Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    The Tenth Gift: A Novel
    Unavailable
    The Tenth Gift: A Novel
    Unavailable
    The Tenth Gift: A Novel
    Audiobook14 hours

    The Tenth Gift: A Novel

    Written by Jane Johnson

    Narrated by John Lee and Susan Duerden

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    An enthralling story of secrets and discovering love where you least expect it, in The Tenth Gift the art of embroidery uncannily links two fascinating women of different eras and their equally passionate love stories

    In an expensive London restaurant, Julia Lovat receives a gift that changes her life. At first glance it is a book of exquisite seventeenth-century embroidery patterns belonging to a woman named Catherine Ann Tregenna. Yet in its margins are the faintest diary entries; they reveal that "Cat" and others were stolen from their Cornish church in 1625 by Muslim pirates and taken on a brutal voyage to Morocco to be auctioned off as slaves. Captivated by this dramatic discovery, Julia sets off to North Africa to determine the authenticity of the book and to uncover more of Cat's mesmerizing story. There, in the company of a charismatic Moroccan guide, amid the sultry heat, the spice markets, and exotic ruins, Julia will discover secrets long buried. And in Morocco-just as Cat did before her-she will lose her heart.

    Though they live almost 400 years apart, the stories of these two women converge in an extraordinary and haunting manner that begs the question, is history fated to repeat itself?

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateMay 6, 2008
    ISBN9781415949733
    Unavailable
    The Tenth Gift: A Novel
    Author

    Jane Johnson

    Jane Johnson is a British novelist and publisher. She is the UK editor for George R.R. Martin, Robin Hobb and Dean Koontz and was for many years publisher of the works of J.R.R. Tolkien. Married to a Berber chef she met while researching The Tenth Gift, she lives in Mousehole, Cornwall, and Morocco.

    Related to The Tenth Gift

    Related audiobooks

    Historical Fiction For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      #book Of The Month

      Nov 21, 2022

      #book Of The Month
      2 min read

    • Article

      Food, Farming, And Fatal Misjudgements

      Feb 24, 2023

      South African-born foodie supremo and renowned Great British Bake Off judge Prue Leith was recently back in the country for a holiday and to promote her two latest books. Bliss On Toast (Bloomsbury, R450) is a collection of yummy quick-meal recipes,

      2 min read

    • Article

      Read This!

      Jul 28, 2022

      By Lucy Lethbridge Bloomsbury; £20 A fascinating study of the emergence of the UK’s travel industry, from the end of the Napoleonic Wars through to the package holiday boom and on to the Instagram era, taking in tour guides and guide books along the

      3 min read

    • Article

      A Pre-loved Treasure House

      Oct 14, 2019

      A Pre-loved Treasure House
      9 min read

    • Article

      Better Books

      Jan 9, 2020

      Erin Morgenstern, $24.99 When Zachary Rawlins stumbles across a strange book hidden in his university library, it leads him on a quest unlike any other. Determined to solve the puzzle of the book, Zachary follows the clues he finds on the cover – a b

      2 min read

    • Article

      My Italian Glamourpuss Pal Was Boris’s Mother-in-law

      Sep 22, 2021

      To be blonde, beautiful, brainy, acquainted with the Mafia and a member of the Italian Communist Party – what more could a girl have wanted back in those golden 1960s? Gaia Servadio, who’s just died at 82, seemed to me to be the Zuleika Dobson of Fle

      3 min read

    • Article

      How A Highgate Publican Saved Queen Vi Ctoria In 1837

      May 13, 2022

      As family historians, we often encounter a wide spectrum of humaninterest stories, either handed down anecdotally, or from our research. Together these stories help to form a rich tapestry of our ancestors’ lives; just one of the elements that keeps

      2 min read

    • Article

      Science Fiction And Fantasy

      Dec 3, 2020

      John Ironmonger Weidenfeld & Nicolson 2020 Hb, 276pp, £16.99, ISBN 9780297608233 Heloise was born in 1759, when Halley’s comet was in the sky; her father, a French nobleman and astronomer, named her after the god of the Sun. Her family are caught up

      4 min read

    • Article

      Book Club

      Nov 25, 2020

      by Philippa Gregory (£20, HB, Simon & Schuster) In this second book in the Fairmile series, Gregory follows Alinor and her daughter Alys to Restoration London, far from the village accusations of witchcraft that almost killed her 21 years ago. But m

