Listen free for 30 days
-
London Fields
- Narrated by: Steven Pacey
- Length: 21 hrs and 46 mins
- Categories: Literature & Fiction, Genre Fiction
People who bought this also bought...
-
Money
- By: Martin Amis
- Narrated by: Steven Pacey
- Length: 16 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
John Self is addicted to life. Porn freak and jetsetter, a aficionado of wealth and women, Self is the shameless heir to a fast-food culture where money beats out an insistent invitation to futile self-gratification. Out in New York, mingling with the mighty, making a fortune but spending more, Self is embroiled in the corruption, the brutality and the obscenity of the money conspiracy.
-
-
Spot on performance.
- By S. Wragg on 10-11-09
-
Inside Story
- By: Martin Amis
- Narrated by: Alex Jennings
- Length: 22 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
His most intimate and epic work to date, Inside Story is the portrait of Martin Amis' extraordinary life, as a man and a writer. This novel had its birth in a death - that of the author's closest friend, Christopher Hitchens. We also encounter the vibrant characters who have helped define Martin Amis, from his father Kingsley, to his hero Saul Bellow, from Philip Larkin to Iris Murdoch and Elizabeth Jane Howard, and to the person who captivated his 20s, the alluringly amoral Phoebe Phelps.
-
-
A Tour de Force.
- By Sententiae on 31-10-20
-
The Information
- By: Martin Amis
- Narrated by: Steven Pacey
- Length: 17 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
How can one writer hurt another where it really counts? The answer: attack his reputation. This is the problem facing novelist Richard Tull, contemplating the success of his friend and rival Gwyn Barry. Revenger's tragedy, comedy of errors, contemporary satire - The Information skewers high life and low in Martin Amis's brilliant return to the territory of Money and London Fields.
-
-
a dark and savagely funny book
- By Tom on 25-03-10
-
The Pregnant Widow
- By: Martin Amis
- Narrated by: Steven Pacey
- Length: 14 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It was summer 1970 – a long, hot summer. In a castle in Italy, half a dozen young lives are afloat on the sea of change, trapped inside the history of the sexual revolution. The girls are acting like boys, and the boys are going on acting like boys, and Keith Nearing – twenty years old, a literature student all clogged up with the English novel – is struggling to twist feminism and the rise of women towards his own ends.
-
-
An Eye-Opener
- By Julian E. Boyce on 14-09-11
-
Time's Arrow
- By: Martin Amis
- Narrated by: Steven Pacey
- Length: 5 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Time's Arrow tells the story, backwards, of the life of Nazi war criminal, Doctor Tod T. Friendly. He dies and then feels better, breaks up with his lovers as a prelude to seducing them and mangles his patients before he sends them home.
-
-
powerful & disturbing - needs concentration!
- By Tom on 25-11-09
-
Rabbit, Run
- By: John Updike
- Narrated by: William Hope
- Length: 12 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It's 1959, and Harry 'Rabbit' Angstrom, one-time high school sports superstar, is going nowhere. At twenty-six he is trapped in a second-rate existence - stuck with a fragile, alcoholic wife, a house full of overflowing ashtrays and discarded glasses, a young son and a futile job. With no way to fix things, he resolves to flee from his family and his home in Pennsylvania, beginning a thousand-mile journey that he hopes will free him from his mediocre life.
-
-
"Glory Days"
- By DT on 24-10-15
-
Money
- By: Martin Amis
- Narrated by: Steven Pacey
- Length: 16 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
John Self is addicted to life. Porn freak and jetsetter, a aficionado of wealth and women, Self is the shameless heir to a fast-food culture where money beats out an insistent invitation to futile self-gratification. Out in New York, mingling with the mighty, making a fortune but spending more, Self is embroiled in the corruption, the brutality and the obscenity of the money conspiracy.
-
-
Spot on performance.
