The Pumpkin Coach

Sallis, Susan

ISBN 10: 184283889X ISBN 13: 9781842838891

Publisher: Soundings Audio Books, 2004

Synopsis

For Alice Pettiford, living near Gloucester in the late 1940s, leaving school and taking a job as a railway secretary made perfect sense. Her family had long been "railway servants", and the father of her best friend Hester would be working closely with her. What Alice had not expected was that she would fall in love with Joe Adair, a colleague, almost as soon as she met him. But Joe has to go overseas on National Service, and Hester's brother finds his fondness for Alice deepening. When he and Alice discover an old abandoned railway coach hidden in a clearing in the Forest of Dean, Alice realises that it has been a very special, magical place. What she doesn't know is that the coach has played a secret part in the history of Joe's family, and that Joe's mother named it "the pumpkin coach". Now her own destiny will also be shaped by this enchanted refuge.

About this title

About the Author:

Susan Sallis is now firmly established as one of the most successful writers of engaging family sagas. Her novels include the Rising family sequence, Summer Visitors, By Sun and Candlelight, An Ordinary Woman, Daughters of the Moon, Sweeter Than Wine, Water Under the Bridge, Touched by Angels, Choices, Come Rain or Shine, The Keys to the Garden, The Apple Barrel, Sea of Dreams, Time of Arrival, Lydia Fielding and Five Farthings. She lives in Clevedon, Somerset.

From AudioFile:

Two families live in Gloucestershire in the late forties. The pumpkin coach is an abandoned railway car on an unused line in the Forest of Dean, which becomes both a symbol of sexual recklessness and spiritual healing. Actress Nicolette McKenzie sets herself the ambitious task of dramatizing the nearly twenty or so characters who populate the novel. She manages to portray many very well indeed, especially the gushing Hattie and the tyrannical husband and employer, Reggie. This is an energetic reading by a gifted actress, but a straight narration would have better suited the story. D.L.G. © AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

About this edition

• Publisher: Soundings Audio Books
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 184283889X
• ISBN 13: 9781842838891
• Binding: Audio Cassette