
The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club
A Novel
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Narrated by:
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Fiona Hardingham
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Helen Simonson
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By:
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Helen Simonson
About this listen
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • “Historical fiction of the highest order . . . an absolute joy of a book, warm and romantic, and with so much to say about the lives of women in the years following World War I.”—Ann Napolitano, bestselling author of Hello Beautiful
A timeless comedy of manners—refreshing as a summer breeze and bracing as the British seaside—about a generation of young women facing the seismic changes brought on by war and dreaming of the boundless possibilities of their future, from the bestselling author of Major Pettigrew's Last Stand
A PARADE BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
It is the summer of 1919, and Constance Haverhill is without prospects. Now that all the men have returned from the front, she has been asked to give up her cottage and her job at the estate she helped run during the war. While she looks for a position as a bookkeeper or—horror—a governess, she’s sent as a lady’s companion to an old family friend who is convalescing at a seaside hotel. Despite having only weeks to find a permanent home, Constance is swept up in the social whirl of Hazelbourne-on-Sea after she rescues the local baronet’s daughter, Poppy Wirrall, from a social faux pas.
Poppy wears trousers, operates a taxi and delivery service to employ local women, and runs a ladies’ motorcycle club (to which she plans to add flying lessons). She and her friends enthusiastically welcome Constance into their circle. And then there is Harris, Poppy’s recalcitrant but handsome brother—a fighter pilot recently wounded in battle—who warms in Constance’s presence. But things are more complicated than they seem in this sunny pocket of English high society. As the country prepares to celebrate its hard-won peace, Constance and the women of the club are forced to confront the fact that the freedoms they gained during the war are being revoked.
Whip-smart and utterly transportive, The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club is historical fiction of the highest order: an unforgettable coming-of-age story, a tender romance, and a portrait of a nation on the brink of change.
©2024 Helen Simonson (P)2024 Random House AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
“Simonson expertly probes cultural tensions hindering her characters’ efforts at post-war reinvention, including the immense human cost of combat, the hypocrisy of letting women work during wartime but not afterward.”—Shelf Awareness
“Simonson knows a good era when she sees one, so Hazelbourne is set in a seaside town just after World War I, with romance and women chafing under the constraints of society after war showed them what is possible when they’re given the chance.”—Parade
“The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club is an absolute joy of a book. Warm and romantic, it also has so much to say about the lives of women in the years following World War I. This is historical fiction of the highest order—pleasurable and smart.”—Ann Napolitano, bestselling author of Hello Beautiful
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- By: Suzanne Park
- Narrated by: Jackie Chung
- Length: 8 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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From the author of the “genuinely funny” and “delightful” Loathe at First Sight (NPR), a young Korean American woman’s journey to finding a new career and new love means learning to embrace the awkward and unexpected - exploring familial expectations, finding your voice, and unimaginably falling for your childhood rival.
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Cute
- By Hannah V on 01-30-23
By: Suzanne Park
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Ellie and the Harpmaker
- By: Hazel Prior
- Narrated by: Katharine Lee McEwan, Philip Battley
- Length: 10 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Dan Hollis lives a happy, solitary life carving exquisite Celtic harps in his barn in the countryside of the English moors. Here, he can be himself, away from social situations that he doesn’t always get right or completely understand. On the anniversary of her beloved father’s death, Ellie Jacobs takes a walk in the woods and comes across Dan’s barn. She is enchanted by his collection. Dan gives her a harp made of cherrywood to match her cherry socks. He stores it for her, ready for whenever she’d like to take lessons.
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I LOVED this!!
- By Star Trek it's not on 09-18-22
By: Hazel Prior
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The Summer Seekers
- By: Sarah Morgan
- Narrated by: Georgina Sutton
- Length: 11 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Kathleen is 80 years old. After she has a run-in with an intruder, her daughter wants her to move into a residential home. But she’s not having any of it. What she craves—what she needs—is adventure. Liza is drowning in the daily stress of family life. The last thing she needs is her mother jetting off on a wild holiday, making Liza long for a solo summer of her own. Martha is having a quarter-life crisis. Unemployed, unloved, and uninspired, she just can’t get her life together. But she knows something has to change.