      2 min read

    • Article

      Book Club

      Feb 9, 2022

      It’s 1924 on the cruise ship Endeavour, where a dead art dealer and a stolen painting set the scene in this murder mystery. Ship’s Officer Tim Birch is tasked with helping tetchy detective James Temple investigate the death and search for clues to th

      2 min read

    • Article

      COUNT of The OCCULT

      Dec 28, 2023

      COUNT of The OCCULT
      7 min read

    • Article

      Pigs Will Fly

      Apr 28, 2021

      Pigs Will Fly
      3 min read

    • Article

      Dictators, Dresses And Dorgis: The Books That Throw Unexpected Light On Elizabeth II

      Sep 9, 2022

      Thousands of books were written about the Queen. Many were banal, some syrupy, a few hateful and most just plain wrong. But there are gems, too: biographies and histories but also novels that throw sharp and unexpected lights on this most singular –

      4 min read

    • Article

      Get Your Spook On

      Aug 31, 2021

      Get Your Spook On
      3 min read

    • Article

      Great Read

      Feb 23, 2022

      Great Read
      4 min read

    • Article

      On The Bookshelf

      Aug 26, 2022

      HARDBACK BOOK OF THE MONTH by Ava Glass Published by Century Price £14.99 Pages 400 ISBN 9781529135886 Russia never forgives or forgets, and 20 years after several high-profile scientists defected, they are murdered in London by a group of highly tra

      4 min read

    • Article

      The Library

      Dec 18, 2020

      Clanlands: Whisky, Warfare, and a Scottish Adventure Like No Other BY SAM HEUGHAN & GRAHAM MCTAVISH Sean Heughan, best known for his starring role as Jamie Fraser in the hit TV show Outlander, and Graham McTavish, also an actor of Outlander fame, pla

      2 min read

    • Article

      To Make Art Is To Be Human

      Oct 13, 2021

      IN 1950, Ernst Gombrich published The Story of Art. The book was an instant bestseller and was the first to show that there was, indeed, such a thing as a story of art, that artists and movements existed not in isolated moments of time, but as part o

      7 min read

    • Article

      Great Reads

      Feb 28, 2024

      by Emily Howes (£20, HB, Orion) The year is 1759 and the artist Thomas Gainsborough is living in Suffolk with his wife and daughters Peggy and Molly. The best of friends, the sisters do everything together; content to spy on their father and run arou

      2 min read

    • Article

      On The Bookshelf

      Sep 30, 2022

      HARDBACK BOOK OF THE MONTH The Rising Tide by Ann Cleeves Published by Pan Macmillan Price £20 Pages 384 ISBN 9781509889617 The bonds forged by a group of teenagers during a weekend at the Pilgrims’ House on Lindisfarne 50 years ago had lasted a life

      4 min read

    • Article

      A Time To Read

      Oct 19, 2022

      Was there ever a living monarch about whom so many books were written as Queen Elizabeth II? Surely not. But for those whose bookcases cannot bulge enough with monarchical blockbusters, there are lots more tributes to the late sovereign on the way in

      6 min read

    • Article

      On The Bookshelf

      Apr 29, 2022

      This is the Night They Come For You by Robert Goddard Published by Bantam Press Price £20 Pages 416 ISBN 9781787635081 Based on actual events in Paris in 1961, and Algeria’s long and painful road to independence, this first-rate, well researched thri

      4 min read

    • Article

      Read This!

      Sep 21, 2023

      IN ASSOCIATION WITH Readers get 10% off by using the code ‘Wandering’ on the Stanfords website: www.stanfords.co.uk. Wanderlust members can get 25% off – see p162 Christian Grataloup Thames & Hudson; £35 Stanfords Book of the Month for September2023

      2 min read

    • Article

      Books

      Jan 27, 2023

      Books
      2 min read

    • Article

      Great Read

      Aug 11, 2021

      Great Read
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Prince And The Plunder

