Title: The Radio
Hour
Author: Victoria Purman
Narrated by: Jennifer Vuletic
Publisher: Harper
Muse
Length:
Approximately 9 hours and 59 minutes
Source: Audiobook Review Copy from NetGalley. Physical book review copy from Harper Muse as part of the Austenprose Book Tour. Thank-you!
What is your favorite TV show? I have a lot of favorites, but one of them is Only Murders in the Building. I love a good mystery that also has humor.
Martha Berry has worked in broadcasting as a secretary for twenty-four years. It’s now 1956 in Australia and television is being talked about on the horizon. While she has vast experience, she has never been promoted or seen a pay raise. She has been reassigned to a new show that will be produced by new employee, Quentin Quinn. Quentin is fresh out of school and is more interested in very long lunches that involve alcohol rather than actually working on scripts and starting the new show. Martha takes it upon herself to save the show and starts to write the scripts herself. Will Martha’s secret remain hidden?
My thoughts on this book:
· I loved this story. Martha was a great character. I loved how she is an independent woman of a certain age who has decided to take her future into her own hands.
· I also enjoyed the radio show itself. It was fun reading the different scenes of the show.
· There are also many Jane Austen references throughout the novel that I enjoyed. Martha is a fan of Austen and her works and references them often. She also references other favorite authors such as George Eliot and Charlotte Bronte.
· I loved how Martha brought daring real life scenarios into the radio screen plays such as menopause and having an Italian immigrant family as one of the main families.
· The radio broadcast has an archaic rule that if you are married, you can no longer work there. This had changed in England, but not in 1950s Australia.
· It was interesting as the book discussed how television was taking over at the time in England and the United States, but it has not yet gotten to Australia. I had not thought about how this would have changed an entire radio industry and potentially put people out of work.
· I related so much to Martha. Early in my career I had my own Quentin Quinn at work. While he enjoyed pay raises and promotions, I was doing the majority of his work while had long lunches, late starts, and would leave early. I was told, well he’s a married man. Then after I was married, well, he has a baby. It didn’t seem quite right.
· The ending was great and a real pick me up when all news seems so negative these days.
· I enjoyed the author’s note about real history in which this fictional story was set.
· There are a lot of great book club questions. This would be a great book club read!
· I loved listening to the audiobook version of this book. The narrator was wonderful, and she especially did a great job with the voices in the radio broadcasts.
Favorite Quote:
“But Martha was done with being polite. She was done with being overlooked and underestimated
by men like Quentin Quinn, those young enough to be her son yet who acted as if
she was the child.”
Overall, The Radio Hour by Victoria Purman is an
excellent, inspirational, and intriguing historical fiction novel. Martha Berry is one of the best new characters
in fiction. This was my first read of
author Victoria Purman, but it won’t be my last. If you enjoyed, Lessons in Chemistry, I think
you will enjoy The Radio Hour.
A charming and funny look at the golden years of radio broadcasting in post-war Australia that celebrates the extraordinary but unseen women who captivated a nation with their authentic stories of ordinary lives.
Martha Berry is fifty years old, a spinster, and one of an army of polite and invisible women in 1956 Sydney who go to work each day and get things done without fuss, fanfare, or reward.
Working at the country's national broadcaster, she's seen highly praised talent come and go over the years. But when she is sent to work as the secretary on a brand-new radio serial, created to follow in the footsteps of Australia's longest running show, Blue Hills, she finds herself at the mercy of an egotistical and erratic young producer without a clue, a conservative broadcaster frightened by the word pregnant, and a motley cast of actors with ideas of their own about their roles in the show.
When Martha is forced to step in to rescue the serial from impending cancellation, she ends up secretly ghost-writing scripts for As the Sun Sets, creating mayhem with management, and coming up with storylines that resonate with the serial's growing and loyal audience of women listeners.
But she can't keep her secret forever and when she's threatened with exposure, Martha has to decide if she wants to remain in the shadows or finally step into the spotlight.
AUTHOR BIO
Victoria Purman is an Australian top ten and USA TODAY bestselling fiction author. Her most recent book, A Woman's Work, was an Australian bestseller, as were her novels The Nurses' War, The Women's Pages, The Land Girls, and The Last of the Bonegilla Girls. Her earlier novel The Three Miss Allens was a USA TODAY bestseller. She is a regular guest at writers festivals, a mentor and workshop presenter, and was a judge in the fiction category for the 2018 Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature and the 2022 ASA/HQ Commercial Fiction Prize for an unpublished manuscript. Connect with her online at victoriapurman.com.
