Paper Trail cover art

Paper Trail

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About this listen

When young Charles Benson arrives in Toftham, a sleepy Norfolk market town, on a miserable Sunday afternoon in January 1952, he has only the vaguest idea what Fate has in store for him. It is at the hands of the editor of the Toftham and Wettleford Journal, Mr Juby, that Charles is introduced to local reporting and Norfolk ways.

Charles finds himself steering a perilous course through a minefield of WI meetings, funerals, fêtes, local dramatics, council shenanigans and point-to-points, floundering his way through a succession of debacles on his way to becoming a real journalist…and a real man of Norfolk.

©1989 John Timpson (P)2014 Soundings
Contemporary Fiction Genre Fiction
All stars
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Any additional comments?

staring in 1951 and finishing in 1953 this story tells of city boy Charles getting a reporters job in rural Norfolk, even though he knows nothing about being a reporter. Charles learns how to be a reporter, about people, not always sure if they are pulling his leg, and helping where he can.
loved david Thorpe's performance of the book, especially the accents. found myself trying to do the accents too
five stars because I feel I could listen to this again and enjoy it as much even though I know the ending.

funny and sad.

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If you could sum up Paper Trail in three words, what would they be?

Funny, Elegant and Effective

What did you like best about this story?

The growth of the main character, Charles, from an inexperienced city boy at the start of the book, making embarrassing errors much to amusement of his boss, gradually learning a few life lessons along the way.

What does David Thorpe bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?

A fantastic narration by David Thorpe. Having heard other books read by him, his ability to not only read male and female parts, sometimes in accents, but his comic timing is spot on too.

Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

The book has many ups, a few downs and plenty of silly humour.

Any additional comments?

It's a shame John Timpson didn't write any more books of this ilk. From the very first scene this book gently meanders along with tales aplenty to keep it entertaining.

A light, amusing and entertaining tale.

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