Recent books on tape

Spectator, The, Nov 30, 1996 by Cooper, Robert

Not read the book but heard the tape. Does it really count? The bookish may sneer at the growing number of audio book buyers, but with less and less time to sit and inwardly digest the written word, surely being read to is the answer.

The cassette, and in a great number of cases the CD, is taking over, or so we were told at the latest talking book 'Oscar' ceremony, The Talkies. The figures speak as loud as the words being listened to. Audio book sales have increased by 50 per cent on the previous year.

The BBC Radio Four series, This Sceptred Isle (BBC Radio Collection, 89.95), scooped three awards, including the coveted Talkie of the Year. This history of Britain should become required classroom listening. Our teachers are Anna Massey and the late Paul Eddington. Informative and fun.

Elizabeth Gaskell's Wives and Daughters (Cover to Cover, 44.99) romped away with the Unabridged Classic Fiction award thanks to Prunella Scales's vocal acrobatics; the male voices were particularly convincing. Despite this, Scales was pipped by Juliet Stevenson as the Reader of the Year.

Robert Harris's wartime code-breaking thriller Enigma (Isis, 41.70) was voted Best Unabridged Modern Fiction, a deserving winner, although there was a twitch of surprise that the best-selling The Horse Whisperer (Chivers, 16.95) failed to reach the short list. One that slipped through the net was the odiously pretentious Perfume by David Suskind (Penguin, 12.76).

There were no grumbles at Roddy Doyle's The Woman Who Walked Into Doors (Reed Audio, 7.99) winning Best Abridged Modern Fiction. A strong plot and quick-fire dialogue are ideal components for an audio book. The reader, Ger Ryan, added the golden touch.

Perhaps the most significant Talkie award was for Best Abridged Fiction Classic, won by Great Expectations (Naxos, 9.99). Sceptics who gripe at removing a jot or tittle from the original text should pin their ears back and tune in to a mesmerising four hours. Abridgment seems to improve Dickens; we lose all the longwinded straggly bits without losing the plot or the flavour of the characters.

Although arriving too late for the Talkies many listeners will want to save a space on the shelf for Marcel Proust. There is a choice of three recordings of Swann's Way. John Rowe's unabridged reading (Cover to Cover, L24.99) is hard to fault - his performance is crisp, stylish and easy on the ear, a vital ingredient when embarking on a ten-hour session of such intensity. The dapper packaging adds to an already topquality product. The battle of the abridged versions - Simon Callow (HarperCollins L12.99) versus Neville Jason (Naxos, L8.99) - goes to the latter who abridged the work himself. Callow's distinctive voice is just a bit too theatrical and exaggerated whereas there are no frills to Jason and the now established Naxos musical interludes add to the atmosphere.

One to consider for a winter jaunt is Edward Fox's stiff-upper-lip reading of Scott's Last Journey (Mr Punch Audio 8.99). Here we experience the agony and disappointment of the ill-fated Antarctic expedition to the South Pole. How Scott could muster the strength to write such elegant prose in such hideous conditions is unfathomable. Fox's performance is elevated by the addition of some spine-chilling music and plausible sound effects. Tape is a good medium for diaries and journals.

There are effects galore in a bloodthirsty dramatisation of Mutiny on the Bounty (Mr Punch Audio, 8.99). Oliver Reed really turns on the venom playing the loathsome and sadistic Captain Bligh. We hear many a blood-curdling scream from mutinous tars sentenced to a few dozen lashes of the 'cat'. This three-hour version was serialised on BBC Radio Four, but here, with no breaks, our concentration can remain undisturbed.

J. L. Carr's A Month in the Country (Reed Audio, 7.99) is like a summer breeze compared to events on the Bounty. This story of how two men face up to the aftermath of the Great War is read by Michael Williams. Always sensitive, sometimes breathless and reduced to a whisper, Williams extracts every ounce of magic from this modern classic. The author would certainly have approved. Peter Hills' compilation of Great Political Speeches (Hodder Headline Audio, CD, 14.99) covers a century of recorded tub-thumping from the snap of Churchill, through Gladstone crackle, to the pop-star persona of Blair.

The CD rather than the tape is recommended for greater ease of dipping in and out of over 100 archive recordings.

Poetry on tape is noticeably effective. An especially memorable release is Philip Larkin's The Whitsun Weddings read by Alan Bennett (Faber/Penguin, 8.99). Whether he's reading this splendid collection or rattling through Winnie the Pooh, Bennett always manages to gain our attention. Also worth keeping an ear open for is Fiona Shaw reading Sylvia Plath's autobiographical novel The Bell Jar (Faber/Penguin, 7.99). Plath's black depressions are very evident; she received intensive therapy, which is described in detail here as Esther, the thinly disguised heroine, attempts to rebuild her life. This may suggest grim listening; not so, as we discover Plath's razor- sharp wit.