
Raw Spirit
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $22.25
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Tom Cotcher
-
By:
-
Iain Banks
About this listen
In a bid to uncover the unique spirit of the single malt whisky, author lain Banks has decided to undertake a tour of the distilleries of his homeland.
His tour of Scotland combines history, literature and landscape in an entertaining and informative account.
©2003 Iain Banks (P)2004 W. F. Howes LtdListeners also enjoyed...
-
The Bridge
- By: Iain Banks
- Narrated by: Peter Kenny
- Length: 9 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A man lies in a coma after a near-fatal accident. His body broken, his memory vanished, he finds himself in the surreal world of the bridge - a world free of the usual constraints of time and space, a world where dream and fantasy, past and future, fuse. Who is this man? Where is he? Is he more dead than alive? Or has he never been so alive before?
-
-
Sci-fi fans might skip, but it’s fantastic and well crafted
- By Moore Creative on 07-25-18
By: Iain Banks
-
Canal Dreams
- By: Iain Banks
- Narrated by: Lisa Coleman
- Length: 7 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hisako Onoda, world famous cellist, refuses to fly. And so she travels to Europe as a passenger on a tanker bound through the Panama Canal. But Panama is a country whose politics are as volatile as the local freedom fighters. When Hisako's ship is captured, it is not long before the atmostphere is as flammable as an oxy-acetylene torch, and the tension as sharp as the spike on the cello....
By: Iain Banks
-
Espedair Street
- By: Iain Banks
- Narrated by: Peter Kenny
- Length: 8 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Daniel Weir used to be a famous - not to say infamous - rock star. Maybe still is. At thirty-one he has been both a brilliant failure and a dull success. He's made a lot of mistakes that have paid off and a lot of smart moves he'll regret forever (however long that turns out to be). Daniel Weir has gone from rags to riches and back, and managed to hold onto them both, though not much else. His friends all seem to be dead, fed up with him or just disgusted - and who can blame them? And now Daniel Weir is all alone.
-
-
Almost really really great
- By David Shear on 01-28-14
By: Iain Banks
-
Walking On Glass
- By: Iain Banks
- Narrated by: Peter Kenny
- Length: 8 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Her eyes were black, wide as though with some sustained surprise, the skin from their outer corners to her small ears taut. Her lips were pale, and nearly too full for her small mouth, like something bled but bruised. He had never seen anyone or anything quite so beautiful in his life. Graham Park is in love. But Sara Fitch is an enigma to him, a creature of almost perverse mystery. Steven Grout is paranoid - and with justice. He knows that They are out to get him.
-
-
Outstanding Stories - Dead End
- By Michael Fuchs on 09-24-21
By: Iain Banks
-
The Steep Approach to Garbadale
- By: Iain Banks
- Narrated by: Peter Kenny
- Length: 13 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Wopuld family built their fortune on a board game called Empire, now a wildly successful computer game. So successful, in fact, that the American Spraint Corp wants to buy the Wopulds out. Alban, who has been evading the family tentacles for the last few years, thinks Spraint should be treated with suspicion, but he also has other things on his mind. What, for example, drove his mother to take her own life?
-
-
Entirely enjoyable. More AudioBooks by Iain Banks?
- By Daniel on 08-23-09
By: Iain Banks
-
Transition
- By: Iain M. Banks
- Narrated by: Peter Kenny
- Length: 13 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
There is a world that hangs suspended between triumph and catastrophe, between the dismantling of the Wall and the fall of the Twin Towers, frozen in the shadow of suicide terrorism and global financial collapse. Such a world requires a firm hand and a guiding light. But does it need the Concern: an all-powerful organization with a malevolent presiding genius, pervasive influence and numberless invisible operatives in possession of extraordinary powers?
-
-
Finally an Iain M. Banks book on audible...
- By Kurt on 10-29-09
By: Iain M. Banks
-
The Bridge
- By: Iain Banks
- Narrated by: Peter Kenny
- Length: 9 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A man lies in a coma after a near-fatal accident. His body broken, his memory vanished, he finds himself in the surreal world of the bridge - a world free of the usual constraints of time and space, a world where dream and fantasy, past and future, fuse. Who is this man? Where is he? Is he more dead than alive? Or has he never been so alive before?
-
-
Sci-fi fans might skip, but it’s fantastic and well crafted
- By Moore Creative on 07-25-18
By: Iain Banks
-
Canal Dreams
- By: Iain Banks
- Narrated by: Lisa Coleman
- Length: 7 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hisako Onoda, world famous cellist, refuses to fly. And so she travels to Europe as a passenger on a tanker bound through the Panama Canal. But Panama is a country whose politics are as volatile as the local freedom fighters. When Hisako's ship is captured, it is not long before the atmostphere is as flammable as an oxy-acetylene torch, and the tension as sharp as the spike on the cello....
