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Alan Bennett Reads Childhood Classics
- The Wind in the Willows; Alice in Wonderland; Through the Looking Glass; Winnie-the-Pooh; The House at Pooh Corner
- Narrated by: Alan Bennett
- Length: 7 hrs and 52 mins
- Performance
- Categories: Children's Audiobooks, Literature & Fiction
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Shame about the abridgement
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this is a good book
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Consummate story-teller
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Great performance
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Great but... but great
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Profiteering. Don't buy this one!
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Floreat William Brown!
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Six Poets
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Alan Bennett's selection of English verse by his favourite poets: Thomas Hardy, A.E. Housman, W.H. Auden, Louis MacNeice, and Philip Larkin is accompanied by his own enlivening commentary and was recorded before a live audience. In this personal anthology, Alan Bennett has chosen more than seventy poems by six well-loved poets, discussing the writers and their verse in his customary conversational style through anecdote, shrewd appraisal and spare but telling biographical detail.
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Alan & Thora
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This splendid title showcases the combined talents of Alan Bennett, one of our foremost dramatists and writers, and Thora Hird, the celebrated and much-loved actor who died in 2003. It features an exclusive and unique recording, The Last of the Sun, that Thora made for BBC Audiobooks a couple of months before her death.
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lovely memiors of a truly loved lady.
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Summary
Alan Bennett narrates five much-loved stories by Kenneth Grahame, Lewis Carroll and AA Milne.
The Wind in the Willows is the classic story featuring Ratty, Mole, Badger and Toad (of Toad Hall).
In Alice in Wonderland, when Alice follows a white rabbit down a hole, she embarks on a series of adventures with some of the most weird and wonderful characters ever encountered. In Through the Looking Glass, Alice sees another world in the looking glass and wishes she could go there.
In stories from Winnie-the-Pooh, Pooh goes visiting and gets into a tight place, Eeyore loses a tail, Piglet meets a Heffalump, Eeyore has a birthday, and an 'expotition' to the North Pole is mounted. The House at Pooh Corner finds Pooh and Piglet building a house for Eeyore whilst Tigger comes to the forest and has breakfast. Piglet nearly meets the Heffalump again, Pooh invents a new game, and Owl moves house.
Portraying each character in his own inimitable fashion, Alan Bennett's distinctive narrations of these much-loved stories have become classics in their own right.
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What listeners say about Alan Bennett Reads Childhood Classics
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- J Halle
- 20-03-17
Great reading, poor planning
Would you try another book written by the authors or narrated by Alan Bennett?
Yes
What did you like best about this story?
Wonderful stories, wonderfully read. But as it has been recorded as one single 7 hour narrative it is impossible to select which story to listen to, or to navigate the content other than to listen to it beginning to end. Very poor planning.
Have you listened to any of Alan Bennett’s other performances? How does this one compare?
Yes - as always a wonderful storyteller.
What character would you cut from Alan Bennett Reads Childhood Classics?
None
Any additional comments?
This is a wonderful recording spoiled by poor technical execution.
24 people found this helpful
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- Janet
- 22-10-18
lovely
lovely classic much loved story full of character and charm beautifully read by Alan Bennett. Lulls me off to sleep every night ! ;*)
5 people found this helpful
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- Martin W.
- 09-03-21
No Chapter Names
This collection contains several separate books. But since the chapters have no names, finding the beginning of one is a matter of trial and error! Come on Audible, get you finger out and label the chapters.
3 people found this helpful
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- Owen Charnley
- 09-12-20
Incomplete but a complete disappointment
There are huge chunks of the story missing, the chapters are also badly ordered and have no headings/titles if you lose your way. Will be asking for a refund
3 people found this helpful
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- Ilana
- 23-04-17
enormous amount of material and Alan Bennett fab
Alan Bennett is a fabulous narrator, doing many different characters with ease. this package has an enormous amount of material, although the book divisions aren't marked so a little difficult to navigate. My son (4 years) preferred the Winnie the pooh stories to the rest but that still covered more than an hour of car time
3 people found this helpful
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- Samedi
- 03-05-18
Three classics, read by a master.
If you want a walk down memory lane, fancy something nostalgic and ready to help get off to sleep, or to introduce a young one to some of the best children's literatature ever written, look no further. Read brilliantly by one of our true national treasures, this book won't disappoint.
2 people found this helpful
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- slr
- 26-03-21
Childhood Classics
I bought this book as it was recited by Alan Bennett, who read beautifully. The stories were awful, badly abridged, and so disappointing. I do not recommend this book.
1 person found this helpful
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- Sue W.
- 29-11-19
Childhood memories
Alan Bennett is a fabulous story teller but this audio book is so frustrating to listen to. There are no gaps or introductions to all the stories so it's very difficult to find what you want to listen to it you don't want to listen chronically. Gaps would be great!
1 person found this helpful
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- GP88
- 23-08-19
utterly charming
Loved revisiting these stories. Alan is an awesome narrator, Piglet's voice is soooo lovely. I admit I listened to Wind in the Willows (poop poop) and Winnie the Pooh twice. Not a child in sight!
1 person found this helpful
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- PK Flanders
- 27-02-22
Masterful
Absolute pleasure to listen to three classics of Children’s literature read by the master reader Alan Bennett. Surely the best readings of these masterpieces ever.
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- William Turk
- 17-01-18
An Incomplete Collection
You should know that these stories are abridged. I am not familiar enough with "The Wind in the Willows" to know what was cut, but there were a number of poems omitted from the Alice stories, including cutting out 2/3 of Jabberwocky. Several whole chapters were omitted from the Pooh books, and the chapters that remained were shortened, including the removal of several of Pooh's poems and songs.
16 people found this helpful
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- Kim
- 05-11-18
Abridged version of Through the Looking Glass
Ugh. I hate abridged versions. Don't know about the other books, but "Through the Looking Glass" is abridged.
4 people found this helpful
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- Mary Leahy
- 09-04-18
Not just for Children
I really enjoyed listening to these children's classics. They brought back some pleasant memories. I will have my great grandchildren listen to them.
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- mike in PA
- 20-11-17
However...
i'm loving this "book" (Note: 3x5 stars ratings abv). HOWEVER (as noted abv) unless you're willing to set it to 'play' and let it roll on, one has a hard time navigating the various books to locate different sections, chapters or parts.
The recording is presented in twenty-three "chapters" with no hint of what's there in each (Audible) chapter.
For instance, "The Wind in The Willows" is presented in Chapters 1-10 (3.25 hours) with no indication of the relevant chapters in the book.
Each chapter begins with a statement like "Chapter Two, The Open Road. "Ratty, said the Mole suddenly one bright…" which helps but later we find that the narration skips the book's Chapter 7: The Piper at the Gates of Dawn and Chapter 9: Wayfarers All. So that the narration's "Ch 7" is actually the books Ch8: "Toad's Adventures" and the recorded "Ch 8" is the book's Ch10: "The Further Adventures of Mr Toad"
Hey, it's 5:30am and i'm about to end my night shift, gotta go...
i hope to continue this project over the next few nights. Stay tuned (i hope)