The Legacy of Elizabeth Pringle

By: Kirsty Wark

Narrated by: Siobhan Redmond

'ORIGINAL AND ENTHRALLING' Guardian
'AFFECTING AND TENDER' The Times
'COMPLETELY ENCHANTING' Penny Vincenzi

Elizabeth Pringle lived all her long life on the Scottish island of Arran. But did anyone really know her? In her will she leaves her beloved house, Holmlea, to a stranger - a young mother she'd seen pushing a pram down the road over thirty years ago. It now falls to Martha, once the baby in that pram, to answer the question: why? Martha is coping with her mother's dementia and the possibility of a new life on Arran could be a new start.

A captivating story for fans of Rosamund Pilcher, Maeve Binchy and Rachel Joyce of the richness behind the so-called ordinary lives of women and the secrets and threads that hold them together.

And Kirsty Wark's second novel, The House by the Loch, a story of unlikely love and long-hidden family secrets set in the beautiful Scottish countryside, is out now.

©2014 Black Pepper Media Ltd (P)2014 John Murray Press

lovely prose and story

this was a well written magical story of lives intertwined. Absolutely loved it and highly recommend.

I couldn't stop listening!

Once I started listening, I could not stop. Before I knew it the book was done but not before there there a few twists and turns. I enjoyed the thorough descriptions in the author made of the island, the people and their seemingly ordinary lives, which were not so ordinary underneath. I look forward to more by this author.

Disappointing

Though the narration was excellent and the author demonstrates a fine command of the language, the story rambled with no point. The main character Elizabeth could have been anyone with a story that simply did not matter. Elizabeth's "tragedy" did not lead to any moment of self-awareness. The plot dragged to a conclusion with no point.

The parallel contemporary story was equally pointless with characters that were neither compelling nor unique.

Uneven and Ultimately Annoying

I bought this audiobook from Audible on the rec. of Karen of Cornflower Books, whose taste I generally appreciate. In the long run, however, I found it uneven: in the beginning, it's too sad, with two parallel stories of women who are dealing with the inevitable losses of old age; then it becomes too predictable, with WWi and WWII stories that we've all heard before and miraculously "I knew he was The One" relationships; it winds up with a big helping of "spooky-wooky" "I could feel her spirit near me" intimations and that revelation of the hidden secret that we had no idea had existed from the very beginning of the tale. So. I guess I'd say that there are some interesting/lovely aspects of the story, and the narration is beautifully done. However, my "okay" rating remains. Overall, it became an annoying book.
*Reader was great, though Saul's "American accent" grated a bit.