This Time Next Year We'll Be Laughing

A Memoir

By: Jacqueline Winspear

Narrated by: Jacqueline Winspear

“Jacqueline Winspear has created a memoir of her English childhood that is every bit as engaging as her Maisie Dobbs novels, just as rich in character and detail, history and humanity. Her writing is lovely, elegant and welcoming.” (Anne Lamott)

The New York Times best-selling author of the Maisie Dobbs series offers a deeply personal memoir of her family’s resilience in the face of war and privation.

After 16 novels, Jacqueline Winspear has taken the bold step of turning to memoir, revealing the hardships and joys of her family history. Both shockingly frank and deftly restrained, her story tackles the difficult, poignant, and fascinating family accounts of her paternal grandfather’s shell shock; her mother’s evacuation from London during the Blitz; her soft-spoken animal-loving father’s torturous assignment to an explosives team during WWII; her parents’ years living with Romany gypsies; and Winspear’s own childhood picking hops and fruit on farms in rural Kent, capturing her ties to the land and her dream of being a writer at its very inception.

An eye-opening and heartfelt portrayal of a postwar England we rarely see, This Time Next Year We’ll Be Laughing chronicles a childhood in the English countryside, of working class indomitability and family secrets, of artistic inspiration and the price of memory.

©2020 Jacqueline Winspear (P)2020 Recorded Books, Inc.

A delightful series of tales of real people

I so enjoyed listening to this in the author's own voice. Ms. Winspear is not a profesional voice-over artist, so if you're looking for the energy and drama being provided that way, you won't find it too often here. Instead, in her own words, the experiences she shares come to life as only the person who lived them, or as one so close to those who did, could portray. And for those of you who, like me, love and admire Maisie Dobbs, you may even catch a glimpse or two of her here. Brava! And thank you!

Loved it

If you enjoy Jacqueline Winspear’s writing you will be enchanted with this book too. It was delightful to hear her voice.

Excellent memoir

Jacqueline Winspear narrates her own story beautifully. She is the author of the Maisie Dobbs mysteries, but here, she tells her own story and that of her family, from its post War roots to the present. It’s full of authentic atmosphere and the ups and downs brought on by a family affected by two World Wars and the struggles to keep a family together.

This Time Next Year We'll Be Laughing

This is personal on many levels. My mother was keeper of stories, my father the discoverer of wonder, sharer of joy. I was the receptacle they poured. I feel very lucky to have been their daughter.
I find Mendocino a place of magic for me. The first time I saw it my cells said "home" knowing my ancestors lived this and somehow my cellular cement remembered.
Look it there, what a gasping incredible view, I am lucky, so lucky indeed.

The true story

Having read all the books about Maisie Dobbs, psychologist and investigator, it is a thrill to find out what makes the author of these wonderful books tick. How did she gain so much insight into what it was like to work as a nurse in a field hospital in northern France during WWI? What society was like after that awful war and how people coped with their losses? How did she know how to work a public telephone in the 30’s and how to negotiate the fine line in maintaining her independence while working with and for the police? Many of the details in her memoir fill in the blanks of the settings in her stories, from hop-picking in Kent as a summer holiday to surviving the blitz. She has a fabulous memory, a huge help. Thanks to Jacqueline Winspear for this unique look into her past.

Marie Dobbs saved my sanity

I listened to the entire Masie Dobbs (and Mary Russell series by Laurie R. King) series twice in two consecutive very turbulent of my 73 years. Both very strong women navigating idealized but accurately misogynistic worlds. Listening to these books got me out of my then current life into a safer saner space. Ms Winspear’s memoir is a very good story with great insights as to where some of her story lines began. The look into post World War II England was delicious. Gave me perspective into the different but similar situations my parents faced. I just wish Ms Winspear had asked Ms Orlaff to narrate this important addition to her body of work. I’m anxious for a deeper look into her life here into America. Great writer do not always make good readers. Ms Winspear’s writing voice is phenomenal. Ms Orlaff’s reading voice is equally special.

A wonderful memoir

I loved this book. I have read the rest of Jaqueline Winspear’s books so it was very interesting to hear the story of her childhood and connect her real life with her fiction.

The fact that the author read her own words made it particularly enjoyable.

Great memoir!

I listened to this in bits as I embroidered in the mornings. Jacqueline is a lovely storyteller as she narrates this herself in such a beautiful voice. Having her tell the stories that were only hers to tell made this even more special.

The honesty of good times and bad

It was a gift to receive the story of Jacqueline Winspear's parents and her growing up, told in her own voice - a treasure I will cherish.

Love it and will listen again

At times her story is painful to listen to - amazing what she endured and suffered through. I can relate to the things she talked about at the end, regarding her mother’s treatment of her and the dishonesty. All I can say is, although her life was much more difficult than mine in some ways, we are both survivors but unlike Ms. Winspear, I have not yet realized my childhood dreams of being a writer. I’m so very grateful that she did. She deserves happy endings and laughter. I would have liked to hear more about how she came to decide to live in America, and how she met her husband, etc. I don’t agree with those who didn’t care for her narration - I thought it was great and her story held my interest from start to end. I’m glad she wrote this memoir.