Publication date: 1986-05-01
Price: £43.29
Review Old Man and the Sea / Caedmon:
Creator: Aimee Lilly
Edition: Abridged
Publication date: 2002-10
Dewey code: 813.54
RRP: £12.30
Price: £9.50
Review The Beloved Land (Song of Acadia) / Bethany House Publishers:
Creator: Tom Courtenay
Publication date: 1988
Review Lucky Jim / Hamlyn Books on Tape:Surrounded by "Merrie England" enthusiasts, bearded artists and inaccessible girls, Jim Dixon struggles unsuccessfully to survive his first job as a junior history lecturer in this populat comedy classic.
Creator: Anthony Heald
Publication date: 1995-10
RRP: £12.99
Price: £39.99
Review The Lost World / Random House Audiobooks:
Publication date: 1992-12
RRP: £5.99
Price: £1.99
Review The Witches (Theatre Collection) / Collins Audio:"This is not a fairy tale. This is about real witches. " So begins one of Roald Dahl's best books ever, and, ironically, it is such a great story because the premise is perfectly plausible from the outset. When the narrator's parents die in a car crash on page two (contrast this terribly real demise with that of James's parents who are devoured by an escaped rhinoceros in James and the Giant Peach), he is taken in by his cigar-smoking Norwegian grandmother, who has learned a storyteller's respect for witches and is wise to their ways. The bond between the boy and his grandmother becomes the centrepiece of the tale-a partnership of love and understanding that survives even the boy's unfortunate transformation into a mouse. And once the two have teamed up to outwitch the witches, the boy's declaration that he's glad he's a mouse because he will now live only as long as his grandmother is far more poignant than eerie. Of course, there's adventure here along with Dahl's trademark cleverness and sense of the grotesque. Dahl also communicates some essential truths to children: if they smoke cigars, they'll never catch cold, and, most importantly, they should never bathe, because a clean child is far, far easier for a witch to smell than a dirty one. (Ages 7 to 10, or read aloud to younger children) -Susan Harrison "This is not a fairy tale. This is about real witches. [+]" So begins one of Roald Dahl's best books ever, and, ironically, it is such a great story because the premise is perfectly plausible from the outset. When the narrator's parents die in a car crash on page two (contrast this terribly real demise with that of James's parents who are devoured by an escaped rhinoceros in James and the Giant Peach), he is taken in by his cigar-smoking Norwegian grandmother, who has learned a storyteller's respect for witches and is wise to their ways. The bond between the boy and his grandmother becomes the centrepiece of the tale-a partnership of love and understanding that survives even the boy's unfortunate transformation into a mouse. And once the two have teamed up to outwitch the witches, the boy's declaration that he's glad he's a mouse because he will now live only as long as his grandmother is far more poignant than eerie. Of course, there's adventure here along with Dahl's trademark cleverness and sense of the grotesque. Dahl also communicates some essential truths to children: if they smoke cigars, they'll never catch cold, and, most importantly, they should never bathe, because a clean child is far, far easier for a witch to smell than a dirty one. (Ages 7 to 10, or read aloud to younger children).
Edition: Unabridged
Publication date: 1992-02
Price: £44.06
Review A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man / ISIS Audio Books:
Publication date: 1990-04-26
Price: £4.99
Review George's Marvellous Medicine (Tempo Story Tapes) / Collins Audio:
Creator: Roger Blake
Publication date: 1991
Price: £4.99
Review The Enormous Crocodile: Unabridged / Collins Audio:
Creator: Bernard Cribbins
Edition: Library Ed
Publication date: 1995-04-15
Price: £15.22
Review Winnie-the-Pooh / Cover to Cover Cassettes Ltd:
Creator: Kerry Shale
Edition: Abridged Ed
Publication date: 1992-12
Price: £8.99
Review Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator (Collins Audio) / Collins Audio:Picking right up where Charlie and the Chocolate Factory left off, Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator continues the adventures of Charlie Bucket, his family and Willy Wonka, the eccentric candy maker. As the book begins, our heroes are shooting into the sky in a glass elevator, headed for destinations unknown. What follows is exactly the kind of high-spirited magical madness and mayhem we've all come to expect from Willy Wonka and his creator Roald Dahl. The American space race gets a send-up, as does the President, and Charlie's family gets a second chance at childhood. Throw in the Vermicious Knids, Gnoolies and Minusland and we once again witness pure genius. (Ages 9 to 12).
Creator: Caroline Quentin
Edition: Unabridged
Publication date: 2000-06-28
Price: £8.99
Review "Men Behaving Badly": Unabridged. Starring Martin Clunes, Neil Morrissey, Leslie Ash & Caroline Quentin v. 2 (Penguin Audio Comedy) / Penguin Audiobooks:One of the most successful comedy series of the 1990s, Men Behaving Badly could easily have been a mere footnote in sitcom history. It failed to attract a sizeable audience in its original incarnation on ITV, and despite the replacement of a miscast Harry Enfield with Neil Morrissey in the second series, it still did not develop a loyal following. Success only came when the programme moved to the BBC and-crucially-a later time-slot, allowing writer Simon Nye a much freer rein in depicting the less savoury aspects of his characters. This audio cassette takes four episodes from the fourth series, and consists of the soundtracks to the original shows. In "Babies", Dorothy (Caroline Quentin) worries that Gary (Martin Clunes) is too immature to be the father of her child; "Infidelity" sees Gary struggling to remain incognito as he places Dorothy under surveillance; in "Pornography", Tony (Neil Morrissey) struggles to convince his new girlfriend that his top-shelf magazines are harmless fun; and in "Three Girlfriends" Tony finds that juggling relationships can be tricky, while Gary suffers through a visit from his father. Listening to these recordings, it quickly becomes clear just how well-scripted the series was-even without any visual element, there are very few jokes that fall flat. While many TV comedy series would falter without the fall-back of physical humour, here the restrictions of the format serve only to showcase the sharply observed characters, and the uncannily accurate observation of both male and female existence. Although the antics of the two flatmates are clearly at the centre of the series, the success of Men Behaving Badly is at least partly due to the way in which it constantly undermines its own "laddish" perspective. While Gary and Tony are often very funny, the joke is more often than not at their expense-yet the humour remains good-natured enough for us to laugh without worrying too much about the target of our laughter. -John Oates.
Publication date: 1987-01
Review Far from the Madding Crowd / Eloquent Reels:
Authors
- David Benedictus
- A.A. Milne
Publication date: 1998-06-17
Dewey code: 792.102908
RRP: £4.99
Price: £1.34
Review Pooh Goes Visiting: Dramatisation / Hodder Children's Books:
Creator: Jack Davenport
Publication date: 2001-11-05
RRP: £25.00
Price: £8.68
Review Andy McNab Gift Set: "Firewall", "Crisis Four" / HarperCollins Audio:
Creator: Anna Chancellor
Edition: Abridged edition
Publication date: 1999-05-04
RRP: £9.99
Price: £9.95
Review Daniel Deronda (BBC Radio Collection) / BBC Audiobooks Ltd:
Authors
- Books on Tape Inc
- Ernest Hemingway
Review The Old Man And The Sea / Books on Tape Inc.:
Creator: Joan Greenwood
Publication date: 1990-06-21
Price: £3.00
Review Alice in Wonderland / Collins Audio:
Creator: William Hootkins
Edition: Abridged Ed
Publication date: 1999-04-19
RRP: £10.99
Price: £2.40
Review East of the Mountains / HarperCollins Audio:
Creator: Robert Hardy
Publication date: 1989-04
Dewey code: 813
RRP: £36.37
Price: £56.13
Review The Moon and Sixpence: Complete & Unabridged / Chivers Audio Books:
Creator: Dermot Crowley
Edition: Unabridged
Publication date: 1995-07
Dewey code: 813
RRP: £36.37
Price: £65.67
Review Felicia's Journey: Complete & Unabridged / Chivers Audio Books:
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Models & Brands:
Old Man and the Sea, The Beloved Land (Song of Acadia), Lucky Jim, The Lost World, The Witches (Theatre Collection), A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, George's Marvellous Medicine (Tempo Story Tapes), The Enormous Crocodile: Unabridged, Winnie-the-Pooh, Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator (Collins Audio), "Men Behaving Badly": Unabridged. Starring Martin Clunes, Neil Morrissey, Leslie Ash & Caroline Quentin v. 2 (Penguin Audio Comedy), Far from the Madding Crowd, Pooh Goes Visiting: Dramatisation, Andy McNab Gift Set: "Firewall", "Crisis Four", Daniel Deronda (BBC Radio Collection), The Old Man And The Sea, Alice in Wonderland, East of the Mountains, The Moon and Sixpence: Complete & Unabridged, Felicia's Journey: Complete & Unabridged |