- By S. Wragg on 10-11-09
-
Inside Story
- By: Martin Amis
- Narrated by: Alex Jennings
- Length: 22 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
His most intimate and epic work to date, Inside Story is the portrait of Martin Amis' extraordinary life, as a man and a writer. This novel had its birth in a death - that of the author's closest friend, Christopher Hitchens. We also encounter the vibrant characters who have helped define Martin Amis, from his father Kingsley, to his hero Saul Bellow, from Philip Larkin to Iris Murdoch and Elizabeth Jane Howard, and to the person who captivated his 20s, the alluringly amoral Phoebe Phelps.
-
-
A Tour de Force.
- By Sententiae on 31-10-20
-
The Information
- By: Martin Amis
- Narrated by: Steven Pacey
- Length: 17 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
How can one writer hurt another where it really counts? The answer: attack his reputation. This is the problem facing novelist Richard Tull, contemplating the success of his friend and rival Gwyn Barry. Revenger's tragedy, comedy of errors, contemporary satire - The Information skewers high life and low in Martin Amis's brilliant return to the territory of Money and London Fields.
-
-
a dark and savagely funny book
- By Tom on 25-03-10
-
The Pregnant Widow
- By: Martin Amis
- Narrated by: Steven Pacey
- Length: 14 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It was summer 1970 – a long, hot summer. In a castle in Italy, half a dozen young lives are afloat on the sea of change, trapped inside the history of the sexual revolution. The girls are acting like boys, and the boys are going on acting like boys, and Keith Nearing – twenty years old, a literature student all clogged up with the English novel – is struggling to twist feminism and the rise of women towards his own ends.
-
-
An Eye-Opener
- By Julian E. Boyce on 14-09-11
-
Time's Arrow
- By: Martin Amis
- Narrated by: Steven Pacey
- Length: 5 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Time's Arrow tells the story, backwards, of the life of Nazi war criminal, Doctor Tod T. Friendly. He dies and then feels better, breaks up with his lovers as a prelude to seducing them and mangles his patients before he sends them home.
-
-
powerful & disturbing - needs concentration!
- By Tom on 25-11-09
-
Rabbit, Run
- By: John Updike
- Narrated by: William Hope
- Length: 12 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It's 1959, and Harry 'Rabbit' Angstrom, one-time high school sports superstar, is going nowhere. At twenty-six he is trapped in a second-rate existence - stuck with a fragile, alcoholic wife, a house full of overflowing ashtrays and discarded glasses, a young son and a futile job. With no way to fix things, he resolves to flee from his family and his home in Pennsylvania, beginning a thousand-mile journey that he hopes will free him from his mediocre life.
-
-
"Glory Days"
- By DT on 24-10-15
-
Night Train
- By: Martin Amis
- Narrated by: Linda Hamilton
- Length: 3 hrs and 26 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Detective Mike Hoolihan has seen it all. A 15-year veteran of the force, she's gone from walking a beat, to robbery, to homicide. But this one case has gotten under her skin. When Jennifer Rockwell, darling of the community and daughter of a respected career, now top-brass, cop takes her own life, no one is prepared to believe it … especially her father, Colonel Tom. Mike Hoolihan, longtime colleague and friend of the Colonel, is ready to "put the case down." Suicide. Closed. Until Colonel Tom asks her to do the one thing any grieving father would ask: take a second look.
Not since his celebrated novel Money has Amis turned his focus on America to such remarkable effect. Fusing brilliant wordplay with all the elements of a classic whodunit, Amis exposes a world where surfaces are suspect (no matter how perfect), where paranoia is justified (no matter how pervasive), and where power, price and pride are brought to a low by the hidden recesses of our humanity.
-
-
Narrator Issue
- By John on 04-09-13
-
The Razor's Edge
- By: W. Somerset Maugham
- Narrated by: Gordon Griffin
- Length: 13 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Larry Darrell is a young American in search of the absolute. The progress of this spiritual odyssey involves him with some of Maugham's most brilliant characters: his fiancée Isabel, whose choice between love and wealth have lifelong repercussions; and Elliot Templeton, her uncle, a classic expatriate American snob. The most ambitious of Maugham's novels, this is also one in which Maugham himself plays a considerable part as he wanders in and out of the story, to observe his characters struggling with their fates.