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Great story odd American accent
- By Patti Marcum on 03-25-22
By: Sarah Morgan
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The Paris Deception
- By: Bryn Turnbull
- Narrated by: Mary Jane Wells
- Length: 12 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Sophie Dix fled Stuttgart with her brother as the Nazi regime gained power in Germany. Now, with her brother gone and her adopted home city of Paris conquered by the Reich, Sophie reluctantly accepts a position restoring damaged art at the Jeu de Paume museum under the supervision of the ERR—a German art commission using the museum as a repository for art they’ve looted from Jewish families.
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Fascinating Page Turner with Heart
- By Syd Young on 06-03-23
By: Bryn Turnbull
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Meet Me in Monaco
- A Novel of Grace Kelly's Royal Wedding
- By: Hazel Gaynor, Heather Webb
- Narrated by: Nancy Peterson, Jeremy Arthur
- Length: 9 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Movie stars and paparazzi flock to Cannes for the glamorous film festival, but Grace Kelly, the biggest star of all, wants only to escape from the flashbulbs. When struggling perfumer Sophie Duval shelters Miss Kelly in her boutique, fending off a persistent British press photographer, James Henderson, a bond is forged between the two women and sets in motion a chain of events that stretches across 30 years of friendship, love, and tragedy.
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Pleasant but predictable
- By RueRue on 02-05-20
By: Hazel Gaynor, and others
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The Sunflower House
- A Novel
- By: Adriana Allegri
- Narrated by: Barrie Kreinik, Dallin Bradford, Saskia Maarleveld
- Length: 11 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In a sleepy German village, Allina Strauss’s life seems idyllic: she works at her uncle’s bookshop, makes strudel with her aunt, and spends weekends with her friends and fiancé. But it's 1939, Adolf Hitler is Chancellor, and Allina’s family hides a terrifying secret—her birth mother was Jewish, making her a Mischling. One fateful night after losing everyone she loves, Allina is forced into service as a nurse at a state-run baby factory called Hochland Home. There, she becomes both witness and participant to the horrors of Heinrich Himmler’s ruthless eugenics program.
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Another WW2 book
- By Cathyst on 05-02-25
By: Adriana Allegri
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A Most Intriguing Lady
- A Novel
- By: Sarah Ferguson
- Narrated by: Sarah Ferguson, Ell Potter
- Length: 12 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Victorian London was notorious for its pickpockets. But in the country houses of the elite, gentleman burglars, art thieves and con men preyed on the rich and titled. Wealthy victims—with their pride and reputation at stake—would never go to the police. What they needed was a society insider, one of their own, a person of discretion and finely tuned powers of observation.
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I just adore Sarah Ferguson's books!
- By DAW on 03-07-23
By: Sarah Ferguson
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The Underground Library
- A Novel
- By: Jennifer Ryan
- Narrated by: Fenella Woolgar
- Length: 12 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
When the new deputy librarian, Juliet Lansdown, finds that Bethnal Green Library isn’t the bustling hub she is expecting, she becomes determined to breathe life back into it. But can she show the men in charge that a woman is up to the task of running the library, especially when a confrontation with her past threatens to derail her?
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Storytelling excellence and historical facts wrapped into one.
- By Robin Goldin on 03-30-24
By: Jennifer Ryan
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Q
- A Voyage around the Queen
- By: Craig Brown
- Narrated by: Craig Brown, Harriet Walter
- Length: 19 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Up until now, the curious tactic employed by biographers of the Queen has been to ignore what is interesting and to concentrate on what is not. Craig Brown, the author of 150 Glimpses of the Beatles and Hello Goodbye Hello, rejects this formula, bringing his kaleidoscopic approach to the most famous—and most guarded—woman on earth, examining the Queen through a succession of interlocking prisms. With Q, this fantastically funny, marvelously insightful journalist gives us an unforgettable portrait of the omnipresent, elusive Queen Elizabeth II.
