Playing Beatie Bow
by Ruth Park (Thomas Nelson, 1980); audiobook read by Kate Hood (Bolinda, 2012)
Ruth Park mixes time displacement with coming-of-age in a classic of Australian literature. 14-year-old Abigail Kirk, having fought with her mother, finds herself transported back to Sydney of 1873. Amidst the historical realism unfolds a beautifully told tale of hardship and self-discovery.
The Blind Watchmaker
by Richard Dawkins (Norton, 1986); audiobook read by Richard Dawkins & Lalla Ward (Bolinda, 2014)
In this measured (pre-confrontational) treatise on evolution, biologist Richard Dawkins cites numerous real-world examples and constructs thoughtful analogies to make accessible a topic of vast complexity. Sections of the audiobook are read alternately by Dawkins and Lalla Ward, which invigorates the text.
Doctor Who: Galaxy Four
by William Emms (Target, 1985); audiobook read by Maureen O’Brien (BBC Audio, 2017)
Galaxy Four is perhaps the closest Doctor Who ever came to straight-up exploration science fiction, complete with doomed planet and rampant xenophobia. William Emms, novelising his own script, delves into the characters’ thoughts and so adds considerable depth to the on-screen action.
Great Day For Up
by Dr. Seuss; ill. Quentin Blake (Random House, 1974)
The first Dr Seuss book not illustrated by the man himself, Great Day For Up was brought to life instead by the redoubtable — and equally inimitable — Quentin Blake. The rhythm is slippery at times but the book verily fizzes with joyous exuberance.
Feet of Clay
by Terry Pratchett (Victor Gollancz, 1996); audiobook read by Nigel Planer (ISIS, 1999)
Feet of Clay continues the examination of racism (on the Discworld, species-ism) begun in Men at Arms, adding little except welcome reiteration. Although the golems make for interesting characters, Fred Colon and Nobby Nobbs—two of Pratchett’s less explicably favoured creations—don’t.
Doctor Who: Survival
by Rona Munro (Target, 1990); audiobook read by Lisa Bowerman (BBC Audio, 2018)
The Target range of Doctor Who books for the most part offered mere echoes of the televised serials. Survival is something of an exception, Rona Munro turning her scripts into a straightforward but effective novel operating free of the story’s on-screen limitations.
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.