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Laughter is unique to man. This delightful anthology presents some of the funniest extracts in English literature. David Timson starts with Anglo-Saxon riddles and continues with medieval memories, Tudor comic turns and Restoration buffoonery. The rise of the novel in the eighteenth century brought classic humour from Swift, Sterne and Smollet, passing the mantle to Charles Dickens in the nineteenth century. Included here are rarities as well, from the antiquarian’s cupboard. There are also excerpts from children’s literature and twentieth-century classics as diverse as Dorothy Parker and P. G. Wodehouse. An entertainment from start to finish.

The year is 1866. The maritime world is gripped by fear after reported sightings of a huge and terrible sea monster. Monsieur Aronnax, a distinguished Professor of Natural History, pronounces the creature to be a giant narwhal and is invited to join an official expedition to track down the beast. But Professor Aronnax is proved wrong; the beast is not of the natural world, but a huge submarine. When he is pulled out of the sea by the enigmatic Captain Nemo, and imprisoned on the Nautilus, he experiences at first hand the marvels and perils of submarine life. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is possibly the first and finest work of science fiction plausible, terrifying and utterly gripping.

The year is 1866 and the maritime world is gripped by fear after reported sightings of a huge sea monster. Famous marine biologist Pierre Aronnax, accompanied by his loyal servant Conseil and the redoubtable Canadian harpooner Ned Land, joins the hunt to track down and incapacitate the creature. But their enemy is no sea beast… and they soon come face to face with the sinister Captain Nemo. The story is relentlessly thrilling, while containing beautifully written observations of underwater life.

Jules Verne’s fascinating novel takes the listener on a journey beneath the sea to the far reaches of the world. The figure of Captain Nemo provides a dark undercurrent to the optimism of Verne’s narrator, Pierre Aronnax. Bill Homewood’s narration is truly delightful. His melodic cadence delivers the descriptive prose engagingly, and his vocal characterisations are also convincing. As Professor Aronnax, he enthusiastically expounds upon scientific explanations, adding excitement to what could be dry bits of text. Ned Land has a gruff, burly voice, while the mysterious Captain Nemo speaks in a slightly foreign accent. Homewood’s narration invites the listener onto the Nautilus and a world of undersea adventure.

D.M.W., AudioFile

Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) was one of the most influential presidents of the USA, uniting the country and abolishing slavery after a terrible civil war. On the 200th anniversary of his birth, his life and works are presented here in an easy introductory form. Through a balance of biography and the key speeches and letters, the man is brought to life, demonstrating his keen intelligence and determination, which was maintained all the way to his tragic death at the hand of an assassin.

The biography outlines the career of this lean, 6ft 4in man from the backwoods who became one of America’s greatest statesmen and brought an end to slavery. The eloquence of his speeches and the humanity of his letters are palpable. An authoritative, not sycophantic, narration.

Rachel Redford, The Observer

George Eliot’s first full-length novel, Adam Bede, is a profound rendering of 19th-century English pastoral life. This timeless story of seduction and betrayal follows the virtuous carpenter Adam Bede, whose world is soon disrupted when the all-too-beautiful Hetty betrays him for another villager. Her actions precipitate a turmoil of tragic events that shake the very foundations of their serene rural community. Eliot’s gift for leisurely and lyrical prose is in full effect here and her insight into human emotion and complexity is unrivalled.

Through the lens of literary realism, George Eliot examines the female role through Hetty, a woman tempted by illusions of grandeur, and Dinah, a woman whose life is dedicated to a religious calling as a Methodist itinerant preacher. Both women impact the heart of the honest carpenter Adam Bede. Georgina Sutton offers an expressive narration of Eliot’s novel. It’s clear that she grasps the tone of the prose through her delivery of the narrative voice, a voice that Eliot fills with many speculative asides. Sutton also convincingly portrays the country dialect of several characters, especially Adam and his brother, Seth, who both come across as good-hearted and noble. Sutton’s pleasant tone is engaging throughout and draws one into the drama in the fictional community of Hayslope.

D.M.W., AudioFile

With a horse between his thighs and a weapon in his grip, the dashing Brigadier Etienne Gerard, Colonel of the Hussars of Conflans, gallops through the Napoleonic campaigns on secret missions for his beloved Emperor and his country. He encounters danger and hair-breadth escapes but never loses his bravado, his eye for a pretty girl, his boastfulness or his enormous vanity. Gerard is Conan Doyle’s most lovable character. At times hilarious, at times touching, these stories are amongst Conan Doyle’s most popular.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle may be best known for his Sherlock Holmes stories, but they were not his favorites. He loved the stories that promoted the chivalric ethos, even if they sometimes made fun of their heroes, as here. Gerard is a cavalry officer who is devoted to Napoleon and is incapable of seeing the world through any other lens. Rupert Degas is reliably excellent as the ego-inflated officer who fails to see the differences between French and English values, remaining fully confident through what most of us would consider the most embarrassing situations. But Degas never loses touch with the man’s innate courage, grace, and devotion to his principles.

D.M.H., AudioFile

Naxos Audiobooks continue to revive some long forgotten works by that genius writer of detective fiction, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. This time it is ‘The Adventures of Brigadier Gerard’ – a swashbuckling set of stories set in the Napoleonic Wars and including some pretty far fetched plots. Rupert Degas is the ideal reader for this type of narrative – his French sounding inflexions are truly a delight to listen to especially in the more tender parts of the tales. The seven hours of stories may be slightly heavy on the ear so it is advisable to take them one at a time but with the well chosen interludes taken from similarly swashbuckling Berlioz overtures, you really cannot miss out. I particularly enjoyed the action packed part on the capture of Saragossa as well as the final part on Waterloo with Degas truly in his element describing the bloodthirsty scenes of battlefield carnage. Yet another winner from the astonishingly diverse Naxos Audiobooks stable.

Gerald Fenech, Malta News Online

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is best known for his Sherlock Holmes stories. But he is also the creator of Etienne Gerard, a calvary officer in the armies of Napoleon. The Adventures Of Brigadier Gerard is a collection of colorful (and often humorous) stories of Gerard’s missions during the Napoleonic Wars ranging from Spain and Italy to England and Russia. The Adventures […] are deftly and dramatically narrated by Rupert Degas who does the storytelling talents of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle full and complete justice. […] a technically flawless audio production. The result is pure entertainment and the highest possible recommendation for personal and community library audio book collections.

Library Bookwatch

Floating down the Mississippi on their raft, Huckleberry Finn and Jim, a runaway slave, find life filled with excitement and the spirit of adventure. Join Huck and Jim and their old friend Tom Sawyer as they come up against low-down thieves and murderers, whilst being chased by Huck’s evil, drunken father who is after Huck’s treasure. It is a trip that you will never tire of.

Floating down the Mississippi on their raft, Huckleberry Finn and Jim, a runaway slave, find life filled with excitement and the spirit of adventure. Join Huck and Jim and their old friend Tom Sawyer as they come up against low-down thieves and murderers, whilst being chased by Huck’s evil, drunken father who is after Huck’s treasure. It is a trip that you will never tire of. In this new unabridged recording, Garrick Hagon brings his remarkable powers of vocal characterisation to the unforgettable portraits created by Twain.

The Adventures of Odysseus is the story of what happened after the Trojan War when Odysseus, the most cunning of all the Greek heroes, left Troy and made his way back to his wife Penelope and his son Telemachus. It was first told by a poet named Homer nearly three thousand years ago and is retold in this new version especially for younger listeners.

Tobias Smollett, in his creation of the Scot Roderick Random, exposes the sheer incompetence and injustice of the Royal Navy, as well as the snobbery and hypocrisy prevalent in English middle-class society at the time. Set in the mid-18th century, this picaresque novel follows the life and adventures of Roderick, the eponymous hero who has been shunned by his gentleman father’s family on the basis of the lowliness of his mother’s family. Expelled from school, Roderick falls back on his natural wit and the support of his maternal uncle. Embarking on a global voyage, hindered by his naivete and with only a few friends to help him, he pursues the rich ladies of the world in order to rise into the high society from which he was rudely ejected. He ends up twice serving on British ships, latterly a warship onto which he is press-ganged. Where will his travels take him?

In this collection are four of the finest cases of Mr Sherlock Holmes, narrated by his faithful friend and admirer Dr Watson. What was the horror of The Speckled Band or the secret behind the curious legacy for men of red hair? These and other puzzles are solved by this bloodhound of a genius.

• The Adventure of the Speckled Band
• The Adventure of the Stock-Broker’s Clerk
• The Adventure of the Copper Beeches
• The Adventure of the Red-Headed League

In this collection are four of the finest cases of Mr Sherlock Holmes, narrated by his faithful friend and admirer Dr Watson. What was the mystery of the engineer’s thumb? What was behind the disappearance of the race horse? Why did masked royalty walk up to see Holmes in Baker Street? These and other puzzles are solved by this bloodhound of a genius.

• The Scandal in Bohemia
• The Adventure of the Engineer’s Thumb
• The Five Orange Pips
• Silver Blaze

In this collection are four more individual cases for Mr Sherlock Holmes, narrated by his faithful friend and admirer Dr Watson. Once more, they are solved by this bloodhound of a genius.

• The Man with the Twisted Lip
• The Musgrave Ritual
• The Adventure of the Cardboard Box
• The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle

Four more stories from the master detective. The mystery of the missing suitor is solved and Sherlock Holmes raises his whip… an Indian pot stands in the shadows of a Colonel’s death… serious affairs of state and international diplomacy are threatened by a theft… and surely evil intent lies behind threats in a hidden house. The cool observations and swift action of Sherlock Holmes resolves all.

• A Case of Identity
• The Adventure of the Crooked Man
• The Naval Treaty
• The Greek Interpreter

Dr Watson comments ‘The stage lost a fine actor’ when Holmes chose to devote his formidable talents to the solution of crime. two of these stories, The Reigate Squire and The Adventure of Beryl Coronet, Holmes demonstrates his thespian powers as he unravels the mysteries. In the first he explains a rural murder while in the second, Holmes’ timely intervention prevents something of a national – even royal – scandal. The Boscombe Valley Mystery takes Holmes and Watson once again to the English countryside, but the famous detective uncovers old Australian animosities to get to the root of the problem. The Yellow Face, which concludes the selection, is one of the most fascinating in the whole canon, raising some key social issues of the time.

• The Reigate Squire
• The Boscombe Valley Mystery
• The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet
• The Yellow Face

In The Final Problem, perhaps the greatest of the short stories of Sherlock Holmes, the English detective encounters his most formidable rival, Professor Moriarty. ‘The Napoleon of Crime’ is how Holmes describes his adversary to his faithful companion, Dr Watson, as they move to the ultimate confrontation at the Reichenbach Falls. Also in this collection is the intriguing mystery of the disappearing bride in The Noble Bachelor and two threats from the past in Gloria Scott and The Resident Patient.

• The Adventure of the ‘Gloria Scott’
• The Adventure of the Resident Patient
• The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor
• The Adventure of the Final Problem

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is the story of a boy’s adventures growing up in a small town on the banks of the Mississippi river over a hundred years ago. The cheerful, adventurous hero plays truant to form a pirate band and, together with his best friend, Huckleberry Finn, finds fun and excitement, and buried treasure, along the shores of the great river.

Tom Sawyer is a dare-devil, a schemer, a prankster, a main-chancer. His inventiveness and energy know no bounds; whenever his Aunt Polly thinks he is tucked up in bed, he is most likely creeping out into the night on deeds of daring – ‘not the Model Boy of the village,’ as the author puts it. In creating this humorous and dramatic story of childhood, Mark Twain has given us a vivid picture of life in a small town on the Mississippi in the mid-nineteenth century and created one of the most popular boy heroes in literature.

Virgil’s Aeneid, one of the greatest Classical poems, tells the story of Aeneas, son of Priam, after the fall of Troy. His quest is to find the site ‘in the west’ where he will found a new town prophesied to be the seat of a world empire – Rome. This great poem, in a modern translation by Cecil Day Lewis, is superbly read by the great classical actor Paul Scofield, with Jill Balcon.

The masterpiece of Rome’s greatest poet, Virgil’s Aeneid has inspired generations of readers and holds a central place in Western literature. The epic tells the story of a group of refugees from the ruined city of Troy, whose attempts to reach a promised land in the West are continually frustrated by the hostile goddess Juno. Finally reaching Italy, their leader Aeneas is forced to fight a bitter war against the natives to establish the foundations from which Rome is destined to rise. This magnificent poem, in the modern translation by Cecil Day Lewis, is superbly read by David Collins.

I hadn’t read any Virgil before listening to this engaging 1952 version of the classic tale of Aeneas escaping from Troy and eventually laying the foundations of Rome. All manner of gods and mythic characters are knitted into it and we find out why the Trojans were stupid enough to haul that wooden horse inside Troy, why poor Laocoön and his sons got strangled by serpents, why Aeneas ratted on Dido and so on and so on. Cecil Day-Lewis’s euphonious hexameters were meant to be easy on the ear, being written for broadcast on the BBC, and are given added force by colloquialisms such as Jupiter’s ‘storm troops’, the golden bough as a ‘passport’ to the underworld, the sneering description of Aeneas as a ‘Phrygian pansy’ and Pyrrhus as a ‘milksop’.

Christina Hardyment, The Times

The late poet laureate Cecil Day-Lewis’s translation of this Roman epic is idiosyncratic, but David Collins’s narration is consistently gripping. This is no small achievement, considering how remarkably passive Aeneas is for an epic hero. Letting Virgil do most of the work of distinguishing the characters, Collins brings the drama to life. His portrayal of Dido is particularly moving. Even in this modern (and, to some tastes, too modernised) version, Virgil’s classical Latin can be chilly. Collins adds the heat necessary to make us weep, if not for Hecuba, then at least for Dido and Andromache. There are several good recordings of The Aeneid, and we can add this one to the list.

D.M.W., AudioFile

How can the Tortoise run faster than the Hare? What happens when the Dog growls at its image? Or when the Country Mouse goes to supper with the Town Mouse? These wonderful stories have delighted adults and children for centuries, with their witty observations on both animals and humans. In the Fox, in the Crow, in the Lion, in the Ass who puts on a wolf’s skin, we see humankind with all its foibles. The stories are told with the enduring magic of a master storyteller, and set against the bright sounds of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons and other concertos.

‘In a Nutshell’, the new 1-CD audiobook series from Naxos AudioBooks, continues with a fascinating history of Afghanistan. For centuries it has been the playground of big powers, from Alexander the Great to the British Empire and the Soviet Union. It has been torn by internal strife and ideological differences, yet Afghans, tribal though they may be, remain a proud nation. Here is a short history, setting the background to the current situation.

Afghanistan, with its poppies, forbidding geography, earthquakes and internecine clashes, has been invaded since the fourth century. This history ends with the present invasion by Nato forces and explains the tensions between Russia, USA and Britain that led to it.

Rachel Redford, The Observer

It took Alexander the Great six months to conquer Persia and three years to subdue Afghanistan, ‘a land of leonine and brave people’, he wrote to his mother, where ‘every foot of ground is like a wall of steel’. Two millennia on, it was Britain’s turn to take on the legendary warrior horsemen. In January 1842, three years after the start of the first Anglo-Afghan war (we’re now on the fourth), the beleaguered British garrison in Kabul, escorting 1,500 civilians, began the desperate retreat to Jalalabad. As they crossed the snows of the Hindu Kush, they were massacred by Pashtun tribesmen, leaving a single British survivor to tell the story. In 1979, 30,000 Soviet troops were dispatched to help Kabul’s new liberal government fight the Islamist mujahideen guerrillas, in whose ranks a youthful Osama bin Laden was already making a name. They retreated 10 years later with a butcher’s bill of 15,000 dead and 65,000 wounded, leaving behind a million dead Afghans. No country as ethnically, politically and religiously fragmented as Afghanistan, with its warlords, honour codes, Taliban fanatics, suicide bombers and a single illegal source of revenue – opium poppies – could expect an easy ride, but since the Soviet occupation it has not had a single year of peace. If only all guides to complex subjects were as clear, compact and impartial.

Sue Arnold, The Guardian

Published in 1884, Against Nature (À rebours) concerns the attempts of its cultured and neurotic anti-hero, Des Esseintes, to escape contemporary Parisian life. At his rural retreat he is able to indulge his particular artistic tastes as he muses on a range of topics including literature, religion and painting.

Although regarded as shocking on its publication, Against Nature was received with enthusiasm by the aesthetic movement and, most particularly, Oscar Wilde, who featured the book in The Picture of Dorian Gray. Against Nature marks a departure from the classic form of 19th-century literature, and this audiobook features the full text, with previously expurgated parts restored.

Huysmans’s nineteenth-century study of an aesthete who is trying to transcend dull normalcy and titillate his intellect and senses sounds at times like a series of essays. Despite the lack of incident, Leighton Pugh narrates at a heightened level of feeling, though the clarity of his tone and British accent, the precision of his delivery, and his sensitivity to the text keep the performance from becoming wearisome. No matter how dry its material, the book, pitched at an elevated level of nervous excitation, and its high-strung protagonist justify – even demand – this sustained intensity. Pugh manages to ensure that such topics as Latin literature are given more drama than print readers would likely find on their own. His delivery of this difficult text may keep listeners involved – even entertained.

