Episode 1

Katherine Hilbery, grand-daughter of a great Victorian poet, is forced to choose between her engagement to the eminently suitable William Rodney, and her attraction to Ralph Denham, with whom she feels a more profound and disturbing affinity.

Meanwhile, Suffrage campaigner Mary Datchet has also fallen for Ralph - and she too must decide between her feelings and her dedication to the Women's Suffrage movement.

Kristin Scott Thomas narrates Virginia Woolf's comic novel set in pre-First World War London, challenging all assumptions about the nature of love.

Dramatised in two parts by Lavinia Greenlaw.

Katharine Hilbery .... Dervla Kirwan
Ralph Denham .... Jamie Glover
Mary Datchet .... Susannah Corbett
William Rodney.... John MacKay
Mrs Hilbery..... Phyllida Nash
Mr Hilbery.... Jonathan Nibbs
Mr Clacton..... Paul Nicholson
Mrs Seal..... Jacqueline Tong
Aunt Millicent..... June Barrie
Henry Otway .... Mark Meadows

Produced at BBC Bristol by Kate McAll

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in July 2003.