Recent books on tape
Robert Cooper
Alan Bennett's The Clothes They Stood Up In (BBC Radio Collection, unabridged, £8.99) is already a number one chart- topper. No surprise that demand has been outstripping supply. A new Bennett is a major event in the audiobook calendar. It was originally printed in the London Review of Books but is not available as a book. So vive la cassette! Here, with 'nowt taken out', is two-and-a-half hours of unalloyed pleasure. Bennett's dry wit and dead-pan delivery is in cracking form.
Mr and Mrs Ransome return from the opera to find their mansion-block flat has been burgled — or possibly robbed. Mr Ransome is a stickler for words, the dictionary being his most thumbed book. Everything has gone — carpets, curtains, oven (casserole inside) — 'they've even taken the lavatory brush'. One of Bennett's numerous skills is to paint vivid pictures in seconds. The Ransomes wallow in their mutal love of opera; Mozart has held their 32-year marriage together. Mr Ransome owns four recordings of his beloved Cosi, so imagine his humiliation when, with even the loo-roll filched, he stoops to using his treasured opera programme. 'After three flushes the fierce eye of Sir Georg Solti still came squinting resentfully round the bend of the pan.'
On the other side of the coin, Mrs Ransome is liberated by events, relishing the prospect of refurnishing the flat. Mr Ransome, always the methodical solicitor, bemoans his losses and counts the cost. The pace never falters as the perpetrators are tracked down and, en route, Bennett, with his inimitable deftness, mulls over some contemporary bugbears — Daytime TV, Computers, Fashion, Drugs, even Counselling Care you hurting Mrs Ran- some?') Anyone but Bennett reading would be heresy. This tape will forearm us against such intrusions and intruders.
Another original voice is the poet U. A. Fanthorpe. In Double Act (Penguin Audio- books, 11/2 hours, £8.99) she reads a selec- tion of her work. Now 69, Fanthorpe once described herself as a 'middle-aged drop out'. She has been a teacher, also a hospital receptionist. The latter inspired the heart- rending 'Case History: Julie', where com- parisons are drawn between a suicidal girl and Ophelia. Fanthorpe weaves Julie's words with those of Shakespeare and the effect is stunning. All is not gloom; there is plenty of humour too. Fanthorpe is expert- ly assisted with the readings by fellow teacher Rosie Bailey who has a voice like a rich summer pudding.
If you feel the urge to brush up on the Bard look no further than The Complete Shakespeare Collection (Argo, unabridged, £7.99 each). You name them and they are here — Gielgud, Hordem, Jacobi, Ashcroft and more. These reissues sound more 'live' than 'studio', which adds to the atmo- sphere. You almost expect to hear the tramping on the boards and the hiss of the prompter. Extra marks, too, for the copious programme and cast notes.
The abridged version of Louis de Bernieres' Captain Corelli's Mandolin (BBC Radio Collection, abridged, £8.99) won a deserved Talkie Award. It is rare that a tape holds the attention for its entire course at a single session. The 31/2 hours pass in a flash. Robert Powell's reading copes admirably with the varying moods of Please do not adjust your set, I'm having convulsions.' the text, extracting every ounce of charm and humour from the scampish Corelli an Italian officer posted to a Greek island in 1941. Bearing in mind that abridgment frequently obliterates even the strongest plot, Captain Corelli escapes with all facul- ties intact and intelligible.
The same cannot be said about Anne Michaels' Fugitive Pieces (HarperCollins Audiobooks, three hours, abridged, £8.99) which won the 1997 Orange Prize for fic- tion. Also set on a Greek island during the war, this is a far grimmer and more morose story about a boy rescued from the mud and debris of a buried Polish city by an eccentric Greek scientist. Apparently Michaels agonised over every word of the novel and you feel she may not be smitten with this truncated version despite Kerry Shale's sensitive reading.
Jonathan Oliver's majestic reading of Robert Graves' I, Claudius (Isis Publishing, 19 3/4 hours, unabridged, £19.99) is the pick of the recent unabridged releases. Comparisons will always be made with Derek Jacobi's masterly television depic- tion of stammering Claudius, but consider- ing that Oliver has to play every role from Caligula to Nero he produces an epic performance.
Michael Dobbs has confessed to having a soft spot for the music of Barry Manilow. For all that, his latest novel, The Buddha of Brewer Street (HarperCollins Audiobooks, three hours, abridged, £8.99) rattles along with the infectious pace of a BM song. The hero, Thomas Goodfellowe, is a fearless backbench MP with a passionate private life. There's plenty of danger, suspense, and suspenders. Tim Pigott-Smith is an agreeable reader but still sounds like Cap- tain Merrick from The Jewel in the Crown, which is a bit dispiriting when he is sup- posed to be the mouthpiece of a thrusty female.
Lock all the doors before listening to An American Werewolf in London (BBC Radio Collection, 1 hr 50 mins, £8.99 tape, £11.99 CD). If you missed it on Radio One, here's your chance to experience this 'audio- movie'. It's well worth it. The original stars of the classic 1981 film have been resusci- tated for this blood-curdling adventure. Enter Jenny Agutter, Brian Glover and John Woodvine. Exit several mangled corpses. This tape won a Talkie Award for best TV/Film adaptation. Don't listen when the moon is full.
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess (BBC Radio Collection, 11/2 hours, tape £8.99, CD £11.99) offers a similar nerve- shredding experience but makes more demands on the listener. Maybe it too should have been conceived as a 'movie for the ears'; an audio remake of the Kubrick film would be powerful stuff. What we get for the first half hour is a frustrating haze, rather like listening to a television without seeing the picture. Don't despair — the mist clears as Burgess's fable of moral choice finds it feet in the home straight.
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