Creator: Author
Publication date: 2001-08-06
Dewey code: 813
RRP: £12.99
Price: £8.81
Review The Lady in the Van (BBC Radio Collection) / BBC Audiobooks Ltd:Life imitates art in The Lady in the Van, the story of the itinerant Miss Shepherd, who lived in a van in Alan Bennett's driveway from the early1970s until her death in 1989. It is doubtful that Bennett could have made up the eccentric Miss Shepherd if he tried, but his poignant, funny but unsentimental account of their strange relationship is akin to his best fictional screen writing. Bennett concedes that "One seldom was able to do her a good turn without some thoughts of strangulation", but as the plastic bags build up, the years pass by and Miss Shepherd moves into Bennett's driveway, a relationship is established which defines a certain moment in late 20th-century London life which has probably gone forever. The dissenting, liberal, middle-class world of Bennett and his peers comes into hilarious but also telling collision with the world of Miss Shepherd: "there was a gap between our social position and our social obligations. It was in this gap that Miss Shepherd (in her van) was able to live". Bennett recounts Miss Shepherd's bizarre escapades in his inimitable style, from her letter to the Argentinean Embassy at the height of the Falklands War, to her attempts to stand for Parliament and wangle an electric wheelchair out of the Social Services. Beautifully observed, The Lady in the Van is as notable for Bennett's attempts to uncover the enigmatic history of Miss Shepherd, as it is for its amusing account of her eccentric escapades. -Jerry Brotton.
Publication date: 2008-10-09
RRP: £5.00
Price: £2.34
Review The Mum Minder (BBC Audio Childrens) / BBC Audiobooks Ltd:Sophie Aldred reads Jacqueline Wilson's The Mum-Minder in this unabridged single cassette pack. "I'm Sadie and I'm nearly nine. Mum's a childminder, but she doesn't have to mind me. I can mind myself, easy-peasy. " But when Sadie's mum goes down with flu Sadie finds herself spending her half-term holiday not only looking after her mum but helping to mind the babies too. There's three-year-old Gemma, two-year-old Vincent, baby Clive and Sadie's own baby sister, Sara. But, "us girls have got to stick together", so with Sadie's help all the mums take a turn. On Wednesday Gemma's mum takes them to her police station, on Thursday they go to an office and on Friday they go to Clive's mum's chocolate shop. This hilarious and heart-warming story first published in 1993 by the award-winning author of The Suitcase Kid and The Story of Tracy Beaker is sure to go down well with all 7-11 year olds and, as with all Jacqueline Wilson's stories, it is particularly good for enticing and entertaining the more reluctant reader. Running time is 55 minutes. [+]-Tamsin Palmer "I'm Sadie and I'm nearly nine. Mum's a childminder, but she doesn't have to mind me. I can mind myself, easy-peasy. " But when Sadie's mum goes down with flu Sadie finds herself spending her half-term holiday not only looking after her mum but helping to mind the babies too. There's three-year-old Gemma, two-year-old Vincent, baby Clive and Sadie's own baby sister, Sara too. But, "us girls have got to stick together", so with Sadie's help all the mums take a turn. On Wednesday Gemma's mum takes them to her police station, on Thursday they go to an office and on Friday they go to Clive's mum's chocolate shop! This hilarious and heart-warming story first published in 1993 by the award-winning author of The Suitcase Kid and The Story of Tracy Beaker is sure to go down well with all 7-11-year-olds and, as with all Jacqueline Wilson's stories, it is particularly good for enticing and entertaining the more reluctant reader. -Tamsin Palmer.
Edition: Abridged
Publication date: 2002-03-01
Dewey code: 615.8512
RRP: £14.00
Price: £3.88
Review Self-Hypnosis / MacMillan Audio:
Publication date: 2007-10-01
RRP: £16.99
Price: £8.98
Review Clean Cut / Simon & Schuster Audio:
Publication date: 2008-05-29
Dewey code: 133
RRP: £11.99
Price: £4.17
Review Spiritual Progress Through Regression (Meditation Series) (Meditation Series) / Hay House Inc:
Publication date: 2006-09-04
RRP: £12.99
Price: £4.89
Review Alan Bennett, Single Spies (BBC Audio) / BBC Audiobooks Ltd:
Creator: Juliet Stevenson
Edition: New Ed
Publication date: 2003-01-30
Dewey code: 813
RRP: £13.00
Price: £6.68
Review Wuthering Heights (Penguin Classics) / Penguin:
Creator: David Collings
Edition: Unabridged
Publication date: 2008-01-30
RRP: £42.24
Price: £19.90
Review The Complete Ghost Stories of M.R. James (Volume Two): v. 2 / Craftsman Audio Books:
Creator: Christian Rodska
Publication date: 2008-09-04
RRP: £13.99
Price: £6.21
Review My England Years / Hachette Audio:
Creator: Martin Jarvis
Publication date: 2003-06-02
RRP: £15.99
Price: £8.60
Review Just William: No.3 (BBC Radio Collection) / BBC Audiobooks Ltd:
Publication date: 2008-03-03
RRP: £11.98
Price: £5.64
Review My Sister Jodie: No. 5 / BBC Audiobooks Ltd:
Creator: Tony Hancock
Publication date: 2001-11-05
Dewey code: 817
RRP: £34.99
Price: £20.99
Review Hancock's Half Hour: Collector's Edition (Series Three) / BBC Audiobooks Ltd:When Ray Galton and Alan Simpson created Hancock's Half Hour-their first big hit before Steptoe and Son-they needed a supporting cast, and their choices were inspired. Sid James became the quintessential shifty crook, Bill Kerr played Tony Hancock's best friend while Moira Lister became his girlfriend, and as Kenneth Williams intoned a variety of authority-voices-police, magistrates, etc. -another comic star was born. Out of the 16 original programmes from the period under review, the BBC managed to lose six-culpable carelessness-but among the extant 10 there are outright gems, some of which will be unfamiliar even to fans, and many of which would today be banned as hopelessly un-PC. Viz Hancock's cheery greeting: "Morning Charlie. Working? Oh, of course you don't need to, with 28 children!" Or his observation-of some sluggish British workmen building a house-that he's glad they've been provided with shovels complete with arm-rests. Asked for his own address, he replies "I've just moved. They pulled down my house to build a slum". Relayed cold, such comments may not even raise a smile: Hancock's magic was all in the telling, and in the momentum he built up, as in his Monte Carlo rally programme, in which signposts were turned round and bridges blown up. One of the nicest sketches evolves out of him being left to do the housework like Cinderella, while everyone else troops off to the ball. [+]When he died, a victim of depression, in Australia in 1968, Britain lost something irreplaceable: this five-CD set, with its accompanying booklet, makes a splendid memento. The next batch of releases is eagerly awaited. -Betty Tadman.
