An Unlikely Pilgrimage: The Radio Dramas of Rachel Joyce: A BBC Radio Collection of Fifteen Full-Cast dramatisations and readings
About this audiobook
Collected radio plays and short stories by Rachel Joyce
Rachel Joyce captured the hearts of millions with her bestselling debut novel, which told the moving tale of an ordinary man, Harold Fry, who embarks on an epic journey to deliver a message and save a life. But Harold’s story began its life on radio, in the award-winning play which opens this collection: To Be A Pilgrim, starring Anton Lesser, Anna Massey and Niamh Cusack.
Here, too, is an adaptation of the companion novel, The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy, with Sophie Thompson as Queenie; as well as a collection of linked Christmas tales, A Snow Garden and Other Stories, read by the author herself.
Also featured here are eleven more superb radio productions, each showcasing Joyce’s characteristic empathy, compassion and understanding of the human heart. Including a dark modern fairytale set in Baghdad, a Brief Encounter-style romance and the heartbreaking story of the Lindbergh baby, they are: Painting Mrs Jones, Feather, Kissing Shadows, Talking, Take One Night, The Porter and the Three Ladies, The Art of Balance, Little Lower than the Angels, The Wall, and The Memory Thief.
Life-affirming, touching and redemptive, these magical dramas explore themes of friendship, connection, the role of memory in our lives and the true nature of happiness. Among the star casts are Lindsay Duncan, Sophie Thompson, Shaun Dooley, Kenneth Cranham, Stephen Tompkinson and Lia Williams.
This special edition also features Rachel Joyce in conversation with Niamh Cusack.
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About the author
Rachel Joyce (Author)
Rachel Joyce is the author of the Sunday Times and international bestsellers The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, Perfect, The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy, Maureen Fry and the Angel of the North, The Music Shop, Miss Benson's Beetle, and a collection of interlinked short stories, A Snow Garden & Other Stories.
Rachel’s books have been translated into thirty-seven languages and have sold millions of copies worldwide. The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Book Prize and longlisted for the Man Booker Prize. The critically acclaimed film of the novel, for which Rachel also wrote the screenplay, was released in 2023. Miss Benson’s Beetle won the Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize in 2021. Rachel was awarded the Specsavers National Book Awards New Writer of the Year in December 2012 and was shortlisted for the UK Author of the Year in 2014. In 2024 she was awarded an honorary doctorate by Kingston University.
Rachel has written over twenty original afternoon plays and adaptations of the classics for BBC Radio 4. She lives with her family near Stroud.
Anna Massey (Reader)
Anna Massey has been a successful actress for fifty years. Her career has spanned a wide range. In the cinema she has worked with many of the great directors, including Alfred Hitchcock, Michael Powell, Otto Preminger and Fred Zinneman. But perhaps her favourite performances have been in the theatre - among those being The Miracle Worker, Heartbreak House, The Importance of Being Earnest, and Mary Stuart. For television she won a BAFTA Award for her performance in Anita Brookner's Hotel du Lac, and she starred very memorably in the title role of Gwen John, and also in Trollope's He Knew He Was Right. On radio her voice is familiar to many from plays and documentaries, most recently narrating the history of Britain in This Sceptred Isle, which has brought her a whole new audience.
Anton Lesser (Reader)
Anton Lesser is an Associate of the RSC and has appeared in many productions at the National Theatre including Private Lives and Wild Oats. Recent television credits include Charles Dickens, Perfect Strangers and The Project. Film credits include Charlotte Gray and Imagining Argentina.
