The Archers: Home Fires at Ambridge

by Catherine Miller

‘Intriguing, comforting and endearingly familiar’ Katie Fforde
‘The BBC’s most downloaded radio show’ The Guardian
‘Incredible legacy’ ?The BBC
‘Longest running drama in the world’ The i News

It's 1941 and the war rumbles on. Nowhere is immune to the effects of war, not even Ambridge. But in England's favourite village, something else is occupying the residents...

When a prominent villager dies, the main beneficiary's name is a mystery, and no one knows who is set to inherit the estate, cottage and all. The name is hidden within a locked box and the villagers much uncover the password to find out the name of the beneficiary. So when five people are each sent a packet of seeds, the mystery deepens - could the seeds be part of a clue? And can they all work together to unlock the mystery and to discover who is set to inherit?

Beautifully produced, with stunning endpapers, this is the perfect read for all Archers fans.
 

Genres: Fiction, Historical, Mystery

440 pages, Hardcover

Published October 28, 2021

Reviews

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was trying to listen to the audiobook at night but I found it very difficult to follow all the characters. It jumps around from one to another frequently, and there were too many to keep them all straight. The plot itself was also very meandering and rather boring/tedious--at halfway through, not much sign of the "mystery" described in the summary.

[Gill Neal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent second book in the trilogy

This book introduces characters known to modern day listeners to the Archers. Reading about them as young people and their families during the war years sheds some light on their attitudes in later life.
A must for Archers fans

[Bumpy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved the atmosphere evoked by the book, I’m a great fan of WW2..the characters themselves were so endearing and human that I was rooting for most of them..

[Margaret · Rating 3 out of 5]

Listened as unabridged Library borrow
Easy story, part mystery, part war survival & village intrigue

[Renita D'Silva · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful

[Christine Hicks · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really struggled to finish this book, it just didn’t flow 😒

[Marna C · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dull & confusing— a LOT of characters with no great storytelling to keep track of them all

[Carol · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved escaping into this book.

[Lynne · Rating 3 out of 5]

100% improvement on the first instalment of Ambridge at war, which was, frankly, dire. Still don't understand the decision to follow peripheral (in the literal sense) Pargetter family rather than the accepted local aristocracy, the Lawson-Hopes, but hey ho. Lots of shenanigans with families who seem to have disappeared, and who are missing overall from the published encyclopaedias and archive collections but perhaps they were intended to be the original inhabitants of the village. This time the focus is on the legacy of Jane Gilpin and the continued impact of the war on the home front. Doris is continually worrying about the finances of Brookfield, the Horrobins seem to be the low-life, Joe Grundy makes his first appearance and there is far too little Walter Gabriel and Dan Archer.
Worth reading and here's hoping the third will see even further improvement.

[Renita D'Silva · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful