A reasonable book let down by a less than average narrator

The past is a different country or something like that. Paul Theroux'S journey round the United Kingdom in 1982 narrated by what sounded like an Alan Bennett impersonator unable to render any one of the regional dialects turned whatever humour was originally intended into a petulant whinge. It took a degree of effort to stick with it to the end.

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Interesting look a things I had forgotten 1982

Good start and nice idea behind the book. It looks at the English from an Americans eyes. Paul Theroux does this in an excellent manner. The narative was very good, and the facts interesting. What lost if for me was he rushed the story down the east coast to finish. This could have been because of the train strike, but it spoiled the end. I would love to see somone do this book again 30 years on and see how things have chnaged,



All in all good read, the narrator is not good at accents and this would have helped.



Would recomend

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A Great Book but .....

Paul Theroux has written a humourous and insightful book but the narrator is awful his attempts at local accents are execrable and detract mightily from the performance

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Wonderfully observed and beautifully written, with an appropriately stellar performance.

I remember this Britain. The book is so evocative of Britain in the early 80’s. But it is also superb in its observation of places and life and culture and history. I am now officially a Paul Theroux fan.

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Witty and endearing

I loved this book. It was a fabulous snapshot into life in Britain the early 80’s. The journey was interesting and gave me a great insight into places I’ve never been. The stories of the characters encountered on route were fascinating

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The people & the places.

Paul Theroux knows how to describe the people of Britain. With wit & charm he explains why we are British whilst traversing the coastline of this fair isle. Brutal honesty is his bag! Funny & informative.
A joy from start to finish.

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2 people found this helpful

An interesting perspective on one of this author's journeys

A very enjoyable listen, especially when moving through the areas I knew from childhood and my teenage years.
The reader had a lot of accents to incorporate, and made a pretty good job of them, but his slight errors in pronunciation when narrating, grated somewhat.

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Terrible narrator

Is there anything you would change about this book?

Get a different narrator. I can just about stand his clipped public school type accent (even though he is playing the part of an Anglicised American) but when he changes speech to convey the conversations of the locals that he meets on his way around the coast they all sound exactly the same - and that is as a straining (constipated?) Brummie - about as far from the coast as you can get. It's all a bit superior and condescending

Would you be willing to try another one of Ron Keith’s performances?

Definitely NOT if part of that performance includes him attempting to portray any other English rubes

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Disappointing narration,

Having read the book a few times over the years I thought I'd invest in the Audible version as well. The narrator is hopeless at accents which is bizarre considering the verbatim reporting of his casual encounters en route form an important part of the narrative. Mr Keith is as distant from an Anglicised American as it's possible to get and although I don't expect narrators to do impressions of authors his delivery was so far from what I expected as to take most of the pleasure from the story.

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A Good Book but let down by the reading

I enjoyed this book when I first read it, way back in the 80s. It has dated rather, and Theroux makes some fundamental mid judgements about Britain. But I would have enjoyed it so much more as an audio book with better voicing. An American reader, for example? Someone who could make it live.

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1 person found this helpful