W.M., AudioFile

‘The real loneliness is living among all these kind people who only ask one to pretend!’ Awarded the 1921 Pulitzer Prize (the first to be presented to a woman), Edith Wharton’s The Age of Innocence is a powerful depiction of love and desire in New York’s glamorous Gilded Age. When Newland Archer, happily engaged to May Welland, meets his  fiancée’s cousin Ellen, his entire future is cast into doubt: strong-willed, witty, and entirely unpretentious, Ellen is unlike any woman he has ever met. He is torn between his infatuation for her and his duty to marry May. In subtle and elegant language, Wharton delivers a critical look at the social mores of the time.

Edith Wharton was looking back to her own innocence when in 1920, in her late fifties, she wrote The Age of Innocence, a story of the cracks that were beginning to appear in old-fashioned fin de siècle New York society. Newland Archer is about to be married when his fiancée’s cousin returns to New York, in search of a divorce from her abusive Polish husband, and his complacent, sedate world rocks on its pedestal. In the best Brief Encounter tradition, the lovers fight their feelings, little realising that their passion is well-understood by their nearest and dearest. It won the Pulitzer prize for fiction, the first awarded to a woman author, and it still has a haunting ‘road not taken’ quality that leaves the listener musing on might-have-beens. Laurel Lefkow, who can sound marvellously raunchy reading such titles as The Devil Wears Prada, adopts a precise well-behaved diction perfectly matched to the novel.

Christina Hardyment, The Times

Narrator Lauren Lefkow brings a calm and dignified tone to Edith Wharton’s high-society classic. It’s a novel full of wry comic observations on the social restraints that bind the upper echelon of New York City society, especially its female members. Lefkow contributes a fitting sense of intelligent restraint without sacrificing the warmth and versatility necessary to keep the listener engaged and entertained. Wharton’s strongest asset is her sparkling wit, which proves consistently ironic and fatalistic, and Lefkow seldom misses a beat, ensuring that a character’s twinkling eye or raised eyebrow is available to the attentive listener. Though her character range is understated, a shortcoming noticeable only in scenes with multiple characters, Lefkow’s sensitivity to character gives a constant lift to an insightful classic.

Z.S., AudioFile

From its opening sentences Agnes Grey introduces a heroine who is honest, perceptive and charming. Unfortunately, the Bloomfields, who engage her as a governess, are rather less appealing, and the incarnation of the suppressed cruelties and hypocrisies of the Victorian age. When Agnes moves to a marginally less alarming family, one of her charges sets out to disrupt her only romantic hope. Critical, satirical, direct, and honest, Agnes Grey is a fine reflection of its author.

The only respectable calling for poor but educated young women in Victorian England was that of governess. Brontë’s 1847 novel tells the story of governess Grey’s struggles with the undisciplined Bloomfield children and the callous Murray siblings. Bavidge’s British-laced reading is perfectly tuned to Grey’s efforts to make her way in an unsympathetic world as the governess tries to instill her charges with good sense and kindness, but is confronted with insolence, prejudice, and snobbery. Young Tom Bloomfield reveals his temperament through nasally condescending tones, while his younger sister simpers and whines. One Murray daughter sounds condescending and calculating, and the other child is a hoyden with rough and crude speech patterns, even though her family is a member of the gentry. Grey speaks with a clear and gentle British accent. A scene in which a character seduces and then haughtily rejects a suitor’s advances is redolent of Brontë’s satiric view of British class snobbery.

Mary McCay, Booklist

Ancient Egypt and the war with Ethiopia is the setting for Verdi’s grandest opera. It is the story of the love between Rhadames, the Egyptian general and Aida, an Ethiopian slave, and the jealousy of Amneris, daughter of the King of Egypt. It was written in 1871 to a commission from the Khedive of Egypt to inaugurate the new opera house in Cairo. Aida generally is considered one of the most spectacular of Verdi’s operas. But Thomson Smillie, in his fascinating introduction to the work, presented by actor David Timson, says it is, more accurately ‘a chamber opera with a grand march through the middle of it’. The historic background – how and why it came to be composed – is clearly explained. This is followed by the plot, the characters, and the principal arias and musical moments – a perfect way of getting to know the work.

Fiona Shaw gives a wonderfully fresh reading of Carroll’s classic tale, making his fantastical characters thoroughly believable through an impression of voices. Vivid sound effects together with music by Delius, Parry and Bruckner complete this delightful production.

Alice’s adventures, funny, inventive and disturbing, have fascinated children and adults alike since their publication. This is a new unabridged recording using many voices to take the parts of The White Rabbit, the Mad Hatter, the Queen of Hearts and the Cheshire Cat – and, of course, Alice herself. It makes for a roller-coaster ride of delightful fantasy.

The unabridged Alice in Wonderland is read by David Horovitch with other voices playing the characters. Alice actresses can be twee and precocious but Jo Wyatt is utterly convincing.

Sue Arnold, The Guardian

We have met the intrepid hunter-tracker Allan Quatermain before, in Rider Haggard’s marvellous King Solomon’s Mines. This time, grieving from the tragic loss of his son, Quatermain longs to return to his beloved Africa. He sets out in search of a lost white tribe, the Zu-Vendis, ruled by two beautiful sister Queens. Once again, Quatermain’s companions are the indefatigable Sir Henry Curtis and Captain Good, and the magnificent Zulu warrior Umslopogaas. The journey is incredibly dangerous, and thrillingly told. After a fantastic underground journey by canoe, our heroes are embroiled in a bloody civil war when both queens fall in love with the irresistibly handsome Curtis.

In the second novel of James’s celebrated late period, American Lambert Strether is sent to Paris on behalf of Mrs Newsome, his  fiancée, to collect her son, Chad. When Strether finds Chad, he discovers an altered man and becomes introduced to a free and unconventional style of life that soon intoxicates him. His views begin to change; the morality of Woollett, his hometown, becomes foreign, and the ‘ambassador’ loses sight of his mission… Part tragedy, part comedy, The Ambassadors is a rewarding portrait about one man’s late awakening.

Self-made American millionaire Christopher Newman arrives in Paris brimming with hope and optimism, excited to experience the culture and, hopefully, find the perfect woman to become his wife. After a chance encounter with American expatriate friends his attention is drawn to Madame de Cintré, 25-year-old widowed daughter of the late Marquis de Bellegarde. Having fallen on hard times, the centuries-old aristocratic family permits Newman’s courtship to proceed; however, they later persuade the widow to break off her engagement to the nouveau-riche businessman. When Newman finds himself in possession of a dark secret that threatens to destroy the Bellegarde family, he must decide whether to keep to his principles or exact his revenge.

Adam Sims offers a solid narration of this classic novel, in which an American makes his way through the social complexities of Paris. The title character, Christopher Newman, has survived the American Civil War and made his own fortune; now all that remains is to experience the wider world and to find a suitable wife. Will his encounters in Paris provide him opportunities for both? Sims’s voice is appealing and measured, clear and rich with the novel’s nuances. His French accents are seamless, and the dialogue is realistic and easy to follow. Sims has the unique skill of voicing female characters without sounding forced, which is important here. The story may drag for some listeners, but this performance illuminates the novel’s value.

L.B.F., AudioFile

As intriguing today as when it was first published, Hume’s An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding is a fascinating exploration into the nature of human knowledge. Using billiard balls, candles and other colourful examples, Hume conveys the core of his empiricism: that true knowledge can only be gained through sensory experience. No other philosopher has been at the forefront of the mind than David Hume; physics, psychology, neuroscience – connections to Hume are everywhere. Here is the book that Immanuel Kant confessed had awoken him from his ‘dogmatic slumber’.

Hugh Ross reads Hume’s brief but important philosophical tract as the philosopher himself might, thinking his ideas through as he speaks, explaining them in an avuncular fashion, sounding as if he’s anxious to make them understood – while his skeptical inquiry devastatingly undermines cause and effect, free will, miracles, and skepticism. Ross’s use of intonation, emphasis, and expressiveness to mirror and, in a way, explicate the sense of the text is highly skilled. His British-accented voice is pleasant and clear, and his manner accessible, fitting Hume’s essayistic tone and famous clarity of style (though the arguments do demand close attention). Hume’s writing and Ross’s expressive rendering make listening to this text an enjoyable, thought-provoking walk to the edge of an epistemological cliff and over.

W.M., AudioFile

One of the undisputed giants in the history of human thought, and the founder of one of the world’s longest-lasting cultural traditions, Confucius (known as Kong Fuzi in his native China) is arguably the most enduring of all the world’s great thinkers. The Analects, the slender volume thought to have been compiled by his followers, has the strongest claim to represent Confucius’ actual words. Sometimes pithy, sometimes conversational, occasionally enigmatic, often profoundly searching, the book contains memorable sayings about the moral health of the individual, the family and the body politic, and continues to be a source of inexhaustible wisdom after more than two and a half millennia.

Ancient Egypt – The Glory of the Pharaohs tells us about civilisation under the pharaohs, of mysterious statues and tombs, incredible obelisks, the Sphinx… In this recording, the ancient Egyptian kingdom is brought to life in a way that fuels the listener’s imagination, teaching and entertaining in equal measure.

Ancient Egypt – The Glory of the Pharaohs is the unabridged audiobook rendition of David Angus’s classic non-fiction exploration of the incredible ancient civilization of Egypt. Egypt’s grand statues, gigantic tombs, towering obelisks, legendary pyramids, and ineffable Sphinx are all vividly described and explained. Listeners of all ages will thoroughly enjoy this exciting and educational audiobook, smoothly narrated by award-winning radio performer Nicholas Boulton.

Library Bookwatch, Midwest Book Review

The philosophy of Ancient Greece provides the background of Western ethical thought and politics. In this approachable introduction, Tom Griffith, a leading translator of Plato, covers the main ground from the Pre-Socratics through Plato, Aristotle, the Stoics and the Epicureans. In each case, the figures are introduced before a compilation of key texts in lively translations.

The world of Hans Christian Andersen is seen through the eyes of children. There is the everyday wonder of an ugly duckling being transformed into a swan; the puffed-up Emperor being fooled by his own importance; the tender tragedy of a little match girl; the upright honesty of John rewarded by his travelling companion. By bringing true feelings to these stories, Andersen’s tales have become part of universal folklore.

• The Emperor’s New Clothes
• The Tinderbox
• The Travelling Companion
• The Ugly Duckling
• The Little Match Girl
• The Swineherd
• Big Claus and Little Claus

Gorgeous orchestral music contributes to the dramatisation of these charming tales. In ‘The Emperor’gs New Clothes’, narrator Erica Johns creates the ideal huffy voice for the emperor, shady-sounding voices for the swindlers, and a realistic child’s voice when all is revealed. In ‘The Tinder Box’, listeners can almost see the crafty witch as she cajoles the soldier to steal with her creepy voice. The ugly duckling quacks believably as Johns elegantly describes nature. The hunting dogs’ splashes into the water are also appropriately frightening and dramatic. Listening is an excellent way to enjoy Andersen’s humour and wise lessons.

S.G.B., AudioFile

Anna Karenina has been described as the perfect Russian novel. Trapped in a loveless marriage, Anna Karenina is defenceless against the power of her passions once they are unleashed by the adoration of Count Vronsky. Having defied the rules of nineteenth-century Russian society, Anna is forced to pay a heavy price. Human nature, with all its failings, is the fabric of which this great and passionate work is composed.

Anna Karenina is beautiful, married to a successful man, and has a son whom she adores. But a chance meeting at a train station in Moscow sets her passionate heart alight, and she is defenceless in the face of Count Vronsky’s adoration. Having defied the rules of nineteenth-century Russian society, Anna is forced to pay a heavy price. Human nature, with all its failings, is the fabric of which this great and intense work is composed. Anna Karenina has been described as the perfect Russian novel.

Yes, it’s expensive, but would you expect to pay less for a 41-hour audio of the world’s greatest love story? Dostoevsky called it a flawless masterpiece. There’s a five-hour abridged version with music for £16.99, read with heartrending passion by Laura Paton, but it’s essentially a taster. Don’t settle for less than all eight courses.

Sue Arnold, The Guardian

Tolstoy’s magnificent panoramic novel Anna Karenina is a daunting listening proposition. Bear in mind that it was written as a serial, published in monthly installments over four years, and download it to take in regular doses (walking the dog or on your commute to and from work). Kate Lock rises to the challenge of this marathon of narration nobly, skilfully reflecting in voice the development of the initially air-headed Kitty and the clumsy, obtuse Levin, and their realisation, from the terrible outcome of the affair between Anna and Vronsky, that happiness cannot be built on another’s pain. It is worth downloading a character list to help you to sort out the names of the enormous cast.

Christina Hardyment, The Times

Beginning at the end of Augustus’s reign, Tacitus’s Annals examines the rules of the Roman emperors from Tiberius to Nero (though Caligula’s books are lost to us). Their dramas and scandals are brought fully under the spotlight, as Tacitus presents a catalogue of their murders, atrocities, sexual improprieties and other vices in no unsparing terms. Debauched, cruel and paranoid, they are portrayed as being on the verge of madness. Their wars and battles, such as the war with the Parthians, are also described with the same scrutinising intensity. Tacitus’s last major historical work, the Annals is an extraordinary glimpse into the pleasures and perils of a Roman leader, and is considered by many to be a masterpiece.

Tacitus writes a warning to the powerful that history will judge them. He himself is critical, even savagely judgemental, in his second-century history of the four Roman emperors who followed Augustus. (Only parts of it survive.) Narrator David Timson captures the author’s frequent scorn and disgust; he reads many quotations in a mocking voice. His pronunciation is flawless and his pacing a shade quick. He is effortlessly skilled in matching emphasis and the shaping of phrases and sentences to sense. While he brings an actor’s expressiveness to the text, his exuberance and energy sometimes seem excessive for this censorious historian. Nonetheless, Timson’s energy helps engage the listener and hold their attention. His clarity and skill deliver a commendable programme.

W.M., AudioFile

This is the second volume in the poignant yet amusing tale of the perky red-headed Anne of Green Gables. This classic of children’s literature is set in Canada at the beginning of the century and is one of the best-selling titles in children’s literature ever.

Eleven-year-old orphan Anne Shirley has red hair, a vivid imagination and cannot stop talking. Quite a shock for old Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert who wanted a boy to help them on the farm… Anne is soon the talk of the town with her funny ways and endless adventures, but it is not long before she has won the hearts of everyone. This classic story is set in Canada at the beginning of the twentieth century and is one of the most enduring favourites of children’s literature.

Jonathan Oldbuck, the antiquary of the title, has a passion for the past – and delights in trying to convey it. He meets the mysteriously taciturn young Lovel and the two strike up a friendship, bonding over Roman ruins. When Lovel falls for Isabella, daughter of a local landowner, it looks like an impossible situation. Sharp, funny, gothic, romantic, and full of action, this is a thoroughly entertaining window on Scottish life in the summer of 1794: it was Scott’s intention to show the spirit of the times, and how the past affects the present – and it was his own favourite of all his novels.

Though The Arabian Nights are generally known as stories for children, they were originally tales for adults full of adventure, sexuality, violence and the supernatural. They certainly inspired the imagination of Sir Richard Burton, the nineteenth-century explorer, linguist and erotologist who brought all his worldly experience and a superbly expressive prose style to bear on the tales of Sinbad the Seaman and Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves. Scheherazade must keep her king entertained with stories if she is to avoid the promised sentence of death. Philip Madoc’s sonorous performance allows the tales to weave their own enchantment as they have done down the centuries.

Arabian Sands is Wilfred Thesiger’s stunning account of five years spent crossing the Arabian Peninsula by foot and on camels, with nomadic Bedouin tribesmen as guides. Travelling between 1945 and 1950, the British explorer treks through Yemen, The Empty Quarter, Oman and parts of the then Trucial States, crossing and re-crossing around 250,000 miles of this most inhospitable terrain. He was the first European ever to set eyes on the dunes and wadis of these deserts. Faced with constant challenges and trials beneath the punishing sun, his journey is also spiritual and enriching, as it requires the utmost courage, patience, generosity and humour. In clear and evocative prose, Thesiger documents a journey of unimaginable hardship and startling beauty, as well as a time, place and people on the cusp of change.

This audiobook is not only a portrait of a way of life on the edge of extinction. Thesiger is also one of the main sources that author Frank Herbert used in creating his classic novel, Dune. Laurence Kennedy narrates the story of Thesiger’s experiences with the Bedouin of Arabia like a man reminiscing about the best times of his life. He conveys the wit and wonder of an explorer who plunges himself into an alien world and the sorrow of an observer who sees that that world is about to be destroyed by the discovery of oil. Traditional Bedouin culture has almost vanished now, but this valuable and fascinating record survives.

D.M.H., AudioFile

No thinker has had a more profound influence on western civilisation than Aristotle. Whether we realise it or not, his work has been one of the main props of our culture for over two thousand years. Underlying all of it is a conviction that system and order can be found to govern everything, even human conduct. In the Ethics and Politics Aristotle examines what is the best kind of life, and what is the best kind of society for making this possible.

What is life? How should we live it? And why are difficult books so much easier to digest on audio than in print? Ever since I heard Jim Norton reading Ulysses and John Rowe transforming Proust’s impenetrable prose into a novel I wish I’d read years ago, I now recommend everyone who has struggled unsuccessfully with Paradise Lost or A Brief History of Time to get the audio version instead. Even so, there were passages in the Griffith brothers’ admirably digestible guide to the often wacky belief systems of some of those pre-Socratic thinkers, cynics, sceptics, Epicureans et al that I had to rewind a few times. There’s Heraclitus, for instance, who advised that sexual pleasures should be confined to winter and believed that everything was composed of and reverted to fire. The eightfold division of the soul upheld by the Stoics also took a bit of unravelling, but it was worth it if only to appreciate that Stoicism originally meant a great deal more than grin and bear it. Having several readers brings the Platonic dialogues to life, and I defy anyone not to be moved by Socrates’ cool, courageous speech to the Athenian jury which has just condemned him to death for impiety. We may have über-technology, the internet, DNA and The Moral Maze, but the ethical beliefs and clear-headedness of those legendary first thinktanks – Plato’s Academy, Aristotle’s Lyceum, Zeno’s Stoa and the Garden of Epicurus – still have a lot to teach us.

