As someone who spent the better part of 25 years working in radio, the cover and title piqued my interest.
The Radio Hour is set in the 1950s, during the golden years of broadcasting, just before the introduction of television. It’s a time when families gathered around the radio to listen to long-running radio dramas like Blue Hills or Dad and Dave.
Martha Berry is a fifty-year-old woman who has worked at the national broadcaster for years. She knows everything, but she’s ‘just a secretary’ who has never been promoted. Martha is assigned to a hotshot young producer called Quentin Quinn who is creating a new serial called As the Sun Sets. However, she soon discovers that Quinn has no experience, no ideas and a day-drinking problem. If they are going to create a new show, she’ll have to do it herself.
Martha starts ghost-writing scripts for As the Sun Sets, creating interesting and challenging storylines that reflect the social changes in post-war Sydney. As the listeners grow, Martha also starts to grow in confidence and trust her instincts.
One of the things I loved about this book was the way Martha’s professional growth mirrored the changing role of women in society. Did you know that in 1956 women in the Australian public service had to resign from their jobs as soon as they were married? The Radio Hour shows the challenges faced by women at work without being preachy.
I also loved that Martha thought, spoke and behaved like a 1950s woman – too often characters in historical fiction come across as completely modern women who seem to have parachuted into the past. I also enjoyed the way the narrative was broken up with Martha’s radio drama scripts – a nice play on the ‘play within a play’ or ‘book within a book’ device.
If you love a character driven story, rich in historical detail, then The Radio Hour is for you. It’s an easy, enjoyable read, and a satisfying one.
-Katrina, RRL