      Mar 23, 2023

      The Prince And The Plunder
      2 min read

    Reviews for The Tenth Gift

    3.5/5

    199 ratings20 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 3/5
      A romance/adventure of a girl from Cornwall who is abducted straight from her church by Barbary pirates, and sold into slavery.
      This book was published as 'The Tenth Gift' but I read an ARC which still had the 'Crossed Bones' title on it, and I'm putting my review here because, seriously, I never would have picked it up with the 'Tenth Gift' title on it. Is there even a 'tenth gift' in the story? I don't think so! I want to hear about Pirates!
      Anyway, the book is vivid and well-researched. Apparently, the story was inspired by a family legend that a member of the author's family was kidnapped by pirates, and during her research trip to Morocco, the author fell in love with and married a local man. Her love of Morocco comes through loud and clear - too loud, in fact.
      The string of unbelievable events and portrayals includes too many things that are solely the province of romance novels; not reality (and this is, at heart, a romance novel.) Too many aspects of the story are quickly whitewashed over. Even if the main character was treated better than the other slaves due to her skill at embroidery - really, you think she's going to forgive and fall in love with the man who caused her family & friends to die in torturous conditions? Sure, Stockholm Syndrome exists, but the way it's treated here is all lovey-dovey and happy, and I can't help going, "uh, what? really?" I suppose there is a faint chance that life as a female slave in Morocco might have been better than life as a free woman in 17th-century England... but if you're gonna try to convince me of that, you're going to have to convince a bit harder.

      Oh! I almost forgot to mention anything about the modern-day, 'framing' story, which has to do with a modern woman finding the 17th-century woman's diary, which was given to her accidentally as a parting gift by her friend's husband, with whom she has been having an affair... He turns out to be a frighteningly huge jerk, but all-in-all, the present-day portion of the book is sort of boring and forgettable. I do love connecting antique items (like the book, and a panel of embroidery) to the stories of the past, but really, the 17th-century story is the one you're reading this for.

