The Honey Year – Part 1
By Iola Marsh
Tonight's reading is free — and part one is free on a selection of our series, always. Over 500 more, and every new one first, are on Sleepbound Premium.
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Our other two shows, if tonight's isn't quite what you were after:
→ Sleepbound Nights — original cosy bedtime stories for grown-ups: Apple Podcasts
→ Sleepbound Soundscapes — ambient sleep music, no narration: Apple Podcasts
"She was the sort of woman whose cooking carried."
Tonight, Effie is standing in the emptied school kitchen with a ring of brass keys warm in her palm — rosemary still caught in the limewash, the tap still dripping behind her. A letter from Athens, two keys on a piece of folded twine, and somewhere on the island of Anemos: a cottage that has been waiting.
Part 1 travels from London to Anemos — a solicitor's letter, Mrs Whitlock's counsel over seed cake on Lamb's Conduit Street, and at last the cottage itself: fig tree, beeswax, pale green morning light through the open shutters. A slow, tender opening to a quiet, character-led story.
This is a slow, island-set English reading for sleep — soft spoken, no music. No drama. Just brass keys, a cleared kitchen, and the first morning in a cottage on Anemos.
Thanks for being here with us. Sweet dreams.
— Ian & Alex
Your copy
The Honey Year is also a book you can buy on Amazon: find it here. Members get a copy on Patreon.
💤 This audiobook is for you if
- You fall asleep better with a voice than with silence
- You love quiet, character-led stories set on sun-warmed Greek islands
- You want something slow enough to actually let go
- Early-twentieth-century English fiction with an unhurried mystery at its heart is your kind of bedtime
🌙 Best experienced
Headphones on. Lights off. Somewhere warm.
Let the smell of orange peel and beeswax in a cottage on Anemos do the rest.
Includes mentions of: Bereavement, Travel, Food and Drink, Baking, Tea, Animals, History.