Sue Arnold, The Guardian, 29 March 2008

Two young men linked by a familial murder mystery, a beautiful yet wicked governess who spins a web of deceit, and five individuals named Allan Armadale: Wilkie Collins’s follow-up to The Woman in White and No Name is an innovative take on mistaken identity, the nature of evil and the dark underbelly of Victorian England. The story concerns two distant cousins, both named Allan Armadale, and the impact of a family tragedy, which makes one of them a target of the murderous Lydia Gwilt, a vicious and malevolent charmer determined to get her hands on the Armadale fortune. Will the real Allan Armadale be revealed, and will he survive the plot against his life?

Considered the bridge between romanticism and modernism, Matthew Arnold wrote verse that is simple, unadorned and straightforward. From the hypnotic and beautiful lines of Dover Beach to the pastoral narrative of The Scholar Gipsy, Arnold cast a gaze at the main intellectual issues of the nineteenth century while giving a timeless insight into man and nature. This collection covers his major poetic works, including the narrative poems, sonnets and elegiac poems, illuminating the lyricism and serenity of Arnold’s best poetry.

• Dover Beach
• Desire
• Longing
• A Summer Night
• Consolation
• Philomela
• A Dream
• The Scholar Gipsy
• East London
• West London
• Thyrsis
• Immortality
• Growing Old
• A Wish
• Bacchanalia; Or, The New Age
• A Modern Sappho
• The Hayswater Boat
• The River
• Human Life
• The Buried Life
• Austerity of Poetry
• A Farewell
• Requiescat

Matthew Arnold’s poetry is not widely read today, except for Dover Beach and perhaps The Scholar Gipsy, but this selection shows the strengths that made him popular in the nineteenth century. Jonathan Keeble’s readings are romantic, as the poems are, and they show the result of careful thought. Arnold’s writerly craft and ideas come through. Keeble reads the antique diction and Romantic ideals as they might have been first heard, even if those qualities are no longer in fashion. The contemporary audience for Arnold’s poetry is probably rather specialised, but these texts helped shape later poems and thinking about poems. Keeble gives us a more than worthy introduction to an important mid-Victorian artist.

D.M.H., AudioFile

To take on the bet – to go around the world in eighty days, faster than anyone had gone before – was madness. If Phileas Fogg missed a single connection he would lose £20,000. Phileas Fogg was an eccentric Englishman who lived a quiet ordered life and believed that, with technology and planning, nothing was unforseeable. But he could not plan for the ebullient nature of his French servant, Passepartout, for the adventures that crop up on their journey and for the totally unexpected collision with romance. The humour and freshness of Verne’s writing – vivid despatches from a newly accessible world – make Around The World In Eighty Days an ideal subject for an audiobook.

Undoubtedly one of the most celebrated tales of all time, this is both high-octane thriller and fascinating travelogue. Phileas Fogg, intrepid Victorian gentleman-about-town, accepts a wager that he cannot travel around the world in 80 days. Naturally, he immediately sets off, accompanied by his French manservant Passepartout. They are pursued by a police officer, Detective Fix, who is foolishly convinced that Fogg is a bank robber. Much hilarity ensues. On the way, Fogg bravely rescues Aouda, a beautiful Indian princess, from a ceremony of ritual sacrifice. Unexpectedly, our thriller becomes a love story.

Audiobook of the Week

The next big BBC thing is an eight-hour serialisation of Jules Verne’s famous book, with David Tennant as the imperturbable Phileas Fogg. It’s worth getting to know the original, especially as read by Bill Homewood, who thrillingly conveys tension. The tale is as rapid as the express trains and steam-assisted sailing ships that power Fogg’s journey. Knockabout humour is provided by his French valet, Passepartout, and love interest by the Indian princess Aouda, who is saved from suttee by Fogg. Meanwhile, Detective Fix’s attempts to arrest Fogg as a bank robber have disastrous effects. A balloon does not feature in the original story, but there is a splendid elephant.

Christina Hardyment, The Times

The world’s greatest gentleman thief is back and this time he must summon all his brilliance and prowess to escape the clutches of his most worthy adversary: the master English detective, Herlock Sholmes! Assisted by his trusty companion Dr Wilson, Sholmes is called to Paris to investigate crimes believed to involve the legendary debonair rogue Lupin. In The Blonde Lady, the first of the volume’s two stories, Sholmes finds himself on the trail of Lupin after a series of seamless thefts by a mysterious woman, while in The Jewish Lamp the two are drawn back into conflict after the inexplicable disappearance of an antique piece of jewellery. Will the mischievous French gentleman outsmart his determined opponent, or will Sholmes emerge victorious?

David Timson masterfully narrates this entertaining mystery in which two formidable opponents match wits. Famed English detective Herlock Sholmes is initially called to Paris to investigate the disappearance of a blue diamond. The prime suspect is Arsène Lupin, the legendary gentleman thief and master of disguise, who was introduced in 1905 by French author Maurice Leblanc. Timson keeps the tension high as Lupin eludes and tricks Sholmes and his trusted assistant, Wilson, even causing them to become trapped overnight in an empty house. Timson expertly creates each character, including an array of male and female secondary personalities. He imbues Lupin with a bold, canny demeanour and expresses notes of exasperation amid Sholmes’s determined persona. Listeners will stay glued to their headphones throughout the twisty fun.

M.J., AudioFile

The first of Maurice Leblanc’s collections about his devilish, debonair rogue, Arsène Lupin, Gentleman-Burglar presents eight dazzling short stories that display some of Lupin’s greatest thefts and escapes. Lupin robs from within prison, leaves its walls with ease, steals priceless diamonds from the rich and outwits the greatest detective of all: Sherlock Holmes. Witty, cunning and taunting, Lupin is a genius on the wrong side of the law, although his noble code of ethics and Robin-Hood-like ways often see him use his talents for good.

Arthur Schopenhauer’s The Art of Literature is a lively, illuminating and brutally honest collection of essays on literary style and values, writers and critics, and the nature of genius. The volume is comprised of eight chapters: On Authorship, On Style, On the Study of Latin, On Men of Learning, On Thinking for Oneself, On Criticism, On Reputation and On Genius. Schopenhauer advises seclusion and independent thought, criticises Pliny’s reading habits, and explains the pitfalls of certain schools of thought and even virtues like modesty. His thought-provoking arguments, caustic wit and accessible style make this a must for any aspiring writer.

[L]ike an outfit that’s never in or out of fashion, the great German thinker speaks to a long tradition of arts and letters, rather than to the style of the moment. One example is his essay on the endurance of Latin. The overlying sense of permanence – in literature, history, culture and voice – is itself reassuring, and one of the chief pleasures of these thought-provoking essays.

D.A.W., AudioFile

Conan Doyle (1859–1930) will always be remembered for the character of Sherlock Holmes, but he was a prolific writer – of short stories, of science fiction and historical fiction – including The Exploits of Brigadier Gerard. In his comprehensive biography, Pearson considers how his life is reflected in his books – including his background as a doctor and his enduring (and public) belief in spiritualism.

In The Aspern Papers, a cold and ruthless literary biographer travels to Venice on the trail of personal letters belonging to the deceased American poet Jeffrey Aspern. His journey takes him to a dilapidated, rambling house belonging to an elderly woman, named Juliana Bordereau, and her lonely niece, Miss Tina. Just how far will he go to get what he wants? Will morality confront his personal ambition and literary curiosity?

A plot, according to some critics, starts with a person with a problem. The unnamed narrator of this classic, ably narrated by Adam Sims, doesn’t even know what his real problem is. Sims brings to life the protagonist’s pursuit of some papers concerning the fictional poet Jeffrey Aspern, revealing along the way just how unaware he is of the effects of his actions on those around him. There is a considerable challenge in portraying a character who only inches toward self-awareness. Sims makes him sound young, callow, and almost – but not quite – likable. The narrator’s treatment of Tita Bordereau is callous, but Sims makes clear just who gains and who loses from the connection.

D.M.H., AudioFile

Brutal, gripping and heart-wrenching, L’Assommoir (also known as The Drinking Den) chronicles the tragic downward spiral of Gervaise Macquart, a good-natured and hardworking laundress who slides into alcoholism and despair. After her lover abandons her and their two children, Gervaise marries a tin worker, Coupeau, who helps her rebuild her life. She starts her own business and the two have a daughter, Anna (the protagonist of Zola’s later novel, Nana). But their happiness is short-lived as a freak accident leaves Coupeau seriously injured, beginning the family’s fall into alcohol, desperation and violence. Disturbingly realistic, L’Assommoir is a vivid portrayal of life in late 19th-century Paris.

Leighton Pugh provides a meticulous performance of this tragic novel, embracing the drama of Zola’s details and immersing himself in the protagonist Gervaise’s misfortunes. Eking out a living as a laundress, Gervaise is derailed by the perils of drink – the book’s title is often translated to mean ‘The Drinking Den’ – and the horrors of poverty. Many scenes are drawn out to the extreme, and Pugh is patient with the details, devoting careful attention to subtle accents and a multitude of distinctive voices. Pugh is a bright light in a bleak story; his lively pace and capable delivery make this novel accessible. The question is whether the listener is prepared to take a look at such a sad life.

L.B.F., AudioFile

More preoccupied with drinking, sleeping and writing, an unnamed student neglects his studies and invents three separate openings for a novel. The first introduces the Pooka MacPhellimey, ‘a member of the devil class’, the second involves Mr John Furriskey, a character belonging to another of the student’s creations (writer Dermot Trellis), while the final opening features legendary Irish heroes Finn Mac Cool and Mad King Sweeny. Soon, Trellis’s creations rebel against him, doing as they like while he sleeps, and the characters from each story begin wandering in and out of each other’s tales. Published in 1939, At Swim-Two-Birds is a madcap exploration of Irish literature and mythology, and the unending possibilities of fiction.

At the Mountains of Madness first appeared in 1936, in the February, March and April editions of the American magazine Astounding Stories. One of H.P. Lovecraft’s most chilling works, it draws on Edgar Allan Poe’s Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, as well as Lovecraft’s deep fascination with the Antarctic. The sinister discoveries made by a group of explorers in At the Mountains of Madness are testament to the author’s enormous powers of imagination.

Jesuit priest John Gerard (1564–1637) hid from English authorities for eight years before his eventual capture and torture in the Tower of London. Risking everything to preserve Catholicism in Tudor England, Gerard moved from house to house, converting many people and evading capture by mere seconds. Following a hair’s-breadth escape from the Tower to the Continent, he survived to tell his tale and pass on his experience to future missionaries and martyrs in The Autobiography of a Hunted Priest, a fascinating tale of espionage, disguise, priest hunters, invisible ink and brilliantly designed hideouts. A heroic story of grit and determination, Gerard’s Autobiography unequivocally captures humanity’s courage and resolve in the face of oppression.

British actor Gareth Armstrong brings to life the story of Jesuit priest John Gerard (1564–1637) who is hunted throughout Elizabethan England during the Protestant Reformation. Armstrong delivers a powerful performance as he shares Father John Gerard’s account of hiding from priest hunters, being imprisoned in chains, and having his faith disparaged at every turn. As he recounts harrowing days trapped behind hidden panels in homes and his triumphant conversions of ‘heretics’, Armstrong’s narration keeps listeners thoroughly engaged. The Elizabethan English can be confusing at times, but Armstrong makes it accessible and allows listeners to sigh with relief at Father Gerard’s tense escapes.

V.B., AudioFile

A leading industrialist of the 19th and 20th centuries, Andrew Carnegie was one of America’s most successful and generous businessmen. The Autobiography tells of his rise to power, from humble beginnings in Scotland to controlling the biggest steel empire in the history of the United States. Carnegie lays down the blueprint for success, with an abundance of inspiring life lessons, while also giving unique first-hand impressions of burgeoning 19th-century America and some of the most prominent people of the age, including Abraham Lincoln and Mark Twain. In The Gospel of Wealth he writes about his philanthropy and urges the rich to use their wealth responsibly, revealing the reasons that famously led him to donate over 350 million dollars during his lifetime.

This is the moving and powerful story of Edna Pontellier, a beautiful young wife and mother who discovers her true feelings and identity through her love for Robert Lebrun, and in so doing challenges the bourgeois assumptions of her day. First published in 1899 in America, it prompted shock and outrage, but has since come to be recognised as a modern classic.

Gerald Durrell’s last book, The Aye-Aye and I records his final animal-collecting expedition, a trip to Madagascar in 1990, and his efforts to save the elusive and mythical lemuroid known as the Aye-Aye. Prompted by the country’s radical deforestation, and slash-and-burn agriculture, Durrell, his wife, and their team of zoologists embark on a mission to capture and conserve the species – distinguished by its ‘giant, chisel-like teeth’, ‘round, hypnotic eyes’ and large ‘spoon-like ears’. During the course of their journey, they encounter golden river snakes, flat-tailed tortoises, the gentle lemurs of Lac Alaotra, and the Malagasy chameleons. Durrell’s exuberant descriptions of the island, its people and ecology are among his best.

Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award

Oh, the utter delight of adventuring in Madagascar with the late English naturalist Gerald Durrell and his poly-voiced narrator, Rupert Degas, who beautifully channels Durrell’s slightly raspy voice, his exuberant personality, and his enthusiasm for every variety of fauna, including human. The book describes a 1990s trip to Madagascar’s remotest regions to find and collect a breeding population of a mysterious and endangered lemur known as an aye-aye. As Durrell’s team and a BBC film crew endure drenching rain, oven-baked heat, and giant mosquitoes with edifying humour, Degas evokes a wealth of personalities and accents, adding technicolor to the lively writing. Where else, for example, could one meet a hammerhead shark with a mouth reminiscent of ‘Somerset Maugham’s drooping smile’?

A.C.S., AudioFile

Although now beloved and revered by millions as the greatest composer who ever lived, Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) was best known in his lifetime as an organist, and was eclipsed in fame as a composer by two of his twenty children. For the last twenty-seven years of his life he was a schoolteacher and choir director whose duties extended to meal supervision and dormitory inspection. Yet throughout his career he composed a vast body of music which is amongst the most joyful, dancing and enrapturing ever written. This portrait-in-sound includes many examples of the music that made him immortal. With compelling narration by Jeremy Siepmann, character portrayals by acclaimed actors, and the interpolation of over twenty-five substantial musical extracts reflecting the development of one of music’s most enduringly awe-inspiring composers, we are transported back three centuries straight into the life of Johann Sebastian Bach. This innovative sense of immediacy is at the heart of this comprehensive audio-biography, depicting the life of a composer whose music is universally admired.

Simon Barnes is one of Britain’s leading bird writers and humorists. His weekly column in The Times, his essays for the RSPB magazine and his two books on bad bird-watching have made him one of the characters of the bird world. Here he reads his own illuminating introductions to the fifty main birds of Britain, supported by the distinguishing bird song of each species. He not only gives helpful identifying features, but enriches them with whimsical observations on their characters and tendencies. It is a delightful text, superbly presented by the author himself.

As a committed non-twitcher, I’m eternally grateful to Simon Barnes for inspiring me to get up at daybreak this morning to listen to the dawn chorus. His latest quirky bird book, with its gloriously uplifting recordings of birdsong, is tailor-made for audio and will help you to identify the 50 British birds he writes so engagingly and enthusiastically about. Don’t worry, this isn’t a field guide full of statistics that requires you to buy binoculars, keep a diary and make endless lists. It is that rarest of manuals, a handbook that makes you want to go out and discover for yourself if all the fascinating things he has told you about robins, blackbirds, yellowhammers and buzzards are really true. If chaffinches were rare, he writes, they’d be prized above Siberian ruby-throats and red-flanked bluetails. Here he is writing about chaffinches in spring: “The cock is outrageous, admire him – a cap of more or less Wedgwood blue, conker-brown back and a breast of the tartiest pink any designer could come up with.” If you follow the precise instructions for identification at the start of each section, you can’t fail. “Wren: where to look – tangled undergrowth, low down. When to look – all year round. What to look for – tiny tawny bird, cocky tail. What to listen for – astonishing volume.” This is followed by a generous earful of wren song. I love his descriptions of, say, mistle thrushes – “big, chunky and hops in a bold, rather in-your-face way” – and song thrushes – “the jazz musicians of suburbia”. By the way, wood pigeons don’t coo. What they’re actually saying, in a cooing sort of way, is “steal two cows taffy”. Don’t believe me? Get out there and listen.

Sue Arnold, The Guardian

Yes, I know I recommended this three years ago but, like the above authors, I can trace my addiction to birds (well, birdsong, really – I can’t see birds) to one particular book. This one. The brilliant thing about Barnes’s guide to 50 British birds (apart from its wit, charm and spot-on descriptions – ‘Swifts are profoundly committed to their habitat of the sky. As they fly they scream like customers on a Big Dipper, hooliganing round the rooftops, screaming at the tops of their voices, the ultimate avian flying machine. They lift the heart’) is that you get to hear a snatch of their songs. Bird-wise, audio is the best.

