Whole Story Audio Books

Price: £19.99

Drawing on the real story of Peggy Guggenheim's sojourn in rural Sussex between the two World Wars, The Good Plain Cook, which was a BBC Radio 4 Book at Bedtime in 2008, is a story of idealistic dilettante Communists and the ordinary working folk who they encounter. A deeply affecting human story written with a lightly comic touch.

Synopsis

It's summer 1936, and the world is on the cusp of change, but there's little sign of this in rural Sussex. So when local girl Kitty Allen answers an advert looking for 'a good plain cook', she has no idea what she's in for. For starters, her employer is an American called Ellen Steinberg who believes in calling the staff by their first names and sunbathing in the nude. Then there's Ellen's eleven-year-old daughter, Geenie, a bright, unhappy little thing, and Mrs Steinberg's gentleman friend, Mr Crane, who's said to be a poet - even though he doesn't have a beard and doesn't seem to write much poetry either.

Rich bohemians imagining themselves as communists, Steinberg and Crane see themselves as champions of 'the people' - not that they know the first thing about how the people actually live. Kitty is in no place to criticise - after all she claimed to be a good plain cook, despite hardly knowing how to boil an egg.

Utterly out of her depth, she is relieved to have the gardener, Arthur, to talk to. Otherwise she'd never last a summer in this madhouse. Ellen Steinberg wants life to run as smoothly as the love story she imagines her lover George Crane to be writing. But as Kitty arrives, the dream is on the edge of falling apart.

This recording is unabridged. Typically abridged audiobooks are not more than 60% of the author's work and as low as 30% with characters and plotlines removed.

About The Author

Bethan Roberts was born in Oxford and brought up in nearby Abingdon. She has MAs from Sussex and Chichester universities and teaches creative writing at Chichester, Goldsmiths, The University of London and The Open University.

Reviews and Press Quotes

Bella

“Simmering and sensual.”

The Daily Mail

“Roberts judiciously balances Ellen's delicious outré flamboyance with a beautifully observed portrait of her tolerant, bemused cook. Roberts has said it was her intention to "put the below-stairs girl centre stage". She has succeeded admirably.”

The Times

“Delicious... gorgeously written, full of teasing observations about love, class and cookery.”

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Content Advisory

(What's this?)

• Violence: Mild
• Sex: Moderate
• Language: Moderate