor
- Narrated by: Patricia Routledge
- Length: 3 hrs and 8 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Starting with the publication of The Tale of Peter Rabbit, in 1902, Beatrix Potter went on to become one of the world’s most successful children’s authors. This biographical audiobook takes the reader through the whole of her life, from her Victorian childhood in London to her final years farming in the Lake District. Regarded as a standard work on Beatrix Potter’s life, this work has been updated regularly to include fresh material that has come to light as interest in Beatrix Potter continues to grow.
-
-
Loved it!
- By Kimberly on 06-14-17
By: Judy Taylor
-
Mussolini's Daughter
- The Most Dangerous Woman in Europe
- By: Caroline Moorehead
- Narrated by: Kathleen Gati
- Length: 16 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Edda Mussolini was the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini’s oldest and favorite child. At 19, she was married to Count Galleazzo Ciano, Il Duce’s Minister for Foreign Affairs during the 1930s, the most turbulent decade in Italy’s fascist history. In the years preceding World War II, Edda ruled over Italy’s aristocratic families and the cultured and middle classes while selling Fascism on the international stage. How a young woman wielded such control is the heart of Moorehead’s fascinating history.
-
-
Mind Blowing
- By Greg on 01-27-23
-
Black Diamonds
- The Downfall of an Aristocratic Dynasty and the Fifty Years That Changed England
- By: Catherine Bailey
- Narrated by: Gareth Armstrong
- Length: 15 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When the sixth Earl Fitzwilliam died in 1902, he left behind the second largest estate in 20th-century England, valued at more than three billion dollars in today's money - a lifeline to the tens of thousands of people who worked either in the family's coal mines or on their expansive estate. The earl also left behind four sons, and the family line seemed assured. But was it?
-
-
Could use a good editor...
- By Phyllis on 04-30-18
By: Catherine Bailey
-
An Hour Before Daylight
- Memories of a Rural Boyhood
- By: Jimmy Carter
- Narrated by: Jimmy Carter
- Length: 6 hrs and 50 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In an American story of enduring importance, former President Jimmy Carter re-creates his Depression-era boyhood on a Georgia farm, before the civil rights movement that changed the country.
-
-
A rare view of rural America
- By Samantha on 07-05-03
By: Jimmy Carter
-
Prairie Fires
- The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder
- By: Caroline Fraser
- Narrated by: Christina Moore
- Length: 21 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Millions of fans of Little House on the Prairie believe they know Laura Ingalls - the pioneer girl who survived blizzards and near-starvation on the Great Plains, and the woman who wrote the famous autobiographical books. But the true story of her life has never been fully told. Now, drawing on unpublished manuscripts, letters, diaries, and land and financial records, Caroline Fraser masterfully fills in the gaps in Wilder's biography.
-
-
Don’t read if you don’t want your fond memories...
- By NMwritergal on 11-24-17
By: Caroline Fraser
-
At Home
- A Short History of Private Life
- By: Bill Bryson
- Narrated by: Bill Bryson
- Length: 16 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Bill Bryson and his family live in a Victorian parsonage in a part of England where nothing of any great significance has happened since the Romans decamped. Yet one day, he began to consider how very little he knew about the ordinary things of life as he found it in that comfortable home. To remedy this, he formed the idea of journeying about his house from room to room to “write a history of the world without leaving home.”
-
-
Bryson does it again
- By Robert on 10-15-10
By: Bill Bryson
-
On Hitler's Mountain
- Overcoming the Legacy of a Nazi Childhood
- By: Irmgard A. Hunt
- Narrated by: Christa Lewis
- Length: 8 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Growing up in the beautiful mountains of Berchtesgaden - just steps from Adolf Hitler's alpine retreat - Irmgard Hunt had a seemingly happy, simple childhood. In her powerful, illuminating, and sometimes frightening memoir, Hunt recounts a youth lived under an evil but persuasive leader. As she grew older, the harsh reality of war - and a few brave adults who opposed the Nazi regime - aroused in her skepticism of National Socialist ideology and the Nazi propaganda she was taught to believe in.
-
-
A rare and very much appreciated perspective.
- By tabounds on 12-28-17
By: Irmgard A. Hunt
-
The Sisters
- The Saga of the Mitford Family
- By: Mary S. Lovell
- Narrated by: Annie Wauters
- Length: 18 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is the story of a close, loving family splintered by the violent ideologies of Europe between the wars. Jessica was a Communist; Debo became the Duchess of Devonshire; Nancy was one of the best-selling novelists of her day; the ethereally beautiful Diana was the most hated woman in England; and Unity Valkyrie, born in Swastika, Alaska, would become obsessed with Adolf Hitler.
