Original version

BBC Radio 4 Extra

Your digital radio entertainment station showcasing the best in comedy and drama

Your digital radio entertainment station showcasing the best in comedy and drama. With recent favourites from BBC Radio 4.

Book at Bedtime

Audiobooks

Podcasts

Drama

Readings from modern classics, new works by leading writers and world literature

Readings from modern classics, new works by leading writers and literature from around the world

BBC Radio 4 FM

Book at Bedtime: Lucy Caldwell - All the Beggars Riding

Book at Bedtime: Lucy Caldwell - All the Beggars Riding: Episode 5

All the Beggars Riding

Episode 5

Lucy Caldwell - All the Beggars Riding

BBC Radio 4 - Book at Bedtime, Lucy Caldwell - All the Beggars Riding, Episode 5

Lara recalls the death of her father and the family upheaval that followed in its wake.

Lara recalls her father's death and the family upheaval following the disclosure of his secret life. Read by Anne-Marie Duff.

If wishes were horses, beggars would ride. (Trad.)

After the death of her mother, Lara Moorhouse finds herself besieged with questions about her childhood that she never had the courage to ask her mother when she was alive. In particular, questions about her father.
When Lara and her younger brother Alfie were children, their father, an eminent surgeon, died in a helicopter crash. He had been largely absent from their lives, spending much of his time working in Belfast during the Troubles and only coming back to London two weekends a month to work at the Harley Street Clinic where he had first met their mother years before.
For unbeknownst to her, Lara's father had another life in Belfast; a wife, other children: another family.
As she delves into her parents' lives and the story of their relationship, Lara confronts her own past, and theirs, and discovers an unexpected legacy from her father's hidden double life.
All the Beggars Riding is Lucy Caldwell's third novel. In 2011 Lucy won the The Rooney Prize for Irish Literature and was awarded the prestigious Dylan Thomas Prize for her second novel 'The Meeting Point'. A playwright and novelist Lucy's theatre credits include the award-winning 'Leaves', 'Guardians' and 'Notes to Future Self'. For radio she has written the Imison Award-winning 'Girl from Mars', 'Avenues of Eternal Peace', 'Witch Week' a dramatization of Diana Wynne Jones' novel for BBC Radio 4 Extra, and most recently she adapted her stage play 'Notes to Future Self' for Radio 4.

Read by Anne-Marie Duff
Abridged by Doreen Estall
Producer Heather Larmour.

BBC Radio 4

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

By Lucy Caldwell. After the death of her mother, Lara Moorhouse tries tell her story

By Lucy Caldwell. After the death of her mother, Lara Moorhouse tries tell her story and understand the true nature of her parents' relationship

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Book at Bedtime

Lucy Caldwell - All the Beggars Riding

Episode 5

Genres

Formats

Brand

Series

BBC Radio 4 Extra

About BBC Radio 4 Extra