Sue Arnold, The Guardian

Nothing could be more appropriate for the great outdoors than A Bad Birdwatcher’s Companion, by the Times writer Simon Barnes. Specially constructed for audio, with examples of the songs of our best-loved twitterers prefacing a salmagundi of curious facts about each bird, it is designed, Barnes says, for those whose hearts lift at the sound of the dawn chorus and a melody from a tree, but who can’t identify the singers because they never get round to opening a field guide. Barnes makes amateur twitching easy, with witty mnemonics to help you remember bird calls.

Christina Hardyment, The Times

The Times Best Audiobooks of the Year

Knowing one feathered friend from another has long been an ambition, so thanks to Simon Barnes for his reading of A Bad Birdwatcher’s Companion. The audiobook format means he can provide superb aural mnemonics. Chaffinch: think fast bowler warming up for his run: dadadadadada deeeeeee. Thrush: sings his song twice over, just as Robert Browning told us. Wood pigeon: ‘take two pies, taffy, take two pies taffy’.

The Times

The stories of the most popular ballets are told in refreshing style against the backdrop of the music written by Delibes, Tchaikovsky and Adam. Naxos Audiobooks draws on its own roots in classical music to present the definitive introduction for children in this sympathetic reading by Jenny Agutter.

• Coppélia
• The Sleeping Beauty
• The Nutcracker
• Swan Lake
• Giselle

Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award

Naxos Audiobooks has consistently found ways to enrich audiobooks with music. Ballet Stories takes this skill to a new height. Presenting the storylines of five classical ballets – Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, Coppélia, The Nutcracker and Giselle – former ballerina and narrator Jenny Agutter personally delivers a tour of the stories. She could be sitting in the audience beside you. The lively text is rich with detail and imagery to describe the scenes. The music punctuates and enlivens; the sound is perfect – clear, beautifully edited and mixed. Liner notes on the history of ballet and Agutter’s own involvement with the art round out an exceptional program. The notes could have been recorded into the program itself. A wonderful gift for families to enjoy.

R.F.W., AudioFile

The politics of love, the intrigues of desire … love and murder, moved obscurely in the dark corners of Alexandria’s streets and squares, brothels and drawing-rooms – moved like a great congress of eels in the slime of plot and counter-plot…’ In Balthazar, the second volume in Durrell’s Alexandria Quartet, the story and the characters come more clearly into focus. Darley, the reflective Englishman, receives from Balthazar, the pathologist, a mass of notes which attempt to explain what really happened between the tempestuous Justine, her husband Nessim, Clea the artist, Pursewarden the writer; new figures emerge and play key roles. Balthazar, in his ‘Interlinear’, explains and warns.

The four linked novels that comprise English author Lawrence Durrell’s masterpiece, The Alexandria Quartet, are set in Alexandria, Egypt, around the time of WWII. The four novels explore the city’s polyglot society, full of intrigue, mystery and sensuality, telling essentially the same story from different points of view. Justine focuses on the beautiful Jewish wife of a wealthy Copt. Her story is told by Darley, her English lover. In Balthazar, Darley reconsiders and retells the story he told in Justine, using information from a mysterious new character, Balthazar. In Mountolive, as war begins to loom, British Ambassador David Mountolive enters the intrigues of the interwoven community of characters. In Clea, Darley returns to a war-fevered Alexandria as the stories of the many characters move toward conclusion. Narrator Nigel Anthony provides a brilliant reading, keeping the variety of voices – English, French, Egyptian – distinct throughout. He offers a one-man play, conveying the passions, disappointments and triumphs of the complex cast. The classical music interludes that delineate sections of this beautifully produced and packaged set help transport the listener to back-streets of Alexandria.

R.E.K., AudioFile

‘The politics of love, the intrigues of desire, good and evil, virtue and caprice, love and murder, moved obscurely in the dark corners of Alexandria’s streets and squares, brothels and drawing-rooms – moved like a great congress of eels in the slime of plot and counter-plot.’ In Balthazar, the second volume in Durrell’s Alexandria Quartet, the story and the characters come more clearly into focus. Darley, the reflective Englishman, receives from Balthazar, the pathologist, a mass of notes which attempt to explain what really happened between the tempestuous Justine, her husband Nessim, Clea the artist, and Pursewarden the writer; new figures emerge and play key roles. Balthazar, in his ‘Interlinear’, explains and warns.

Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award

Although each of the novels of the Alexandria Quartet can stand alone (this is the second), they gain depth if experienced in sequence. Fortunately, Nicholas Boulton is narrating all four, and here, at least, his performance is masterly. He deploys a range of voices and accents that never leave us in doubt about who is speaking, and he draws out the characters’ emotions and perceptions, which are important in a series that is about the differences between perception and reality, seen through the lens of love. Most of the characters are enigmatic (except, perhaps, in their own eyes), so Boulton cannot bring them to clarity, but he manages to bring the listener to an understanding of their humanity.

D.M.H., AudioFile

The Barber of Seville is Rossini’s most popular opera. Its effervescent overture (written originally for another work!) presents a perfect platform for the amusing plot in which the barber, Figaro, stage-manages a romance between Count Almaviva and Rosina, and puts to flight the old suitor, Dr Bartolo. ‘Largo al Factotum’ is one of the most popular arias in opera – nearly 200 years after its first performance it is still one of the great show-stoppers. But why was the opera received with boos and catcalls at its first performance in 1816, and why did Rossini return to the plot and environment presented so sublimely by Mozart? Opera writer Thomson Smillie and actor David Timson present the background in their informative but entertaining manner.

Barchester Towers, the sequel to The Warden, is the second novel in Trollope’s major series, the Chronicles of Barsetshire. It focuses on the power struggle between Archdeacon Grantly, Mr Slope and the Proudies as they fight for control of the diocese of Barchester. Meanwhile, another struggle is taking place for the heart of Eleanor Bold. Who will win her? The vile Mr Slope, the idling Bertie Stanhope or someone else entirely? This is a witty and sparkling novel about greed, hate and love; Trollope captures the intricacy of human emotion and character with warmth, humour, wonderful characterisation and, of course, perfect dialogue.

Trollope is one of our greatest comic novelists, as well as having an extraordinary talent for taking you confidentially and irresistibly into the flow of his story. Oblivious of the snail-like pace of Oxford’s flood-impeded traffic, I was grinning from ear to ear as David Shaw-Parker explodes into the clerical indignation that follows Obadiah Slope’s iconoclastic sermon in Barchester Cathedral. ‘“Abominable,” groaned the dean. “Abominable,” muttered the meagre doctor. “Abominable,” re-echoed the chancellor, uttering a sound from the bottom of his deep chest. “I really think it was,” said Mr Harding.’ Proof positive that Trollope wrote with an ear to being read aloud.

Christina Hardyment, The Times

Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award

David Shaw-Parker’s exemplary reading of Trollope’s masterpiece is like sitting in your club in a comfortable chair after a good meal and listening to one of the particularly good-natured other members tell you a story about some people he knows. His tone is confiding and personal, perfectly capturing the spirit of Trollope’s narrative voice. There’s no attempt to impersonate characters; Shaw-Parker’s voice changes just enough that we are never in doubt who is speaking or what kind of person the speaker is. (The unctuous Mr Slope is particularly fine.) There are occasional peculiar changes in the sound quality for a phrase or two, but these are minor distractions from a charming and witty performance.

A.C.P., AudioFile

Shaw-Parker follows up his outstanding recording of The Warden (also available from Naxos) with an exceptional reading of the sequel, perhaps Trollope’s most beloved novel. Romance vies with church politics as Archbishop Grantly battles against the new bishop and his smarmy assistant for control of religious life in Barsetshire. Shaw-Parker totally embraces his role as narrator, and in delightfully plummy tones, he guides listeners through the twisty plot, witty dialogue, and humorous asides. His animated portrayal of the large cast enlivens characters, from the poor pensioners to elite government officials. The narration highlights the strengths of this charming tale and, despite the novel’s size, makes this a compelling listening experience.

Joyce Saricks, Booklist

Barnaby Rudge, one of only two historical novels by Dickens, deals with the ‘Popery’ riots of 1780. Read here by one of Britain’s most popular readers, Sean Barrett, (his reading of Bleak House was widely praised) in a useful 6CD abridgement. The recording is part of the extended Dickens collection offered in both abridged and unabridged form by Naxos AudioBooks. The only available version of the novel on audiobook.

Barnaby, the vulnerable man-child, prompts some of Dickens’s finest writing. Overall, however, it’s not one of his best novels, although Sean Barrett’s magical voice somehow persuades you that it is.

Rachel Redford, The Observer

For the background to this historical novel, a tale of mystery, suspense and unsolved murder, Dickens chose the anti-Catholic Gordon Riots of 1780. Mayhem reigns in the streets of London, vividly described by Dickens, and the innocent Barnaby Rudge is drawn into the thick of it. Against the public disorder, Dickens tells of the private discord within families – with fathers and sons at loggerheads – and creates a wealth of colourful characters: the sinuously evil Lord Chester; the pretty and vivacious Dolly Varden; and the host and regulars at the Maypole Inn – a symbol of security in those uncertain and violent times.

Barnaby, the vulnerable man-child, prompts some of Dickens’s finest writing. Overall, however, it’s not one of his best novels, although Sean Barrett’s magical voice somehow persuades you that it is.

Rachel Redford, The Observer

After writing Oliver Twist and Nicholas Nickleby, the author next turned to historical fiction, using the notorious Gordon Riots of 1780, a clash between Catholics and Protestants, as the backdrop for this novel. It’s a dark story but one that yields rich prose and a murder mystery. Narrator Sean Barrett has the kind of elastic, wide-ranging voice that is well suited to Dickens’s writing style. Barrett can affect a sprightly youngster, a wise but weathered old man, a scheming politician, and an assortment of women, all of whom play major roles in this classic tale. It’s a joy to listen to him alternate between characters and his own deep, robust reading voice, an accomplishment he keeps up for 25 hours.

R.I.G., AudioFile

The long hours put in by this household’s squad of Santa’s elves raced by as we listened, high-Victorian style, to Sean Barrett giving the performance of his audio career as the narrator of Charles Dickens’s Barnaby Rudge. I can’t recommend it highly enough. Dickens is brilliant heard aloud and the book, written in short instalments, lends itself well to being your own book at bedtime or your reading during your daily commute. Set during the anti-Roman Catholic Gordon riots in London during the 1780s, it has an utterly loveable simpleton hero and three of the best villains known to literature: the smooth and cynical Sir John Chester, the devil-may-care and unhinged inn-servant Hugh, and Dennis, the whimsical hangman. Add the heart-of-oak Gabriel Vardon and his disastrously flirtatious daughter Dolly, plus a Romeo and Juliet love affair between the Anglican son and the Catholic daughter of sworn enemies, and the mid is as rich and unexpected as a good plum pud.

Christina Hardyment, The Times

Forget that Kindle loaded with literary classics. Headphones are far more comfortable on the beach. Sean Barrett gives the performance of his audio career as the narrator of Charles Dickens’s Barnaby Rudge. Dickens is brilliant heard aloud, as he intended his novels to be narrated in instalments. Set during the anti-Catholic Gordon riots in London in the 1780s, Barnaby Rudge has a loveable simpleton hero and three first-rate villains: the smooth and cynical Sir John Chester, the devil-may-care inn servant Hugh, and Ned Dennis, a whimsical hangman. Add the heart-of-oak Gabriel Varden and his flirtatious daughter Dolly, plus a Romeo and Juliet love affair between the Anglican son and the Catholic daughter of sworn enemies, and the mix is rich and unexpected.

Christina Hardyment, The Times

Like Tom Jones before him, Barry Lyndon is one of the most lively and roguish characters in English literature. He may now be best known through the colourful Stanley Kubrick film released in 1975, but it is Thackeray who, in true 19th-century style, shows the darker side of this 18th-century hero; hence it remains a startling novel. Following the death of an English officer, Barry flees his native Ireland and attempts to establish himself as one of England’s aristocratic elite. Through backstabbing and scheming he reaches the level of society to which he always aspired. However, intent on criticizing the period’s social order, Thackeray ensures that this success is soon followed by the hero’s ultimate decline. Jonathan Keeble’s energetic reading imbues the period with colour and illuminates the sheer inventiveness of Thackeray’s literary and topical satire.

Thackeray’s classic tale of Barry Lyndon, who escapes his life on the Emerald Isle to pursue a more luxurious existence in England, is reimagined in this audio edition, narrated by Jonathan Keeble. Reading in a rich, accented voice and making use of understated narration, Keeble immediately transports listeners back to the 18th century. His tone is firm and commanding, and he digs deep into Thackeray’s prose to precisely capture the very essence of Lyndon. Keeble’s narration is well paced, his timing impeccable. And while this audiobook weighs in at about 13 hours – a lengthy commitment for the casual listener – Keeble manages to keep his audience engaged for the duration.

Publishers Weekly

In this 1844 classic, English author ­ Thackeray delights readers with the tale of Barry Lyndon, a classically unreliable narrator. Lyndon is an Irish rogue who joins the British army after an ill-fated love affair and then goes on to fame and fortune as a fashionable gambler. As in his masterpiece, Vanity Fair, Thackeray presents his characters accurately and realistically. His portrayal of the dissolute, unscrupulous protagonist, a degenerate who thinks he is royalty among men, is masterly. Barry Lyndon may be unlikable, but the beauty of the words and the depth of the story make for a fantastic read. British voice artist Jonathan Keeble brings this amusing tale to life with his rich and wonderfully faceted voice. VERDICT: Recommended for all fans of classic English literature.

Erin Cataldi, Franklin College Library, Indiana

This classic promises an entertaining look at the corruption, duplicity and ambition of Thackeray’s ironic narrator, Redmond Barry Lyndon. A confident social upstart, Redmond draws little empathy from the listener as he expounds upon his villainous actions to obtain wealth and prominence. Jonathan Keeble captures Redmond’s voice perfectly in his narration. Keeble has a deep, bold voice that becomes especially emphatic when his narrator grows heated, and his expert use of intonation often leaves Redmond’s veracity open for interpretation. This audiobook offers Keeble the challenge of creating not only the haughty Redmond but also a diverse set of characters, from Irish commoners to German aristocracy. Keeble meets the challenge admirably, providing a unique vocal personality for each character. His narration enlivens this intriguing fictional autobiography.

D.M.W., AudioFile

Melville’s Bartleby is a classic American short story, a strange tale of an assiduous copyist whose catch-phrase is ‘I would prefer not to’. It is joined here by two other stories from The Piazza Tales, Melville’s idiosyncratic collection: The Lightning-Rod Man and The Bell Tower.

• Bartleby the Scrivener
• The Lightning-Rod Man
• The Bell-Tower

Appearing in 1852, Basil was Wilkie Collins’s second published novel. The eponymous narrator is emotionally torn between two women: Margaret Sherwin and his sister Clara. His marriage to Margaret, a draper’s sexually precocious daughter, is to remain secret and unconsummated for the first year, as agreed with her father. Anticipating Collins’s later sensation novels, the plot involves betrayal, insanity and death, with a thrilling conclusion set among the cliffs and whirlpools near Land’s End. The book was received with shock upon its publication, most especially due to its treatment of adultery.

Here Basil is read by the prolific and popular narrator Nicholas Boulton.

Bachelor John Marcher is haunted by the premonition that something terrible lies in store for him, like a ‘beast in the jungle’ lying in wait. So he spends his life in idleness, unable to carry out his dreams or desires, while his friend May Bartram, curious to see how this spectacular fate will manifest, helps watch out for the arrival of the beast. The two develop a strong platonic relationship, stoked by this mystery, and gradually the best years of their life roll by, unfulfilled – lost to John’s dread and fear of the unknown. Written soon after The Wings of the Dove, The Beast in the Jungle is a haunting story of crippling obsession and a life unlived.

Beasts in My Belfry is the wonderfully funny memoir about Gerald Durrell’s time at Whipsnade Zoo and his experiences as a young zookeeper. Following the Second World War, Durrell joined Whipsnade Zoo as a junior keeper – an opportunity that fulfilled a lifelong dream. Thanks to Rupert Degas’s brilliant voicing, which captures all of Durrell’s charm and wit, the listener can enjoy being taken behind the scenes of one of the world’s very first zoos. This is a delightful portrait of the animals who lived there and those who looked after them.

Rupert Degas delivers a bang-up performance – including tiger growls and buffalo snorts – of Gerald Durrell’s colourful and often comic memories of his first job as a student keeper at England’s Whipsnade Zoological Park. Be forewarned that the legendary founder of the Jersey Wildlife Preservation Trust wrote the book in 1970 about events in 1945. While he’s forward-thinking about animal preservation, some references, including ‘red Indians’, are dated and off-putting (even if he clearly admired America’s indigenous tribes more than subsequent European settlers). That said, Degas narrates with zest and believably inhabits everyone from the endearing lady who fed (and fed and fed) our lad to keepers of every personality and accent. Plus, those animals, including the bear who sang duets with the author.

A.C.S., AudioFile

First published in 1924, Beau Geste tells the story of a stolen sapphire and three brothers, who consequently join the Foreign Legion. Michael ‘Beau’ Geste, as his nickname suggests, represents honour and bravery in the midst of deceit and treachery. An action-packed adventure, much of the plot is set in French North Africa where the Geste brothers have to contend with both a mutiny in their ranks and the attacks of the Touaregs. The novel has given rise to many films, most notably the 1939 version starring Gary Cooper and Ray Milland, and a stage production with Laurence Olivier in the title role.

