The Bloater cover art

The Bloater

The brilliantly original rediscovered classic comedy of manners

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The Bloater

By: Rosemary Tonks, Stewart Lee - introduction
Narrated by: Stewart Lee, Florence Howard
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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

Min works at the BBC as an audio engineer, where she is struggling to replicate the sound of a heartbeat. At home, other matters of the heart are making a mockery of life as Min knows it.

Min has found herself the object of her lodger's affection. An internationally renowned opera singer she's nicknamed 'The Bloater', Min is disgusted and attracted to him in equal measure. But with a husband so invisible that she accidentally turns the lights off on him even when he's still in the room, Min can't quite bring herself to silence The Bloater's overtures.

Vain, materialistic, yet surprisingly tender, The Bloater is a sparklingly ironic comedy of manners for all flirtatious gossips who love to hate and hate to love.


'Should The Bloater be republished? Oh God, absolutely, it's fantastic' Stewart Lee

'It is the perfect aperitif, makes you feel warm and careless and much, much happier' The Times

'Brittle, spry, spiky, amusing, a comedy of love... an original and distinctive flavour' Sunday Times

© Rosemary Tonks 2022 (P) Penguin Audio 2022

 Classics Family Life Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Romantic Comedy World Literature Heartfelt Witty Comedy Opera

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Critic reviews

The Bloater delights us by its wit, relish, and new-minted metaphors
Brittle, spry, spiky, amusing, a comedy of love... an original and distinctive flavour
[Tonks'] novels are valuable curios...of their time. They read like a strange hybrid of Muriel Spark and Beryl Bainbridge with a dash of Joe Orton (William Boyd)
What a charismatic writer Rosemary Tonks is. The Bloater is lively and witty with some brilliant metaphors and descriptions, and so atmospheric. I really enjoyed it (Katy Wix)
It is about flirtation as a method of self-organization, and a crush as a method of self-torture. All of The Bloater, however-every single sentence-is funny
All stars
Most relevant
I thought the narration was really good - expressive without ‘acting’ and I got completely engrossed in the story without distraction. And the story, the writing, the observations were wonderful. Can’t recommend enough. Raced through it.

Just brilliant and the foreword is predictably wonderful

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