Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

Offer ends May 1st, 2024 11:59PM GMT. Terms and conditions apply.
£7.99/month after 3 months. Renews automatically.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
The Gallows Pole cover art

The Gallows Pole

By: Benjamin Myers
Narrated by: Malk Williams
Get this deal Try for £0.00

Pay £99p/month. After 3 months pay £7.99/month. Renews automatically. See terms for eligibility.

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £15.99

Buy Now for £15.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Listeners also enjoyed...

Ill Will cover art
Thursday's Child cover art
The Crystal World cover art
Songs of a Dead Dreamer and Grimscribe cover art
Invitation to a Beheading cover art
The Horseman cover art
The Secret River cover art
The Queen of All Crows cover art
Jakob's Colours cover art
Great and Horrible News cover art
Spaceships Over Glasgow cover art

Summary

From his remote moorland home, David Hartley assembles a gang of weavers and land workers to embark upon a criminal enterprise that will capsize the economy and become the biggest fraud in British history. They are the Cragg Vale Coiners, and their business is clipping - the forging of coins, a treasonous offence punishable by death.

©2019 Ben Myers (P)2019 Audible, Ltd

What listeners say about The Gallows Pole

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    162
  • 4 Stars
    51
  • 3 Stars
    13
  • 2 Stars
    5
  • 1 Stars
    5
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    173
  • 4 Stars
    30
  • 3 Stars
    5
  • 2 Stars
    3
  • 1 Stars
    2
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    151
  • 4 Stars
    41
  • 3 Stars
    10
  • 2 Stars
    8
  • 1 Stars
    2

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

The gruesome tale of the Cragg Vale Coiners

Being from West Yorkshire and interested in local history I read the Gallows Pole when it was first published and loved the gruesome tale of "King" David Hartley and his merry band of counterfeiters in 18th Century Calderdale. I liked it so much that went over to Mytholmroyd to re-trace the footsteps of the coiner gang through Bell Hole Woods and up to King David's home at Bell House on the edge of Erringden Moor and afterwards visited the White Lion pub in Heptonstall and the excellent local museum that includes coiner artefacts. I also purchased the excellent album by the Shining Levels of folk song inspired by Ben Myers' novel.
When I saw that Gallows Pole was now on Audible too, I instantly handed over coin again to hear the story told over again. And I am glad that I did. The narrator Malk Williams has the Calderdale voices down perfectly and I sat back and enjoyed the richness of the descriptions of the valley and the countryside and the colourful dialogue of the gang of forgers and the valley folk. To me, listening to this adds another dimension to the enjoyment of this story and I cannot recommend it highly enough.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

21 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Tough, 'ard', foul and sweary

Ten hours of poetic Northern swearing combined with long lists of names and some of the most creative threats ever uttered in fiction. Beautiful, enigmatic, and memorable.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

11 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Rare 5 Star review

I think only a couple of other books have moved me to 5 stars before. This is terrific stuff - a rollicking story, beautiful, coarse, earthy poetry and fantastic pacy narration. It’s essentially a Western with the back drop of the Yorkshire moors but also a book about a world on the cusp of fundamental change and the impact that will bring. It’s also a true story. One of those books I was genuinely trying to find time to listen to and I raced through it in a week.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Repetitive and predictable

The story was your standard journey from A to B.

All the characters go like this:

Character 1. “I’ll state a fact.”
Character 2. “What fact?”
1. “This fact.”
2. “This fact?”
1. “Aye. This fact.”
2. “This fact here?”
1. “Aye.”
2. “Well [swear word] that fact.”

Then add a number of colloquialisms; The fact was like a Yorkshire pudding, like a flat cap hat, like a whippet in a race; and that pretty much sums up the whole book.

It was an impressive effort from the author at finding and researching the many local sayings, but at the end of the day, the actual story was basic and lacked the twists and turns to keep the reader fully engaged.

Oh, I should finally say that narrator was excellent. This audiobook is worth it for that alone.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Loved every moment.

An amazing story which will inform and enlighten its readers about the character of the Calder Valley then and now! Not sure about the narrator's grasp on all the place names but it's a minor point and will only grate on those from the area.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Fascinating insight into defacing currency

Very well written account of a forgotten era of history when coins could be clipped

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Authentic narration

Grand use of narration to bring otherwise hard to read phonetically written dialect to life in order to relate a fictionalised account of an incredible historical story perhaps little known today outside its locale until this book justifiably won the Walter Scott Historical Fiction Prize. Excellent all round.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Interesting, informative and entertaining.

I very much enjoyed this audiobook. I knew nothing about the coining trade in the 18th century and was fascinated by the gumption of the coiners. Although I didn't find any of the characters particularly likeable, I was moved by the descriptions of poverty and found some of the violent scenes really shocking. All credit to the author, this book is incredibly well written.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Superb Narration.

All credit must go for the excellent Narration.
This area is close to where I live and have spent many, many hours walking.
I finished the book as the history is fascinating but have to admit, I struggled with the author's apparent love of lists, the word 'and' and 'c~nt', plus dislike of pronouns.
I also really struggled with a couple of the incidents described, during the first of which I really did not want to continue the book.
I did, however, finish it.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars
  • M
  • 07-02-24

Tedious.

This book has everyone going on about it. It’s critically acclaimed and recognised but I just don’t see why. The story is largely predictable and dull. Not one of the main characters is likeable or makes me really care what happens to them.

The author’s habit of over-describing everything repeatedly and creating long drawn out lists of names or other facts is maddening. On and on it goes, taking an age to get anywhere. The descriptions are often brilliant and clever but he lays it on so thick that it drags every paragraph down; he just never seems to know when to stop. There’s a section where names of wanted people are read out and it never seemed to end - I had to skip forward.

The narrator is brilliant though - Really made the book at least tolerable for me. Sounds a bit like Reece Shearsmith.

I realise I’m a lone voice in really not liking this book so maybe it’s all above me but I won’t be venturing into any more of the author’s work.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!