This 1924 classic has been adapted for three films, two radio plays, and a stage play (not including parodies), but this audiobook still manages to provide surprises. Rupert Degas’s performance is not among them; we have come to expect excellence from him, and he delivers. The three Geste brothers are to some extent aspects of a single personality, and they have similar voices here, but everyone else is persuasively distinguished by tone and accent. Even when the story slows down (and for an action novel it can be quite slow), Degas keeps the pace up and carries us along. The best-known film version is fairly faithful to the original story but leaves out much of the detail of life in the French Foreign Legion and the desert.

D.M.H., AudioFile

For many people, Beethoven is the greatest composer who ever lived. In this portrait-in-sound, actors’ readings combine with his music to reveal a titanic personality, both vulnerable and belligerent, comic and tragic, and above all heroic, as he comes to grips with perhaps the greatest disability a musician can suffer. No man’s music is more universal, few men’s lives are more inspiring. In every sense but one – his modest height – he was a giant. The great bonus of this audio-biography is that the development of Beethoven’s music can be heard in the context of his life. What did he write in those early, ambitious years when he was at the peak of his musical powers? What did he write when beset with anxiety over his failing hearing? And what was the music that insisted on pouring out of him, even though he couldn’t hear it himself? Jeremy Siepmann draws us into the private world of Ludwig van Beethoven, with the composer portrayed with rugged vividness by Bob Peck.

The Beetle is a horror novel that was published in 1897 and significantly outsold Dracula, which appeared in the same year. A polymorphous Egyptian creature – the Beetle – seeks revenge on the eminent British politician Paul Lessingham for crimes committed against the disciples of an ancient cult. Although it is less well-known than Dracula to modern readers, The Beetle remains a leading example of the Gothic novel.

The story is told from the perspectives of four different characters, concluding with the account of the detective Augustus Champnell. The action takes place within a three-day period in an undisclosed year in the 1800s.

Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award

Although largely unknown to American audiobook listeners, all five of these rich, distinctive voices demonstrate extensive experience in British theater and television. Together they evoke the atmosphere of Victorian privilege and decorum that defines this forgotten gothic thriller. A series of four proper Britishers recount their struggles against an ancient Egyptian cult. A fifth voice, John Foley, announces the chapter titles and serves to link both the narrative and the narrators. The plot may be a bit dated, but that’s part of its genre appeal, and its prevailing creepiness. This fine ensemble delivers the maximum wallop out of its antique thrills and builds a sense of menace that’s hard to shake. Those with entomophobia would be wise to pass on this title.

D.A.W., AudioFile

Marsh’s tale of an ancient Egyptian shape-shifting creature – the titular Beetle – seeking revenge against a British politician may not be widely known today, but when it was released in 1897, it substantially outsold Bram Stoker’s Dracula, which was published the same year. The plot unfolds from the point of view of four people. Robert Holt is a clerk who meets the Beetle on a dark and stormy night and is mind-controlled by him into stealing letters from a politician named Paul Lessingham. Sydney Atherton agrees to help the Beetle, in exchange for the love of Marjorie Lindon and later for the creature’s help in saving his friend’s life. Marjorie Lindon is a politician’s daughter who has romantic connections to both Lessingham and Atherton and is eventually captured by the Beetle. The story’s final section is told from the point of view of Augustus Champnell, a detective who takes Lessingham’s confession about his involvement in a cult devoted to Isis, which has led to the Beetle’s obsession with him. Gunnar Cauthery, Jonathan Aris, Natalie Simpson, and Andrew Wincott provide resonant, compelling narration.

Stephanie Klose, Library Journal

Published in 1801, Maria Edgeworth’s Belinda is an absorbing novel that mirrors social and domestic life among the English gentry. In her pursuit of a suitable marriage, Belinda encounters an array of characters including the dazzling socialite Lady Delacourt, the feminist Harriet Freke, the wealthy and handsome West Indian Mr Vincent and the impulsive Clarence Hervey.

Belinda follows the tradition of society novels charting the journey of an intelligent young woman in search of an ideal husband, with its heroine Belinda eschewing material wealth in favour of happiness and self-fulfilment. Anticipating the realism of Jane Austen’s female heroines, the novel presents a vivid portrayal of life in late 18th-century London, depicting leisured society in all its aspects.

Ben Hur could be said to be the first blockbuster. When it was published in 1880, it sold over two million copies and was translated into numerous languages. It combines all the best elements of popular classic, epic and action story against a background of authoritative historical detail. The pace and immediacy of Ben Hur was the basis of its appeal to film-makers – Charlton Heston’s portrayal of the title role is one of the classics of the cinema. Wallace’s original novel has been largely forgotten now, but as this vivid reading shows, the story – together with the sweeping rhythm of the writer’s prose – make it ideally suited to the audiobook.

The oldest long poem in Old English, written about 1000 A.D., Beowulf tells the story of a great warrior in Southern Scandinavia in both youth and maturity. The monster Grendel terrorises the Scyldings of Hrothgar’s Danish Kingdom until Beowulf defeats him. As a result he has to face her enraged mother. Beowulf dies after a battle against a fierce dragon. The tale is powerfully performed here by Crawford Logan in a lively modern verse translation from the original West Saxon dialect by Benedict Flynn.

Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award

The Great warrior-king sallies forth against Grendel, Mama Grendel and an unnamed dragon in a worthy addition to the dozen extant audio versions of the Old English epic poem. This vigorous translation amply conveys the dignity, stylisation and swift flow of the 1,000-year-old original. Crawford Logan uses his virile, seasoned baritone well, reciting sonorously in cadences that smooth the difficult locutions, all the while sustaining a grave tone and a steady, unhurried pace. He husbands his energy, never going full throttle and sometimes flagging, particularly while circumnavigating the poem’s more digressive passages. Like the author, he pays little attention to characterisation. So while he has not made our hero’s exploits as interesting as perhaps he could have, he has made them admirably clear and mellifluous.

Y.R., AudioFile

Our Island Story by H. E. Marshall is an Edwardian history book for younger listeners (aged six–twelve years old) which tells the story of England, concluding with the reign of Queen Victoria. Having released it unabridged in three volumes, Naxos AudioBooks now offers an attractive collection of the main stories and personalities. This skilful abridgement nevertheless maintains the narrative of British history, from the arrival of Julius Caesar to the height of the British Empire and the long reign of Queen Victoria.

After the jealous tyrant Don Rodrigo foils their wedding, young Lombardian peasants Lucia and Lorenzo must separate and flee for their safety. Their difficult path to matrimony takes place against the turbulent backdrop of the Thirty Years War, where lawlessness and exploitation are at their height. Lucia takes refuge in a convent, where she is later abducted and taken on a nightmarish journey to a sinister castle, while Lorenzo goes to Milan, where he witnesses famine, riots and plague – all evoked through meticulous description and with stunning immediacy. The Betrothed is a masterful example of historical fiction and remains one of the most famous novels in Italian literature.

Continuing where Thus Spoke Zarathustra left off, Nietzsche’s controversial work Beyond Good and Evil is one of the most influential philosophical texts of the nineteenth century and one of the most controversial works of ideology ever written. Attacking the notion of morality as nothing more than institutionalised weakness, Nietzsche criticises past philosophers for their unquestioning acceptance of moral precepts. Nietzsche tried to formulate what he called ‘the philosophy of the future’. Alex Jennings reads this new translation by Ian Johnston.

Sanskrit for ‘Song of the Lord’, the Bhagavad Gita is a 700-verse Hindu epic that constitutes part of the faith’s vast cornerstone work, the Mahabharata. The book provides timeless truths and indispensible advice for believers trying to overcome internal tensions, doubt and indecision. The teachings are conveyed in the form of a dialogue between the Pandava general Arjuna and the deity Krishna, who helps Arjuna understand his position in the Kurukshetra War, and guides him towards the right course of action. The Gita’s treatment of duty and devotion has inspired many, including the peaceful activist Mahatma Gandhi, who referred to it as his ‘spiritual dictionary’.

A maritime classic from the master pen of Herman Melville. Written some forty years after Moby Dick, Melville’s Billy Budd is a moving tale of good versus evil. Set aboard a British navy ship at the end of the eighteenth century, a young, innocent sailor’s charm and good nature put the men around him at ease. Ship-life agreed with Billy. He made friends quickly and was well liked, which infuriated John Claggart, the ship’s cold-blooded superior officer. Mutiny was a continual threat greatly feared by naval officers. Even minor offences were dealt with harshly to keep crews in their place – regardless of whether the accused was guilty or innocent. The envious Master-at-Arms becomes obsessed with the destruction of the ‘Handsome Sailor’ and torments the young man until his false accusations lead to an eventual charge of treason against Billy.

William Henry Hudson was a founding member of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB). Though born in Argentina, Hudson came to England in 1874, where he remained until his death in 1922. Absorbed by nature, and in particular by the lives and activities of birds, his acute observations on wildlife led to some charming books which helped establish the pastime of bird watching. Birds in Town and Village is one of his classics. It is a truly engaging rumination on birds, as he watched them go about their daily lives. It is unfailingly charming, and read with an easy, relaxed tone by Neville Jason.

This is the delightful 1893 classic from W.H. Hudson, a founding member of the RSPB. His memories go back to when five sparrows were sold for three farthings, and linnets, considered a pest, were made into pies. His plea to a hunter is to ‘put aside his fowling piece’ and for women to eschew hummingbird feathers in their hats. His descriptions are charming, his observations of habit and song acute.

Rachel Redford, The Oldie

Friedrich Nietzsche’s The Birth of Tragedy out of the Spirit of Music was published in 1872. In 1869, at the age of 24, he had been appointed a professor of classical philology at the University of Basel, a remarkable position for one of his age, and the book was his first significant publication. It did little, however, to help his reputation as a scholar; his views were controversial and aroused strong criticism in some quarters, while his deliberate espousal of the cause of the composer Richard Wagner was, to say the least, unhelpful. Nietzsche later revised his views on Wagner and re-issued The Birth of Tragedy in 1886 under the title The Birth of Tragedy, or Hellenism and Pessimism, introducing it with An Attempt at a Self-Criticism. The present reading includes this last, his 1871 Preface to Richard Wagner and the original book itself, with its famous discussion of the Apollonian and Dionysian in Greek tragedy.

Black Beauty, the friendly, patient stallion with a white blaze upon his forehead, is one of the most familiar figures in children’s literature. After the first lively carefree years in the fields, Black Beauty learns to accept the saddle and bridle and the rule of his masters. But a succession of misfortunes shows that the life of a horse can be harsh and painful. This touching portrait, full of drama and sadness, is as moving now as when it was first written in 1877.

Bulldog’s back! This time, there is a plot to foment a revolution in England, a plot that has left the Police baffled and the nation at the mercy of a master criminal. A disguised clergyman, a beautiful sidekick, an arcane poison, car chases and abductions all fail to see off Hugh Drummond and his gang of ex-Army friends. But when the plotters capture Drummond’s wife, the game is up… isn’t it? Undaunted, charming, brave and resourceful, Bulldog Drummond is an archetypal English adventure hero, and the forerunner of The Saint and James Bond.

The Black Gang (1922), the second book (of ten) in the Bulldog Drummond series, finds Captain Hugh Drummond, DSO, MC, married to Phyllis Benton but still bored with calm civilian life in England. Villain Carl Peterson and his female accomplice Irma have escaped to the Continent but Drummond has enlisted some ex-army buddies to round up the remaining Bolshevik thugs trying to destabilize English society. They are soon dubbed “The Black Gang” by the media because of their long black coats and black masks. After they have captured and enlisted about fifty of the baddies, Peterson comes back disguised as an American clergyman helping poor Europeans. He is accompanied by his “daughter” Janet. He is furious about the loss of six priceless diamonds. Scotland Yard begins to notice the escapades of the Black Gang. Fortunately his old school chum Sir Bryan Johnstone, the Director of Criminal Investigations and Chief Inspector McIver think Hugh is a witless ninny. It takes Hugh a long time to see through Peterson’s disguise. In the meantime Phyllis is kidnapped and held on an estate surrounded by an electrified fence and a gang of goons. Hugh must also deal with a large vicious dog and a murderous Bolshevik named Yulowski who enjoys beating people to death with a rifle butt. There is a fair amount of anti-Semitism in the story typical of the 1920’s. The author, Herman Cyril McNeile, wrote under the pen name “Sapper” because serving officers were not allowed to publish under their own names. However, so popular was the series that it appeared on film and radio. After McNeile’s untimely death in 1937, his good friend Gerard Fairlie continued to create more adventures for Drummond. The series is narrated by Roy McMillan, a director, writer, actor and abridger. He is especially adept with accents (British, Russian, German, American) as well as believable female characters. He maintains the frantic pace of the action nicely. The series is highly recommended to fans of adventure novels.

Janet Julian, soundcommentary.com

Private eye Bulldog Drummond is just slightly over 80 years old. Despite his age and controversial nature, he lives on in fond memories of many who have come across him in a variety of ways. The private detective has probably entertained and shocked readers, radio listeners, film-goers and comic book enthusiasts in equal measure. There are ten original Bulldog Drummond novels written by Sapper, a.k.a. Herman Cyril McNeile, seven written following his death by his friend Gerard Fairlie, who had served as Sapper’s model for Drummond, and a final two by Henry Reymond. All of them feature the private eye of British upper-middle-class origins in books that have the format of an unabashed thriller. Drummond is unlike Agatha Christie’s cerebral, yet entertaining characters Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot, who came into being around the same time as Sapper’s far more muscular and robust detective.

Now Naxos AudioBooks has come out with an unabridged audio book of the second Bulldog Drummond novel, The Black Gang. Published in 1922, it pits Drummond and his clubby chums against Carl Peterson, a man reminiscent of Sherlock Holmes’ nemesis, Moriarty. Bond’s creator, Ian Fleming, admitted Peterson, in turn, served as the model for the evil Blofeld with whom James Bond battled on behalf of Her Majesty’s Secret Service. Admittedly, Fleming and Conan Doyle, Holmes’ creator, wrote much more nuanced books than Sapper, but the lack of refinement does not detract in the least bit from the thriller aspects of The Black Gang.

So, who is Drummond? He is described by his creator as retired British Army Captain Hugh Drummond, DSO, MC. He is wealthy and bored after serving in the trenches of France in World War I, and seeks a way to fill his time with adventure. Working as a private eye seems to be his idea of a good way to find the excitement he craves. On his first assignment in a book called simply Bulldog Drummond, which came out in 1920, he stumbles across the evil Carl Peterson, who desires world domination. Besides, Drummond’s original ad for a job in The Times leads to his first assignment from a young woman, Phyllis Benton, who ends up becoming his wife. In 1922, upon the publication of The Black Gang, he once again gets ensnared in Peterson’s evil plans.

As for McNeile, he adopted the nom de plume ’Sapper’ because British officers were not allowed to write under their own name. As he had served in the Royal Engineers, choosing to call himself ’Sapper’ seemed natural. He began his writing career in 1915 with several short stories about his experiences in the trenches. But instead of placing the focus on war’s horror, he kept an up-beat tone that made his tales immensely popular. He served with distinction and gained the Military Cross for bravery in the first and second battles of Ypres. But he chose his friend Fairlie as the model for Drummond because he had served in the Scots Guards, had been an Army boxing champion, and served on the British bobsled team that ended up in the 1924 Olympics. He, thereby, suited the image of Drummond more than the dapper though bookish McNeile.

The Black Gang is probably the best of the four books dealing with this gang. Actor Roy McMillan is highly effective as the reader of this tale in audio book format. His vocal impersonations of the various characters, good and evil – there are no shades in between these two – are excellent. For those who recall Bulldog Drummond from radio programs, this version of The Black Gang will lead them on a sentimental, albeit violence-charged journey into the past.

The Black Gang, in addition to all of the other Bulldog Drummond stories, contains passages that will make today’s audience squirm because – and rightly so – the team that put this audio book on disc did not choose to make it politically correct. Consequently, the listener gets a novel of its time: jingoistic and prone to racial slurs. While we do not like such images today, to change the references would rob the novel of its original flavor, which includes the snobby attitudes of the 1920s British upper crust and the fears of the lower. One still shudders at the idea that now some schools have chosen to give their students a sanitized Adventures of Tom Sawyer to read in which the ’N-word’ has been expurgated. Talk about changing history. No matter how bad the past has been, to remove the truth from it denies what has been achieved for the better today.

Without giving away too much of the plot of The Black Gang, Peterson is once again attempting a coup d’état to enable a pro-communist takeover of Britain. He does so strictly for his own profit, not for political belief. The Black Gang, headed by Drummond and consisting of his clubby public school friends, even aided by Phyllis, manages to foil him once again. We also meet the clueless Sir Brian Johnstone, New Scotland Yard’s director of criminal investigation and Chief Inspector McIver, who are disturbed by the activities of the secret, black-dressed, black-hooded Black Gang. A certain popular mystique surrounds this gang, seemingly consisting of ruffians who have a tendency to beat up London’s lower class of criminals, even abducting them for re-education.

In the books that featured the Black Gang, Sapper made no attempt to give dimensions to his characters. He wrote on the surface, aiming for entertainment with a dash of melodrama, peppered by violence, and nothing more. That is why his detective attracted the movie industry and stars such as Ronald Coleman, Ralph Richardson, and Walter Pidgeon portrayed him. With such starry company from the past, Roy McMillan is in good company and listeners can be sure they will have a few evenings of good entertainment. They can also be assured that The Black Gang is no more two-dimensional than most current TV offerings. And this audio book comes without commercial interruption!.

