About the Book
A new novel from the Booker Prize-winning Pat Barker, author of the Regeneration trilogy, that unforgettably portrays London during the Blitz and reaffirms her place as a top-ranked British novelist
London, the Blitz, Autumn 1940. As the bombs fall on the blacked-out city, ambulance driver Elinor Brooke races from bomb sites to hospitals in order to save the lives of injured survivors. She works alongside former friend Kit Neville while her husband, Paul Tarrant, works as an air-raid warden.
Once fellow students at the Slade School of Fine Art before the First World War destroyed the hopes of their generation, they now find themselves caught in another war, this time at home. As the bombing intensifies, the constant risk of death makes all three reach out for quick consolation. And into their midst comes the spirit medium Bertha Mason, grotesque and unforgettable, whose ability to make contact with the deceased finds vastly increased demand as death rains down from the skies. Old loves and obsessions resurface until Elinor is brought face-to-face with an almost impossible choice.
Completing the story that began with Life Class and continued with Toby's Room, Noonday is both a stand-alone novel and the climax of a trilogy. Writing about the Second World War for the first time, Pat Barker brings the besieged and haunted city of London into electrifying life in her most powerful novel since the Regeneration trilogy.
About the Author :
PAT BARKER is the author of Union Street, Blow Your House Down, The Century's Daughter, The Man Who Wasn't There, the Regeneration Trilogy (Regeneration, The Eye in the Door, and The Ghost Road), Another World, Border Crossing, Double Vision, and the Life Class Trilogy (Life Class, Toby's Room, and Noonday). She lives in Durham. Juliet Stevenson, one of the UK's leading actresses, has worked extensively for the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Royal National Theatre. She received an Olivier Award for her role in Death and the Maiden at the Royal Court, and a number of other awards for her work in the film Truly, Madly, Deeply. Other film credits include The Trial, Drowning by Numbers and Emma. She has recorded Lady Windermere's Fan, Sense and Sensibility, Emma, Northanger Abbey, Persuasion, Stories from Shakespeare, To the Lighthouse, Bliss and Other Stories and The Road Home, all for Naxos AudioBooks.
Stephen Boxer is an English actor who is best known for his role as Joe on the BBC One soap opera Doctors. Aside from television, Boxer has had starring roles in the Royal Shakespeare Company's productions of Titus Andronicus and King Lear, and has narrated the audiobook versions of Shakespeare's Henry VI and Pat Barker's Noonday.
John Sackville's leading roles in regional theatre and the West End were followed by a period with the Royal Shakespeare Company, he did a lot of vocal work with the influential Cicely Berry and RSC Head of Voice Andrew Wade. His experience has extended to TV documentaries, audio books, ELT work, computer games narration as well as numerous TV, radio and internet commercials. Anne Reid, MBE, is an English stage, film, and television actress. A BAFTA Award-nominee, she is best known for her roles as Valerie Barlow in Coronation Street and Jean in Dinnerladies.
Finlay Robertson is an actor, writer, and voice-over artist. He has appeared in Doctor Who, How Not to Live Your Life, and Alfie, among many other films and television series.
Coming soon...
Review :
"Noonday is nothing if not historical, bristling with period detail and gritty, well-researched atmosphere. Here, as you'd expect, Pat Barker excels."
-- "Guardian (London)"
"Noonday is the final volume in a trilogy that includes Life Class and Toby's Room. You don't need to have read either of the earlier books to appreciate this one, which is a fine and satisfying novel in its own right."
-- "Financial Times (London)"
"[A] powerful, ambitious historical novel...War images are searing, as well as up close and personal...Its sweep makes us truly appreciate life and death in a decimated landscape."
-- "NPR.org"
"Barker is as subtle and tough-minded here about human nature as in all her work. Yet the closing pages suggest the possibility of new beginnings even as they acknowledge the permanence of old wounds...A strong example of this gifted British writer's intelligent, uncompromising way with fiction."
-- "Kirkus Reviews (starred review)"
"Ms. Barker deftly handles a large cast...Historical fiction of a high order."
-- "New York Times"
"While this novel stands on its own merit, to fully appreciate Noonday, listeners will first want to hear Booker Prize winner Pat Barker's previous books in the trilogy, Life Class and Toby's Room. The stellar cast transforms returning characters Elinor, Paul, and Kit into credible people...Each performance is a small gem, illuminating the determination of a people that hundreds of Nazi night raids couldn't extinguish."
-- "AudioFile"
