Well I'm nearly four hours into Mantel's latest and still have another 32 hours to go

[Burney]

It's very good, of course, but also in Audible terms, is tremendous value. That's three times the length of most books for just one credit. wd HM and wd Audible.

[Sir C]

It's very good, of course, but also in Audible terms, is tremendous value. That's three times the length of most books for just one credit. wd HM and wd Audible.

I started with Wolf Hall again. About 3 hours in. I must have another 60 or 70 left!

[Herbert Augustus Chapman]

It's very good, of course, but also in Audible terms, is tremendous value. That's three times the length of most books for just one credit. wd HM and wd Audible.

Historical fiction? It is, I take it, meticulously researched?

[Burney]

Historical fiction? It is, I take it, meticulously researched?

It is. Exhaustively so, I'm told.

[Burney]

I started with Wolf Hall again. About 3 hours in. I must have another 60 or 70 left!

So far I've learned that Princess Mary was sequestered at Hunsdon Hall, which is just up the road from me. Ware gets a mention, in fact.

[Ganpati's Goonerz--AFC's Aboriginal Fertility Cult]

Historical fiction? It is, I take it, meticulously researched?

It is. As is Phillipa Gregory's. She's got a history PhD.

[Ganpati's Goonerz--AFC's Aboriginal Fertility Cult]

It's very good, of course, but also in Audible terms, is tremendous value. That's three times the length of most books for just one credit. wd HM and wd Audible.

What is Audible? And how do these credits work?

[Burney]

What is Audible? And how do these credits work?

Audible is a site/app where you buy audiobooks. You can buy a membership that gives you two credits (1 per book) per month.

Details here
https://audible-uk.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/5527/~/what-are-the-different-membership-plans-audible-offers%3F

[Ganpati's Goonerz--AFC's Aboriginal Fertility Cult]

Audible is a site/app where you buy audiobooks. You can buy a membership that gives you two credits (1 per book) per month.

Details here
https://audible-uk.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/5527/~/what-are-the-different-membership-plans-audible-offers%3F

So this means that if you use this months credit on the Mantell book, you get another book next month as well as being able to keep listening to hers?

Oh, and are they just read by one person or do they have different voices for different characters like on the radio?

£15 a month doesn't seem like that good value compared to R4. I wish R4 would have a subscription service where they just have everything they've ever made there to listen to.

[Luis Anaconda]

I started with Wolf Hall again. About 3 hours in. I must have another 60 or 70 left!

I haven't read any - I think Audible may be the way to go

[Burney]

So this means that if you use this months credit on the Mantell book, you get another book next month as well as being able to keep listening to hers?

Oh, and are they just read by one person or do they have different voices for different characters like on the radio?

£15 a month doesn't seem like that good value compared to R4. I wish R4 would have a subscription service where they just have everything they've ever made there to listen to.

Credits can roll over as long as you like - although I often end up buying an additional three credits for £17 because I've ploughed through the two books in a week or so. £15 a months for two books is very good value - particularly in the case of these, which are 25-35 hours long. And no, they're not dramatic performances, they're books being read to you by someone.

Radio 4 is shít. Its drama is unlistenable; its comedy is profoundly unfunny and its news output is woeful. Audible and podcasts mean I simply never listen to it anymore - and I'm much happier for it.

*Oh, and R4's 'books' are heavily abridged and only delivered in gay little 15 minute segments with annoying music (even in the 'omnibus' versions). Fúck that.

[Sir C]

I haven't read any - I think Audible may be the way to go

The secret to Mantel is to accept that she's going to drone on and on ad infinitum; Audible allows you to just relax and let the verbosity wash over you.

[Burney]

The secret to Mantel is to accept that she's going to drone on and on ad infinitum; Audible allows you to just relax and let the verbosity wash over you.

As I say it's only been five hours so far, but it's been very good. I enjoy spending time in Thomas's head.

I mean nothing has actually...y'know...'happened', but it's all good stuff.

[Sir C]

As I say it's only been five hours so far, but it's been very good. I enjoy spending time in Thomas's head.

I mean nothing has actually...y'know...'happened', but it's all good stuff.

No one's denying that it's good stuff. I just think it's important to keep reiterating that she is a fat, ugly leftist porker whose turgid prose stylings are undoubtedly infused with commie anti-Royalist propaganda.

[Luis Anaconda]

As I say it's only been five hours so far, but it's been very good. I enjoy spending time in Thomas's head.

I mean nothing has actually...y'know...'happened', but it's all good stuff.

It's a period of history I know very well - so I like the idea of that

[Sir C]

It is. As is Phillipa Gregory's. She's got a history PhD.

None of these birds are a patch on Daphne du Maurier.

Daphne knew how to write a story. Swashbuckling pirates laying milady down in a Cornish cove? I think so!

[Burney]

No one's denying that it's good stuff. I just think it's important to keep reiterating that she is a fat, ugly leftist porker whose turgid prose stylings are undoubtedly infused with commie anti-Royalist propaganda.

Yes, but hasn't she got some sort of disease that makes her look all manky like that?

No excuse for the leftism or anti-royalism, of course.

[Burney]

It's a period of history I know very well - so I like the idea of that

That really helps, actually. It means you don't get lost if you stop paying attention for a bit.

[Sir C]

Yes, but hasn't she got some sort of disease that makes her look all manky like that?

No excuse for the leftism or anti-royalism, of course.

I believe what makes her look manky like that is a condition known medically as 'greed'.

[Ganpati's Goonerz--AFC's Aboriginal Fertility Cult]

No one's denying that it's good stuff. I just think it's important to keep reiterating that she is a fat, ugly leftist porker whose turgid prose stylings are undoubtedly infused with commie anti-Royalist propaganda.

Her one on the assassination of Maggie was ace. The Torygraph paid for it, and then realised that their readers didn't want to read about Maggie being offed, so she gave it to the Graun for free and I read it on the train. It was tops.

[Burney]

I believe what makes her look manky like that is a condition known medically as 'greed'.

It all sounds a bit disgusting, really. Woman's a physical wreck.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2004/jun/07/health.genderissues

[Sir C]

It all sounds a bit disgusting, really. Woman's a physical wreck.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2004/jun/07/health.genderissues

Jesus H Christ, you've just linked me to a description of Hilary Mantel's menses? Are you quite sane?

[Burney]

Jesus H Christ, you've just linked me to a description of Hilary Mantel's menses? Are you quite sane?

Doesn't bear thinking about, does it?

I've just been reading about a chap who had four wives, one of whom he allowed to die of kidney cancer without telling her that's what she had. The only picture of him I've found shows him pouring himself a glass of stout from a pump next to his hospital bed. He was involved in 'several' car accidents (possibly not unrelated to the stout next to the bed) and, when he was told he had bowel cancer, he suffocated himself with a plastic bag.

All in all, quite the chap. And he rejoiced in the name 'Plantagenet Somerset Fry'.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plantagenet_Somerset_Fry

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[Sir C]

Doesn't bear thinking about, does it?

I've just been reading about a chap who had four wives, one of whom he allowed to die of kidney cancer without telling her that's what she had. The only picture of him I've found shows him pouring himself a glass of stout from a pump next to his hospital bed. He was involved in 'several' car accidents (possibly not unrelated to the stout next to the bed) and, when he was told he had bowel cancer, he suffocated himself with a plastic bag.

All in all, quite the chap. And he rejoiced in the name 'Plantagenet Somerset Fry'.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plantagenet_Somerset_Fry

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What you might call a 'character'.