A fter a decade spent soldiering on the hot plains of
India, Major Yeates, the eponymous Resident Magistrate in these classic stories from the 1890s, has retired to
the drizzlier reaches of Southern Ireland, There he lives in a dilapidated manse with his doughty wife Philippa, legislating over the deeds and misdeeds of the locals, and transporting himself about his demesne on the back of the imperturbable Quaker, who 'moves at the equable gallop of a horse in the Bayeux Tapestry'. The well-intentioned Major, however, is incapable of staying on the right side of his own law, and gets regularly caught up in the shenanigans of the populace, which tend to involve generous measures of both 'boose' and horses.
The great joy of these stories is the range of characters and voices which appear in them, and for this reason they lend themselves particularly well to the talking-book medium. Edith Somerville and Martin Ross (née Violet Martin) had no patience for English writers trying to 'master the Irish brogue', and Kipling among several others came in for a scolding ('He has not realised that dialect is a matter, not of mispronunciation, but of idiom'). Nor did they have much truck with the languid archaisms of Yeats, Lady Gregory, J. M. Synge and their Celtic Revivalist like. They themselves found the authentic textures of Irish speech immediately around them, in the courthouse at Skibbereen, where they would sit and take notes, or among the tumbledown cottages of nearby towns, or in the serving quarters of their own Big Houses. A good job then that Cover to Cover contracted T. P. McKenna, kosher Irishman and accomplished actor, as their solo reader. He has a ceaselessly versatile voice, and brings each character to life, from the bewhiskered Major Yeates to Flurry Knox, his perpetually bewhiskeyed landlord.
HRH the Prince of Wales is supplied with his audio books by Cover to Cover. The company specialises in unabridged recordings of classics in which, they boast: 'Nothing is altered. Nothing is left out.' Scoop, Emma, Frenchman's Creek and Far from the Madding Crowd form their back catalogue; and they have made a splendid job of this their newest addition. The sound quality is very high, T. P. McKenna faultless and the presentation excellent — the six cassettes look as solid and beautiful as a book in their box, which is illustrated with Edith Somerville's cartoons of bucking horses, rubicund huntsmen and startled geese. I hope that this handsome edition provokes more people to read, listen to, or watch these impeccably well-written stories, which were televised a decade or so ago with Peter Bowles as the unfortunate R.M. The Selected Letters of Somerville and Ross, which offers a glimpse into the twilight years of the Anglo-Irish Ascendancy, is also fascinating.
Some Experiences of an Irish R.M., by Somerville and Ross, read by T. P. McKenna. Cover to Cover. 6 cassettes, 8 hrs, £21.99.
Robert Macfarlane
Previous page