-
-
One of my desert island books
- By AReader on 04-02-15
-
Herzog
- By: Saul Bellow
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 15 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Winner of the National Book Award when it was first published in 1964, Herzog traces five days in the life of a failed academic whose wife has recently left him for his best friend. Through the device of letter writing, Herzog movingly portrays both the internal life of its eponymous hero and the complexity of modern consciousness.
-
-
Two Stars!?!?!?!
- By S. Wragg on 05-04-11
-
The New York Trilogy
- By: Paul Auster
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 12 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Paul Auster's signature work, The New York Trilogy, consists of three interlocking novels: City of Glass, Ghosts, and The Locked Room - haunting and mysterious tales that move at the breathless pace of a thriller.
-
-
An original take on the detective story
- By Andrea Edan on 18-06-20
-
The Zone of Interest
- By: Martin Amis
- Narrated by: Sean Barrett
- Length: 10 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What happens when we discover who we really are? And how do we come to terms with it? Can we even meet each other's eye, after we have seen who we really are? Fearless and original, The Zone of Interest is a violently dark love story set against a backdrop of unadulterated evil, and a vivid journey into the depths and contradictions of the human soul.
-
-
Amis I wish I had your mind
- By Ria on 02-02-15
-
Stamboul Train
- By: Graham Greene
- Narrated by: Michael Maloney
- Length: 7 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Aboard the Orient Express as it heads across Europe towards Constantinople, a relationship develops between Carleton Myatt and Coral Musker, a naive English chorus girl. Around them a web of espionage, murder and lies twist in this spy thriller.
-
-
Greene/Maloney - Audiobook Heaven!
- By GC on 24-03-09
-
The Heart of the Matter
- By: Graham Greene
- Narrated by: Michael Kitchen
- Length: 10 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Scobie, a police officer in a West African colony, is a good and honest man. But when he falls in love, he is forced into a betrayal of everything that he has ever believed in, and his struggle to maintain the happiness of two women destroys him.
-
-
Just brilliant
- By DartmoorDiva on 24-09-15
-
Speak Memory
- An Autobiography Revisited
- By: Vladimir Nabokov
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 9 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Speak, Memory, first published in 1951 as Conclusive Evidence and then assiduously revised in 1966, is an elegant and rich evocation of Nabokov’s life and times, even as it offers incisive insights into his major works, including Lolita, Pnin, Despair, The Gift, The Real Life of Sebastian Knight, and The Luhzin Defense.
-
-
Great!
- By Hussain on 13-04-13
-
Monsignor Quixote
- By: Graham Greene
- Narrated by: Cyril Cusack
- Length: 6 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Promoted to the rank of Monsignor, Quixote and his friend Sancho, the ex-mayor of El Toboso and an avid Communist, set off on their travels in the rusty old car the call Rocinante. Together, they roam through modern-day Spain in a brilliant picaresque fable that, like Cervantes' classic, offers enduring insights into our life and times. Cyril Cusack reads Grahame Greene’s moving, hilarious novel about a Catholic priest and his friend, a Marxist mayor.
-
-
Not one for misophonia sufferers
- By EEL on 12-11-19
-
The Ministry of Fear
- By: Graham Greene
- Narrated by: Oliver Chris
- Length: 7 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For Arthur Rowe the charity fête was a trip back to childhood, to innocence, a welcome chance to escape the terror of the Blitz, to forget 20 years of his past and a murder. Then he guesses the weight of the cake, and from that moment on he's a hunted man, the target of shadowy killers, on the run and struggling to remember and to find the truth.
-
-
England, cake and guilt.
