Family of Women

Written by Annie Murray

Narrated by Annie Aldington

1950 - Seven year old Carol Martin lies encased in an iron lung, struck down by the killer disease, polio. Distraught at her side, her mother, Violet, wonders if this is her punishment - for Carol is the love child who should not have been born . . .

Family of Women is the story of three generations of women read by actress Annie Aldington:

Bessie, scarred by a childhood of poverty in the slums of Victorian Birmingham and left a young widow with four children, is a hard, bullying woman who will go to disturbing lengths to keep her family under her thumb.

Violet, one of Bessie's four children, marries young to escape, into the arms of a man whose life will be broken by war.

Linda grows up on a large housing estate in the 1950s with older sister Joyce and her beloved young sister Carol. Intelligent and energetic, she craves education and something more than the life she sees around her. Torn from her longed for place at the grammar school, she gives up hoping for anything better. It takes a tragic love affair to make her question the limitations of her life and the secrets which haunt her family.

Spanning more than half of the last century, Family of Women by Annie Murray is a story of one family - and of the joys, struggles and changes in women's lives.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Pan Macmillan
• Release date: Jan 23, 2014
• ISBN: 9781447260295

Annie Murray

Annie Murray was born in Berkshire and read English at St John's College, Oxford. Her first Birmingham novel, Birmingham Rose, hit The Sunday Times bestseller list when it was published in 1995. She has subsequently written many other successful novels, including War Babies and Girls in Tin Hats and the bestselling novels Chocolate Girls, Sisters of Gold and Black Country Orphan. Annie has four children, all Birmingham born and she lives near Oxford.