By: Iain Banks
-
Espedair Street
- By: Iain Banks
- Narrated by: Peter Kenny
- Length: 8 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Daniel Weir used to be a famous - not to say infamous - rock star. Maybe still is. At thirty-one he has been both a brilliant failure and a dull success. He's made a lot of mistakes that have paid off and a lot of smart moves he'll regret forever (however long that turns out to be). Daniel Weir has gone from rags to riches and back, and managed to hold onto them both, though not much else. His friends all seem to be dead, fed up with him or just disgusted - and who can blame them? And now Daniel Weir is all alone.
-
-
Almost really really great
- By David Shear on 01-28-14
By: Iain Banks
-
Walking On Glass
- By: Iain Banks
- Narrated by: Peter Kenny
- Length: 8 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Her eyes were black, wide as though with some sustained surprise, the skin from their outer corners to her small ears taut. Her lips were pale, and nearly too full for her small mouth, like something bled but bruised. He had never seen anyone or anything quite so beautiful in his life. Graham Park is in love. But Sara Fitch is an enigma to him, a creature of almost perverse mystery. Steven Grout is paranoid - and with justice. He knows that They are out to get him.
-
-
Outstanding Stories - Dead End
- By Michael Fuchs on 09-24-21
By: Iain Banks
-
The Steep Approach to Garbadale
- By: Iain Banks
- Narrated by: Peter Kenny
- Length: 13 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Wopuld family built their fortune on a board game called Empire, now a wildly successful computer game. So successful, in fact, that the American Spraint Corp wants to buy the Wopulds out. Alban, who has been evading the family tentacles for the last few years, thinks Spraint should be treated with suspicion, but he also has other things on his mind. What, for example, drove his mother to take her own life?
-
-
Entirely enjoyable. More AudioBooks by Iain Banks?
- By Daniel on 08-23-09
By: Iain Banks
-
Transition
- By: Iain M. Banks
- Narrated by: Peter Kenny
- Length: 13 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
There is a world that hangs suspended between triumph and catastrophe, between the dismantling of the Wall and the fall of the Twin Towers, frozen in the shadow of suicide terrorism and global financial collapse. Such a world requires a firm hand and a guiding light. But does it need the Concern: an all-powerful organization with a malevolent presiding genius, pervasive influence and numberless invisible operatives in possession of extraordinary powers?
-
-
Finally an Iain M. Banks book on audible...
- By Kurt on 10-29-09
By: Iain M. Banks
-
Consider Phlebas
- By: Iain M. Banks
- Narrated by: Peter Kenny
- Length: 16 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The war raged across the galaxy. Billions had died, billions more were doomed. Moons, planets, the very stars themselves, faced destruction, cold-blooded, brutal, and worse, random. The Idirans fought for their Faith; the Culture for its moral right to exist. Principles were at stake. There could be no surrender. Within the cosmic conflict, an individual crusade. Deep within a fabled labyrinth on a barren world, a Planet of the Dead proscribed to mortals, lay a fugitive Mind. Both the Culture and the Idirans sought it....
-
-
Visionary but half-cooked intro to Culture 'verse
- By Ryan on 07-20-13
By: Iain M. Banks
-
Old Man's War
- By: John Scalzi
- Narrated by: William Dufris
- Length: 9 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
John Perry did two things on his 75th birthday. First he visited his wife's grave. Then he joined the army. The good news is that humanity finally made it into interstellar space. The bad news is that planets fit to live on are scarce—and alien races willing to fight us for them are common. So: we fight. To defend Earth, and to stake our own claim to planetary real estate. Far from Earth, the war has been going on for decades: brutal, bloody, unyielding. Earth itself is a backwater.
-
-
Fun and Witty Military Sci-Fi
- By M. Spencer on 10-21-12
By: John Scalzi
-
Clanlands
- Whisky, Warfare, and a Scottish Adventure Like No Other
- By: Sam Heughan, Graham McTavish, Diana Gabaldon - foreword
- Narrated by: Diana Gabaldon - foreword, Graham McTavish, Sam Heughan
- Length: 10 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Unlikely friends Sam and Graham begin their journey in the heart of Scotland at Glencoe and travel from there all the way to Inverness and Culloden battlefield, where along the way they experience adventure and a cast of highland characters. In this story of friendship, finding themselves and whisky, they discover the complexity, rich history and culture of their native country.
-
-
Not sure what I was expecting...