      Oh!! I also forgot about the haunty-ghosty part at the end. That was just dumb, and should have been removed.
    • 3/5
      Interesting, but not compelling. I liked the flipping back and forth between the stories of the two central characters, but never formed a strong affinity for either. Learned a bit about embroidery, though.
    • 4/5
      This is a book about many things: two women - one living now and one who lived in the early 17th century, embroidery, slavery, corsairs, Islam, Cornwall, Morocco. The romantic stories of Julia Lovett (21st century) and Catherine Ann Treggena (17th century) and how they were linked did not really excite me much. What did excite me was the amazing picture of life in rural Cornwall 500yrs ago, and the sights smells and sounds of Morocco then and now, Jane Johnson has a real knack of conjuring up the place and the time. She has researched the background subjects meticulously and put together an intriguing tale. I learnt a great deal from reading the book, and have subsequently followed up on some of the books Johnson includes in a list of recommended reading at the end. For some reason, the corsair raids on Cornwall and Devon during the 17th Century and their ability to capture and enslave English men women and children seems to have become a forgotten part of British history. 1,000,000 white slaves taken to North Africa is extraordinary, we are all taught about the black slave trade but this area seems to have been air-brushed out of the picture.
    • 4/5
      This is a beautiful story. The book starts with Julia, who has been having an affair with her best friend's husband. He gives her a gift of a centuries-old book about needlework (Julia owns an embroidery shop) and Julia discovers the story of Catherine, a young servant woman who is captured by Barbary pirates. The book goes back and forth between Julia's investigation of Catherine's life and Catherine's recounting of her journey. The author has a gift for descriptive writing- the colors, smells, tastes and life in the book leap off the page. It's also a very satisfying book that will hold you spellbound until the very last page.Food: This book is spiced cake with nuts and dates, served with mint tea. It is lush, dense, flavorful and refreshing, all at once, without being too heavy.
    • 5/5
      A really good read with wonderful descriptions of 1600's life in contrast to present day.
    • 4/5
      Because I enjoy cross-stitch myself, this book caught my eye. I really enjoyed the blend of history and romance with a touch of the paranormal. I really enjoyed how the two main characters' love of stitching drove both their own stories, as well as connecting them across so many years.A very good read, and I'm looking forward to her next book.
    • 3/5
      It was interesting, but the resolution was a little too pat. Also, the storyline with Andrew and the attic was completely unnecessary. I enjoyed it. I just didn't love it.
    • 5/5
      *Story Within a Story Linked by Thread*The two intertwining stories of both Julia in modern day Cornwall, and of Catherine in 17th century Cornwall mix together for an engaging and enthralling story within a story. The characters of both Julia and Catherine are very well developed, they are both captivating and interesting woman you will like. Both of their lives bring intrigue, passion, and endurance as well as heartache, love and pain. I was totally riveted to this novel, and could not put it down. The author's detailed and evocative descriptions of the actualities of the Barbary Pirate slave trade, and the luscious and exotic environment of Morocco then and now, leap off the page allowing the reader to feel as if they were there in that spiced and alluring foreign land. In a small way this reads like an old fashioned historical romance but it has much more substance and is written in a more literary style. The added attraction of weaving in the art of embroidery to both sides of the story was also very unusual. I eagerly await another masterpiece like this from the author, and think she deserves many claps and a standing ovation!
    • 5/5
      Superb, in every way. What a good read! We meet Catharine Tregenna who lived in Cornwall in the year 1625. Poor Catherine was abducted by Barbary pirates. She was thrown into the hold of a corsair and eventually to Morocco and sold into slavery. Catherine manages to keep a diary of her adventures.This diary falls into the hands of Julia Lovat who lives her life in the present day. Slowly Catherine's story begins to unfold.This book is a gem. It kept me reading till the very end. Thank you Jane Johnson for writing such a good book!
    • 2/5
      Love these present/past novels! I really enjoyed the intertwined stories, and great female characters.
    • 5/5
      I picked this one up because the cover was intruiging; then I read that it involved an antique needlework/embroidery book and I had to give it a shot. What a pleasant surprise. The story involves a modern woman who receives the book as a gift, and finds that inside is the hand-written diary of a woman kidnapped by Morrocan pirates in 1625.This is a first novel by this author. It is very well written, and I couldn't wait to see what would happen next.
    • 3/5
      I really wanted to love this book. Great plot, engaging characters, nice mix of history, women's roles, romance, mystery. None of those features got fully developed. The central characters were barely developed and the side characters were skeletal. Everyone's motivations were thin and muddy. The resolution was far too quick and easy. It's a good book, but I didn't love it.
    • 4/5
      I mostly enjoyed this book. When Julia Lovat is dropped by her lover, he gives her a book- The Needlewoman's Glorie- which belonged to a Cornish girl in the 1600's. The Cornish girl is Cat is who is a servant to Lady Harris of Kenegie. Until one Sunday morning in church Cat & sixty others are abducted by Barbary pirates....The story flows well & is well written, Jane Johnson's characters are very vivid & so is her writing, I could picture events playing out as I was reading them. The only downside to this story is that the ending seems a little too neat. It's a happy ending so yay but it all played out rather quickly without much warning & it just seemed a little made up. Apart from that though it's a pretty good story :O)
    • 4/5
      A wonderful adventure novel set in 1625 filled with English nobles and servants, pirates on the high seas, slaves in Muslim Morrocco and romance too. Plus it is all based on historical data which we follow as the novel swings from 1625 to present day.I enjoyed this novel very much,.
    • 4/5
