Home
/
Fiction
/
Margaret Oliphant: Miss Marjoribanks, Phoebe Junior and Hester
Margaret Oliphant: Miss Marjoribanks, Phoebe Junior and Hester
Jan 11, 2026 4:45 PM

Author:Margaret Oliphant,Kate Clanchy,Zena Foster,Elizabeth Proud,Elizabeth Spriggs,Teresa Gallagher,Charlotte Attenborough,Peter Jeffrey,Penelope Wilton,Lyndsey Marshall,Full Cast

Margaret Oliphant: Miss Marjoribanks, Phoebe Junior and Hester

Three BBC radio adaptations of famous novels by the prolific 19th-century author Mrs Oliphant – plus an episode of Reading Aloud, with extracts from her autobiography

Sometimes called ‘the feminist Trollope’, Margaret Oliphant wrote over 100 works of fiction in a wide variety of genres, ranging from novels of small-town life to historical tales and supernatural stories. Included here are three of her best-loved works, brimming with dry wit, perceptive irony and flawed but fascinating heroines.

Miss Marjoribanks

Lucilla Marjoribanks, a large and determined girl, returns from school with two resolves – to comfort her recently widowed father and to revolutionise society. She becomes the doyenne of Carlingford’s social circle with her Thursday soirees – but her plans are disrupted by her friends’ romances, a new arrival, the solving of a mystery and a wedding… Starring Elizabeth Spriggs as Mrs Oliphant and Teresa Gallagher as Lucilla.

Phoebe Junior

Phoebe Beecham has met Clarence Copperhead at a Ball in London. His wealthy father disapproves of her, and she fortuitously leaves London to visit her sick Grandmother in Carlingford. But a shock awaits her on arrival... Starring Elizabeth Spriggs as Mrs Oliphant and Charlotte Attenborough as Phoebe Junior.

Hester

In this deliciously sardonic tale of credit and discredit, a young woman in a 19th Century Cheshire town, having been snubbed and discarded in marriage, does something truly radical. When the family bank is in danger, she pledges her private fortune to save it – but insists on running it herself, as a single woman, in defiance of all convention. Starring Penelope Wilton as Margaret Oliphant and Lyndsey Marshal as Hester Vernon.

Also included is a bonus episode of Reading Aloud, in which Gudrun Ure reads from Mrs Oliphant’s autobiography, shining a light on the tragic life of the acclaimed Scottish novelist.

Reviews

Fans of dystopian fiction will enjoy this pulsating new YA novel from bestselling author James Patterson . . . Patterson is second to none when it comes to writing pacy thrillers and this one has got the lot - an intriguing plot, exciting action and a captivating lead character

—— Independent

A fast-moving, multi-stranded, hugely entertaining story that brings the world of Maximum Ride back with a bang

—— Keighley News

We were hooked until the very end. 8/10

—— Indy Best

... A fast-paced, action-packed read, ideal for fans of the original series

—— Publishers Weekly

Beautifully written… [and] at times even made me laugh out loud

—— Institute of Engineering and Technology

Propulsive . . . brilliantly vivid . . . stays in the mind long after reading

—— Irish Times

Absolutely brilliant . . . touchingly captures the awkward, aching longing of a misfit . . . darkly funny

—— Express

Wonderfully shocking . . . a stunning, original debut.

—— Irish Examiner

Fundamentally intimate . . . beguiling . . . A novel about being normal that is anything but.

—— Irish Independent

Terrific... astute, tender, raw... very funny

—— Metro

elevating the ordinary with luscious prose . . . [Tennis Lessons] gives us the magical ability of seeing this tired old world with brand new eyes. What an invaluable gift, and what a beautiful book.

—— Culturefly

Gently comic and compassionate

—— Independent

Recalling the grotesque of Christine Schutt and Deborah Levy, Susannah Dickey’s Tennis Lessons is an achingly vital novel, a work of blood and flesh, convulsing in the heat of mortality.

—— Kevin Breathnach

Dickey scorchingly captures the awkward, aching longing of a misfit...shot through with honesty

—— Psychologies

So compelling . . . darkly funny . . . a powerful account of a girl becoming a woman.

—— Hot Press

A fresh-eyed read. It's funny and honest, brutally so, and every so often sneaks up and punches you right in the guts. It's the kind of book you read in one furious sitting, then find yourself mulling over for weeks to come. Susannah Dickey's got a strange and sublime way of seeing the world.

—— Jan Carson

Tennis Lessons is a singular creation - a vivid, funny, emotionally intelligent dissection of an ordinary life.

—— Nicole Flattery

Effective and pacy.

—— Strong words

"A dictionary as an unreliable narrator" is a device used here in clever ways ... Those familiar with Williams's writing won't be surprised to find that her characters are also in love with words ... Williams's sentences rarely stall; they move between conventional and innovative forms, and her novel is no less original for that.

—— Times Literary Supplement

The Liar's Dictionary by Eley Williams (William Heinemann), which continues the lexicographical playfulness of her short stories, is a singularly charming jeu d'esprit about two people a century apart doing the difficult, essential work of defining words and defining themselves.

—— The Guardian

[I]t's a sunny, breezy smile of a book [...] it's a lovely, lovely book which we read in a single sitting. If you liked The Surgeon of Crowthorne or even Leonard and Hungry Paul we think you'll get an almighty kick out of this. Max Porter described Williams' debut Attrib, thus "I love it in a way I usually reserve for people" - we feel the same way about The Liar's Dictionary.

—— Bookmunch

With its historical and contemporary settings, rounded relatable characters, and a plot to which one could even give spoilers, [...] The Liar's Dictionary is recognisably a Proper Novel. [...] The tricky courtship of word and world, and how a book might hold a world, is essentially the theme of all dictionary fiction. The Liar's Dictionary, an invaluable additionto that odd canon, ends up - I think - being all about one word, one that James Joyce (an encyclopaediac himself) called "the word known to all," the word love.

—— The Quietus

[A] wry, charming debut novel ... Ruminating on and revelling in the English language, this warm-hearted novel is a thoughtful, funny delight.

—— Tatler

If searching for the answers to human uncertainties by crystallising them in definitions is 'like trapping butterflies under glass,' the beating of Williams' words against the pages is anything but: these words are playfully free.

—— Totally Dublin

Filled with humour and sparkling moments of insight, it's a book that celebrates the delights of language whilst the characters struggle to find their place in the world that exists beyond word definitions.

—— Citizen Femme
Comments
Welcome to zzdbook comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
Copyright 2023-2026 - www.zzdbook.com All Rights Reserved