The Class of '37 Audiobook By Claire Langhamer, Hester Barron cover art

The Class of '37

Telling Tales of Girlhood from Before the War

Preview

Try for $0.00
Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

The Class of '37

By: Claire Langhamer, Hester Barron
Narrated by: Bea Holland
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $20.00

Buy for $20.00

Confirm purchase
Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.
Cancel

About this listen

It is 1937 in a northern mill-town and a class of 12- and 13-year-old girls are writing about their lives, their world and the things that matter to them. They tell of cobbled streets and crowded homes, the Coronation festivities and holidays to Blackpool, laughter and fun alongside poverty and hardship. They are destined for the cotton mill but they dream of being film stars.

Class of '37 uses the writing of these young girls, as collected by the research organisation Mass Observation, to rediscover this lost world, transporting listeners back in time to a smoky industrial town in an era before the introduction of a Welfare State, where once again the clouds of war were beginning to gather. Woven within this rich, authentic history are the twists and turns of the girls' lives from childhood to beyond, from their happiest times to the most heartbreaking of their sorrows.

A compelling social history, this intimate reconstruction of working-class life in 1930s Britain is a haunting and emotional account of a bygone age.

©2021 Claire Langhamer and Hester Barron (P)2021 Bonnier Books UK
Great Britain War
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

What listeners say about The Class of '37

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    1
  • 4 Stars
    0
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 3 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    0
  • 4 Stars
    0
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 3 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    0
  • 4 Stars
    0
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Beautiful social history, would love to hear it narrated by a local.

Can’t fault the book, it’s well researched and brings to life ordinary working women and their inter-war childhood in ‘Worktown’. It’s such a shame that a Lancashire narrator, capable of accurately imitating a Bolton accent could not be found. Local place names were mispronounced (notably Westhoughton and Hall’i’th Wood) and for a book celebrating Mass Observation’s accounts of working class Bolton, it was jarring to hear a Southern accented narrator attempt to mimic the local dialect. In all other regards I thoroughly enjoyed and would recommend this audiobook.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!