Reviews by Joan

I read Wolf Hall in print, but, for this sequel, decided on the audiobook and am so glad I did. As it is mostly dialogue it works particularly well in this format, especially with an excellent narrator like Simon Vance. It is as if you had travelled back in time to eavesdrop on the conversations! Hilary Mantel breathes life into her long-dead characters in a quite amazing way. As with Wolf Hall, the story is gripping, entertaining and completely fascinating.

This is a tale of modern living, all the good, bad and ugly bits. I didn't entirely like any of the characters and thought they often needed a good slap, a shaking, or a kick up the behind. Because I couldn't engage properly with any of them, their traumas left me unmoved. Strangely, though, I couldn't stop listening as there was lots of interest in their lives, taking in politics, environmental issues, sex, money and so on. Much of it is drolly amusing, some bits are laugh-out-loud funny, and the reader brilliantly sustains the huge cast of characters through the many hours of this saga.

Entertaining and thought-provoking. Everyone except the naturally skinny will relate to this, and will feel much better for listening. But Arabella does talk FAST. My brain was tripping over itself to keep up. By the end I felt as if I had had a good workout. I must have lost POUNDS!

I hated being interrupted from listening to this, and at every spare moment continued with it. Jonathan Coe is a fantastic writer, and Colin Buchanan's reading was amazingly good. I think I'll listen to it all over again!