Alidë Kohlhaas, Lancette Arts Journal

When the dashing Jack Carstares is unfairly accused of cheating at cards, he leaves the country in disgrace. Returning some years later disguised as a highwayman, his reappearance heralds a dramatic chain of events that includes a Duke, a damsel, a duel and not one, but two kidnappings. Written when she was just seventeen, The Black Moth was Heyer’s first novel, but it bears many of the hallmarks of her later romances, being vivid, witty and peppered with historical insight.

Now published for the first time as an audiobook, and written when she was only 19, Georgette Heyer’s The Black Moth is a much more refined recreation of the past. It is, however, rather more raunchy than her later comedies of manners, which she liked to think of as a mix of Dr Johnson and Jane Austen. The narrator Julian Rhind-Tutt enters in with a will on the skulduggery of ‘Devil’ Andover, the pluck of Diana Beauliegh and the gallantry of highwayman Jack Carstares.

Christina Hardyment, The Times

Julian Rhind-Tutt is simply superb in his narration of this delightful and charming Regency romance, written in 1921, the first novel by Georgette Heyer, ‘the Queen of Regency Romance’. In this tale, the hero turns highwayman after he takes the blame for his younger brother’s cheating at cards. The handsome hero must save the beautiful lady who helps him when he is wounded when she’s later kidnapped by the dastardly duke, played by Rhind-Tutt to sneering perfection. He easily moves from the commanding voice of the hero to the shrill voices of the hero’s sister-in-law and her friends and positively reeks of snobbery and villainy when portraying the duke. Filled with interesting details of the period combined with an expert narration, this audio offering is captivating.

A.C.P., AudioFile

When tulip-grower Cornelius van Baerle is framed for treason and sentenced to death, he is powerless against the brutal factional politics that put him in prison. But Rosa, the jailer’s daughter, is beautiful and strong-willed, and when they fall in love she determines not only to save him but also to grow the near mythical flower: the black tulip. Set in the savage turmoil of Holland’s late 17th century, this intimate novel celebrates the power of integrity over obsession, and tolerance over violence; and it creates in the black tulip a symbol of humanity’s potential.

Published in 1850 and set against the turbulence of 17th-century Holland, this is a dramatic story of obsession, adventure, danger and romantic love. Its star is the black tulip, symbol of triumph over evil. Tulip fanatic Cornelius van Baerle is framed for treason by his jealous neighbour, but his sentence is commuted just as the executioner’s axe is raised. In prison Rosa, the jailor’s daughter, nurtures Cornelius’s dream of producing the mythical bloom. A masterly narration re-creates the full magnificence of Dumas’s theatre.

Rachel Redford, the Observer

The black tulip has come to be synonymous with the concept of artificial demand: that anything, if arbitrarily deemed rare or valuable enough, can become so expensive that its real worth is forgotten. We have come to know of certain black tulips in our own time, including the demand which was created when banks started buying up mortgaged-backed securities and the resulting fall-out. Alexandre Dumas’s The Black Tulip takes us back to an early example of this in seventeenth-century Holland, where the cultivation of tulips of all colors was a pastime of the wealthy. The Haarlem Horticultural Society devises a contest to award the person who can grow a black tulip a prize of one hundred thousand guilders (which seemed to have been a great deal of money at that time). Naturally, because greedy human beings are involved, the race to be the first one to grow the black tulip compels certain ‘tulip-fanciers’ to go to any lengths – including incrimination – to win the prize.

Cornelius van Baerle is an affluent tulip-fancier who has successfully cultivated many types of tulips. He takes up the black tulip challenge and gets very close but his envious neighbor, Mynheer Isaac Boxtel, discovers a means to get van Baerle imprisoned and hopefully executed so that Boxtel may grow the tulip and win the prize. Van Baerle would be ruined were it not for the beneficence and creative scheming of the jailer’s daughter, Rosa, who falls in love with van Baerle when he is locked up in her father’s jail, and maneuvers to save both him and the tulip.

The Black Tulip’s beginning is rather tough going for a modern listener, especially one not familiar with, or particularly interested in, the complicated political machinations of Holland four centuries ago. Dumas uses a rather lengthy, melodramatic exposition to explain the background of his main character, Cornelius van Baerle, and the ways in which this background was used to land van Baerle in prison on trumped-up charges, all in an effort to steal away the prize. If The Black Tulip were written today, there is no doubt that there would be less discussion of this old Dutch political wrangling, but once listeners make their way through this, the twists of the plot draw us in and the exposition is neatly tied to the story’s final thrilling conclusion.

A fascinating story, intertwined with a true-love tale and some truly funny moments –including Rosa’s sarcastic replies to van Baerle when he tries to convince her that he loves her more than the tulip – make The Black Tulip withstand the more than hundred and fifty years that have passed since it was published, and the emergence of more modern examples of artificial demand.

Peter Joyce, a stage, radio, and television actor, revels in the reading of Dumas’s characters and this high-stakes story. He expresses the excitement of certain crucial moments– will Rosa succeed in convincing the prince of Boxtel’s treachery in time? – through his beautiful and deep voice, carrying the listener with him through the telling.

Joanna Theiss, SoundCommentary

Alexandre Dumas is known mostly for The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo. His novel The Black Tulip deserves to be better known, and Naxos has done something about it. In an excellently real audiobook, we are taken to late seventeenth-century Holland. There, the conflict between the Dutch and France is one theme of the book, and the obsession with tulips is another. Treason, deceit, greed and love drive the story of The Black Tulip. Peter Joyce gives it a highly dramatic reading that makes listening to the story almost compulsive.

Alide Kohlhaas, Seniors Review

The quest to grow a black tulip doesn’t have the same narrative appeal as Dumas’s Count of Monte Cristo or Three Musketeers, but it provides adventure enough for those who love the great melodramas of the nineteenth century. Peter Joyce delivers a fine rendition of Dumas’s meaty prose and is especially good at depicting villains and brutal jailers, less effective at conveying his nubile heroine. Although this is a lesser work by Dumas, the author’s judicious detachment, voiced so well in Joyce’s calm and untroubled delivery, holds the promise throughout that innocence will triumph and justice eventually prevail: The villain will be vanquished, and the power of the black tulip will somehow open the prison doors and unite the fateful lovers.

D.A.W., AudioFile

Naxos AudioBooks begins its new series of Great Poets – represented by their most popular poems on one CD – with William Blake, whose 250th anniversary of birth falls this year. This CD contains all of his most popular works – Tyger, the Auguries of Innocence, Jerusalem, as well as some lesser-known poetry that demonstrates the range and power of his verse. They are strikingly read by Robert Glenister, Michael Maloney and Stephen Critchlow.

Auguries of Innocence
Introduction to Songs of Innocence
A Cradle Song
Introduction to Songs of Experience
A Dream
The Chimney Sweeper
The Chimney-Sweeper
The Divine Image
A Divine Image
from The Gates of Paradise, For The Sexes, Prologue
Infant Joy
Gnomic Verses
The Fly
Song
Holy Thursday
HolyThursday
Laughing Song
The Garden of Love
from An Island in the Moon
A Little Boy Found
A Little Boy Lost
The Little Girl Found
A Little Girl Lost
I Heard an Angel
The Human Abstract
Night
from Jerusalem
London
The Land of Dreams
Nurse’s Song
Love’s Secret
A Poison Tree
preface to Milton
The Little Vagabond
On Art and Artists
The Sick Rose
Ah, Sunflower
The Voice of the Ancient Bard
To The Muses
The Lamb
The Tiger
On Another’s Sorrow

Born in 1623 as the youngest child of a wealthy Essex family, Margaret Cavendish became a Maid of Honour to Queen Henrietta Maria before going on to marry the widowed William Cavendish, Duke of Newcastle. She was a prolific writer whose work encompassed a range of genres including poetry, moral tales, romance, scientific treatises, philosophy, drama and biography. Pepys wrote of her: ‘The whole story of this Lady is a romance, and all she doth is romantic’.

The Blazing World is part fiction and part feminist text in which a lady is shipwrecked and seeks to ensure that the Blazing World in which she finds herself is transformed into a Utopia – free of war, sexual discrimination and religious discord. It is a fascinating and extravagant combination of what the author herself calls ‘romancical’, ‘philosophical’ and ‘fantastical’.

The long, drawn-out case of Jarndyce versus Jarndyce provides the background to this novel which takes us into Dickens’ world of impoverished people on the street, lovers fallen on hard times and the grand riches of the upper classes. It is read movingly by Sean Barrett as the main narrator and Teresa Gallagher as the young Esther Summerson.

A complex plot of love and inheritance is set against the English legal system of the mid-nineteenth century, with all its tortuous avenues and disguised resolutions. Here is the firm, Jarndyce & Jarndyce, the young orphan and ward of court Esther Summerson (who tells much of the story). As always, it is the skilled pen of Dickens himself that creates the momentum with his acute eye for both individual characters and their traits, and the backdrop of Victorian London.

Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award

After its recent warm reception on ‘Masterpiece Theatre’, you may be thinking that it’s time to read this classic. But will you really do it? Audio is a great way to enjoy Dickens, especially as he himself believed the best way to deliver his material was to read it aloud. By turns darkly humorous, horrific and poignant, this is great entertainment. Narrators Sean Barrett and Teresa Gallagher more than hold their own with the complex story and multitude of characters. Gallagher breathes new life into young Esther, portraying her with charm and intelligence and avoiding the cloying sweetness she is frequently accused of. Barrett gives weight and voice to the loftiest and lowest members of mid-19th-century British society, while drawing out every ounce of humour in what can be, in the right hands, a very funny novel.

D.G. AudioFile

The Times Best Audiobooks of the Year

This has been an exceptionally rich year for audio-listening. Naxos is proceeding apace with its magnificent range of unabridged Austens and Dickens. My favourite remains Bleak House, so much more than the diatribe against the legal system that abridgements can make it. It lends itself well to audio, told as it is in two voices, the narrator (Sean Barrett, mesmeric as chill Mr Tulkinghorne) and Esther Summerson (spoken with freshness and honesty by Teresa Gallagher).

The Times

One of Katherine Mansfield’s finest short stories, Bliss, introduces us to Bertha, who experiences a sense of rapture as she reflects on her life. On her walk home one day, she is overwhelmed by a sense of bliss and contentment. However, her joy later turns to disappointment as she discovers her husband is having an affair with her new friend Pearl. Katherine Mansfield became well-known for her focus on psychological conflicts and complex characters; and Bliss displays these qualities brilliantly, exploring themes of marriage, adultery and duplicity. This set also contains five other short stories by Katherine Mansfield – Mr Reginald Peacock’s Day, Pictures, The Little Governess, Feuille D’Album, and A Dill Pickle.

Juliet Stevenson is the perfect narrator for these six delicately observed stories. In one, Bertha in her white dress and jade beads presides over a dinner party, her happiness to be obliterated by seeing her husband kiss heavy-lidded Pearl; in another, ex-lovers meet again beside a Japanese vase of paper daffodils. Unbeatable.

Rachel Redford, The Observer

Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award

Before there were minimalist writers, there were great miniaturists such as Katherine Mansfield, whose work has deceptive power, so cannily and quietly did she craft her scenes. In Mansfield’s stories the level of detail is astonishing, and each central character so fully present that when the climax comes, the listener draws a breath of surprise and simultaneous recognition of the necessary and often painful truths of life. This recording presents six of the 13 stories originally published together in the 1920s – how lucky we are to have even these six. Each is served up by Juliet Stevenson as a rare delicacy, each character brought forth with perfect accent and timbre, each tale with full awareness of every nuance. The result? The listener is blessed with the good fortune of hearing two great storytellers working in concert, and it is absolute bliss.

J.L.B., AudioFile

When novelist Charles Condomine invites a medium into his house in order to learn about the occult for his new book, the last thing he or his second wife dream is that the séance will bring back his first wife, Elvira, who wants Charles all to herself! Things are further complicated by the fact that only Charles can see her, which results in some hilarious exchanges and misunderstandings. Elvira’s plots to get him to ‘the other side’ do not go to plan however, and instead of Charles dying in her contrived ‘accident’ his new wife does! Many consider this to be one of Coward’s best and most unusual farces.

A dark night, a graveyard and the suspicion of murder… The Body Snatcher is one of Robert Louis Stevenson’s most chilling tales. After many years, a chance encounter between two former medical students forces them to recall their sinister past and foul play that was better left buried. Perfect for long winter nights, these stories have been specially selected to create an atmosphere of fear and uncertainty. Read by Roy McMillan, with Naxos AudioBooks’s trademark of carefully chosen music.

Otherworldly but this time seriously scary is Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Body Snatcher and other stories read by Roy McMillan. Perfectly chilling tales of graveyards and murder.

Kati Nicholl, Daily Express

Although The Body Snatcher, The Poor Thing and The Bottle Imp are not as well known as Stevenson’s Treasure Island, Kidnapped, Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Child’s Garden of Verses, they are well worth listening to. The Body Snatcher, a gruesome tale, probably the best known of the three has been made into at least one horror movie. Two medical student assistants are responsible for taking in dead bodies in the middle of the night to be dissected by the other students. What happens when Fettes, the younger one, recognizes two of them? The Poor Thing is a Joseph Jacobs-like fairy tale in which an odd little wraith tells a poor man he will be his son one day. The Bottle Imp reminds one of an Arabian Nights tale and O. Henry’s The Gift of the Magi: who will best love and outdo the sacrifice of the loved one? Roy McMillan’s mellow, low key reading is richly done. Most enjoyable.

Mary Purucker, SoundCommentary.com

Boneland is Alan Garner’s continuation of the story thread which began in his first and enduringly popular fantasy children’s novel, The Weirdstone of Brisingamen. The Weirdstone was published in 1960 (it has never been out of print since), and The Moon of Gomrath followed, in 1963. This took the story further with the same two children, Colin and Susan. But Boneland is particularly fascinating because it takes the story into adulthood, with Colin again the main proponent. Boneland is read by the experienced actor Robert Powell, at the request of Alan Garner himself. Powell notes that he has ‘known Alan for 40 years – we are old friends, and of course I knew Weirdstone of Brisingamen and The Moon of Gomrath. So I was delighted that after all these years, Alan wrote the sequel – and particularly delighted to be asked to record Boneland. I would have been upset if anyone else had been asked.’

I’ve been listening to Boneland while doing my early morning walks through the fields and the woods here at the Kinrowan Estate. It took me just a week to work my way through this amazing work by Alan Garner.

Let’s start off with what Boneland isn’t: despite sharing a primary character with The Weirdstone of Brisingamen and The Moon of Gomrath, beloved children’s novels known as The Adderly Tales that were published in 1957 and 1964, this is very much an adult novel not intended for the pleasure of children whatsoever. Indeed its tone is more akin to what the late Robert Holdstock did in his Ryhope Wood series than anything else Alan Garner has done excepting Thursbitch and Strandloper.

Fortunately I have not read The Adderly Tales, as the two much earlier novels are called. I will listen to them as Naxos has done them as audiobooks because I’m now curious as to how this story started oh so long ago. And I must say that many of the reviewers (and fans of the previous novels) would have been fairer reviewers if they had treated this as the separate work it indeed is.

That primary character is Colin, now fifty years older than in The Adderly Tales, and he’s now convinced he’s going mad. It’s important to add that Garner thinks that The Adderly Tales were ‘very poor on characterization’ as he said in a 1989 interview, but Boneland is not. Indeed Colin and all other characters here feel like real individuals, a result of good writing by the author and superb voicing by the narrator Robert Powell who, as Naxos notes correctly, ‘delivers Garner’s poetic prose with the conviction and understanding that come from being a longtime collaborator with the author. Powell’s Lancashire accent is especially good in the scenes of dialogue between Colin and his psychiatrist, Meg, who is determined to get to the bottom of Colin’s fascination with Celtic magic’.

(Side-note: as with Garner’s The Owl Service, music from the Naxos back catalogue is used here to great effect.)

It is a very tight tale with just three primary characters – Colin, Meg, and an unnamed narrator – living at some point in the distant past. Powell’s voicing is so superb that each feels like an actual individual to me. There’s an echoing effect used on the narration by the third character, which gives a slightly eerie feel.

Colin is either quite mad or has had a very strange life. He is under the care of Meg, a therapist, who is trying to get him to deal with his belief that he has a sister who disappeared when they were still children. Colin thinks he’s insane and Meg thinks he’s not quite there, and she wants him to finally face whatever trauma he’s refusing so far to deal with. Oh and he has an ability to recall literally everything in his life after twelve years and nine months but nothing before that time. Or so he says.

The other story is the life and death of what sounds to be a shaman. It’s an amazing story, which I’ll say nothing about. All you need to know is that it takes place where Colin lives, but that’s true of everything Garner does as his use of true geography in a story is intrinsic to what happens in all his stories including The Stone Book Quartet.

If you hear this story told as it is here and you have not read the earlier novels, you’ll no doubt leave quite puzzled as to what exactly happened. Did Colin have a sister, or did he, as the result of some trauma as a child, just imagine had a sister? Why is Meg so determined to get him to confront his past self?

The ending will surprise you and I’ll not say why, as that’d spoil it for you. I will say that many of those who had read (and deeply loved) The Weirdstone of Brisingamen and The Moon of Gomrath oh so many years ago weren’t terribly happy with this conclusion to the story as it suggests things weren’t as they appeared to be. It’s neither a neat resolution, nor is it an upbeat ending. Garner in the end leaves it up to us to decide what happened oh so long ago.

