Great writing spoilt by vocal performance

These are my favourite books of all time. Unfortunately the reader is not good enough, mispronouncing Riseholme and providing a ridiculous voice for Captain Puffin. Overall the stories win through

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Great stories, let down by pronunciation

It should be Rizzum NOT Rise-home! But that's a small complaint. It did have my inner Mapp cringing though!

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1 person found this helpful

Narrator needs coaching

The stories deserve ten stars - my go-to in any spare moment or needing to cheer myself up. Witty, affectionate and wicked, they have entertained me for forty years and will continue to entertain for the rest of my days.

The narrator is ok, but mispronounces Riseholme 😱Lucia would have swiftly and diplomatically corrected this by pronouncing it correctly several times in one sentence, whilst apparently utterly unconscious of the narrator’s grievous error. I’m amazed that no other Luciaphiles have picked up this fundamental error and demanded a public flogging on the Green. It jars all the way through the book.

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A real comfort in hard times.

Every night I go to Tilling. Georgina Sutton’s reading is a marvel bringing out all the humour and humanity. It makes me gently shake with laughter before I go to sleep. Thank goodness there is so much of it. I wish there was more.

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Thank you Naxos - perfection.

What a joy to discover this unabridged version of Mapp and Lucia, read by the perfect narrator. I cannot get enough of M&L but have always been so disappointed by the abridged versions previously available - wonderful though the narrations are. When you read the books you realise what a lot of detail has been left out. I am sad enough to listen to these (and read them) constantly and repeatedly, and to have the whole whack in one go is just glorious. I cannot wait for the second part - please don't let us down Naxos! This narrator is fabulous - wonderful diction, perfect interpretation of the characters and a really mellifluous timbre - perfect night time listening.

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an exquisite performance of gently satirical tales

I used to watch the adoptions of these stories as a child with my mum I'm here incredibly from memories all of them and I tried to listen to the books in several different versions over the years since while appreciating the writing the performances of Americans doing pseudo English accents or or a really old and slightly stilted recording always made me feel that perhaps a translation in the TV done the story the favour however this glorious performance his quite set the record straight

strangely enough I would say that the first in the trilogy is not actually my favourite and I was surprised that each book very much has its own tone and quality while still having overarching similarities the residents of Tilling are trying to be be on a par with the Residence of riseholme without quite the resources to do it making miss Maps Adventures quite sweet and less egotistical where is Lucia later adventures in London cast her in quite a different light my recommendation please don't be put off if the first story doesn't quite do it for you hold on and give you the this is truly a treasure and although I'd said the first one isn't my favourite these stories really are gold throughout just different grades of gold the one thing I would say is if anyone from audible.co.uk is reading these please can you chapter this first volume as you done the second with little dividers with the title of each book between the chapters so you can skip it easily

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Wonderful, and with superb narration.

I love the Mapp and Lucia novels and have read them many, many times. They’re hilariously funny and brilliantly well-observed. I was a bit worried that the audio book would be a disappointment, but the narration of this version is so good that listening to it has been an absolute joy.

Each character has a totally credible, distinct and consistent voice, perfect suited to their individual character traits, but the narration isn’t overdone and doesn’t draw attention to itself by being too stagey.

Probably the best narration of any audio book I have ever listened to, so highly recommended.

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3 people found this helpful

Brilliant.

Loved every minute of the stories. I think the narrator made a brilliant job of all the characters.

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1 person found this helpful

Thoroughly entertaining

Perfect audible book. Really enjoyed the Lucia stories. Very clever and witty writing and fabulous narration!

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1 person found this helpful

Utter joy

An unabridged, beautifully narrated performance of an English Classic, long waited for. Sharply observant and divinely witty

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