-
-
Great story, terrible reader
- By Victoria on 02-27-14
By: Mary S. Lovell
-
The Bletchley Girls
- War, Secrecy, Love and Loss: The Women of Bletchley Park Tell Their Story
- By: Tessa Dunlop
- Narrated by: Anna Bentinck
- Length: 12 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Historian and broadcaster Tessa Dunlop tells the story of the women of Bletchley Park through exclusive and unprecedented access to the women themselves. The Bletchley Girls weaves together the lives of 15 women who were all selected to work in Britain's most secret organisation - Bletchley Park. It is their story, told in their voices; Tessa met and talked to 15 veterans, often visiting them several times. Firm friendships were made as their epic journey unfolded on paper.
-
-
Disjointed & Confusing
- By Sara on 02-02-16
By: Tessa Dunlop
-
Chocolate Wars
- The 150-Year Rivalry Between the World's Greatest Chocolate Makers
- By: Deborah Cadbury
- Narrated by: Deborah Cadbury
- Length: 13 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With a cast of characters that wouldnt be out of place in a Victorian novel, Chocolate Wars tells the story of the great chocolatier dynasties, through the prism of the Cadburys. Chocolate was consumed unrefined and unprocessed as a rather bitter, fatty drink for the wealthy elite until the late 19th century, when the Swiss discovered a way to blend it with milk and unleashed a product that would conquer every market in the world.
-
-
The World of Chocolate
- By Jean on 11-05-14
By: Deborah Cadbury
-
A Square Meal
- A Culinary History of the Great Depression
- By: Jane Ziegelman, Andrew Coe
- Narrated by: Susan Ericksen
- Length: 10 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The decade-long Great Depression, a period of shifts in the country's political and social landscape, forever changed the way America eats. Before 1929, America's relationship with food was defined by abundance. But the collapse of the economy, in both urban and rural America, left a quarter of all Americans out of work and undernourished - shattering long-held assumptions about the limitlessness of the national larder.
-
-
Not entirely accurate title
- By Robert on 06-07-17
By: Jane Ziegelman, and others
-
Travelers in the Third Reich
- The Rise of Fascism: 1919-1945
- By: Julia Boyd
- Narrated by: Christa Lewis
- Length: 13 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Travelers in the Third Reich is an extraordinary history of the rise of the Nazis based on fascinating firsthand accounts, drawing together a multitude of voices and stories, including politicians, musicians, diplomats, schoolchildren, communists, scholars, athletes, poets, fascists, artists, tourists, and even celebrities like Charles Lindbergh and Samuel Beckett. Their experiences create a remarkable three-dimensional picture of Germany under Hitler - one so palpable that the listener will feel, hear, even breathe the atmosphere.
-
-
Why must I write a review to have my rating count?
- By Saint Exupery on 03-04-23
By: Julia Boyd
-
The Good Food Revolution
- Growing Healthy Food, People, and Communities
- By: Will Allen, Charles Wilson - with, Eric Schlosser - foreword
- Narrated by: Mirron Willis
- Length: 8 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A pioneering urban farmer and MacArthur "Genius Award" winner points the way to building a new food system that can feed - and heal - broken communities. An eco-classic in the making, The Good Food Revolution is the story of Will's personal journey, the lives he has touched, and a grassroots movement that is changing the way our nation eats.
-
-
This story teaches how to take back the soil
- By Shawn Borup on 11-09-19
By: Will Allen, and others
-
Hershey
- Milton S. Hershey's Extraordinary Life of Wealth, Empire, and Utopian Dreams
- By: Michael D'Antonio
- Narrated by: Jonathan Yen
- Length: 13 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this compelling biography, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Michael D'Antonio gives us the real-life rags-to-riches story of Milton S. Hershey, a largely uneducated businessman whose idealistic sense of purpose created an immense financial empire, a town, and a legacy that lasts to this day.
-
-
The Benchmark for Chartiable, Rich Men
- By Boyd Tschaggeny on 01-30-19
-
Leningrad
- The Epic Siege of World War II, 1941-1944
- By: Anna Reid
- Narrated by: Peter Drew
- Length: 15 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On September 8, 1941, 11 weeks after Hitler's brutal surprise attack on the Soviet Union, Leningrad was surrounded. The German siege was not lifted for two and a half years, by which time some three quarters of a million Leningraders had died of starvation.