One final note: this was originally to be voiced by Philip Madoc, a Welshman who had lived in the area of England where all three novels are set. He died in 2011 before he could so. I think the use of a different narrator given the fifty years in time between the first two books and this one actually makes for a better theatre of the mind.

Now I’m off to start my listening to The Adderly Tales. That should be interesting!

Iain Nicholas Mackenzie, Sleeping Hedgehog

Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award

Professor Colin Whisterfield is a brilliant astrophysicist. He believes the stars are telling him a story. He reads them like he reads ancient myths and Jungian psychology. Often he hears his sister’s voice calling to him from the heavens. Narrator Robert Powell delivers Garner’s poetic prose with the conviction and understanding that come from being a longtime collaborator with the author. Powell’s Lancashire accent is especially good in the scenes of dialogue between Colin and his psychiatrist, Meg, who is determined to get to the bottom of Colin’s fascination with Celtic magic. In Garner’s Tolkienesque first novels, The Weirdstone of Brisingamen (1960) and The Moon of Gomrath (1963), 12-year-old twins Colin and Susan were whisked into a world of fierce wizards and dwarves. This philosophical finale to the Weirdstone trilogy, featuring the adult Colin, is very much worth the fifty-year wait.

B.P., AudioFile

Assembled from notes and jottings left unpublished at the time of the author’s death, The Book of Disquiet is a collection of aphoristic prose-poetry musings on dreams, solitude, time and memory. Credited to Pessoa’s alter ego, Bernardo Soares, who chronicles his contemplations in this so-called ‘factless’ autobiography, the work is a journey of one man’s soul and, by extension, of all human souls that allow their minds and hearts to roam far and free. Though his outward life as an assistant bookkeeper in downtown Lisbon is a humdrum affair, Soares lives a rich and varied existence within the contours of his own mind, where he can be and do anything. Soares has no ambition, nor has he any friends; he is plagued with disquiet, and only imagination and dreams can conquer it. Compiled by the translator Richard Zenith, Fernando Pessoa’s The Book of Disquiet is a fulgent tribute to the imagination of man.

Many of the greatest Portuguese writers of the last century are Fernando Pessoa, who wrote under dozens of names. This audiobook is presented as having been written by Pessoa’s fictional friend, Bernardo Soares. Adam Sims narrates the 481 sections – some as short as a single sentence – with a detached air appropriate to someone to whom identity is no longer an interesting question. The narration is not flat, just somewhat cool, befitting the emotional level of the text. There’s more than a hint of Marcus Aurelius in this series of meditations on life, human experience, and how to endure them both. This is an audiobook that might be best heard bit by bit, rather than in one extended session.

D.M.H., AudioFile

Having plumbed the depths with its fine unabridged recordings of Samuel Beckett and Marcel Proust, Naxos brings still more existential dimension to the world of audiobooks with this debut of Portuguese author Pessoa’s enigmatic, incomparable masterpiece, ably narrated by Sims. Assembled from trunks of papers – ‘a definitive collection of dregs’ – after the author’s death in 1935, Pessoa’s magnum opus drifts freely between reveries, renunciations, meditations and maxims, often saturated with an air of disillusionment, alienation, and malaise. And yet this ‘saddest book in Portugal’ is oddly comforting, peering into the darkest recesses of life with an indefatigable appreciation for the absurd and reverence for mystery. Though not lacking in irony or effect, Sims’s reading maintains a confiding, conversational humility that allows Pessoa’s own searching intellect and paradoxical moods to hold sway. Rather than listening cover to cover, Pessoa himself might have suggested sampling the book on shuffle play, or while falling asleep as an introduction to dreaming. Sims’s candid rendition of Richard Zenith’s 2001 translation will admirably suit the purpose.

David Wright, Booklist

The Book of Margery Kempe is the extraordinary account of a medieval wife, mother and mystic from Norfolk. Having married in c. 1393, given birth to 14 children, and pursued unsuccessful ventures in brewing and milling, Kempe made a vow of chastity and embarked on a life of prayer, penance and pilgrimage. Known as the earliest autobiography in the English language, it contains intimate portraits of people and places, and a remarkable eye for detail, as it traces the transformation of a ‘sinful wretch’ to a holy pilgrim.

A fascinating glimpse of the medieval past, this audiobook details the life and spiritual experiences of Margery Kempe, a Christian mystic who lived in England at the turn of the fifteenth century. Lucy Scott’s narration draws listeners into Kempe’s autobiographical details. Her delivery of Kempe’s dialogue with God expresses earnestness and humility. The contrast between Kempe’s voice and the firm yet encouraging voice of God makes the dialogue between the two convincing. One of the most poignant parts of the audiobook recounts Kempe’s trip to Jerusalem, where she feels and sees the suffering of Jesus. As this audiobook uniquely presents Kempe’s experiences, spiritual and otherwise, Scott’s temperance in her narration helps listeners find much to appreciate.

D.M.W., AudioFile

Shocked and distressed by a male writer’s vilification of women, Christine de Pizan has a powerful dreamlike vision in which she is visited by three personified Virtues: Reason, Rectitude and Justice. They tell her she has been chosen to write a book which will be like a city, housing virtuous women and protecting them from feminist attack. Heroines past and present form the foundations of this city – biblical and mythical heroines, ruling queens, Christian saints, and inventors are among them. Partly myth, partly fact, The Book of the City of Ladies is an extraordinary, pioneering and impassioned defence of women that set out to shatter medieval misogynist clichés, and serve to instil self-worth in its female readers of the time.

In a smooth, cultured voice, narrator Georgina Sutton inhabits French noblewoman and author Christine de Pizan, who is most famous for her 1405 work about women. Christine, in a dreamlike state, meets three Virtues – Reason, Rectitude and Justice – who help her build the City of Ladies. As Christine asks questions about the roles, vitality and superiority of women, Sutton fluidly portrays the personified Virtues, each of whom recounts stories drawn from classical mythology, the Bible, Ovid, Herodotus, Homer, Petrarch, Boccaccio and others. Sutton’s melodic voice maintains its courtly tone as the women dispassionately discuss philosophy, ethics and religious beliefs, as well as advances in the arts and sciences. Listeners will hear no vocal flinching from Sutton when Justice describes the horrific tortures and deaths of female saints.

M.B.K., AudioFile

Set in the court of Urbino in 1507, Castiglione’s The Book of the Courtier presents an invaluable look at court life and culture during the Renaissance. Over four nights of dialogue, the book explores the key question, ‘What should a courtier be like?’; it presents a deep and timeless discussion that is reminiscent of Plato’s Symposium and Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, and invites comparisons with Machiavelli’s The Prince. It is absorbing and enlightening, and encompasses a wide range of topics that include dancing, fencing, war, religion, culture, courtly and corporeal love and gender relations, with a surprisingly modern defence of women and equal rights.

Taking place in Boston, Massachusetts, a decade after the Civil War, The Bostonians tells the story of two cousins who battle for the affections of and control over an enchanting prophetess. While visiting his cousin Olive Chancellor, a fierce feminist deeply involved in the Suffragette movement, Basil Ransom, a Confederate Civil War veteran turned lawyer, attends a speech by the talented young orator Verena Tarrant. Basil quickly falls in love with Verena, although he disagrees with her politics; Olive, however, sees her as the future of the women’s rights movement. Will Verena join forces with Olive and fight to further the women’s cause, or will she fall for Basil’s romantic advances?

Brahms is one of the best loved yet most controversial of all the Romantics. Almost uniquely, his works have never suffered the slightest period of eclipse. Profoundly emotional yet governed by an iron discipline, the music, like the man, is a fascinating, entertaining, often deeply moving blend of opposites. He had a gift for friendship and a capacity for love far beyond the ordinary, yet no man could be ruder or more hurtful. Though humble, he was consumed by a sense of destiny, and his inner life, coloured by his adoration and fear of women, found expression in some of the greatest music ever written. Listening to this audio-biography is leaping inside the life and times of a great German Romantic, understanding the man who was haunted by the ghost of Beethoven for years and was forty-three before he wrote his first symphony. Accompanied by a richly detailed booklet, this 4-CD set is a sympathetic, absorbing account of a fascinating composer.

In the second novel in the Pop Larkin series, the Larkin family descends upon Brittany in France. Like fish out of water, they find that things don’t quite turn out their way: the weather is less than ideal, the food is awful and the hotel is in a bad state of repair. But things slowly improve as Pop manages to sweet-talk Mlle Dupont, Angela Snow and her sister Iris, and Charley and Mariette celebrate their first wedding anniversary. A Breath of French Air is a delightful book full of nostalgia, fun and frivolity.

When England’s eccentric Larkin family decides to visit Brittany for a summer holiday, the dissimilarity between British and French culture offers opportunities for hilarity. As narrator, Philip Franks has a friendly, upbeat tone and keeps a steady pace throughout the audiobook. His rendering of the dialogue is where his talents especially shine. Franks provides suitable country dialects for Ma and Pop Larkin, which are particularly entertaining in their feeble attempts to speak French. He is equally successful in portraying the French characters with more convincing French pronunciation than the Larkins demonstrate. Franks adds a lighthearted feel to the novel that makes its fun even more so.

D.M.W., AudioFile

William Shakespeare, Sir Walter Raleigh, Thomas Hobbes – three of the greatest Englishmen who ever lived. They, and many others, are here remembered by another great Englishman, John Aubrey, whose Brief Lives are some of the wittiest and most moving miniature portraits ever written. Aubrey – a scholar, antiquarian and close observer of both the foibles and the courage of his contemporaries – lived through the upheavals of the English Civil War in the seventeenth century. His little biographies are amusing, ribald, moving; a testament to the brevity of human existence and one of the most precious relics of a distant age.

Brief Lives was posthumously published from the notebooks of the well-connected 17th-century biographer John Aubrey. Behind its unassuming title is a treasure trove of outrageous gossip about famous people. By talking to people who knew his subjects, Aubrey offered bizarre personal details about such celebrities as Walter Raleigh and Ben Jonson, Francis Bacon and René Descartes. Brian Cox reads these extracts with a nice 17th-century precision.

Christina Hardyment, The Times

Dostoyevsky’s famous and well-regarded 1880 novel The Brothers Karamazov is a tale of bitter family rivalries. Three brothers live in a small, typical Russian town. Their father, a selfish, cunning, lascivious figure with little love for them, tries to maintain his control over them and anyone who comes within his orbit. The roots of dissent, unhappiness, hope, ambition and desire run deep in this community as everywhere, and Dostoyevsky brings them to the fore with an unexpected death. The atmospheric spell of this great work of Russian literature is maintained throughout by a masterly reading by Tim Pigott-Smith.

Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award

Three brothers, a difficult estranged father, murder, love, hate, goodness and evil – Dostoyevsky’s classic has it all. Most of all, it has Tim Pigott-Smith reading. The veteran British actor and audiobook reader offers a nuanced narration in a pleasant baritone that pitches with excitement when the action explodes and paces evenly when the story calms. It’s an intelligent reading by an actor who seems to know the story intimately – no miss-paced phrasing, no character confusion. Speaking of characters, the voices of the central personalities, including the women, are distinct, believable and revealing. Musical interludes by Scriabin and Borodin are a mood-enhancing plus, and the booklet with the detailed track listing is a model that other producers should follow. Simply lovely.

A.C.S., AudioFile

Fyodor Dostoyevsky is a titanic figure among the world’s great authors, and The Brothers Karamazov is often hailed as his finest novel. A masterpiece on many levels, it transcends the boundaries of a gripping murder mystery to become a moving account of the battle between love and hate, faith and despair, compassion and cruelty, good and evil.

Robert Browning’s popular poems The Pied Piper of Hamelin and How They Brought the Good News are often anthologised, but it is in his dramatic lyrics such as My Last Duchess and the chilling Porphyria’s Lover that his poetic genius shines. Browning, with his unusual use of language, can be a challenging poet, but one who is always rewarding. This selection shows the many imaginative facets of this often neglected Victorian poet.

• How They Brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix
• Life in a Love
• A Light Woman
• The Statue and the Bust
• My Last Duchess
• The Confessional
• A Grammarian’s Funeral
• The Pied Piper of Hamelin
• ‘You should have heard the Hamelin people…’
• The Lost Leader
• Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister
• The Laboratory
• Porphyria’s Lover
• Evelyn Hope
• Home Thoughts from Abroad
• Pippa’s Song

The Eightfold Path is the most widely known formulation of the Buddha’s teaching. It is ancient, reaching back to the Buddha’s very first discourse, and it is highly venerated as a unique treasury of wisdom and practical guidance. The teaching of The Eightfold Path challenges us to grasp the implications of that vision, and asks us to transform ourselves in its light. Like the teaching itself, this work covers every aspect of life.

Demobilised officer, finding peace incredibly tedious, would welcome diversion. Legitimate if possible; excitement essential. When Captain Hugh Drummond, DSO, MC placed that advertisement, he was looking for adventure. What he finds is an international plot headed by the greatest criminal mastermind in the world. For the sake of the beautiful Phyllis, he faces murderous schemers, acid baths and even wild animals in his attempts to save her father – and his own life. In this, his first appearance, Bulldog Drummond is charming, undaunted and endlessly resourceful: the template of the modern action hero.

Many older listeners will have fond childhood memories of reading Bulldog Drummond. Herman McNeile (1888–1937), a vital link between Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Ian Fleming and rich in 1920s social colour, is ripe for revival. He used the pseudonym Sapper for his tales of the trenches because, as a serving member of the Armed Forces he was required to do so, and he kept it on for the nine Drummond novels. These are summed up by the narrator and presenter Roy McMillan as ‘James Bond written by P. G. Wodehouse’. Our hero’s adventures begin when he inserts a personal advert asking for ‘diversion, legitimate if possible, excitement essential’. He gets it in spades in the non-stop action that follows.

Christina Hardyment, The Times

Sound Commentary Best of 2010

Sound Commentary Starred Review

Bulldog Drummond was published in 1920 and was a great hit. It was adapted for the stage and filmed starring such luminaries as Ronald Colman and John Barrymore. Drummond also appeared on the radio and TV as well as in ten novels. Captain Hugh Drummond, DSO, MC is fearless, cool under pressure, humorous, a former boxer, big and strong, suave, a sportsman, a gentleman, and intelligent. He kills, but only when necessary.

After he comes home from World War I, Drummond is bored. He craves excitement, so he places an ad offering his services for an adventure, even a criminal one. He receives hundreds of replies, which are sorted out by his ex-bat man James Denny. One letter stands out. It is a plea for help from a damsel in distress, one Phyllis Benton, whose father has fallen into the clutches of the two most dangerous men in England. Henry Lakington, a ruthless killer and torturer, is the second most dangerous man. A fellow calling himself Carl Peterson (who is the villain in the first four novels in the series) is the most dangerous man and has a ‘daughter’ (we’re never quite sure who she is) named Irma. Peterson’s plot is to get money from various millionaires and engineer a Bolshevik revolution in England. He lines up three rich dupes but they will not come into the scheme without an American shipping magnate, Hiram C. Potts. When Peterson pitches the idea, Potts calls him a scoundrel and refuses to cooperate.

Peterson drugs Potts and takes him to a country house next to the Bentons. There, Lakington applies torture in order to get Potts’ signature on a damning document. At this point Drummond snatches the American and whisks him to supposed safety in London. Thus begins the struggle between good and evil, with the fate of an entire nation at stake. Drummond is aided by ex-army buddies, fellow sports club members, and an American cop. He also falls in love with Phyllis Benton. The novel is a nonstop thriller with witty dialogue, romance, deadly wild beasts, and the occasional murder. The action is narrated by Roy McMillan, a director, actor, writer, and abridger. He uses his considerable talents individualizing characters with accents (various British, French, German, American) as well as female characters. Peterson is usually suave, Lakington is usually snarling, Benton is usually drunk. Bulldog Drummond is highly recommended.

Janet Julian, Sound Commentary

The 250th anniversary of the birth of Robert Burns (1759–1796), one of the most popular of poets, is celebrated in 2009. A pioneer of the Romantic movement, works such as A Red, Red Rose, A Man’s a Man for a’ That and the ubiquitous Auld Lang Syne, have made him an international figure. Naxos AudioBooks’ popular Great Poets series marks the anniversary with a CD bringing together all the key works.

A Man’s a Man for a’ That
A Red, Red Rose
A Winter Night
Address to a Haggis
Address to the Unco Guid
Ae Fond Kiss
Apology for Declining an Invitation to Dine
Auld Lang Syne
Bessy and her Spinnin’ Wheel
Epistle to a Young Friend
Holy Willie’s Prayer
I’ll Meet Thee on the Lea Rig
Man Was Made to Mourn
My Bonie Mary
My Love She’s but a Lassie Yet
On a Suicide
Robert Bruce’s March To Bannockburn
Such a Parcel of Rogues In A Nation
Tam O’Shanter – A Tale
The Banks o’ Doon
The Cotter’s Saturday Night
From The Jolly Beggars
To a Louse On seeing one on a lady’s bonnet, at church
To a Mouse On turning her up in her nest with the plough
To Mary in Heaven

Young, honest Caleb Williams enters the employment of Squire Ferdinando Falkland – a cultured, kindly gentleman who harbours a dreadful secret. When his curiosity uncovers the truth, Caleb finds himself the victim of false accusations, persecution and a corrupt system of justice. His vulnerability is apparent at every turn. Published in 1794, the novel was William Godwin’s sophisticated attack on the political oppression and gross inequality that he saw all around him. It is no ordinary rich-versus-poor narrative; as gripping as a thriller, it is a multi-layered and provocative story with a searing reality at its core.

