Eclectic

Post mortem Philip

Revisado: 11-23-23

The author reissued his earlier biography of Prince Philip soon after the Duke’s death. A warm, interesting, clever personal portrait that left me an admirer of the man.
Gyles Brandreth’s narration added to the enjoyment.
Just one small faux pas, perhaps he misspoke but the current new Prince of Wales will be a future William V, not William III.

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Hate to admit it but…..

Revisado: 01-25-23

I was sad having finished the third and final volume of Chips Channon I was almost mourning to hear it end and know of his final illness and death.
While Channon was often snobbish, shocking , and off putting, he was the Samuel Pepys of our era.
By the end, it was like losing a friend who both fascinates and repels.

While I’ve never heard Chips’ actual voice, the narrator was a perfect fit for the material.

One oddity though : in several instances the narrator’s voice was suddenly silenced, blocking a name or a word. I wonder why ?

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Fascinating

Revisado: 07-13-20

A very interesting picture of Britain’s immediate pre-war and early war on many levels. Well researched with interesting portraits of Britons both famous and hitherto unknown.
The narrator does something that I usually find irking: he does “voices’. However, he does them well,
EXCEPT for a rather crude and almost burlesque imitation of Winston Churchill. We all know what WSC actually sounded like and every time he does his Churchill schtick it grates on the ear and is totally unnecessary.

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Not finished yet.. but..

Revisado: 08-03-19

As the title implies Admiral Leahy is rather little known despite his crucial place in history and is well worth knowing.
However ,so far the narration is flat and rather mechanical and the author’s text has some of those annoying errors of fact that the simplest research could have prevented.
E.g., the Prince of Wales in 1921 was NOT ‘ the future Edward VII’ and worse yet, he says the four Iowa class battleships were not all built., only the Iowa, Wisconsin, Missouri ! I guess he never heard of USS New Jersey, Halsey’s flagship ?
For an historian of naval affairs, makes me wonder about the rest of his book.

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Massive Massie work spottily read.

Revisado: 12-20-14

Would you be willing to try another one of Frederick Davidson’s performances?

I have been ambivalent ever since I heard his first narration. His diction in this book is rather poor with him swallowing the end of almost every sentence.

Was Peter the Great worth the listening time?

I'm finding it a rather tough go.

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Classic Heroism, with modern resonance.

Revisado: 05-05-13

What did you love best about The Great Siege?

One of the less well-known episodes in a centuries' old struggle for mastery of the Mediterranean and Italy. Told with verve, detail, color, and appreciation for the mind-sets and virtues of the combatants.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Great Siege?

The fall of Fort Saint Elmo.

What about Simon Vance’s performance did you like?

Voice and diction.

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So, THAT'S where they got the movie from!

Revisado: 01-01-13

As a youth I was thrilled by the (now) old-fashioned derring-do, color, and bravery of the movie "55 Days in Peking" with Charleston Heston, David Niven, Ava Gardner et al. The story of the "Boxer Rebellion" and its siege of the foreign legations in Peking in 1900 was drawn from this book. Well-written, well-paced, and very well read!
The only quibble is that the book reflects its provenance ( UK, 1959) when the author quotes Frenchmen in their original French and leaves their words untranslated. One supposes Peter Fleming assumed any educated person could handle a few sentences in French ;-) However, at least the French is well-pronounced by the narrator.

Recommended!

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A new take on an old story

Revisado: 08-27-12

Anne Sebba's book on the Duchess of Windsor was interesting and full of detail. Her speculation on Wallis' physical-sexual condition while seeming a little speculative provided a possible explanation of how a thrice-married woman in an era of little or no contraception never had a child and often struck observers as having an almost masculine persona. The book also provided some real insight into her two prior husbands who often seem shadowy figures in most other accounts.
The narration was very well done.

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Good book, poorly read.

Revisado: 07-28-12

The last, unfortunately, of William Manchester's planned multi-volume biography of WSC. I purchased and read the book many years ago. As I had some driving time ahead this summer I thought it would be fun to re-visit it by istening to it in the car. Mistake!
The narrator makes the book very difficult to listen to. He has an odd tendency to swallow final syllables of words making it hard at times to understand the meaning. Also, he cannot resist the dreadful temptation to "imitate" Churchill when his words are quoted; which is very often of course.
This is a pet peeve of mine and, in my opinion, as his imitation is bad it makes the listening tedious in the extreme: "an outrage up with which I will not put". ;-)

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The Father of Europe comes alive

Revisado: 01-31-11

A splendid book; written in an admiring yet appropriately critical spirit. The author makes Charles come alive both as ruler and as a human being.
The recording has some "hokey" elements ( music, sound effects, reverb) but is well presented. However, someone needed to coach the narrator on correct Latin/French pronunciation.
But on the whole, well worth the listening.

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