Radio 4 Book of the Week

First broadcast from 2008.07.07 to 2008.07.11



Based on her hugely popular blog, the story of Judith O'Reilly's decision to give up her glamorous London lifestyle and make a new life for her family in the North of England.



Read by Felicity Montagu

01 Love Is Blind
As a hugely pregnant Judith and her family motor up the A1, she es the fabulous sprawl of the city fade into the distance and begins to wonder how she agreed to this ridiculous experiment. How will she cope spending two years in a tiny rural cottage in charge of three children and two aging parents with neither friends nor her glamorous newspaper career?

02 The Kindness Of Strangers
With her husband away in London, Judith realises that she will have to rely on her neighbours for support and starts forging new friendships in the village. But after her baby daughter is born and her lack of status in this rural community becomes all too apparent, Judith begins to miss her old life even more. And her husband's unexpected mid-life crisis purchase brings the experiment swiftly into jeopardy.

03 Cyber Scream
Feeling isolated and lonely, Judith takes a trip to her beloved London, where she realises that it's not just the city she is missing, but her old self. Not liking her new self very much, she decides to reach out into cyberspace and starts a blog about her life in the North. Soon enough, her circle of friends has grown, and one autumn morning, she unexpectedly finds herself preparing for a day's hunting.

04 Blog Off
Judith discovers that people really are reading her blog when the atmosphere at the school gate turns somewhat chilly and the local vicar hauls her in for a dressing down. When she refuses to censor it, the few friends she has made seem to be turning their backs on her. And with her husband still away, she is truly struggling with life in the North - until a London bus comes to her rescue.

05 Auf Wiedersen Pet?
Judith wonders if she is going native when she finds herself enjoying the delights of unfeasibly large leeks and kitting herself out for a day's shooting. But as autumn turns to winter, she knows she must decide whether to stay or return to her beloved London. Can she really turn her back on city life - and on her old self?

MPEG Layer 3,
2 channels,
44100 Hz
128 kbps

Five files of approximately 14 minutes each.