At the heart of these stories, as with all the best of Lovecraft’s work, is the belief that the Earth was once inhabited by powerful and evil gods, just waiting for the chance to recolonise their planet. Cthulhu is one such god, lurking deep beneath the sea until called into being by cult followers who – like all humans – know not what they do. It is because of these dark, mythic tales with their terrified awareness of the limits of Man’s knowledge, that H.P. Lovecraft is one of the most influential American writers.

• The Call of Cthulhu
• The Hound
• The Dunwich Horror
• Dagon

One of our favorite narrators, William Roberts is a film actor whose audio projects are rare delights. He once narrated Strangers on a Train, which I rank as one of the 10 best audiobook recordings ever. Here we have “The Call of Cthulhu” by classic horror author H.P. Lovecraft, which includes the title story, plus The Hound and The Dunwich Horror. Outstanding.

http://audiobookstoday.blogspot.com/

H.P. Lovecraft is the master of dark tales, envisaging that in a time before this the Earth was inhabited by evil gods who now wait to retake all that was theirs. Naturally, they are worshipped by a few humans who kid themselves that they can control events. The Call of Cthulhu and Other Stories read by William Roberts is full of monstrous beings and dark deeds – gorgeous!

Kati Nicholl, The Daily Express

Buck is living the good life in the soft South, when he is snatched and transported to the savagery of the Northland, where the Klondike gold rush has brought out rough basic instincts of survival in men – and dogs. He adjusts to the gruelling regime of a sled dog, which almost kills him, but he survives to find a new and fulfilling way of life. The Call of the Wild is not only a classic ‘ripping yarn’, but also an enduring masterpiece of the inescapable laws of nature.

Buck is living the good life in the soft South, when he is snatched and transported to the savagery of the Northland. There, the Klondike gold rush has brought out rough basic instincts of survival in men – and dogs. He adjusts to the gruelling regime of a sled dog, which almost kills him, but he survives to find a new and fulfilling way of life. The Call of the Wild is not only a classic tale, but also an enduring masterpiece of the inescapable laws of nature. Now in unabridged form in a new reading by William Roberts.

In the great tradition of classic animal stories, Jack London’s Call of the Wild, read by William Roberts, is a wrenching story. From the peril Buck the sled dog faces in the Arctic to the suffering he endures under brutal masters, listening to his adventure is no tame experience. Roberts has a voice that could have belonged to one of this era’s gold panners. He sounds like a grizzled man who would never display overt emotion but who, nonetheless, can tell a captivating yarn. While Roberts doesn’t use great character range, he lets London’s writing – especially the passages about the mysterious, enchanting call of the wild – ring with its startling beauty.

R.L.G., AudioFile

Sound Commentary Best of 2010

Jack London’s deceptively simple direct way of writing combined with one of best dog stories ever, is why this book is such an enduring classic. And TV, film and stage actor William Roberts’s reading is perfect. His robust voice, his ability to keep listeners glued, and the fond care with which he reads is spellbinding. When gold is found in the Klondike, there is a great need for sled dogs. Buck, part St. Bernard and part Scotch shepherd is stolen and moves from his happy life as ‘king’ of the Santa Clara ranch where he lives a life of adventure, peril, though also often cruelty, to Alaska. There is a string of tales from his ‘taming’ to the ways of sled pulling, to the inept trio who are doomed, dog fighting, survival, and finally to meeting John Thornton and their mutual love and understanding for one another. The longer he lives in Alaska, the more in tune with the ancestral ways of his dog ancestors Buck becomes, dreaming of old half clad masters and ‘shades of all manner of dogs, half-wolves and wild wolves’ until he is drawn deep into the wilderness. This listener found this to be one of the best recordings I’ve listened to in a long time; I had to be careful while driving and listening because I got caught up in being in one of my favorite places and living the life of a dog. Any parent or librarian looking for something short and exciting for a child, young adult or family listening can’t go wrong with Roberts’s performance and Call of the Wild, a guaranteed hit!

Mary Purucker, Sound Commentary

This was the story first published in 1903 that made the struggling writer Jack London famous. Listen to William Roberts’s majestic reading and you will understand why. Set in the 1890s Klondike gold rush, it tells how Buck, a huge wolfhound, is stolen from his pampered Californian home and becomes a sled dog in the arctic wastes of the Yukon. As brutal as his successive masters are, the pack of dogs he is harnessed alongside is even deadlier. How Buck survives the rule of club and fang is a classic, once misguidedly described as a children’s book because it is narrated by a dog. Of course it is an allegory – civilisation versus the old primordial instinct for survival at any price – but for pure excitement and adventure it has no equal.

Sue Arnold, The Guardian

Among Jane Austen’s favourite novels, and a key work in the rise of Romanticism, Camilla follows the story of three young women, from childhood to young adulthood, and their pursuit of matrimony. Kind but naive Camilla is in love with Edgar Mandlebert, a handsome and noble young man, but must suffer a series of frequent misunderstandings that threaten their happy union. Intelligent Eugenia, destined to inherit her uncle’s great wealth, is plagued with misfortune as she is left disfigured by smallpox and has men court her for financial gain only. Meanwhile their cousin, beautiful but selfish Indiana, never finds a fortune for her good looks. Accompanying them is a cast of memorable characters, such as the rowdy prankster Lionel, the dim-witted Mr Dubster and the scornful Miss Margland.

Young, attractive and wealthy, Alice Vavasor is a woman in the prime of her life. And yet one question torments her: ‘What should a woman do with her life?’ Torn between the kind but dull Mr Grey and her dangerous and exciting cousin George, she is prone to constant indecision and uncertainty, much to the detriment of Mr Grey. Can you Forgive Her? is a crisp and engaging novel, brimming with romance, humour and pathos. It is the first of six in Trollope’s celebrated Palliser series.

Voltaire’s razor-sharp satire on philosophical optimism Candide is coupled here with another of the author’s most celebrated works, Zadig. Both challenge the moral and philosophical orthodoxies of the day with humour and sly wit, whilst parodying the clichéd formulas of so many contemporary novels. Candide traces the fortunes of its titular character, a staunch optimist who eventually becomes disillusioned by a series of hardships and misfortunes. Zadig likewise follows its main character Zadig, a Babylonian philosopher, as he is subjected to the whims of Fate and the machinations of those around him.

One of the most inventive and charming retellings of the Arthurian legend, this is the final part of The Once and Future King. In these last two books, the ageing king faces the greatest challenge of his reign, when his own son threatens to overthrow him and destroy everything he has worked for. In The Book of Merlyn, Arthur’s tutor Merlyn reappears, and the ancient magician teaches him that, even in the face of apparent ruin, there is still hope.

Four more delightful tales from one of the most entertaining storytellers of all time. Though writing in the thirteenth century, Chaucer’s wit and observation comes down undiminished through the ages, especially in this accessible modern verse translation. The stories vary considerably from the uproarious Wife of Bath’s Tale, promoting the power of women to the sober account of patient Griselda in the Clerk’s Tale.

The Clerk’s Tale
The Wife of Bath’s Tale
The Nun’s Priest’s Tale
The Reeve’s Tale

Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, a collection of narratives written between 1387 and 1400, tells of a group of thirty people from all layers of society who pass the time along their pilgrimage to Canterbury by telling stories to one another, their interaction mediated (at times) by the affable host – Chaucer himself. Naxos AudioBooks’ third volume presents the tales of six people, here in an unabridged modern verse translation (by Frank Ernest Hill, (1935)). This is an ideal way to appreciate the genuinely funny and droll talent of England’s early master storyteller. Seven leading British actors bring the medieval world into the twenty-first century, and at least in terms of character, not much seems to have changed!

The Summoner’s Tale
The Friar’s Tale
The Manciple’s Tale
The Doctor’s Tale
The Lawyer’s Tale
The Seaman’s Tale
The Prioress’s Tale
The Physician’s Tale

Chaucer’s greatest work, written towards the end of the fourteenth century, paints a brilliant picture of medieval life, society, and values. The stories range from the romantic, courtly idealism of The Knight’s Tale to the joyous bawdy of the Miller’s; all are told with a freshness and vigour in this modern verse translation that make them a delight to hear.

The Prologue
The Knight’s Tale
The Miller’s Tale
The Pardoner’s Tale
The Merchant’s Tale
The Franklin’s Tale

A terrifying ghost is haunting the ancient mansion of Canterville Chase, complete with creaking floorboards, clanking chains and gruesome disguises – but the new occupants seem strangely undisturbed by his presence. Deftly contrasting the conventional gothic ghost story with the pragmatism of the modern world, Wilde creates a gently comic fable of the conflict between old and new. Rupert Degas’s hilarious reading brings the absurdity and theatricality of the story to life.

When it comes to handling ghosts, the characters in Oscar Wilde’s The Canterville Ghost are far bolder than Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol. When Marley’s ghost comes rattling his chains, you may remember, the old miser drops his gruffness in the face of his old associate’s awful warnings. Not Wilde’s Hiram B. Otis, an ‘American minister’ who purchases an English country house and moves in with his family despite dire warnings that it is haunted.

The ghost, Sir Simon Canterville – who’s been scaring the daylights out of the house’s inhabitants since his death in 1584 – wastes no time in mounting a haunt. In the dead of night, Otis hears chains clanking in the halls and beholds an awful sight:

Right in front of him he saw, in the wan moonlight, an old man of terrible aspect. His eyes were as red burning coals; long grey hair fell over his shoulders in matted coils; his garments, which were of antique cut, were soiled and ragged, and from his wrists and ankles hung heavy manacles and rusty gyves.

‘My dear sir,’ said Mr. Otis, ‘I really must insist on your oiling those chains, and have brought you for that purpose a small bottle of the Tammany Rising Sun Lubricator.’

Oiling those chains! Rupert Degas is pitch-perfect in the Naxos recording – quite a departure from some of his previous Naxos recordings, including Cormac McCarthy’s The Road and Kafka’s The Trial. The grimness and desperation of those stories is far from the desperation Sir Simon faces with the Otises. No matter what he does, he can’t bloody well scare them! The couple’s twins boys hit him in the knees with pea-shooters, and, when Mrs. Otis hears the ghost’s terrible laugh, her reaction is: ‘I am afraid you are far from well … and have brought you a bottle of Dr. Dobell’s tincture. If it is indigestion, you will find it a most excellent remedy.’

Degas captures the nasally voices of the Americans (for Wilde, Americans are the ones with the accents) and Sir Simon’s exasperated harrumphs – which turn, later, into sighs of relief as somebody finally pities him: the Otises’ daughter, Virginia. Degas gives listeners a hilarious performance that’s an ideal antidote for the shivers if you’ve seen Paranormal Activity.

Nick Owchar, Los Angeles Times

British actor Degas’ gift for accents and flair for the dramatic make him an excellent choice to read Wilde’s beloved gothic ghost story set in Great Britain. A ghost has been haunting residents at Canterville Chase for centuries. But these poltergeist powers seem lost on the Otis family from America. Degas’ reading is lively, brisk, and laced with just the right amount of foreboding, and he subtly raises pitch during suspenseful moments. Degas gives Mr. Otis the deep, monotone, matter-of-fact tenor of a dull diplomat, while he portrays Mrs. Otis, a Manhattan socialite, in a much higher register, pretentious and pinched. The ghost, frustrated and world-weary over failure to frighten, is appropriately raspy and guttural. Each chapter is introduced by classical music and abundant sound effects – rattling chains, creaking floorboards, thunder and lightning – to greatly enhance the mood. Perfect for a dark and stormy night.

Allison Block, Booklist

Anyone who is only familiar with the old Margaret O’Brien and Charles Laughton movie version or one of the more recent versions of The Canterville Ghost will enjoy meeting the Otises and the ghostly Sir Simon as Wilde actually envisioned them. When the American Minister to the court of St. James purchases Canterville Chase and is warned of the ghost, he declines to believe in it and says he will ‘take the furniture and the ghost at evaluation.’ As Sir Simon proceeds to haunt (and he has fearsomely haunted before) he comes to believe in him, but he and his family will brook no nonsense. They give him something to oil his noisy chains. The twin sons bedevil him, and the daughter takes pity on him.

Rupert Degas is an excellent narrator with his fine cultured British voice as the present Lord Canterville, the past Sir Simon, and with a pretty good set of American accents for all members of the Otis family, male and female … This is such fun to hear the authentic and brilliant Wilde and it is very enjoyable family listening for all ages.

Mary Purucker, SoundCommentary.com

Volume IX of the Naxos AudioBooks recording of Remembrance of Things Past. In The Captive, Part I, Marcel’s obsessive love for Albertine makes her virtually a captive in his Paris apartment.

Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award

Neville Jason strives for clarity and succeeds with distinction. Proust spent more than a decade cloistered in his sickbed, writing his massive, autobiographical novel, or rather, series of novels, In Search of Lost Time. In this volume, published posthumously in 1923, our hero Marcel remembers his obsessive affair with Albertine, whom he sequesters in his Paris flat. Naxos is publishing the entire oeuvre narrated by the indefatigable Neville Jason. No one could undertake such a job thoroughly without decades of preparation. Judging by this, the actor has put in plenty of time, even abridging the text himself. As reader he has a fine voice and excellent technique. He strives for clarity – not an easy job considering some of the author’s page-long sentences – and succeeds with distinction. If the resonances at times elude him – well, they elude a lot of people. What he has achieved is well worth hearing. And he deserves plaudits for the sheer chutzpah of taking this job on.

Y.R., AudioFile

The fractured relationship between Albertine and Marcel continues, with Marcel’s fixations of his lover’s outside interests driving the affair to a bitter conclusion. Neville Jason’s outstanding abridgement and performance of this great classic draws near a conclusion with only two more volumes to go – The Fugitive and Time Regained. This is the tenth volume in this widely admired series.

Remembrance of Things Past is one of the monuments of 20th-century literature. Neville Jason’s unabridged recording of the work runs to 150 hours. The Captive is the fifth of seven volumes. The Narrator’s obsessive love for Albertine makes her virtually a captive in his Paris apartment. He suspects she may be attracted to her own sex. Based on the translation by C. K. Scott Moncrieff.

Carmen is among the most popular operas for all the obvious reasons: great characters, a gripping story and fabulous music. But what sets it on a pinnacle is an amazing combination of three factors: a sizzling gipsy heroine (one of the most psychologically complex and compelling characters in all theatre), great atmosphere (Spain, hot sun, the bull-ring) and the prodigality of melodic invention – one great tune after another, at least a dozen of which are the staples of Madison Avenue and the animated cartoon. Like a surprising number of opera-house staples, Carmen was not a success at its first performance. In fact, it is likely that its failure contributed to the early death of the composer. But as Thomson Smillie shows in his accessible introduction, the emotionally driven nature of its heroine and her admirers, Don José and Escamillo, makes Carmen unforgettable. As always in the Opera Explained series, the music itself plays an integral role.

These six cases are among the last undertaken by Sherlock Holmes before he retired to the Sussex downs. However, the problems facing the sleuth are as diverse and challenging as ever. With seeking the whereabouts of the stolen Mazarin Diamond, discovering the importance of being called Garrideb, encountering a mysterious murder on Thor Bridge, searching for eternal youth and the threat of a Vampire in Sussex, there is no sign of Holmes’s deductive powers slowing down. David Timson’s award-winning series is widely acknowledged to be among the very best interpretations of the master sleuth.

• The Problem of Thor Bridge
• The Adventure of the Mazarine Stone
• The Adventure of the Creeping Man
• The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire
• The Adventure of the Three Garridebs
• The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier

It’s just a regular day for Sherlock Holmes and his admiring sidekick Dr Watson – no sooner has a cipher of seemingly random numbers been rapidly revealed by the razor-sharp Baker Street sleuth to contain a dire warning, than a policeman turns up to whisk the two men off to a moated castle where someone has been murdered in baffling circumstances. Holmes sees the hand of his deadly enemy Professor Moriarty behind the deed, but the roots of the tale turn out to be in the violent gang culture of the Pennsylvania coalfields. This backstory extends Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Valley of Fear beyond the usual length for a Holmes adventure, although David Timson, who reads the story, has to work hard to keep us entertained until the great detective comes back on the scene.

Karen Robinson, The Sunday Times

With The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes Volume I David Timson has almost completed his unabridged reading of the entire Sherlock Holmes Canon – and what a triumph it is! As fine an achievement in its way as the complete BBC Radio 4 dramatisation. Once again Mr Timson proves that he is the equal of any of our great ‘voice men’, capable of creating a living character by the pitch of his voice and the rhythm of his speech. As an example, there are bellicose old autocrats in four of the six stories here (‘Thor Bridge’, ‘The Mazarin Stone’, ‘The Creeping Man’, and ‘The Blanched Soldier’) but each comes across as a unique individual. The stories themselves vary considerably in quality; Mr Timson has treated the worst as seriously as the best – and so unintentionally made me aware while listening of just how poor the writing is in ‘The Mazarin Stone!’. As usual, David Timson himself has provided perceptive and informative notes to the stories, and Sarah Butcher has chosen thoroughly appropriate music, this time by Saint-Saëns, Grieg and Borodin.

Roger Johnson, The Newsletter of the Sherlock Holmes Society of London