Creator: Russell Boulter
Edition: Abridged edition
Publication date: 2008-09-01
RRP: £15.99
Price: £7.65
Review Bones of the Hills (Conqueror 3) / HarperCollins Audio:One can only hope that the phenomenal success of his co-authored The Dangerous Book for Boys does not take attention away from the prodigious storytelling skills of Conn Iggulden. As Bones of the Hills forcefully reminds us, Iggulden is the real deal when it comes to historical fiction on the grandest scale. And here, all of his characteristic skills are well to the fore. A boy was abandoned in the wilderness by his tribe - but he did not die. As those Iggulden admirers who have read Wolf of the Plains and Lords of the Bow will know, this luckless boy has grown into one of the most feared and powerful figures in history, Genghis Khan. He has persuaded the tribes that had been tearing each other to pieces to ignore their differences and unite under his leadership to battle their oldest enemies. Under his ruthless (and ferociously inspired) leadership, a mighty nation has been forged. But this is only the beginning of his struggles: Khan sends out emissaries, but they are tortured and killed. He attempts to open trade routes; his efforts are met with violent rebuff. Soon, the Mongolian army is stretched to the furthest corners of Khan's realm, and destruction looms. [+]This is epic storytelling on a nigh-operatic scale. Iggulden has long been the master of the broad brush stroke and conjures up the ancient world with great panache. Of course, the success of a book such as Bones of the Hills depends on the vivid characterisation of its larger-than-life central character, and of the many novels which have attempted to capture Genghis Khan, none have mastered the task as successfully as Conn Iggulden. -Barry Forshaw.
Creator: Kim Hicks
Edition: Abridged
Publication date: 2001-09-30
Dewey code: 813
RRP: £40.26
Price: £38.14
Review The Jane Austen Collection: "Persuasion", "Pride and Prejudice", "Sense and Sensibility", "Lady Susan" v. 2 (Naxos Audio) / Naxos AudioBooks:
Edition: New edition
Publication date: 2006-07-03
RRP: £15.65
Price: £6.44
Review Clouds of Witness (BBC Audio Crime) / BBC Audiobooks Ltd:
Publication date: 2006-10-02
RRP: £48.93
Price: £35.00
Review Ladies of Letters (BBC Audiobooks) / Wakefield Lou & Hayman Carole:
Creator: Toby Stephens
Edition: New edition
Publication date: 2004-12-31
Dewey code: 873.01
RRP: £16.99
Price: £8.49
Review The Aeneid / Naxos AudioBooks:
Creator: Paul Ansdell
Publication date: 2005-11-01
RRP: £13.00
Price: £7.45
Review The Woman in Black (Longbarn Listening) / Long Barn Books:
Creator: Toby Stephens
Edition: Abridged edition
Publication date: 2005-04-04
RRP: £15.99
Price: £4.32
Review Flashman on the March / HarperCollins Audio:There are certain authors whose very names are an absolute guarantee of quality, and George Macdonald Fraser has long been one of those. His Flashman books are much loved, and the exploits of his engaging rogue have been delighted readers for years. But is Flashman on the March up to the customary Fraser standard? After all, the number of Flashman books is now legion, and even the author's most dedicated admirers would admit that some Flashman outings (while diverting enough) have lacked the freshness of the early books. It's good to report, therefore, that Flashman on the March is almost vintage Fraser, with all the elements that have won him an ironclad following largely in place. There are, of course, two elements that make these books such fun: the vivid and pungent historical detail (always effortlessly integrated, and never self-consciously laid on as in so many historical novels, serious or otherwise); the author's refusal to be politically correct (the Flashman books have always played fast and loose with the accepted views of morality and society, and their bawdy, amoral charms are refreshing in an age in which such things are looked at askance - even if Fraser, like Frederick Forsyth, is far better encountered in his entertaining books rather than in his more splenetic role as pundit). Here, that least heroic possessor of a Victoria Cross, Sir Harry Flashman, finds himself catapulted into a highly dangerous assignment in Abyssinia: he is to rescue British prisoners from a demented emperor. Abyssinia (as seen through Fraser's highly colourful imagination) is a land of lethal seductresses, terrifying warriors and a jawdropping female monarch whose idea of what she should feed her lions is… unorthodox. It's up to Flashman (as so often before) to triumph over insuperable odds by the most unlikely methods. Needless to say, untrammelled sexual activity is firmly on the menu. If you're a George Macdonald Fraser fan, or a Flashman fan, what are you waiting for? -Barry Forshaw.
