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An Unlikely Pilgrimage: The Radio Dramas of Rachel Joyce
An Unlikely Pilgrimage: The Radio Dramas of Rachel Joyce
Nov 16, 2025 9:04 PM

Author:Rachel Joyce,Full Cast,Niamh Cusack,Anton Lesser,Anna Massey

An Unlikely Pilgrimage: The Radio Dramas of Rachel Joyce

Collected radio plays and short stories by Rachel Joyce

Rachel Joyce captured the hearts of millions with her bestselling debut novel, which told the moving tale of an ordinary man, Harold Fry, who embarks on an epic journey to deliver a message and save a life. But Harold’s story began its life on radio, in the award-winning play which opens this collection: To Be A Pilgrim, starring Anton Lesser, Anna Massey and Niamh Cusack.

Here, too, is an adaptation of the companion novel, The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy, with Sophie Thompson as Queenie; as well as a collection of linked Christmas tales, A Snow Garden and Other Stories, read by the author herself.

Also featured here are eleven more superb radio productions, each showcasing Joyce’s characteristic empathy, compassion and understanding of the human heart. Including a dark modern fairytale set in Baghdad, a Brief Encounter-style romance and the heartbreaking story of the Lindbergh baby, they are: Painting Mrs Jones, Feather, Kissing Shadows, Talking, Take One Night, The Porter and the Three Ladies, The Art of Balance, Little Lower than the Angels, The Wall, and The Memory Thief.

Life-affirming, touching and redemptive, these magical dramas explore themes of friendship, connection, the role of memory in our lives and the true nature of happiness. Among the star casts are Lindsay Duncan, Sophie Thompson, Shaun Dooley, Kenneth Cranham, Stephen Tompkinson and Lia Williams.

This special edition also features Rachel Joyce in conversation with Niamh Cusack.

Reviews

I credit Ella Risbridger with curing me of a deep and lasting suspicion of poetry in general, and contemporary poetry in particular. Readers of a similar disposition should be warned that this collection – broad in scope, generous in spirit and wittily accompanied by Risbridger's commentary – will likely offer a similar cure, while those already in love with the form have new and startling pleasures in store.

—— Sarah Perry, author of 'The Essex Serpent'

A new anthology with fortifying intentions . . . offered as an antidote to those who recoil from poetry. To my relief, it is only loosely organised by feelings and brims with familiar and unfamiliar voices: a lucky dip of the best sort.

—— Kate Kellaway , The Guardian

I found her enthusiastic explanations and recommendations as fun and refreshing as party-popped fizz. If I wanted to introduce young people to poetry I'd give them this book, which reinforced my conviction that helpful notes offer poetry as a generous gift rather than leaving it on a chilly pedestal.

—— Bel Mooney , Daily Mail

A gorgeous anthology, cleverly curated to convert the cynics, delight the poetically inclined and soothe everyone in between.

—— Lauren Bravo, author of 'What Would the Spice Girls Do?'

Whatever your mood – be it hunger, anger or an end of the world kind of despair, Ella has a poem to soothe you. From the greats like Philip Larkin and Sylvia Plath to obscure poets, new poets and all shades of poets in between, to poems about peanut butter and mix-tape, this anthology is as satisfying as a box of Quality Street

—— Red

Melissa Albert deftly weaves her magic once again between our world and the fairy tale realm of the Hinterland. The Night Country is a new modern classic filled with wondrous delights and daring forays into the dark. Not to be missed!

—— Kim Liggett, author of The Grace Year

The Night Country is so deliciously creepy?the kind of puzzle box nightmare you have to see through to the end. One of the most unputdownable books I've read in a long time.

—— Emily X. R. Pan, author of The Astonishing Color of After

Praise for The Hazel Wood

—— -

This eerie debut YA novel puts such a terrifying twist on classic bedtime stories, you'll not sleep a wink

—— Heat Magazine

Simultaneously enticing and fearsome, much like the Hazel Wood of the title ... insidiously beautiful

—— Guardian

A bewitching, elegant blend of contemporary thriller and dark fantasy

—— Observer

MAGICAL, MESMERISING AND INVENTIVE

—— Karen McManus, bestselling author of One of Us is Lying

THE HAZEL WOOD KEPT ME UP ALL NIGHT . . . as I fell completely into the dark and beautiful world within its pages. Terrifying, magical, and surprisingly funny, it's one of the very best books I've read in years

—— Jennifer Niven, bestselling author of All the Bright Places

A WINDING, CREEPY, INSIDIOUSLY DELICIOUS NOVEL. UTTERLY SPECTACULAR - I read it in one sitting

—— Melinda Salisbury, bestselling author of The Sin Eater’s Daughter

THIS BOOK WILL BE YOUR NEXT OBSESSION. Welcome to the Hazel Wood, where bad luck is a living thing, princesses are doomed, and every page contains a wondrously terrible adventure - it's not safe inside these pages, but once you enter, you may never want to leave.

—— Stephanie Garber, Bestselling Author of Caraval

Katz's debut is one that will have readers gripped from the very first words until the last - and a book that will stay with you for a long while afterwards.

—— Her.ie

[A] smart debut, both compelling and disturbing, delivered with the kind of confidence that makes me keen to see what Katz will come up with next.

—— A Life in Books Blog

[G]ripping debut … Here’s a page-turner you’ll devour before the week is out

—— Stylist Daily Newsletter

A razor sharp psychological deconstruction of the motivations, regrets and secrets behind a picture-perfect façade.

—— The Week

White-knuckle ride

—— RTE Guide

I really wanted to just press the book into anyone’s hands and say ‘please read this’! [...] An important read

—— Bookish Chat

Readers hungry for an in-depth study of a man searching for control, power and ownership will find satisfaction in A Good Man. But caveat emptor - this story inevitably hurtles at the end towards a chilling finale

—— Crime Review

This stellar debut from Ani Katz had us gripped from the beginning.

—— That’s Life!
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