- By Richard on 17-05-20
-
The New Wilderness
- By: Diane Cook
- Narrated by: Stacey Glemboski
- Length: 12 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Bea's five-year-old daughter, Agnes, is slowly wasting away. The smog and pollution of the overdeveloped, overpopulated metropolis they call home is ravaging her lungs. Bea knows she cannot stay in the City, but there is only one alternative: the Wilderness State. Mankind has never been allowed to venture into this vast expanse of untamed land. Until now. Bea and Agnes join 18 other volunteers who agree to take part in a radical experiment.
-
-
Unbelievably overrated
- By Alice May on 19-09-20
-
Decline and Fall
- By: Evelyn Waugh
- Narrated by: Michael Maloney
- Length: 5 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Expelled from Oxford for indecent behaviour, Paul Pennyfeather is oddly unsurprised to find himself qualifying for the position of schoolmaster at Llanabba Castle. His colleagues are an assortment of misfits, including Prendy (plagued by doubts) and Captain Grimes, who is always in the soup (or just plain drunk). Then Sports Day arrives, and with it the delectable Margot Beste-Chetwynde, floating on a scented breeze. As the farce unfolds and the young run riot, no one is safe, least of all Paul.
-
-
Unsurpassable narration
- By Claire on 05-04-17
Summary
More from the same
What listeners say about London Fields
Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
- Simon
- 26-01-11
Great, I think...
I was totally drawn in with this book, swept away, mesmerised with the characters. I loved the story, the people, I laughed, I shook my head, I couldn't have stopped listening for anything. But I got to the end and thought, I haven't a clue what that was all about. Yet I loved it.
It's one, I think, that you've got to concentrate on. Amis is incredibly witty and clever, and I kind of felt like I was peeking in the head of a VERY clever man. If you've read any Clive James, it's a similar style.
However, if a narrator can make or break a book, as they so often do, this narrator is superb! He brings everyone to life, not just, 'yeah, i can imagine that,' but fully to life so you feel as though you'd recognise them if they walked past you on the street or spoke to you in a pub.
The other impression I got is one of confusion, not over the writing, certainly not over the writing, but over the characters. I felt as though I should hate the people in this. Some of them are truly awful, but I couldn't wait for them to come back into the story, and I liked spending time with them, which felt odd and uncomfortable but safely uncomfortable, if that makes sense.
I wouldn't recommend this as a story to dip in and out of in short bursts, but if you're going on a long trip or have a chunk of time to dedicate uninterrupted, then go for it!
13 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Sal
- 14-07-17
I am struggling with this
I'm on part two so I'm about 9 hours in. Is it alright if I tell you I don't really know what is happening apart from a bloke who is writing a book about what is going on around him supported by a bunch of odd-bods who are providing the real life plot? It is a bit seedy. There is stuff about darts in it, that much I know.
Is it alright if I say this is Steven Pacey but not as we know him so be careful and whatever you do don't be put off this narrator? He is using an American accent on this one. I love this man and often seek him out on here.
And...Is it alright to say I bought this because my bookshelf (rarely used these days thanks to Audible) is a bit snobby and I sometimes like to pretend that I'm all cerebral and clever? I thought it was time for a classic author.
But, we trust each other on here and I have to tell you that this one is quite a trawl. I've just bought three more audio books so that I can leave this one for something more gripping and come back to it. I'll see it through and I do sort of wonder if the woman who has chosen to be murdered on her birthday really means it and indeed if the completely weird bloke she has chosen to do it even knows what she is all about. If you are doing this because you want to familiarise yourself with Martin Amis then go no further than the Zone of Interest which I also bought because of my book-snobbery but have now listened to twice. That one is truly moving. I also read Times Arrow on real paper once and loved that.
Oh, I just looked up the spelling of the word weird which keeps being auto corrected. Apparently the oxford English changed it to an I before E spelling in 2009.
I must go and be an un-snob because I have book one of Logan McRae and can't wait to get started on it...
9 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Maxwell Justus Mitchell
- 23-10-18
An Hilarious and Successfully Ironic Performance
This is LITERARY fiction: If you don't like books that are subtle, philosophical, complex, sometimes obscure, and often challenging, then find something else to read. This is not an easy read, but it rewards the effort you put into it.