Authors
- Spike Milligan
- Eric Sykes
- Larry Stephens
Publication date: 1998-10-05
Dewey code: 817
RRP: £12.99
Price: £7.30
Review Goon Show 15: The Goons At Christmas / BBC Audiobooks Ltd:
Authors
- Matthew White
- Susannah Pearse
Publication date: 2005-08-15
Dewey code: 782
RRP: £19.99
Price: £11.35
Review The Night Before Christmas: A Heartwarmingly Festive Musical (A&C Black Musicals): A Heartwarmingly Festive Musical (A&C Black Musicals) / A & C Black Publishers Ltd:
Edition: Abridged
Publication date: 2006-04-17
Dewey code: 155.232
RRP: £15.99
Price: £6.41
Review The Procrastinator's Handbook: Mastering the Art of Doing It Now / Audio Renaissance, Div of Holtzbrink Publishers:
Creator: Adrian Dunbar
Publication date: 2006-09-07
RRP: £12.99
Price: £6.60
Review Artemis Fowl and the Lost Colony (Artemis Fowl) / Puffin:
Publication date: 2008-10-31
RRP: £14.99
Price: £8.98
Review The Graveyard Book / Bloomsbury Publishing PLC:
Publication date: 2008-02-07
RRP: £7.99
Price: £2.09
Review Naughtiest Girl: Naughtiest Girl Saves the Day AND Well Done, the Naughtiest Girl v. 4 (Naughtiest Girl) / Hodder Children's Books:
Creator: Tim McInnerny
Publication date: 2002-08-05
Dewey code: 817
RRP: £15.99
Price: £10.97
Review Blackadder II AUDIO CD / BBC Audiobooks Ltd:
Creator: Dave McKean
Publication date: 2007-03-05
RRP: £6.99
Price: £0.98
Review The Wolves in the Walls (Book & CD) / Bloomsbury Publishing PLC:Truth be told, Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean's picture book The Wolves in the Walls is terrifying. Sure, the story is fairytale-like and presented in a jaunty, casually nonsensical way, but it is absolutely the stuff of nightmares. Lucy hears wolves hustling, bustling, crinkling and crackling in the walls of the old house where her family lives, but no one believes her. Her mother says it's mice, her brother says bats, and her father says what everyone seems to say: "If the wolves come out of the walls, it's all over. " Lucy remains convinced, as is her beloved pig-puppet, and her worst fears are confirmed when the wolves actually do come out of the walls. Up to this point, McKean's illustrations are spectacular, sinister collages awash in golden sepia tones evocative of the creepy beauty in The City of Lost Children. The wolves explode into the story in scratchy pen-and-ink, all jaws and eyes. The family flees to the cold, moonlit garden, where they ponder their future. Her brother suggests they escape to outer space where there's "nothing but foozles and squossucks for billions of miles". Lucy wants to live in her own house. [+]and she wants the pig-puppet she left behind. Eventually she talks her family into moving back into the once-wolfish walls, where they peek out at the wolves who are watching their television and spilling popcorn on slices of toast and jam, dashing up the stairs and wearing their clothes. When the family can't stand it anymore, they burst forth from the walls, scaring the wolves, who shout "And when the people come out of the walls, it's all over!" The wolves flee and everything goes back to normal. until the tidy ending when Lucy hears "a noise that sounded exactly like an elephant trying not to sneeze". Adult fans of this talented pair will revel in the quirky story and its darkly gorgeous, deliciously shadowy trappings, but the young or faint of heart, beware. The book is recommended for ages nine and above. -Karin Snelson, Amazon. com.
| Browse Audio CDs:
Models & Brands:
The Lady in the Van (BBC Radio Collection), The Mum Minder (BBC Audio Childrens), Self-Hypnosis, Clean Cut, Spiritual Progress Through Regression (Meditation Series) (Meditation Series), Alan Bennett, Single Spies (BBC Audio), Wuthering Heights (Penguin Classics), The Complete Ghost Stories of M.R. James (Volume Two): v. 2, My England Years, Just William: No.3 (BBC Radio Collection), My Sister Jodie: No. 5, Hancock's Half Hour: Collector's Edition (Series Three), Goon Show 15: The Goons At Christmas, The Night Before Christmas: A Heartwarmingly Festive Musical (A&C Black Musicals): A Heartwarmingly Festive Musical (A&C Black Musicals), The Procrastinator's Handbook: Mastering the Art of Doing It Now, Artemis Fowl and the Lost Colony (Artemis Fowl), The Graveyard Book, Naughtiest Girl: Naughtiest Girl Saves the Day AND Well Done, the Naughtiest Girl v. 4 (Naughtiest Girl), Blackadder II AUDIO CD, The Wolves in the Walls (Book & CD) |
