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The Ivy Tree

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The Ivy Tree

By: Mary Stewart
Narrated by: Amy Molloy
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About this listen

Mary Stewart, one of the great British storytellers of the 20th century, transports listeners to rural Northumberland for this tale of romance, ambition and deceit - a perfect fit for fans of Agatha Christie and Barbara Pym.

Whitescar is a beautiful old house and farm situated in Roman Wall country. It will make a rich inheritance for its heirs, but in order to secure it, they enlist the help of a young woman named Mary who bears remarkable resemblance to missing Whitescar heiress Annabel Winslow. Their deception will spark a powder keg of ambition, obsession and long-dead love.

The ivy had reached for the tree and only the tree's upper branches managed to thrust the young gold leaves of early summer through the strangling curtain. Eventually the ivy would kill it....

©1961 Mary Stewart (P)2019 Hodder & Stoughton Limited Romance Romantic Suspense Suspense

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Critic reviews

"There are few to equal Mary Stewart." (Daily Telegraph)

"Mary Stewart is magic." (New York Times)

"One of the great British storytellers of the 20th century." (Independent)
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It’s an excellent old fashioned fulfilling story ..wonderful lyrical descriptions of the northern countryside along side a cracking good mystery …agree narrator a little too American (only 8 yrs after all) sounding but one gets used to the pace of her drawl and accepts it.

Brilliant story

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I had saved this Mary Stewart till last because it had been my favourite when I first read it 45 years ago and the complaints about the narrator made me reluctant to have it spoiled.
In the event I thought the narrator was fine. But oh dear! 45 years had played havoc with my memories! I will not give away the plot, but I was very fed up to discover that the character I have been in love with for so many years turns out not to have been the romantic lead after all. So I was majorly annoyed with the ending.

Not as I remember

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Oh dear what a pity that such a good story is marred by poor pronunciation of certain ‘Northumbrian’ words/place names. If ‘Annabel’ had turned up and talked about ‘BellingHam’ and referred to the the neighbour as ‘FenWick’ there would have been no story as she would have been instantly ‘outed’. ‘Annabel’ would have known without being told that the village is pronounced as ‘BellingJM’ and the neighbour’s name as ‘FeNik’. So an otherwise good reading is marred by lack of attention to detail and poor basic research.

Great story but .......

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I was delighted to find Mary Stewart on Audible and am very greedily making my way through them starting with The Ivy Tree as one of my favourites. I agree with some other reviewers that the narration was not perfect but after the first few minutes I really didn’t care and honestly it wasn’t that bad anyway.

Loved it!

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A very enjoyable Mary Stewart classic and, on the whole, the restrained delivery of the narrator served to increase the slightly gothic tone to the story. However, though I understand the use of a narrator with a transatlantic accent in this particular case (main character, supposedly with Canadian accent, narrating the story), isn’t it possible to use bounce actors who can actually do English accents without making a mess of them. The Northumbrian characters all speak with a garbled Yorkshire twang, and those who are supposed to be “Geordies” have some lamentable twisted version of Liverpudlian Scouse.

Get the accents right, please.

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Great story but eebygum ?cod Yorkshire? for the Northumbrian 'yokels' and a Canadian accented protagonist supposedly Northumbrian but can't pronounce Newcastle, scone or hawthorn...Just terrible

0* for terrible accents

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This is one of my favourite books my only criticism is that many words are mispronounced.

Love finds a way

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Excellent. Captivating story with lots of twists and turns. A great read can't wait for the next book.

Excellent.

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A second rate novel, not very thrilling or romantic as I failed to engage with any of the characters. Static and overwritten. Unconvincing and full of repetition and inconsistencies. I listened to it for my book group otherwise I would have binned it. Very well read.

Fantastic performance by Amy Molloy

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A classic of its time, and still worth a listen. The narrator’s drawl was much too slow for me, and after the first chapter I played it through at the 1.2 speed, which made it more enjoyable.

Classic Mary Stewart

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