Recent books on tape
Robert Cooper
The sticker on the next audio book you buy may well say 'Shortlisted at the Talkies'. The spoken word industry is about to speak for itself. The Talkies will be awarded at an Oscar-like ceremony in Lon- don on 20 October. It seems talking books are still heading fast forward.
Too late, alas, for an appearance at this year's awards is The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins (Cover to Cover, unabridged, £44.99). A more gripping tale of mystery and suspense is impossible to imagine. The reader, Ian Holm, excels as he leads us through the web of intrigue and villainy spun by Sir Percival Glyde and his duplicitous accomplice, the roly-poly Count Fosco. Holm's range of voices is outstand- ing. If you can persuade yourself to fork out £45 for 16 tapes running at 25 hours you will not be disappointed.
In Affliction (Isis, unabridged, £35.20) Fay Weldon uses her own recent experi- ences to further her jaundiced view of men. Here, narrating her own novel, we soon discover that wine merchant Spicer is an out-and-out bounder. His simpering wife, Annette, does all she can to indulge him, but fails because he's found solace in the stars. What we want to know is why Spicer has become so belligerent and withdrawn. The seven hours passes in a flash and Fay Weldon's reading is mesmerising; her ear for dialogue is sharp and her deliv- ery immaculate.
It's quite something to be acclaimed the most popular author of all time, but hands up who has never read (or listened to) a John Grisham blockbuster. His latest best- seller, The Rainmaker (Random House Audiobooks, abridged, 6 hours, £12.99) offers the perfect introduction. The Grisham recipe for success relies heavily on the David and Goliath formula; in this case amiable rookie lawyer locks horns with unscrupulous insurance company. The reader, Michael Beck, is outstanding with his Memphis drawl and limitless supply of voices.
But fortune and fame on the bookstalls is not an automatic passport to success on tape. Take Robert Harris' innovative best- seller Fatherland (Random House Audio- books, £4.99). This three-hour abridgement captures merely a hint of the novel's excite- ment and tension and whoever cast Werner Klemperer (TV's Colonel Klink in Hogan's Heroes) as the narrator, should be banished forthwith to the Russian Front. However, Harris' latest blockbuster, Enigma (Random House Audiobooks £12.99), is another mat- ter. For a start, it is spread over six hours, allowing far more time for this intricate tale of wartime codebreaking at Bletchley Park to unfold. The gravelly toned Alan Howard conjures up the atmosphere of a grey and shabby wartime Britain.
Patrick O'Brian's tales of the high seas are currently enjoying a deserved revival of interest. Master and Commander (Bespoke Audio, abridged, £8.99) is the first of the Aubrey and Maturin novels which sees them scour the oceans in search of Soney' and his fleet. Robert Hardy, whose boom- ing voice could pierce a hurricane, is not the most obvious choice of reader as you may think. Yet the Irish lilt he lends to the reserved Maturin is a subtle contrast to the vociferous skipper, Jack Aubrey.
Most of Raymond Chandler's novels are now available on tape. In The Big Sleep (Redback Audiobooks, £7.99) we find there's trouble afoot at the Sternwood resi- dence. Chandler's novels read like film scripts, and on tape the imagery remains razor sharp. Eliot Gould has played Philip Marlowe on screen and he slides effortless- ly into the role. A three-hour abridgement makes the plot even harder to follow than in the original, but the poetry and sheer power of Chandler win through.
Two highly recommended recent releas- es are Eileen Atkins' reading of Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse (Penguin Audiobooks, abridged, £7.99) and Dame Peggy Ashcroft's 1983 recording of four short stories by Katherine Mansfield, The Garden Party (Cover to Cover, unabridged, £7.99). Woolf s sometimes impenetrable study of adults and children on a family holiday is vividly brought to life by Atkins. Ashcroft's performance is also charged with emotion. Her vocal skills, alternating from a whimper to a roar, have never sounded better than in the Chekovian The Daughters of the Late Colonel.
Considering how dull most politicians are, political memoirs usually provide good entertainment, probably because politics are more interesting in retrospect. John Cole's personal record of 30 years studying the political chessboard is As It Seemed To Me (Bespoke Audio, abridged, £7.99). The distinctive Cole brogue is by no means an obstacle to three absorbing hours. In fact, his intonation and timing are so polished that you hang on every word. All the same, the tape may be snapped up by potential Rory Bremn- ers wishing to brush up on their Cole- speak.
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