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The Bells of Burracombe

By: Lilian Harry
Narrated by: Nicolette McKenzie
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Summary

When Stella Simmons comes to the Devonshire village of Burracombe to start her teaching career, she is alone in the world. Orphaned as a child and brought up in a children's home, she was separated from her sister, Muriel, and has never been able to trace her. Stella is soon caught up in the life of the village, especially in the plans for celebrating the Festival of Britain.

With the help of artist Luke Ferris, she tries to find Muriel. But Luke has his own troubles - notably the relationship he once had with Val Tozer, daughter of a local farmer. Val, in turn, is concerned for her friend Hilary Napier, who has a difficult decision to make.

©2006 Lilian Harry (P)2006 Soundings
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What listeners say about The Bells of Burracombe

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Fabulous narration. Pretty good gentle story.

The narration was first class, especially the Devon accents! I live in Devon next to Dartmoor and a few of the older and younger residents do speak like this.

The story was good and gentle, just what I needed. There were some more hard bits focused on the war, but it didn’t usually dwell on those for too long. I didn’t get much at all from what I felt was supposed to be the main character, Stella, she was bland and a real wet lettuce. She became annoying. However, other characters feature greatly too thankfully. I loved Dotty, she was an awesome character and so well described.

I started listening to these books after listening to all the wonderful Miss Read books, hoping that they’d be similar. They are similar, but this Burracombe series has less wit and less amusement, and more seriousness.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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A review of the series

I have enjoyed all the books in this series. Especially the ones narrated by Anne Dover who is just so good.

The main character in book 1, Stella, continues to have a key role in future books, but happily, these also focus in turn on other characters. Stella is really annoying, so that’s lucky. In a later book, the plot once again features Stella (no spoilers) but that does become very, very dull and monotonous.

I loved the range of characters and multiple plot lines. I also liked the 1950s setting.

Simple tales, well told, really well read. Escapism, really. Sorry to have finished the series.

I think it’s important to read them in order though you do get recaps. Also, A Child in Burracombe is a stand alone plot, really, a look back at one character’s WW2 stay in the village.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Burracombe Village

I’ve listened to many stories about the lives of the people who lived in Burracombe The narrator was excellent and the story lovely. I do wish though the book had been available before the rest of the series.

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1 person found this helpful