Beyond Black cover art

Beyond Black

 Preview
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free
Offer ends December 16, 2025 11:59pm GMT.
Prime members: New to Audible? Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Just £0.99/mo for your first 3 months of Audible.
1 bestseller or new release per month—yours to keep.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, podcasts, and Originals.
Auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

Beyond Black

By: Hilary Mantel
Narrated by: Anna Bentinck
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly. Offer ends December 16, 2025 11:59pm GMT.

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £16.99

Buy Now for £16.99

Only £0.99 a month for the first 3 months. Pay £0.99 for the first 3 months, and £8.99/month thereafter. Renews automatically. Terms apply. Start my membership

About this listen

Alison Hart, a medium by trade, tours the dormitory towns of London's orbital ring road with her flint-hearted sidekick, Colette, passing on messages from beloved dead ancestors. But behind her plump, smiling persona hides a desperate woman: she knows the terrors the next life holds but must conceal them from her wide-eyed clients. At the same time she is plagued by spirits from her own past, who infiltrate her body and home, becoming stronger and nastier the more she resists....

©2005 Hilary Mantel (P)2006 Isis Publishing Ltd Classics Dark Humour Genre Fiction Horror Literary Fiction Literature & Fiction Satire Suspense Thriller & Suspense Urban Scary Comedy Fiction Funny Witty Mind-bending Heartfelt
All stars
Most relevant
I just loved this book - it's not what I expected from the description which makes it sounds quite grim! Which is not to say it's not grim - Alison has a pretty awful life and her spirit guide is horrible. It's so well written and performed that I found myself thinking about the story between tube rides. If you enjoy stories with finely drawn characters that build to a revelation - this is one to buy.

Really unusual story, brilliantly written

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The performance of this audiobook is one of the best I’ve heard. Really so well done! It’s brilliant writing as well. Brilliant story, wonderfully drawn characters. Really enjoyed it.

Incredible narrator.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I’ve never read or listened to anything like it. I’m usually really turned off by fantasy and magic realism, and there were aspects of the book that I found harder to get into for that reason. But that’s just what’s on the surface. The whole experience of the book is more akin to looking at an immersive piece of contemporary art; you can see the themes but they are more than you can comprehend. There is so much in here about trauma, and women’s trauma specifically. And it also manages to be razor sharp funny at the same time. Just incredible. What an amazing person we have lost in Hilary Mantel. And as for Anna Bentinck - a truly amazing performance. Witty and sensitive and really well characterised.

Phenomenal

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
What a book! The subject matter is not for the faint-hearted - in fact I worry about the mind that can produce such a tale - but I loved every moment and didn’t want it to end. Heartbreaking yet funny. Tragic, dark and moving. All topped off by the stunning narration of Anna Bentinck, who can produce such a variety of voices and accents that you end up thinking there must surely be more than one narrator!

I don’t often recommend books as it’s such a subjective thing, but this is a book to be highly recommended.

Darkly funny

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
An original plot device for a story about relationships and social commentary, brilliantly written as always by Ms Mantel. Terrific dialogue, to which the narrator largely does justice, especially with Al and Colette. She struggles at times with male voices.

Great characters

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews