This Time of Dying

It is October 1918 and London is gathering in its dead.For Henry Speake, of Speake & Son Undertakers, laying to rest the shattered young bodies of those sent home from the Front to die has become a grimly familiar duty. But what he is seeing now, as influenza claims its victims with increasing speed and force, is something different; for the first time in his life, Henry feels afraid of death.Unable to share his fears with his waspish, disapproving sisters, Henry turns instead to Mrs Allen Thompson, a recently widowed school teacher, so beginning a friendship which gradually, stumblingly, pulls them in a direction neither has been prepared for.

'A finely written and affecting novel.' -- Publisher's Weekly
'Sharp glimpses of human nature scattered over a detailed period panorama.' -- Kirkus Reviews
'Such is the strength of her characterisation that the protagonists' secret fears and hopes take possession of the reader's imagination.' -- The Independent on Sunday

Reina James is a British author. She has written two novels, the first of which won the Society of Authors’ McKitterick Prize in 2007. Cornelius is an English actor and voice artist. He has experience playing a wide range of parts in theatre, TV, film, audio and radio drama. Cornelius is renowned for his TV and film voiceover work, and for his many audiobook recordings for authors such as Georgette Heyer, Edward Marston and Douglas Jackson's Gaius Valerius Verrens series.

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