Westward Ho! cover art

Westward Ho!

 Preview
Try Premium Plus free
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Unlimited access to our all-you-can-listen catalogue of 15K+ audiobooks and podcasts
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

Westward Ho!

By: Charles Kingsley
Narrated by: Frederick Davidson
Try Premium Plus free

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

Buy Now for £16.99

Buy Now for £16.99

About this listen

 From the coral reefs of Barbados to the jungles and fabled cities of the Orinoco and on to the great sea battle with the Spanish Armada, this vibrant novel captures the daring spirit of Elizabethan adventurers who sailed with Sir Francis Drake.(P)Blackstone Audiobooks Action & Adventure Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Romance Middle Ages

Listeners also enjoyed...

 Waverley cover art
In Search of a Kingdom cover art
Sir Walter Scott: A BBC Radio Drama Collection cover art
The Railway Man cover art
Midshipman Bolitho cover art
Badge of Glory cover art
The Ecclesiastical History of the English People cover art
All stars
Most relevant
The narrator's languid and urbane delivery is as completely at odds with the notion of a vibrant and daring tale of Elizabethan derring-do as can be imagined. It might be perfect for PG Wodehouse or Evelyn Waugh, but is completely miscast here. I gave up after about an hour. Very disappointing.

Westward Ho, Jeeves!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Having tried to read the book 3 times, I decided before attempting again to listen to it, so as to gain knowledge on how the language works and how it should read, and the reader does it justice. Brilliantly read, wonderful story in North Devon surroundings that I know and love. A great way to get through this fantastic story.

Easy way to get through this epic classic!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Working, as I do in (assume a flighty high camp tone of voice) the white town of Bideford in the fair county of Devon...aye m’gentlemen...I felt I should read this. What an absolutely painful ordeal it has been!

Was I sickened more by the cod Kenneth Williams-style Devonian accent of the narrator, that sounded more Irish than anything else, or the putrid anti-Catholic, pro-colonialist muscular Protestantism of the vile Kingsley? Hard to say but I did feel very sullied at the end of it all.

The Torridge estuary area is full of references to this beleaguered novel whilst not a single resident of the town of Westward Ho! that I spoke to has read it! Perhaps most poetically-satisfying of all is that the local Wetherspoons is called The Rose Saltern.

I understand this particular narrator was very popular back in the day!!! If listening to Larry Grayson’s Generation Game quips and asides for 21 hours floats your boat then this recording will grab you hook, line and sinker. For my part I would stick the snivelling little Kingsley in the jaggers and keelhaul the atrocious narrator.

Keelhaul the blackguard!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I’ve nothing much to say about this audiobook because, after simultaneously reading a physical copy and listening to this recording, I gave up after two pages and returned the title. Why? I wanted to hear the complete text. The image accompanying this audiobook may say “unabridged” but, believe me, it very definitely is quite heavily abridged.

Don’t be misled - this is an abridged reading.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.