-
-
Very Good Look at the History We Were Not Taught
- By Chris Reich on 01-27-14
By: Anna Reid
What listeners say about Home Fires
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Brad4d
- 07-24-17
A Fascinating and Entertaining read
I have been fascinated by how the English people, especially the women got on with life despite rationing, depredation and sacrifice. This is a narrative about the Women's Institute which was the social outlet for women in the country. Their support of the war effort is something amazing. Amazing efforts like turning in 100 pairs of hand knit socks in 1 year along with all the chores which living in the country entailed. These women were awe inspiring and we can learn a lot from them.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Sara
- 12-27-15
Tread Carefully & Be Amazed
Ok let's cover the basics. This book--Home Fires (aka Jambusters in the UK) is not a novel, not the story from the PBS series and has nothing to do with the actresses on the photo of the dust jacket. Everyone seems a bit mixed up about this book. Home Fires--the PBS TV program--is a fictionalized account of WWII and the Women's Institute drawn from this nonfiction book.
This book is a very serious, crunch the numbers, fact dense look at what life was really like in Britain. I can't say or agree that the book just focuses on the WWII years. In reality, we get so much information that looks both back to the WWI years and forward to the UK still rationing and struggling in the 1950s. The scope is much broader than I had expected and offers a picture I had not experienced until now.
At once fascinating and at the same time almost repellant in its detail of day to day, down and dirty, war time home-front survival, farming, butchering of animals and vermin control. It is a book that I dreaded listening to--but at the same time couldn't stop thinking about and talking about.
It is a cautionary tale and a story of strong, can-do women who accomplished the impossible. The TV program does not begin to do justice to the actual scope and numbers presented in the reading. The whole thing was mind boggling and gave new meaning to the idea of preparedness and self-reliance for me.
Best to go into this book understanding that while the journal entries add a human face to the bare knuckle facts--there is zero fluff and cozy to be found. I finally understand the expression that would fix itself to my great aunt's face--a survivor of WWII London--when people would romanticize the war years. It all makes sense now. This is a book I both loved and hated--much better than the TV program--but not for the squeamish.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
69 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Lee
- 03-27-16
an important and inspiring story.
this is an important and inspiring story of the contributions of the country women of the women's institute in England during World War II. each chapter details another aspect of their work, educating their members, caring for evacuees, growing and preserving food, collecting materials for the industries, and finally, helping to rebuild the country and move forward after the war. The story is easy to listen to, and The narrator is excellent.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
12 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Amazon Customer
- 06-25-17
enjoyed
I loved this narration informational and humbling great narrator. I would most definitely recommend to everyone.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Rio Delta Wild
- 07-25-16
Marvelous, captivating insighs: U.K's women.
I listened to this twice, savoring every detail. The changes in women's lives via the Women's Institute were phenomenal, as were their contributions to the war effort. Illustrates the many differences between family and village lives in the U.K. and the USA before and during the war era. Provides excellent insights, as well, into working with bureaucracy and working within volunteer organizations, with lots of humor and irony. Goes far, far beyond the PBS series, which is also exemplary.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
5 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Dr.J.A.P.
- 05-22-18
better than TV show
The TV show was developed out of this history book focused on the women who supported the war effort from home. Really very interesting, Performance was OK but not amazing... the story lags in parts but still worth reading ... a different view of WWII
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Glyn
- 05-14-19
A History Lesson - Not a Novel
If you are looking for a book that the series is based on...this is not it. If you are interested in a history lesson of the Women's Institute, this is surely the most thorough ever written.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- JR Rackliff
- 11-12-18
Interesting but in Fact Form
I thought it was a fictional story but actually historical events that while it could have been dull but it wasn’t once you into it.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- history buff
- 11-13-15
Heroes all
The women of war times are so admirable as they shoulder their own weapons to fight daily the ravages of the horrors of battles.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Katherine
- 04-20-19
A Magnificent Accomplishment
Julie Summers has accomplished a magnificent task of assembling these timeless records into this compilation of wonderful stories of these remarkable strong women who persevere through the worst of times. More of these stories should be known to the younger generation. I know I would have joined the WI had I lived in Europe during this time period.
It deeply saddened me to see the Home Fires series written by Simon Block for PBS cancelled as it was one of my very favorites stories of all time! I am grateful that he is continuing the story for us in book form! Thank you for the telling of this story!!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
3 people found this helpful