Queen Wallis: A Novel

C. J. Carey

Jul 2023 · Highbridge Audio · Narrated by Antonia Beamish

About this audiobook

London, 1955. The Leader has been dead for two years. His assassination, on British soil, provoked violent retribution and intensified repression of British citizens, particularly women. Now, more than ever, the Protectorate is a place of surveillance and isolation-a land of spies. Every evening Rose Ransom looks in the mirror and marvels that she's even alive. A mere woman, her role in the Leader's death has been miraculously overlooked. She still works at the Culture Ministry, where her work now focuses on poetry, which has been banned for its subversive meanings, emotions, and signals that cannot be controlled. A government propaganda drive to promote positive images of women has just been announced ahead of a visit from Dwight D. Eisenhower, the first American president to set foot on English soil in two decades. Queen Wallis Simpson will be spearheading the campaign, and Rose has been tasked with visiting her to explain the plan. When Rose arrives at the palace, she finds Wallis in a state of paranoia, desperate to return to America and enjoy the liberty of her homeland following her husband's death. Wallis claims she has a secret document so explosive that it will blow the Protectorate apart. But will the last queen of England pull the trigger on the Alliance?

About the author

C. J. Carey is a novelist, journalist, and broadcaster. She has worked at the Sunday Times, the Daily Telegraph, and the BBC, among others. She also writes novels under the name Jane Thynne and lives in London. Widowland is the first novel she has written as C. J. Carey.

After a successful period with a French circus company, Antonia Beamish was awarded a scholarship to study drama in America. She performed off Broadway before returning to the UK to play the lead role in Educating Rita. Antonia has won the Best Actress Award at the Calgary International Festival of Horror.