Audiobooks by Gill Hornby

"Brought to you by Penguin. The new novel from the bestselling author of Miss Austen and Godmersham Park. 1820. Mary Dorothea Knatchbull is living under the sole charge of her widowed father, Sir Edward – a man of strict principles and high Christian values. But when her father marries Miss Fanny Knight of Godmersham Park, Mary’s life is suddenly changed. Her new stepmother comes from a large, happy and sociable family and Fanny’s sisters become Mary’s first friends. Her aunt, Miss Cassandra Austen of Chawton, is especially kind. Her brothers are not only amusing, but handsome and charming. And as Mary Dorothea starts to bloom into a beautiful young woman, she forms an especial bond with one Mr Knight in particular. Soon, they are deeply in love and determined to marry. They expect no opposition. After all, each is from a good family and has known the other for some years. It promises to be the most perfect match. Who would want to stand in their way? 'Has all Austen’s wit and unnerving powers of observation with an extra twenty-first century zap' Ferdinand Mount 'Few writers are as perspicacious or half as delightful as Hornby' Karen Joy Fowler 'Gripping and moving and also so sharp and funny. I loved it!’ Sabine Durrant ©2024 Gill Hornby (P)2024 Penguin Audio"

Gill Hornby (Author), Joanna David (Narrator)

Audiobook

[Spanish] - Godmersham Park

"Godmersham Park, Kent, 21 de enero de 1804. Anne Sharp llega a la casa para trabajar como institutriz. No tiene experiencia en el puesto ni tampoco en casas como esa, pero su madre ha muerto y no tiene adonde ir. Para su pupila, Fanny Austen, de doce años, todo es novedad y emoción. Sin embargo, para ella un puesto como ese significa no ser ni miembro de la familia ni formar parte del servicio. Un solo movimiento en falso puede significar el despido. Cuando la familia del señor Edward Austen llega a la casa para quedarse, ella se hace inmediatamente amiga de Jane. Escriben juntas y juntas disfrutan de largas charlas. Durante ese tiempo, Anne demuestra ser no solo bonita, sino también encantadora y competente; inteligente. Hasta la despistada y complaciente señora de la casa se da cuenta. Y, mientras tanto, Henry, el hermano de Jane, empieza a desarrollar un inusitado interés por la joven institutriz… Sus días en Godmedsham Park estarán contados."

Gill Hornby (Author), Ana Serrano (Narrator)

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[Spanish] - Miss Austen

"Inglaterra, 1840. Cassandra Austen ha vivido más de dos décadas tras la muerte de su querida hermana Jane. Ha pasado el tiempo visitando a amigos y parientes y trabajando en silencio, determinada a mantener la reputación de su hermana. Con más de sesenta años y una salud frágil, decide irse a vivir con los Fowle de Kintbury, la familia del que fue su prometido, fallecido hace muchos años, cuando ambos eran jóvenes. Quiere encontrar las cartas que Jane Austen dejó, esquivando a su anfitriona y a una criada entrometida. Cuando finalmente las halla, se enfrenta a los secretos que guardan, no solo sobre su hermana Jane, sino sobre ella misma. ¿Las guardará y legará su historia a futuras generaciones o las entregará a las llamas?"

Gill Hornby (Author), Marta Moreno (Narrator)

