Audiobooks by Jane Harris

The Observations & Gillespie and I: Two Full-Cast BBC Radio Dramatisations

"Full-cast adaptations of two of Jane Harris’s gripping novels - plus an interview with the author Listen now to these two stunning, suspenseful historical dramas, performed by a full cast and based on the novels by best-selling author, Jane Harris. The Observations transports listeners to Scotland, 1863. A young Irish girl, Bessy Buckley, escapes her former life as a prostitute when she's hired as a maid in a big house near Edinburgh. But her new employer, Arabella, has secrets of her own. She encourages Bessy to write her thoughts and experiences in a journal, and subjects her to odd experiments. Bessy quickly grows attached to her mistress but things change when Bessy discovers Arabella has been writing a book, ‘The Observations’, a study of the ‘habits and nature of the Domestic Class’. Bessy is incensed, and concocts an act of revenge… Starring Lucy Paterson and Candida Benson (The Crown). In Gillespie and I, it’s 1888 and Harriet Baxter, an art-loving Englishwoman, arrives in Glasgow for the city's International Exhibition. She meets the Scottish painter, Ned Gillespie, and his wife, Annie - but tragedy is about to strike the Gillespies. A chilling listen, involving anonymous letters, sleazy journalism and a notorious court case. This gripping story is performed by a full cast including Phyllis Logan (Downtown Abbey), Kate Dickie (Game of Thrones) and Liam Brennan. Also included here is an interview with Jane Harris from Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour, in which she discusses Gillespie and I. Jane Harris is a best-selling writer whose novels have been published in over 20 countries worldwide and translated into many different languages. In 2007 The Observations was short-listed for the Orange Prize for Fiction. Harris was nominated for the British Book Awards Newcomer of the Year and the Southbank Show/Times Breakthrough Award the same year. Gillespie and I was longlisted for the 2012 Orange Prize for Fiction. ©2025 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd (P)2025 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd"

Jane Harris (Author), Candida Benson, Full Cast, Kate Dickie, Liam Brennan, Lucy Paterson, Phyllis Logan (Narrator)

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Sugar Money

"Martinique, 1765: Brothers Emile and Lucien are charged by their French master, Father Cleophas, with a mission. They must return to Grenada, the island they once called home, and smuggle back the 42 slaves claimed by English invaders at the hospital plantation in Fort Royal. While Lucien, barely in his teens, sees the trip as a great adventure, the older and worldlier Emile has no illusions about the dangers they will face. But with no choice other than to obey Cleophas, and sensing the possibility of finding his first love Celeste, he sets out with his brother on this 'reckless venture.’"

Jane Harris (Author), James Goode (Narrator)

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The Observations

"Scotland, 1863. In an attempt to escape her past, Bessy Buckley takes a job as a maid in a big house outside Edinburgh working for the beautiful Arabella. Bessy is intrigued by her new employer, but puzzled by her increasingly strange requests and her insistence that Bessy keep a journal of her most intimate thoughts. And it seems that Arabella has a few secrets of her own - including her near-obsessive affection for Nora, a former maid who died in mysterious circumstances. Then, a childish prank has drastic consequences, which throws into jeopardy all that Bessy has come to hold dear. Caught up in a tangle of madness, ghosts, sex and lies, she remains devoted to Arabella. But who is really responsible for what happened to Nora?"

Jane Harris (Author), Jane Harris (Narrator)

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Gillespie and I

"Sitting in her Bloomsbury home, with her two birds for company, elderly Harriet Baxter sets out to relate the story of her acquaintance with Ned Gillespie, a talented artist who never achieved the fame he deserved. Back in 1888, after a chance encounter, young Harriet befriends the Gillespie family and soon becomes a fixture in all of their lives. But when tragedy strikes, the certainties of this world all too rapidly disorientate into mystery and deception. Featuring a memorable cast of characters, infused with atmosphere and period detail, and shot through with wicked humour, Gillespie and I is a tour de force from one of the emerging names of British fiction."

Jane Harris (Author), Anna Bentinck (Narrator)

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