The Pillow Book: Series 1-11 cover art

The Pillow Book: Series 1-11

A Full-Cast Historical Crime Drama

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About this listen

A thriller and love story set in 10th-century Japan.

Lady Shonagon is an imperial courtesan, living at the court of the Japanese Emperor in the 10th century. When a series of disturbing thefts within the palace walls throws the court into confusion and unrest, Shonagon is appointed guide and assistant to Lieutenant Yukinari as he investigates.

Together, Shonagon and Yukinari must solve the mysteries and escalating crimes that plague the Japanese court, and their romance blossoms in the tightly enclosed world behind the high palace walls. But soon Shonagon's lover Tadanobu becomes uncomfortable with how closely they are working together....

The Pillow Book is inspired by the writings of Sei Shonagon, a poet and lady-in-waiting to the empress of the 10th-century Japanese court. The work of the real-life Sei Shonagon consists of essays, lists, anecdotes, poems, and descriptive passages about her daily life.

This full-cast drama stars Ruth Gemmell as Sei Shonagon, with Yukinari played by Mark Bazeley in series 1-3 and Cal Macaninch in series 4-11. Benedict Cumberbatch plays Tadanobu in series 1.

Directed by Lu Kemp.

©2018 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd (P)2018 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd Historical Thriller & Suspense Funny
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RF wrote this title as sequences of five fifteen minute dramas spread over a week on Radio 4. That is why they are sometimes intense. If they are listened to as one long book, they will be impossible to appreciate and tedious. listen in bursts between other things and they will continue to delight and intrigue. Utterly unlike anything else on Audible.

Not written as a book...

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I picked up on the broadcasts of this about half way through - and was completely smitten with a story interspersed with moments of mindfulness - before that was invented. So wonderful to be able to hear those earlier instalments for the first time, then hear the whole sequence. I loved the use of Scottish voices for the outside the palace people - worked really well. Highly recommended.

Just loved this

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Makes a decent job of conjuring up the bizarre atmosphere of the period, 10th century Japan, and the weird, completely alien world of palace life - a world inside a world - in the Heian period. Robert Forrest even makes a very decent stab at Shonagon's style, the strange dreamlike lists and odd, perfect little miniature portraits that make up the real Pillow Book. And succeeds in evoking the period, so utterly different to anything remotely familiar in 21st century Western culture, with knobs on!

The idea of turning The Pillow Book into a series of Morse-style detective stories was inspired, and it's all credit to Robert Forrest's writing that they are so complex, rich in detail, dream-like in prose style and convoluted in plot, and yet at the same time so pacy, sharp and completely un-put-down-able.

The 14+ minute full cast dramatized episodes that were originally broadcast on Radio 4 were great. But this volume that gathers all of the episodes together is even better. Really cannot praise or recommend highly enough.

My only tiny niggle was with, firstly, Ruth Gemmel's voicing of the main character of Lady Shonagon which is so breathy - or breathless - that at times she sounds as if she ought to be on a ventilator, and secondly with the ridiculous and excessive number of Scottish accents amongst the predominantly male cast ...I'm still puzzling over what all these Scottish via RADA accents are meant to be shorthand for in Japan in 1001 A.D!

Robert Forrest's "Pillow Book"

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This is a beautiful story , told beautifully about a Japanese courtly lady and her relationships and experiences.

I was transfixed from beginning to end!!

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Loved it in short sessions. Very atmospheric and almost mesmerising. The voices are perfect and I particularly like lady Shonigon's lists.

Atmospheric

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