Jeeves in the Offing
by P. G. Wodehouse (Herbert Jenkins, 1960); audiobook read by Ian Carmichael (Chivers, 1990)
‘In the Offing’ is an apt title, for the valet Jeeves remains all but absent from this novel, leaving Bertie Wooster to thrive on his own initiative and witterings, thwarted less by inherent haplessness than by the tangled Gordian knot of circumstance.
Mort
by Terry Pratchett (Victor Gollancz, 1987); audiobook read by Nigel Planer (Isis, 1995)
Mort is the book with which Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series turned from imaginative curiosity to comedic fantasy par excellence. The plot is atypically focussed for Pratchett, and Death (who in a mid-life crisis takes on an apprentice) becomes an instant fan favourite.
The Magic Faraway Tree
by Enid Blyton (George Newnes, 1943); audiobook read by Kate Winslet (ABC Audio, 2014)
Younger children will still thrill to the imagination of the Faraway Tree and the many lands that cycle into place above it. Adults may be less impressed, but at least must credit Kate Winslet for her composure in reading about toffee shocks.
Spaceballs
dir. Mel Brooks (1987)
The ultimate Star Wars spoof, corny beyond belief but laugh-out-loud funny in places and well worth watching every thirty years or so. Most of the highlights come courtesy of Rick Moranis, who surpasses genre as the nefarious if vertically challenged Dark Helmet.
Gently Through the Mill
by Alan Hunter (Cassell, 1958); audiobook read by Andrew Wincott (Bagna House, 2012)
Gently is an intriguing detective — prone to brooding self-doubt — and Alan Hunter gives readers an unusual degree of access to his musings and methods. The mystery is much what viewers of the (subsequent) TV series might expect, solidly narrated by Andrew Wincott.
The Monster at the End of This Book
by Jon Stone; ill. Mike Smollin (Western Publishing Company, 1971)
Little Golden Books are for the most part unreadable, yet here amongst them lies a classic. Grover, learning of the eponymous monster at the end of the book, attempts by persuasion and then fortifying illustrations to prevent the reader from turning pages.
The Bone is Pointed
by Arthur W. Upfield (Angus & Robertson, 1938); audiobook read by Peter Hosking (Bolinda, 2010)
This mystery doesn’t take much solving, but neither did many of Arthur Conan Doyle’s. As with Sherlock Holmes, it is the character of half-caste Aboriginal detective Napoleon Bonaparte that bewitches the reader, plus in this case Upfield’s vivid descriptions of outback Australia.
The Wind in the Willows
by Kenneth Grahame (Methuen, 1908); audiobook read by Michael Hordern (BBC, 2007)
This classic children’s book nowadays seems far-removed in both content and language, its wordy and bucolic idle verging at times on the truly soporific. Then the Toad of Toad Hall comes increasingly to the fore and one can appreciate all the fuss!
The Small Bachelor
by P. G. Wodehouse (Methuen, 1927); audiobook read by Jonathan Cecil (Chivers, 2009)
Immersed in New York culture yet without a character to provide an outsider’s perspective, Wodehouse’s usual wit and comedy of circumstance dips towards the more edgy, less comfortable humour of, say, Fawlty Towers, its intertwining of lives and problems more sequentially resolved.
Hogfather
by Terry Pratchett (Gollancz, 1996); audiobook read by Nigel Planer (Isis, 1999)
Pratchett might belabour the point, yet his stark critique of Christmas is so lavishly adorned that the humour tends to dominate. Perhaps unsurprisingly for a black comedy, it is Death (no less) and his granddaughter who bring the magic back to Hogswatchnight.