The English Girl, Katherine Webb
The English Girl, Katherine Webb
List: $24.99 | Sale: $17.50
Club: $12.49

The English Girl
A compelling, sweeping novel of love, loss, secrets and betrayal

Author: Katherine Webb

Narrator: Anna Bentinck

Unabridged: 16 hr 41 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Orion

Published: 03/24/2016


Synopsis

Joan Seabrook, a fledgling archaeologist, has fulfilled a lifelong dream to visit Arabia by travelling from England to the ancient city of Muscat with her fiancé, Rory. Desperate to escape the pain of a personal tragedy, she longs to explore the desert fort of Jabrin, and unearth the treasures it is said to conceal.

But Oman is a land lost in time - hard, secretive, and in the midst of a violent upheaval - and gaining permission to explore Jabrin could prove impossible. Joan's disappointment is only alleviated by the thrill of meeting her childhood heroine, pioneering explorer Maude Vickery, and hearing first-hand the stories that captured her imagination and fuelled her ambition as a child.

Joan's encounter with the extraordinary and reclusive Maude will change everything. Both women have things that they want, and secrets they must keep. As their friendship grows, Joan is seduced by Maude's stories, and the thrill of the adventure they hold, and only too late does she begin to question her actions - actions that will spark a wild, and potentially disastrous, chain of events.

Will the girl that left England for this beautiful but dangerous land ever find her way back?

(p) 2016 Orion Publishing Group

About Katherine Webb

Katherine Webb was born in 1977 and grew up in rural Hampshire before reading History at Durham University. She has since spent time living in London and Venice, and now lives in Wiltshire. Having worked as a waitress, au pair, personal assistant, book binder, library assistant, seller of fairy costumes and housekeeper, she now writes full time.katherinewebbauthor.com @KWebbAuthor

About Anna Bentinck

Anna Bentinck was trained at Arts Educational College and has worked extensively for BBC radio. Animation voices include the series 64 Zoo Lane. Film credits include The Trojan Women, Alice in Wonderland and To The Devil a Daughter. Her many audio books range from Tess of the d'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy, Shirley by Charlotte Bronte, The Five Children and It, by E. Nesbit, One Day by David Nicholls , Beyond Black by Hilary Mantel, The Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys, Sanditon and The Watsons by Jane Austen to The Bible.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Cold War Conversations Podcast on February 09, 2016

Absorbing story of secrets, adventure and love. It's Oman in the 1950s and this story is set during the little known deployment of SAS troops to suppress an uprising against the British supported ruler. Joan is a young woman who desperately wants be an archaeologist and is in Oman seeking to visit her......more

Goodreads review by Arnis on January 06, 2024

Jau kopš bērnības The English Girl galvenā varone Joan ir bijusi kā apsēsta ar arābijas reģionu, tās šķietamo savvaļas maģiskumu, nepieradinātās tuksnešu vides skarbumu, kas galvenokārt nācis no Tūkstoš un vienas nakts pasakām papildinātas ar tēva fantāzijas pilnajiem stāstiem. Kad jau kā pieaugušai......more

Goodreads review by Jo on April 03, 2019

Enjoyed this very much. Set near Salalah in the Persian Gulf where my uncle Peter was stationed with the RAF.......more

Goodreads review by Emma on March 22, 2016

The English Girl is the sixth novel from Katherine Webb and unlike anything I have read from her before. I have been a fan of Katherine's books right from her first release, I adored The Legacy and The Unseen and reviewed the brilliant The Night Falling last year. For me this new book wasn't as good......more

Goodreads review by Sue on February 28, 2016

I loved this book. It transported me instantly to another time and place I really didn't want it to end. It is a dual time novel . The early years are about the life journey of Maude Vickerey that Joan has admired and befriended on her visit to Oman.The later years are Joan's own adventure story. Bo......more


Quotes

I loved THE ENGLISH GIRL. I was really drawn to both Maude and Joan and was completely absorbed by their exotic adventures. I thought it was a really original working of a dual narrative historical story and felt as authentically and thoroughly researched as The Night Falling. I've loved all Katherine Webb's books and this is a wonderful addition to my collection. After I finished, I found myself miss the searing heat and huge blue skies of the Omani desert. Kate Riordan

A vivid tale of adventure, love and friendship set in '50s Arabia. HEAT MAGAZINE

A compelling and beautifully written tale of adventure, mystery and love, The English Girl enthralled me from the first page. Set against the exotic backdrop of Arabia, which is both unforgiving and romantic, Webb brings her world to life with skill and passion. Santa Montefiore

Katherine's writing is rich, vivid and evocative and her characters breathtakingly real Iona Grey

With memorable characters and wonderful detail, Katherine evokes a little-known episode of British history to give a fascinating perspective on a region so much in the news today. Her depiction of the desert kingdom captures all its beauty and danger. Vanessa Lafaye

You know with a book by Katherine Webb that the writing will be impeccable and The English Girl is no different. This story of two women half-a-century apart both running away from the narrow margins of their lives is utterly captivating. The desert setting is as bewitching for the reader as it is for the characters, its arid emptiness and its unfamiliarity are vividly wrought with echoes of The Sheltering Sky. Webb's story surprises, too with unexpected twists and kept me gripped to the final page.

An exotic and absorbing adventure. WOMAN AND HOME

... a smattering of romance, and plenty of swashbuckling adventure. Sunday Mirror

Webb is atmospheric on the pull of the desert, and Joan and Maude are heroines worth following into the hot, wild Arabian horizon. THE TIMES