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Book at Bedtime: FM Mayor - The Rector's Daughter

Book at Bedtime: FM Mayor - The Rector's Daughter: Episode 4

Neglected Classics: The Rector's Daughter

Episode 4

FM Mayor - The Rector's Daughter

BBC Radio 4 - Book at Bedtime, FM Mayor - The Rector's Daughter, Episode 4

A confession in the rectory garden commits Mary Jocelyn's heart forever.

A confession in the rectory garden commits Mary Jocelyn's heart forever, despite what is to come. Read by Juliet Stevenson.

Juliet Stevenson reads FM Mayor's unfairly Neglected Classic, the story of a plain, reliable parson's daughter whose life of duty and service is thrown into confusion by an unexpected and unsought love affair. Today a confession in the rectory garden commits Mary's heart forever, despite what is to come.  

The Reader is Juliet Stevenson 
Abridger Sally Marmion
Producer Di Speirs 

FM Mayor's masterful novel, The Rector's Daughter, is a rare thing - a novel with a deceptively small canvas, set in the backwaters of a dull East Anglia a century ago, but still as fresh as ever. Much loved by those who have discovered it, it now comes to Radio 4 as one of the Open Book listeners' Neglected Classics.

At the heart of the novel lie the fortunes of Mary Jocelyn, a dutiful and devoted daughter content to live out her destiny under the leaden East Anglian skies she loves, to find solace in a robin's song and in the rare moments of warmth from her aged and formidable father. But on losing the one soul who really loved and needed her, Mary finds herself unbearably lonely, and for the first time open to new horizons.

With deft precision, FM Mayor captures the emotions stirring in Mary's heart and the pain of thwarted middle aged desire. With her unerring eye, she reveals both the bitterness and strengths of a happy marriage. The Rector's Daughter is acerbic and poignant and much deserves its loyal fans and its place within Radio 4's Neglected Classics season.

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

Juliet Stevenson reads from FM Mayor's novel about a plain, reliable parson's daughter

Juliet Stevenson reads from FM Mayor's 1924 novel about a plain, reliable parson's daughter whose life of duty and service is thrown into confusion by an unexpected and unsought love affair

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