Consequences: A Novel - Hardcover

Penelope Lively is the author of numerous award-winning novels, including the Man Booker Prize–winning Moon Tiger and The Photograph. Her writing has appeared in many publications, including the New York Times. She is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, a member of PEN, and a former chairman of the Society of Authors. She was awarded the CBE in 2002. Josephine Bailey has won ten AudioFile Earphones Awards and a prestigious Audie Award, and Publishers Weekly named her Best Female Narrator in 2002. Her native British accent has been used in many audiobooks and voice-overs, including The Wild Thornberries, Uncle Gus, and Disney-Dreamworks projects. In addition to her award-winning voice work, Josephine is involved in television, film, and theater. On television she has played parts in Robin Hood, A Tale of Two Cities, and Sword of Freedom. In film she was featured in Shadow Hours, Life's a Circus, and Corridors of Blood. Her theater experience includes lead roles in Betrayal, Otherwise Engaged, and Blithe Spirit. Josephine received her training from the Corona Stage School in London and the Tracy Roberts Actors Studio in Los Angeles. Josephine currently resides in South Carolina.

Josephine Bailey gives a subtle, respectful, and low-key performance of this elegiac novel about the consequences of a chance encounter. Matt, an artist, and Lorna, a reluctant debutante from an entirely different milieu in class-bound prewar England, meet on a park bench, fall in love, and marry despite family consternation. Matt dies in the war, Lorna in childbirth, and the story moves to their daughter, and then to her daughter. One could quibble that Bailey sometimes fails to convey effectively the many shifts in the narrative indicated on the page by space breaks, which can make for some disorientation. Lively tends to use that white space to create a drama of what is not being said. In every other way, though, its a lovely production. B.G. © AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine