Longitude, by Dava Sobel, read by David Rintoul (HarperCollins, 2 tapes, 3 hrs, £7.99 in UK)
This little gem of a book has been quietly hogging the number one slot in the hard back nonfiction section of the British bestseller list for some time now, but it doesn't seem to have made any great impact here - which is a great pity, for it has a terrific story to tell, and tells it terrifically. The failure of generations of sailors to perfect an accurate method of calculating longitude cost so many thousands of lives that by 1714 a desperate English Parliament offered £20,000 to the provider of a "Practicable and Useful" method. Despised and thwarted by the scientific establishment at every turn, the self educated English clockmaker John Harrison eventually succeeded. Fascinating, startling and beautifully written, Longtitude is read in a creamy stout flavoured baritone by a reader new to me, David Rintoul.
The Crossing, by Cormac McCarthy, read by Brad Pitt (HarperCollins, 2 tapes, 3 hrs, £7.99 in UK)
The evocative prose and bilingual dialogue used by Cormac McCarthy to tell the story of Billy Parham and his painfilled journeys across the Mexican border pose a major challenge to any reader - and Brad Pitt, of all people, passes with flying colours, giving a measured, sombre performance that stops just short of sullen.
Every Man For Himself, by Beryl Bainbridge, read by Kerry Shale (HarperCollins, 2 tapes, 3 hrs, £7.99 in UK)
This retelling of the Titanic story from the point of view of a small, strangely intertwined group of passengers is a tense affair, and despite the vast canvas of the massive ship with its 1,500 souls, the claustrophobic social setup Bainbridge does so well is very much in evidence. Kerry Shale, surely one of the most versatile of voices, brings all the pensive wit of the text to the fore.
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, by James Joyce, read by Jim Norton (Naxos, 3 tapes, 3 hrs 50 mins, £7.99 in UK)
Naxos has just carried off a prize in Britain for its series of Joyce recordings and, if they're all like this, no wonder. The muscular prose of Stephen Dedalus's voyage to maturity is vigorously recreated by Jim Norton, who has more Irish voices at his disposal than there are shades of green. The musical interludes, always chosen by Naxos with consummate care, include the blasts of atmospheric fiddle and whistle you would expect - and a couple of blasts of Wagner, which you wouldn't.
My Cousin Rachel, by Daphne du Maurier, read by Michael Moloney (Random House, 2 tapes, 3 hrs, £8.99 in UK)
Daphne du Maurier seems to be enjoying something of a revival at present, and this elegant mystery story not so much a "whodunnit" as a "didshedunnit" - is an enjoyable bit of escapism, read in satisfyingly cloak and dagger fashion by Michael Moloney.
The Regeneration Trilogy, by Pat Barker, read by Paul McGann (HarperCollins, 3 sets of 2 tapes, 3 hrs each, £7.99 each in the UK)
At first baffling, then completely compelling, Pat Barker's first World War trilogy moves incisively through some of the most painful areas of the human psyche. The trenches of Europe shattered the bodies and minds of a generation, and Barker records that destruction with agonising vividness but also with compassion and, one would have thought impossibly, humour. Paul McGann brings a nice detachment to the central character, Billy Prior, and has plenty of detail left over for the brilliant vignettes - remember the mad Major?
Anna Karenina, by Leo Tolstoy, read by Saskia Wickham (Hodder, 2 tapes, 3 hrs, £7.99 in UK)
A hothouse flower in a cold climate, was the lovely, mat id Anna, and Saskia Wickham takes a delightfully disingenuous approach to the story which makes the tragic denouement all the more poignant. This is one of a series of classic releases from Hodder which includes Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey, read with marvellous venom by Joanna Lumley, Henry James's The Portrait of a Lady read by the unspeakably elegant Gayle Hunnicutt, and a brilliant recreation of William Thackeray's Vanity Fair by the redoubtable Timothy West.
Human Croquet, by Kate Atkinson, read by Patricia Hodge (HarperCollins, 2 tapes, 3 hrs, £7.99 in UK)
Kate Atkinson gives the phrase "family values" a wickedly funny spin in this cleverly realised story, with its home from hell populated by vicious aunt Vinny and the wicked Widow, the doe eyed and ineffectual father, the beautiful, slovenly absent mother, the ugly, UFO obsessed brother and bright, 16 year old Isobel Fairfax, the "storyteller at the end of time", who weaves a surefooted narrative path from past to present, comedy to tragedy. Patricia Hodge's bossy plumminess is perfectly matched to the offbeat text.
Lady Windermere's Fan, by Oscar Wilde (Naxos, 2 tapes, 3 hrs, £5.99 in UK)
Is it just me, or do the clever clogs aphorisms of Oscar Wilde become more and more irritating as one gets older? I was quite prepared to be irritated by this dramatisation, but found myself both amused and moved instead. The credit must go to a virtually flawless cast, with a little help from the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, who fiddle happily with various bits of Victoriana at the beginning and end of each side - and, of course, the author, who knew a good moral dilemma when he saw one.
Fever Pitch, by Nick Hornby, read by the author (HarperCollins, 2 tapes, 3 hrs, £7 99 in UK)
"The natural state of the football fan is bitter disappointment Anybody who has ever hated football will find consolation as the gormless Hornby relates the tragicomic saga of his devotion to Arsenal. You'll need to love football too, of course, or you'll never make it through the catalogue of innumerable scoreless draws and rainy Saturdays on the way to the Holy Grail of league and cup double. Ignore the dreadful film: this is magic.