      I really enjoyed my reading of The Tenth Gift by Jane Johnson. The story swings back and forth between two women, Julia in modern times and Catherine from the year 1625. Both stories were interesting and although neither would have fully sustained a book on their own, this blend worked. Julia came into possession of an antique book that turned out to be Catherine’s journal describing how she was taken captive by Barbary pirates in Cornwall and spirited away to be sold as a slave in Morocco. The connection between the two women was credible and I liked the fact that it was never fully confirmed that they were related. Also, having both women involved with embroidery was both different and interesting. Julia eventually decides to follow in Catherine’s footsteps and travels to Morocco to continue to trace Catherine. Both she and Catherine seem to be destined to find their future in this exotic country.I felt the contrast between the two women could have been more defined. For all her modern ways, Julia didn’t seem that different from Catherine, who, in turn, seemed a little too “with-it” to be a totally credible 17th Century woman. I would have liked both these characters to have been a little more developed. Overall however, The Tenth Gift was a fast-paced, highly readable story that shines a light on a little known piece of history.
    • 2/5
      I will begin by stating that this is not my usual type of book; it was lent to me by a friend and then a member of my book club mentioned it, so I decided to read it. Unfortunately, I couldn’t enjoy it because I was so bothered by the unbelievable events and characters.There are two stories. In the present, Julia Lovat is given an early 17th century book of needlework by her lover as a gift to end their seven-year affair. She soon discovers that a lady’s maid used the book as a diary. This young woman, Catherine Ann Tregenna (Cat), wants more than anything to become a master embroiderer and to escape the confines of Cornwall. Her latter wish is granted when she is one of the 60 people taken captive by Barbary pirates and brought to Morocco to be sold into slavery. Julia, fascinated by Cat’s diary, makes her way to North Africa to find out what happened to her.One of the aspects of the book that really bothered me is that both Julia is so stupid. She becomes obsessed with Cat’s diary and while reading it comes across the name Annie Badcock (89), yet when she hears it again, she doesn’t remember it: “Annie Badcock. The name was vaguely familiar, but I couldn’t remember where I’d come across it” (131). In the diary she also sees the surname Bolitho (24), yet she doesn’t remember that an aunt, the mother of her cousin and best friend, is a Bolitho. She has to be told: “’Well, Alison’s mother’s a Bolitho, isn’t she? You should know – she’s your cousin’” (322). And this is after Julia has several conversations with Alison about the diary and its contents! And she’s so inept in her conversations, at one time telling a Muslim man that his ancestors were “’such barbarous people’” (346). And the author never thought of a connection between the derivation of the adjective “barbarous” and the Barbary Coast of North Africa?The other problem is that the number of parallels between Julia and Cat’s stories suggests excessive contrivance. They both look best in red dresses, and even their handwriting is similar. Both are experts in embroidery. Both have relationships which are unsatisfying. Each encounters a fortune teller who accurately predicts her future. The number of coincidences is also excessive. Julia, who comes from Cornwall, has an affair with a man whose wife comes from Cornwall. Crucial letters which reveal the end of Cat’s story are found in Alison’s Cornwall home and a sample of Cat’s work is owned by the wife of Julia’s lover. And in Morocco Julia meets someone who also seems to have a piece of Cat’s embroidery from almost 400 years ago. The coincidences just go on and on. This book would be classified as a historical romance so obviously there will be romantic relationships, but it would be better if these romances were credible. Is it likely that a woman would fall in love with someone who orchestrated the capture of 60 people including her family members, who tortured and killed captives, and who sold them into slavery? Julia also seems to move from a bad relationship to an unlikely one.The one interesting aspect of the novel is its discussion of embroidery, a handicraft practiced by women around the world for centuries. The author seems to have done considerable research into embroidery in Medieval Islamic culture. This is a work of fluff. It has the romantic element in an exotic location and a historical context which will appeal to readers of escapist fiction. It did not appeal to me.
    • 4/5
      Jane Johnson's Crossed Bones has come at a great time - it seems there have never been so many good historical writers on our shelves and there is always room for one more. From the intriguing first line to the end of the novel this is exciting, entertaining and extremely enjoyable.I've seen various people describe it as a 'rip-roaring read' and a 'swashbuckling pirate tale' and I would agree with both. Jane Johnson has weaved an excellent story into a well-researched historical backround. If you doubt the extent of her reading, check out the back of the book where a list of further reading sources is provided.The writing style is clear, catchy and accessible and the characters are excellent. This enchanting mix of past and present is a real winner.
    • 3/5
      The Tenth Gift was such a different premise to my current reading that I admit I found it difficult to get my head into a non-zombie, non-post-apocalyptic state of mind, and it has taken me nearly a month to complete. Not because I didn’t enjoy it, but because I kept getting distracted by all the other books on my e-shelf. I read a lot of reviews of this book before I started reading this book (something I rarely do), and the overwhelming majority of readers either didn’t respect, or found it hard to connect with the main character, Julia, mainly due to her choices in life. Personally, I didn’t have that problem – sure, I didn’t agree with some of her life choices, but I could understand why she made some of those choices. The character of Cat is particularly engaging – the journal excerpts are written in 17th century English which can be hard to read, until you get used to it, and her fiery, independent character make her the ultimate heroine of this book. The dedication of Rob is sweet but does stretch the imagination a little. There is a focus on Moroccan and 17th century English history, and the history of embroidery and needlework in the middle-east and England, which adds an extra point of interest. I’m undecided on this one – there were some very interesting parts, and some that just felt like padding.
    • 4/5
      The Tenth Gift is part mystery, part romance, part fantasy, and part historical fiction, and I think all of these elements work together quite nicely. I love historical fiction, and I have never read of this period in history before, so I appreciate learning some of it. Many parts of the story are quite implausible (which I won't list here lest I spoil the twists of the plot), but I don't really mind. This novel is an escapist pleasure, and I highly recommend it.
    • 5/5
      I loved this book. It was rich in details and place, with believable characters. I listened to it on CD, but it would make a great read. The two readers, a man and woman, are British and were wonderful at difference voices and accents. Listening was outstanding due to them. The story takes place across continents and will keep you listening or turning pages.

      The prose style was easy, yet sophisticated, in this book and never boring. I wish I'd written it.