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The Radio Hour

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The Radio Hour

By: Victoria Purman
Narrated by: Jennifer Vuletic
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About this listen

From the bestselling author of The Nurses' War comes this charming, funny, pointed look at the golden years of radio broadcasting in post-war Australia, celebrating the extraordinary unseen women who wrote the radio plays that held a nation captive. For readers of Lessons in Chemistry.

Martha Berry is fifty years old, a spinster, and one of an army of polite and invisible women in 1956 Sydney who go to work each day and get things done without fuss, fanfare or reward.

Working at the country's national broadcaster, she's seen highly praised talent come and go over the years but when she is sent to work as a secretary on a brand-new radio serial, created to follow in the footsteps of Australia's longest running show, Blue Hills, she finds herself at the mercy of an egotistical and erratic young producer without a clue, a conservative broadcaster frightened by the word 'pregnant' and a motley cast of actors with ideas of their own about their roles in the show.

When Martha is forced to step in to rescue the serial from impending cancellation, she ends up secretly ghost-writing scripts for As The Sun Sets, creating mayhem with management, and coming up with storylines that resonate with the serial's growing and loyal audience of women listeners.

But she can't keep her secret forever and when she's threatened with exposure, Martha has to decide if she wants to remain in the shadows, or to finally step into the spotlight.

©2024 Victoria Purman (P)2024 HarperCollins Publishers
Historical Fiction Literature & Fiction Funny

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Perfectly matched performance to a great story.

Love the story, the flashback to a different time, the engaging characters and the icing was the perfectly cast voice. Recommend by a friend who read it, I played a section and she agreed the voice matched what she had heard as she read. Brilliant.

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Wonderful!

What a brilliant book! An absolute joy from beginning to end!! Thank you Victoria for this most interesting, inspiring and entertaining story and thank you Jennifer for your wonderful narration. Congratulations! Barossa Pearl all round I reckon! 🥂🍾

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A Favourite!

"The Radio Hour" by Victoria Purman is such a lovely read! Totally inspiring and relatable.

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The rich imagery

This was one of the best books I’ve ever written. So filled with rich and beautiful word provoking imagery. Took me back to my mum’s days and my days working. There was so much depth to the whole story. The writing style was brilliant. I’m going to read more of Victoria Purman. She’s a literary genius.

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