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A royal nerd’s dream
- By clandstu on 06-30-25
By: Craig Brown
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The Outside Boy
- By: Jeanine Cummins
- Narrated by: Alan Devally
- Length: 12 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Ireland, 1959: Young Christopher Hurley is a tinker, a Pavee gypsy, who roams with his father and extended family from town to town, carrying all their worldly possessions in their wagons. Christy carries with him a burden of guilt as well, haunted by the story of his mother’s death in childbirth. The wandering life is the only one Christy has ever known, but when his grandfather dies, everything changes. His father decides to settle briefly, in a town, where Christy and his cousin can receive proper schooling and prepare for their first communions.
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Pure Torture
- By Nena on 01-27-21
By: Jeanine Cummins
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Being a Witch and Other Things I Didn't Ask For
- By: Sara Pascoe
- Narrated by: Fiona Hardingham
- Length: 7 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
After a life of hurt and disappointment, Raya, the spiky-haired, Doc Marten-wearing 14-year-old decides it’s time to strike out on her own. She leaves the boring English village and what she's determined will be her last foster placement for the excitement of London. But it turns out she’s a witch, with the annoying habit of time-traveling - by accident. And a sarcastic witch’s cat Oscar tags along for the ride. Why would she fling herself into the midst of the Essex Witch Trials in 1645 England?
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Great Listen
- By kamri on 03-09-21
By: Sara Pascoe
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The Switch
- A Novel
- By: Beth O'Leary
- Narrated by: Alison Steadman, Daisy Edgar-Jones
- Length: 10 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
When overachiever Leena Cotton is ordered to take a two-month sabbatical after blowing a big presentation at work, she escapes to her grandmother Eileen's house for some long-overdue rest. Eileen is newly single and about to turn 80. She'd like a second chance at love, but her tiny Yorkshire village doesn't offer many eligible gentlemen. So they decide to try a two-month swap. But stepping into one another's shoes proves more difficult than either of them expected. Will swapping lives help Eileen and Leena find themselves...and maybe even find true love?
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Try the print version
- By tkfk on 08-27-20
By: Beth O'Leary
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How the Penguins Saved Veronica
- By: Hazel Prior
- Narrated by: Helen Lloyd, Andrew Fallaize, Mandy Williams
- Length: 10 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Eighty-five-year-old Veronica McCreedy is estranged from her family and wants to find a worthwhile cause to which to leave her fortune. When she sees a documentary about penguins being studied in Antarctica, she tells the scientists she's coming to visit - and won't take no for an answer. Shortly after arriving, she convinces the reluctant team to rescue an orphaned baby penguin. He becomes part of life at the base, and Veronica's closed heart starts to open.
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A mostly pleasant story
- By Kristyn Rose on 02-28-21
By: Hazel Prior
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The Love Elixir of Augusta Stern
- A Novel
- By: Lynda Cohen Loigman
- Narrated by: Gabra Zackman, Lynda Cohen Loigman
- Length: 9 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
On the cusp of turning eighty, newly retired pharmacist Augusta Stern is adrift. When she relocates to Rallentando Springs—an active senior community in southern Florida—she unexpectedly crosses paths with Irving Rivkin, the delivery boy from her father’s old pharmacy—and the man who broke her heart sixty years earlier.
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Boring characters
- By Elisa Savva on 10-27-24
The women riding motorcycles and learning to fly
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Historical fiction.
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Very romantic
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Lots of characters all with beauty and quirkiness. At the end I am a little sad since I want to know what each of them did with their lives.
Escape to 1919
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Loved the characters!
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Such a delight!
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Engaging at every step
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Great storyline and beautiful ending.
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Just no words!
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economic vulnerability of women
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