Steven Pacey's narration is flawless: the voices he does for all of the different characters are spot-on.
The book itself is Amis' best. He clearly put everything he had into writing it ... a very smart man.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Brakeinews
- 07-10-17
I know I should appreciate it more, but...
... I just got so bored. I made it to the end with sheer will and not due to any enjoyment. I found the characters well realised, but it took so long for them to actually get around to being involved in the next bit of plot... then there would be another couple of hours of not much going on before the next thing happened. An endurance event from an author I really wanted to like... it's put me off his other titles... I appreciate his writing might be amazing, but the storyline just didn't keep momentum enough for me.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Hugh M. Clarke
- 09-08-15
Making Darts Interesting
Steven Pacey's reading of this novel is superb. It enabled me to get into a novel which I would otherwise have found challenging. His interpretation brings a collection of sad and shady characters to life and is very entertaining. By the end, I felt very involved and sorry to be leaving this bizarre and unsafe world.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Alex Pratt
- 20-07-15
Long and fundamentally not much happens
What disappointed you about London Fields?
It could be because I am stupid but I feel like I just wasted 20+ hours listening to a story that could have taken at least half that. To be fair, I made it to the end and I enjoyed the character of Keith but beyond that I predicted the end almost immediately and struggled to be gripped by the story..... I basically don't really get it. Why am I missing?
What aspect of Steven Pacey’s performance might you have changed?
Overall I liked the narrator - he was good and couldn't be faulted
What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?
Disappointed - Just didn't feel like a climax or any kind of tension that others have described.. felt like I could have predicted this from the start
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
- Robert
- 09-04-13
Brilliant, should be qualified though
This is the book that got me hooked on Amis in the first place and is my second favourite by him (after Time's Arrow). As with most of his works it can be quite difficult to follow if you aren't used to his style, so I do not recommend this as either bedtime, or light reading.
The ending however is one of my all time favourites. I won't spoil it for you, so I can't even tell you why it was so good, but it gave me such a well up of different emotions that I have never found in any other book. Well worth it.
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- Tom
- 28-05-09
A great book, brilliantly narrated
This is the third book I have read by Martin Amis, two of which have been audiobooks (the other was "Money" - also brilliant, with the same narrator - a plea to AUDIBLE to get it). In print, as it were, I find him to be a difficult author; I like to read quite quickly but it is simply impossible to do this without losing the essence.
But with an audiobook, you have to go at the pace of the narrator, and so learn to appreciate the mind-boggling prose, the savagely funny humour, the variations in pace and tone, the torrent of ideas, and the complications of the characters. He really is an exceptional author, and this is a truly great book.
Of course, you need a good narrator and Steven Pacey does an quite superb job. He clearly relishes the task - he seems to roll the prose round his mouth like a fine wine - and he brings the book to life quite brilliantly. His judgement of pace and colour is faultless; and he draws the characters brilliantly too.
Strongly recommended, particularly if you are already familiar with and like the author's work.
5 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- MelissaF
- 28-09-13
Nasty but good
What made the experience of listening to London Fields the most enjoyable?
Not sure it was 'enjoyable' as such. I read it because I had not read any Martin Amis and thought i 'should'.
Would you recommend London Fields to your friends? Why or why not?
Not really. I think Mr Amis has a rather unpleasant line of thought that must run through his head.
Which scene did you most enjoy?
Can't say I enjoyed any of it. I can see he is a good writer - but Oh! So negative and dark!
Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?
no
Any additional comments?
As another reviewer wrote - life is too short to spend on listening to such darkly imagined stuff.
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Beenz 7
- 05-09-20
Quite remarkable narration- wonderful!
Stephen Pacey adds so much to this audiobook the character Keith is mercilessly rendered.... Darts .... innit. Pacey has him to a tee. The same with Nichola Six, a devastating sex magnet and deadly flirt and tease, how does Pacey manage to be so utterly convincing? His repertoire of character voices seems limitless.