Audiobook

Godmersham Park

"Brought to you by Penguin. FROM THE #1 BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF MISS AUSTEN On 21 January 1804, Anne Sharpe arrives at Godmersham Park in Kent to take up the position of governess. At 31 years old, she has no previous experience of either teaching or fine country houses. Her mother has died, and she has nowhere else to go. Anne is left with no choice. For her new charge - twelve-year-old Fanny Austen - Anne's arrival is all novelty and excitement. The governess role is a uniquely awkward one. Anne is neither one of the servants, nor one of the family, and to balance a position between the 'upstairs' and 'downstairs' members of the household is a diplomatic chess game. One wrong move may result in instant dismissal. Anne knows that she must never let down her guard. When Mr Edward Austen's family comes to stay, Anne forms an immediate attachment to Jane. They write plays together, and enjoy long discussions. However, in the process, Anne reveals herself as not merely pretty, charming and competent; she is clever too. Even her sleepy, complacent mistress can hardly fail to notice. Meanwhile Jane's brother, Henry, begins to take an unusually strong interest in the lovely young governess . . . And from now on, Anne's days at Godmersham Park are numbered. Praise for Miss Austen and Gill Hornby 'The perfect book to wrap yourself around on a dark night' STYLIST 'The great joy of Miss Austen is that the reader feels immersed in a world that is convincingly Jane's from the first page. Miss Austen is a novel of great kindness, often unexpectedly moving, with much to say about the status of 'invisible' older women. Above all, it's concerned with the triumph of small acts of goodness; you can't help feeling that Jane would have approved.' OBSERVER 'Without romanticising its period setting or underplaying the precariousness of any woman's position in this society, it celebrates unexamined lives, sisterhood and virtues such as kindness and loyalty' SUNDAY TIMES 'This is a deeply imagined and deeply moving novel. Reading it made me happy and weepy in equally copious amounts.' KAREN JOY FOWLER, author of The Jane Austen Bookclub 'Hornby is at her best describing the complex bonds between the 'excellent women' of her story. She describes the horrors, but also the pleasures, of spinsterhood' THE TIMES 'It won't surprise me if this is one of the books of the year, it's a delight, one of those that you don't want to end.' RTE 'A charming novel... capturing the spirit of the brilliant sardonic Jane, and reminding the reader of how brutal life was for women in Austen's era, it's an ingenious and affecting embroidery on the fact of the author's life.' SUNDAY MIRROR 'Fans of Pride and Prejudice and Emma will enjoy this touching story[...] In her meticulously researched third novel, Gill Hornby skillfully imagines the correspondence between the sisters.' SUNDAY EXPRESS 'Miss Austen is an ingenious imaginary explanationof how so many of Jane's letters came to be destroyed... With flashbacks and wonderful domestic detail, Hornby brings to life the Austen family, using the known to speculate on what might have been.' THE TIMES Audio Book of the Week 'Extraordinary and heart-wrenching, Miss Austen transported me from page one. A remarkable novel that is wholly original, deeply moving, and emotionally complex. A gift to all Austen lovers.' LARA PRESCOTT, author of The Secrets We Kept 'Gill Hornby ingeniously imagines what Cassandra Austen's own life might have been like, both before and after Jane's untimely death, casting a different light on the familiar biographical picture without in any way distorting it.' DEIRDRE LE FAYE, editor of Jane Austen's Letters 'Miss Austen is affecting, thought-provoking, and makes you think about both Jane and Cassandra Austen in a new light.' HELENA KELLY, author of Jane Austen, The Secret Radical 'A pitch perfect novel, fond and atmospheric. It reads as if Gill was born to write Cassandra's story, and she brings her whole witty and sympathetic self to the task.' KIRSTY WARK 'Tender and touching ... Hornby deftly describes the psychological toll that such uncertainly took on Jane, and movingly celebrates the fortitude of Cassandra whose greatest love was her sister' DAILY MAIL 'A moving, often funny novel. Richly imagined and spryly told, it reinstates overlooked Cassandra as the most important person in Jane's life' MAIL ON SUNDAY 'Utterly absorbing. The lives of the Austen sisters are recreated with a brilliant sureness of touch that can only be achieved by deep study of the period.' ARTEMIS COOPER 'A wonderfully original, emotionally complex novel that delves into why Cassandra burned a treasure trove of letters written by her sister, Jane Austen' IRISH EXAMINER 'In this subtle and delicate novel, Gill Hornby has created a clever, warm-hearted character in Cassandra, Jane Austen's sister' WOMAN & HOME 'People are going to love it, but I wonder if any screen adaptation will be able to convey the hidden treasure within this thoughtful story.' LITERARY REVIEW 'Engrossing ... the warm relationship between the sisters is particularly well written.' GOOD HOUSEKEEPING © Gill Hornby 2022 (P) Penguin Audio 2022"

Gill Hornby (Author), Bessie Carter (Narrator)

Audiobook

Miss Austen

"Brought to you by Penguin. The Sunday Times bestselling novel, soon to be a major series on BBC One and BBC iPlayer starring Keeley Hawes in 2025. Throughout her lifetime, Jane Austen wrote countless letters to her sister. But why did Cassandra burn them all? 1840: twenty three years after the death of her famous sister Jane, Cassandra Austen returns to the village of Kintbury, and the home of her family's friends, the Fowles. She knows that, in some dusty corner of the sprawling vicarage, there is a cache of family letters which hold secrets she can never allow to be revealed. As Cassandra recalls her youth and her relationship with her brilliant yet complex sister, she pieces together buried truths about Jane's history, and her own. And she faces a stark choice: should she act to protect Jane's reputation, or leave the contents of the letters to go unguarded into posterity? Based on a literary mystery that has long puzzled biographers and academics, Miss Austen is a wonderfully original and emotionally complex novel about the loves and lives of Cassandra and Jane Austen. 'You can't help feeling that Jane would have approved.' Observer 'So good, so intelligent, so clever, so entertaining - I adored it.' Claire Tomalin 'Celebrates unexamined lives, sisterhood and virtues such as kindness and loyalty' Sunday Times © Gill Hornby 2025 (P) Penguin Audio 2025"

Gill Hornby (Author), Juliet Stevenson (Narrator)

Audiobook