Creator: Martin Wenner
Publication date: 2009-01-08
RRP: £16.63
Price: £12.70
Review The Girl Who Played with Fire / Maclehose Press:
Creator: Richard E. Grant
Publication date: 2007-10-04
RRP: £24.99
Price: £9.95
Review World without End / Macmillan Digital Audio:
Publication date: 2008-09-11
RRP: £24.47
Price: £13.49
Review Brideshead Revisited (BBC Audio) / BBC Audiobooks Ltd:
Publication date: 2004-07-19
Dewey code: 813
RRP: £12.72
Price: £6.80
Review At Bertram's Hotel: BBC Radio 4 Full-cast Dramatisation (BBC Radio Collection) / BBC Audiobooks Ltd:
Creator: David Suchet
Publication date: 2005-06-20
Dewey code: 813
RRP: £16.99
Price: £10.89
Review Murder on the Orient Express: Complete & Unabridged / HarperCollins Audio:
Publication date: 2004-06-07
Dewey code: 813
RRP: £17.61
Price: £11.98
Review The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: v. 2 (BBC Radio Collection) / BBC Audiobooks Ltd:
Creator: Juliet Stevenson
Publication date: 2003-02-27
Dewey code: 813
RRP: £12.72
Price: £6.68
Review Jane Eyre / Penguin:
Creator: Adjoa Andoh
Edition: Abridged edition
Publication date: 2003-11-13
Dewey code: 813
RRP: £15.65
Price: £3.66
Review The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency (No 1 Ladies Detective Agency 1) / Time Warner AudioBooks:
Creator: Ben Tibber
Publication date: 2003-05-01
Dewey code: 813
RRP: £16.63
Price: £8.78
Review The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time / Random House Audiobooks:
Edition: Unabridged
Publication date: 2007-11-01
Dewey code: 813
RRP: £19.99
Price: £11.10
Review Cranford (Complete Classics) / Naxos AudioBooks:
Creator: Kerry Shale
Publication date: 2009-04-23
RRP: £14.67
Price: £8.80
Review Gone Tomorrow / Random House Audiobooks:
Creator: Anna Massey
Edition: Abridged edition
Publication date: 2004-06-07
Dewey code: 813
RRP: £16.99
Price: £9.28
Review Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China / HarperCollins Audio:
Creator: Rob Inglis
Publication date: 2002-10-21
Dewey code: 813
RRP: £60.00
Price: £57.24
Review The Fellowship of the Ring - Audio CD / HarperCollins Audio:
| Browse Fiction:
Models & Brands:
Bones of the Hills (Conqueror 3), The Jane Austen Collection: "Persuasion", "Pride and Prejudice", "Sense and Sensibility", "Lady Susan" v. 2 (Naxos Audio), Clouds of Witness (BBC Audio Crime), Ladies of Letters (BBC Audiobooks), The Aeneid, The Woman in Black (Longbarn Listening), Flashman on the March, The Girl Who Played with Fire, World without End, Brideshead Revisited (BBC Audio), At Bertram's Hotel: BBC Radio 4 Full-cast Dramatisation (BBC Radio Collection), Murder on the Orient Express: Complete & Unabridged, The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: v. 2 (BBC Radio Collection), Jane Eyre, The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency (No 1 Ladies Detective Agency 1), The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, Cranford (Complete Classics), Gone Tomorrow, Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China, The Fellowship of the Ring - Audio CD |
