Virgin Earth cover art

Virgin Earth

 Preview
Try Premium Plus free
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Virgin Earth

By: Philippa Gregory
Narrated by: David Thorpe
Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £19.99

Buy Now for £19.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

Sequel to the outstanding historical novel Earthly Joys, and written by the bestselling Philippa Gregory, the author of The Other Boleyn Girl and The Virgin’s Lover.

John Tradescant the Younger has inherited his father’s unique collection of plants along with his unerring ability to nurture them. But as gardener to Charles I, he confronts an unbearable dilemma when England descends into Civil War. Fleeing from the chaos, John travels to the Royalist colony of Virginia in America. But the virgin land is not uninhabited. John’s plant hunting brings him to live with the native people, and he learns to love and respect their way of life just as it is threatened by the colonial settlers.

In the new world and the old, the established order is breaking down and every family has to find its own way of surviving. For the Tradescants, through the upheavals of the Commonwealth and the Restoration, this means consolidating their reputations as the greatest gardeners in the country.

©2019 Philippa Gregory (P)2019 HarperCollins Publishers Family Life Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Urban War & Military War Military Civil War

Listeners also enjoyed...

 Wideacre cover art
The Ravens of Falkenau and Other Stories cover art
The Fool's Girl cover art
Eleanor the Queen cover art
A Marriage of Fortune cover art
The Midwife cover art
All in Good Time (Bryeton Books) cover art
The Outliers Saga: Books 1-3 cover art
Storm at Keizer Manor cover art
Hollen the Soulless cover art
The Catherine Howard Conspiracy cover art
This Rough Ocean cover art
Bendigo Shafter cover art
Beyond Scandal and Desire cover art
Knight's Acre cover art
America's First Daughter cover art
All stars
Most relevant  
The two books in the series are the ones I have enjoyed most so far from Philippa Gregory. I have read so many of her books but I have been totally blown away by the life story’s of the characters and the political & religious difficulties at that time, and, how they affected real people. I have learned so much! Constantly looking up and researching further, some of the situations and things that arose in the books! Thank you Philippa for teaching me about some wonderful people that we mustn’t forget and the things that have been left for us.

history brought to life

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I thoroughly enjoyed this story and marvelled at the research that must have gone into it.
it was well performed and it has encouraged me to reflect anew about many aspects related to this important period of our nations history.
I am happy to recommend it and the author to other listener.

A great read!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The narrator made this book interesting. Phillipa Gregory has done her research well. Like the first book Earthly Joys, if you enjoy gardening and have a love of history then listen to this book. I learnt so much from it. Not sure that I could have read it as it seemed very long but the narrator read it so well I was hooked right from the beginning.

Gardening and history

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Disappointed at this sequel. The main character was a disaster. The ending was worse than a rush job... it just ended. Characters were killed off with no hint of a reason why. It felt like a blockbuster sequal that just ran out of money and steam.
The performance was poor, no continuity or research into the first performance, some effort into character distinguishing but a flat reading overall. I'm gutted to leave this review as I love this author.

not her best work...

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
So interesting to discover that the famous Ashmolean Museum was founded to some extent by the trickery of Ashmole. We gardeners should inform ourselves as to the genius of John Tradescant and his incredible contribution to our gardens through his legacy.

Revealing story.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I listened to this book on audible and really enjoyed being transported to another time. Engrossing and emotional. Lovely book

Escape to another time

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Not so concerned with plant gathering as Earthly Joys, but as fascinating as it covers many of the lesser skirmishes of the Civil War and the events in the New World. The narrator’s attempts at accents often grates, but the story keeps you want to keep listening until the sad ending.

Not as plant based

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Excellent listening and extremely well read.
I will recommend to all my friends
Thank you

Loved every minute

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I enjoyed the prequel so much (the story, good writing and an excellent reader who brought it to life) that when I finished it I immediately started listening to Virgin Earth. Unfortunately, David Thorpe is not as a good a reader and despite John The Younger being from Kent, he gave this character’s voice a touch of South West, a mistake repeated so often it began to grate (and this is a long book). So a good story and good writing let down by the reading not as good as the prequel’s.

Reader not as good as Earthly Joys.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This book is sadly not as good as the first ‘Earthly Joys’ but it’s still captivating.
The narrator is not the same as the first book & although he tells a good yarn & is certainly skilful, the voices he selected for the main characters turn the story into a farce at times. The writing is much lazier than in the first book & im afraid to say the main character completely lacks any virtues, so mustering up empathy for his plights is a task. Still it’s well worth a listen & if there was a 3rd book even if it was of this calibre I would still buy it.
Hester came to a sticky end in real life…an end that is worthy of investigation.

Riveting sequel

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews