Bookwitch

It was good to see Sue Arnold in the Guardian on Saturday recommending the, by now, oldish unabridged reading of His Dark Materials. Unlike many “plain” readings, this is better still. Philip Pullman himself reads the story, with actors reading the dialogue. This is where we, at least, have formed our opinion of how Lyra should speak. And the audio Iorek is far superior to the film Iorek.

We first listened to this in the car driving to Scotland for Christmas about eight years ago. It was just right for the trip north and the return home again. The very last bit had to be finished as we unpacked the car. It also taught us not to underestimate our seven-year-old. We had assumed that she was too young to understand or enjoy the book. When she insisted on catching up with what she missed when asleep taught us the value of audio books. They really make books very accessible.

Should I blame myself or the mobile library? For a while when Son was at an impressionable age (11-12), we had a stop for the mobile library just outside our house, so it received a lot of visits from me. Offspring could only go in the school holidays, as the bus called mid morning. Son was at the stage where he required endless audio books to go to sleep with.

As a child I had quite enjoyed the Paul Temple cartoons in our daily newspaper, so when I saw the dramatised radio series on cassette, I carted lots of them home. Son liked them so much, that when the library supply came to an end, he spent his book tokens from birthdays on buying cassettes for himself. I suspect that by now he owns every one there is.

The series is quite old, and you can tell from the style of dramatisation. Genuinely retro and very non pc. Son was excited a couple of years ago when it was announced that they were going to record more episodes, and in a similar retro style. It was made all the more interesting, because the part of Paul Temple was going to be played by an actor friend of the Grandmother.

A while ago we were having dinner in Grandmother’s kitchen (she lives 200 miles away) when the phone rang. Son got up to answer it, and then handed the phone to his Grandmother; “It’s Paul Temple”.

Cleopatra looks like flavour of the month. She gets plenty of mentions in The Beggar of Volubilis by Caroline Lawrence. This is another reliably exciting instalment of the Roman Mysteries. It’s the fourteenth book, and you can tell the end is within sight, from the advancements in Flavia’s love life. Yes, I know this is for children, but those Romans started early. And it’s romantic.

The main characters are still reeling from the shock of the death in The Slave-girl from Jerusalem. But the emperor needs help, so they set off on a trip to North Africa. There’s plenty of double crossings going on, enough camels to make Nubia happy, and a travelling theatre group. The goddess Diana causes a lot of trouble, Cleopatra and the past hover in the background, and how dead is Nero?

There’s an audio book out too, which although abridged (why?), is very good, according to Daughter. So, something else I can while away the ironing with, then.

As ever with the latest Roman Mystery, the reader feels they can’t possibly last until the next one is here. We’re waiting…

This will be one of my most pointless blogs ever. Very few of my readers will be able to make use of it.

I re-started ironing and listening to audio books today. And it made me laugh, so I’ve found that funny book I was after last week. It’s by Mark Levengood and, don’t get your hopes up, is called Sucka mitt hjärta, men brist dock ej. Exactly.

Mark is famous all over Sweden, and is a Swedish speaking Finn, with an American background. He sounds like Moomin when he talks, which is just as endearing as you’d think.

I’ve never quite worked out what he does; he seems to be famous for being famous. But people love him. This book with the tongue twisting title is a collection of essays, where Mark muses on things like frequent flyer points, angry nuns in the Faroe Islands, or worrying about poisoning your children with toadstools every autumn.

Mark manages to have worthwhile thoughts on all of his subjects, and to write about them in a childishly open and funny way.

And that accent… I think you want the audio book, and not the printed version.

Mark Levengood

It’s best to admit immediately, before clambering up on this soapbox, that I’m far from an expert on this subject. But I obviously support it wholeheartedly.

It’s very easy for all of us who can read normal print, to assume that not only are there not all that many people with sight problems (as if a low number would make it all right), but that their needs are being taken care of by the authorities. After all, there are audio books out there.

For every one hundred books published in Britain, less than three make it on to audio cassettes. And when they do, they are nearly always more expensive than the paper book. I’m guessing here, but I expect that those who are registered blind get their audio books free from the library. Always assuming the library has them. But just as “ordinary” library users sometimes want to own a book, so might readers with sight problems. Except they will have to pay so much they possibly can’t.

Take Pride and Prejudice. A new paperback might be six or seven pounds, or in one of these cheap classics ranges, possibly only a pound. Used from Oxfam maybe two pounds. The last time I looked, an audio book in MP3 format was as cheap as twenty something pounds, while the more accessible cassettes cost around seventy. You’re not going to own many books like that.

Jacqueline Wilson has joined the campaign for more large print books and audio books, and she’s setting a good example by demanding they are available at the same time as the book is published.

For Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows JK Rowling had also joined. Except for audio cassettes. Anyone who wants (or needs) those can wait another month or so, while the rest of the world joins in the reading frenzy.

This reminds me of the children’s television cartoon Arthur. Some years ago there was an episode featuring the much awaited publication of a thinly disguised Harry Potter. All the children got their copies, while the blind girl had to wait for her Braille version.

Years ago when one of my children needed audio books to access age appropriate books, but not on grounds of eyesight, I wrote a wish list to the local library of books they should buy so we could borrow them. I was pleasantly surprised to find enthusiasm and a new code on the library card giving entitlement to free audio books due to the “handicap”. But they never bought anything that I could see, and after a while they got irritated when I asked if they had anything we hadn’t already had.

So, we headed into the arms of Cover to Cover audio books, who were excellent, until they sold up to the BBC and things started to slide downhill. Plenty of titles, just not the right ones.

Any author reading this; if you haven’t already done so, could you add a clause to your contract asking publishers to produce books in all formats simultaneously? Please.

As I cross the landing, even in the middle of the night, I’ve got used to hearing Stephen Fry in Daughter’s room. Sometimes it’s Nathaniel Parker, but usually Fry. They’re not just there to send her to sleep, which I suppose makes them sound boring, but to keep her company whenever she’s awake at night.

Those audio books are a blessing. They are so dreadfully expensive, but when I consider how heavily used some of them are, the cost per hour must be quite low.

At first they were mainly used for the children either before they could read very well, or to provide more complex “reading” than a book. Now, they are simply companions. Some were made to be listened to, like The Hitch-hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Son listened to that at an early age, and can still quote far too much from it.

Now he has a nightly diet of old radio series, regular crime and classics. Some you can no longer buy, which worries me for the day they collapse and they can’t be replaced.

Daughter has listened her way through most of Jacqueline Wilson, before settling on a very steady diet of Harry Potter and Artemis Fowl. But they are lovely boys, so I see no harm in it.

The bookwitch, who has steadfastly refused to read the Lord of the Rings, or for that matter to see the films, has listened to all thirteen episodes of the excellent BBC radio dramatisation of the book. So, I sort of know what it’s like.

With Harry Potter day approaching, I’ll need to fork out for the last in the series with Stephen Fry. But for the first few days, at least, we should be kept busy with the book book.

Then I’ll just have to do a lot of ironing.