A selection of audiobooks reviewed by ARMINTA WALLACE
Day AL KennedyRead by Dan Stevens
Random House Audio (5 CDs, 6 hrs, £16.99 )
Alfie Day is no hero. A former RAF tail-gunner, he finds temporary post-war employment as an extra in a film about the conflict. But in the long hours of enforced idleness between takes, he finds himself thinking back to his wartime experiences, which included the bombing of Hamburg, and then back to his childhood, which included a vicious, abusive father. It gradually becomes clear that Alfie is a hero, after all, or may be – as the book proceeds, we just refocus our definition of heroism.
The book has been criticised for its use of local dialect to record Alfie’s thoughts. As read here by Dan Stevens, however, this translates into a gentle Midlands lilt which brings the listener effortlessly into his buttoned-up inner world.
Add to this Kennedy's well-earned reputation for literary acuity, and it comes as no surprise that Daywon the Costa Book award for 2008.
The Case of the Late Pig
Margery AllinghamRead by Philip Franks
Hachette Digital (3 CDs, 4 hrs,£ 14.99 )
Hachette has done us an enormous favour by revamping the Inspector Albert Campion novels of Margery Allingham. With titles such as The Tiger in the Smoke, More Work for the Undertakerand Coroner's Pidgin, they offer a nice line in wry humour – think Agatha Christie crossed with PG Wodehouse – and they stick staunchly to the simple, wholesome ingredients of the classic crime recipe. No psych profiling here: just a stately gavotte by some delightfully bizarre characters, the accuracy (or otherwise) of evidence, the casual-yet-clever detective, and even the occasional clue. The pig in this volume isn't the four-legged porcine kind, but a chap who turns up dead – five months after his own funeral. Philip Franks, who played the kindly, silver-haired cop in Heartbeat, reads with faux-naive energy and considerable charm.
Pies and Prejudice: In Search of the North
Stuart MaconieRead by the author
Random House (Audio, 5 CDs, 6 hrs, £16.99 )
From our perspective it’s largely a matter of accent, but English people appear to be fascinated by the divide between the sophisticated south of their country and what is, by contrast, called “the north”. It’s largely an imaginary construct – which puts this travelogue by Stuart Maconie into pretty amorphous territory. On the one hand, the Lancashire-born BBC DJ and television pundit is trying to debunk myths and stereotypes; on the other, he’s repeating them, albeit in his mildly laddish, often amusing way. When he stops arguing his ideological case and gets down to actual descriptions, however, the book takes off.
The chapters on Liverpool and Manchester, in particular, are fascinating – as is the unexpectedly educational tale of the Maharishi School in Skelmersdale – while his portrait of Newcastle will make you want to book a flight on the spot. Which is good, because when you get there you won’t make the mistake of letting the word “Geordie” pass your lips. You will, instead, be busy sorting Mackems from Sand-dancers, Monkey-Hangers from Smoggies.
Look We Have Coming To Dover! Daljit NagraRead by the author
Faber Faber (1 CD, 1 hr, £ 12.99)
Poetry always works well in the audio format, and this slim volume, which won the Forward Prize for best debut collection and was shortlisted for the Costa Poetry award, works better than most. Nagra is a 40-year-old English teacher, the son of Punjabi immigrants, and his poems are a series of witty sketches in various Indian voices. Racist abuse, the corner shop, the mosque, and arranged marriages, jostle with Hilda Ogden, Jam-era Paul Waller and John Milton in this double-edged mirror world.
It's not as cheesy as the title poem – actually a nod towards Matthew Arnold's iconic DoverBeach – might suggest, and one of its most appealing characteristics is Nagra's impish love of the English language. It takes a couple of listens to get a handle on his rapid-fire patois, but it's worth the effort.
The Hidden Assassins Robert WilsonRead by Sean Barrett
Isis Audiobooks (16 CDs, 18 hrs. £ 58.50 )
Set in Seville, this novel begins with a bang – literally – as an apartment block blows sky-high, killing all the people who live there. When it turns out there was a mosque in the basement, the spectre of Islamic terrorism looms large: but Spain has older and darker shadows as well, and soon Inspector Javier Falcón is on the trail of a conspiracy which aims to reconquer Europe for Catholicism. Is it the neo-cons? Is it the mullahs?
Sean Barrett’s clipped vowels and terse Nordie delivery is ideal for this kind of low-key tension, and Wilson keeps the reader guessing through clever shifts of emphasis, microscopic attention to detail, and a bigger cast of central characters than is usual in crime fiction. Best of all is his ability to convey the feel of southern Spain – a glass of wine and a few olives, and you could be there in your back garden this summer.