Book Spotlight on The Radio Hour – A Captivating New Post-WWII Novel

Disclosure: I received a free copy from the publisher via Netgalley and Austenprose PR. All opinions are my own.

The new historical fiction book The Radio Hour by Victoria Purman was recently released by Harper Muse and is now available to buy and read! I can tell you that it is a fabulous book with brilliant female characters, meticulous historical research, and an Australian setting that fans of Old Hollywood will find delightful. I know I did.

Victoria Purman is known for her bestselling novels A Woman’s Work, The Land Girls, and The Three Miss Allens (among others). And now she’s back with a new delightful book.

The Radio Hour is set in 1950s Australia and is a feel-good novel about the glamorous days of radio broadcasting and the unseen women whose voices deserve to be heard.

So, in celebration of the book’s recent release, we’re here to spotlight this new Australian novel with the official description and author bio below. We hope you’ll give the book a chance!

THE RADIO HOUR – BOOK DESCRIPTION

A charming and funny look at the golden years of radio broadcasting in post-war Australia that celebrates the extraordinary but unseen women who captivated a nation with their authentic stories of ordinary lives.

Martha Berry is fifty years old, a spinster, and one of an army of polite and invisible women in 1956 Sydney who go to work each day and get things done without fuss, fanfare, or reward.

Working at the country’s national broadcaster, she’s seen highly praised talent come and go over the years. But when she is sent to work as the secretary on a brand-new radio serial, created to follow in the footsteps of Australia’s longest running show, Blue Hills, she finds herself at the mercy of an egotistical and erratic young producer without a clue, a conservative broadcaster frightened by the word pregnant, and a motley cast of actors with ideas of their own about their roles in the show.

When Martha is forced to step in to rescue the serial from impending cancellation, she ends up secretly ghost-writing scripts for As the Sun Sets, creating mayhem with management, and coming up with storylines that resonate with the serial’s growing and loyal audience of women listeners.

But she can’t keep her secret forever and when she’s threatened with exposure, Martha has to decide if she wants to remain in the shadows or finally step into the spotlight.

AUTHOR BIO – ABOUT VICTORIA PURMAN

Victoria Purman is an Australian top ten and USA TODAY bestselling fiction author. Her most recent book, A Woman’s Work, was an Australian bestseller, as were her novels The Nurses’ War, The Women’s Pages, The Land Girls, and The Last of the Bonegilla Girls. Her earlier novel The Three Miss Allens was a USA TODAY bestseller. She is a regular guest at writers festivals, a mentor and workshop presenter, and was a judge in the fiction category for the 2018 Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature and the 2022 ASA/HQ Commercial Fiction Prize for an unpublished manuscript. Connect with her online at victoriapurman.com.

We hope we’ve intrigued you to check out The Radio Hour. If you’re a fan of historical fiction or women’s fiction, want to know more about Australian history, or even enjoy well-told stories, this one’s for you.

To buy the book, head to the official HarperCollins page dedicated to The Radio Hour by Victoria Purman.