The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry (Audio book) - 8 audio CDs

Zusatztext 40583339 Informationen zum Autor The author! Rachel Joyce! has written over twenty original afternoon plays for BBC Radio 4! and has created major adaptations for the Classic series and Woman’s Hour! as well as a TV drama adaptation for BBC2. In 2007 she won the Tinniswood Award for Best Radio Play. Joyce moved to writing after a twenty-year career in theatre and television! performing leading roles for the RSC! the Royal National Theatre! The Royal Court and Cheek by Jowl; and winning a Time Out Best Actress Award and the Sony Silver. She currently lives in Gloucestershire with her family and is at work on her second novel. 1 Harold and the Letter The letter that would change everything arrived on a Tuesday. It was an ordinary morning in mid-April that smelled of clean washing and grass cuttings. Harold Fry sat at the breakfast table, freshly shaved, in a clean shirt and tie, with a slice of toast that he wasn’t eating. He gazed beyond the kitchen window at the clipped lawn, which was spiked in the middle by Maureen’s telescopic washing line, and trapped on all three sides by the neighbors’ stockade fencing. “Harold!” called Maureen above the vacuum cleaner. “Post!” He thought he might like to go out, but the only thing to do was mow the lawn and he had done that yesterday. The vacuum tumbled into silence, and his wife appeared, looking cross, with a letter. She sat opposite Harold. Maureen was a slight woman with a cap of silver hair and a brisk walk. When they first met, nothing had pleased him more than to make her laugh. To watch her neat frame collapse into unruly happiness. “It’s for you,” she said. He didn’t know what she meant until she slid an envelope across the table, and stopped it just short of Harold’s elbow. They both looked at the letter as if they had never seen one before. It was pink. “The postmark says Berwick-upon-Tweed.” He didn’t know anyone in Berwick. He didn’t know many people anywhere. “Maybe it’s a mistake.” “I think not. They don’t get something like a postmark wrong.” She took toast from the rack. She liked it cold and crisp. Harold studied the mysterious envelope. Its pink was not the color of the bathroom suite, or the matching towels and fluffed cover for the toilet seat. That was a vivid shade that made Harold feel he shouldn’t be there. But this was delicate. A Turkish Delight pink. His name and address were scribbled in ballpoint, the clumsy letters collapsing into one another as if a child had dashed them off in a hurry: Mr. H. Fry, 13 Fossebridge Road, Kingsbridge, South Hams. He didn’t recognize the handwriting. “Well?” said Maureen, passing a knife. He held it to the corner of the envelope, and tugged it through the fold. “Careful,” she warned. He could feel her eyes on him as he eased out the letter, and prodded back his reading glasses. The page was typed, and addressed from a place he didn’t know: St. Bernadine’s Hospice. Dear Harold, This may come to you as some surprise. His eyes ran to the bottom of the page. “Well?” said Maureen again. “Good lord. It’s from Queenie Hennessy.” Maureen speared a nugget of butter with her knife and flattened it the length of her toast. “Queenie who?” “She worked at the brewery. Years ago. Don’t you remember?” Maureen shrugged. “I don’t see why I should. I don’t know why I’d remember someone from years ago. Could you pass the jam?” “She was in finances. She was very good.” “That’s the marmalade, Harold. Jam is red. If you look at things before you pick them up, you’ll find it helps.” Harold passed her what she needed and returned to his letter. Beautifully set out, of course; nothing like the muddled writing on the envelope. Then he smiled, remembering this was how it always was with Queenie: everything she did so precise you couldn’t fault it. “She remembers you. She send...

Product details

• Authors: Jim Broadbent, Rachel Joyce
• Assisted by: Jim Broadbent (Reader / Narrator)
• Publisher: Random House USA
• Languages: English
• Product format: CD-Audio
• Released: 24.07.2012
• EAN: 9780449012758
• ISBN: 978-0-449-01275-8
• Dimensions: 130 mm x 150 mm x 30 mm
• Series: Random House Audio; Random House Audio
• Subject: Fiction > Narrative literature