- By Admirer of great books; critic of bad books. on 11-03-20
By: Sam Heughan, and others
-
The Quarry
- By: Iain M. Banks
- Narrated by: Peter Kenny
- Length: 9 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Eighteen-year-old Kit is weird: big, strange, odd, socially disabled, on a spectrum that stretches from "highly gifted" at one end, to "nutter" at the other. At least Kit knows who his father is; he and Guy live together in a decaying country house on the unstable brink of a vast quarry. His mother's identity is another matter. Now, though, his father's dying, and old friends are gathering for one last time.
-
-
By Iain Banks, not Iain M. Banks
- By Reader X on 05-19-18
By: Iain M. Banks
-
The Prefect
- By: Alastair Reynolds
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 19 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Tom Dreyfus is a Prefect, a law enforcement officer with the Panoply. His beat is the multifaceted utopian society of the Glitter Band, that vast swirl of space habitats orbiting the planet Yellowstone, the teeming hub of a human interstellar empire spanning many worlds. His current case: investigating a murderous attack against one of the habitats that left 900 people dead, a crime that appalls even a hardened cop like Dreyfus.
-
-
Best yet of the Revelation Space series
- By Michael G Kurilla on 04-03-11
-
In a Sunburned Country
- By: Bill Bryson
- Narrated by: Bill Bryson
- Length: 11 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Every time Bill Bryson walks out the door, memorable travel literature threatens to break out. His previous excursion on the Appalachian Trail resulted in the best seller A Walk in the Woods. Now, we follow him "Down Under" to Australia with this delectably funny, fact-filled, and adventurous performance that combines humor, wonder, and unflagging curiosity. More from Bill Bryson.
-
-
Laugh out loud funny
- By Larry on 06-09-03
By: Bill Bryson
-
Ghost Rider
- Travels on the Healing Road
- By: Neil Peart
- Narrated by: Brian Sutherland
- Length: 15 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In less than a year, Neil Peart lost both his 19-year-old daughter, Selena, and his wife, Jackie. Faced with overwhelming sadness and isolated from the world in his home on the lake, Peart was left without direction. That lack of direction lead him on a 55,000 mile journey by motorcycle across much of North America, down through Mexico to Belize, and back again.
-
-
Not happy, but fascinating
- By Jim In Texas! on 09-25-14
By: Neil Peart
-
Distant Suns
- Every Day an Adventure, Book 3
- By: Sam Manicom
- Narrated by: Sam Manicom
- Length: 13 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sam Manicom's dynamic third book transports you to Southern Africa, South and Central America. Sam has a gift for describing the vibrancy of people and places, and you are led effortlessly through three very different parts of the world by his enthusiasm and his acute observations. Human behavior, drama, passion, disaster, humor, and the pure adrenaline buzz of overlanding such far-flung, wild and exotic places are all here.
-
-
Love this book. Eagerly awaiting the next
- By Seattle_BassMan on 05-24-16
By: Sam Manicom
-
The Clanlands Almanac
- Seasonal Stories from Scotland
- By: Sam Heughan, Graham McTavish
- Narrated by: Sam Heughan, Graham McTavish
- Length: 10 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From First Footing to Samhain, Fringe Festival follies to whisky lore, Sam and Graham guide listeners through a year of Scottish legends, traditions, historical and contemporary events, sharing personal stories and tips as only these two chalk-and-cheese friends can. As entertaining as it is practical, The Clanlands Almanac is a light-hearted education in Scottish history and culture, told through the eyes of two passionate Scotsmen. The perfect escapist guide, The Clanlands Almanac is intended as a starting point for your own Scottish discoveries.
-
-
Sam & Graham!!!
- By Annie on 11-25-21
By: Sam Heughan, and others
-
Different Natures
- And the Spaces In-Between
- By: Graham Field
- Narrated by: Graham Field
- Length: 13 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Different Natures takes you on three journeys. Each gives an honest and passionate insight into the evolution of a compulsive traveler. Looking for direction with the wrong eyes spawned Graham’s lust for wandering. The miles cleared his vision, and the hunger for longer distance grows with an insatiable appetite for new experiences.
-
-
happy pills required
- By rick on 10-18-23
By: Graham Field
-
One Year Off
- Leaving It All Behind for a Round-the-World Journey with Our Children
- By: David Cohen
- Narrated by: Kevin Stillwell
- Length: 8 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In One Year Off, you can join the family on a trek up a Costa Rican volcano, cruise the canals of Burgundy by houseboat, and ride ferries through the Greek Islands. Later, as the Cohens wander further off the tourist trail, you can drive through the villages of Rajasthan, traverse the vast Australian Nullarbor, and discover the charms of Cambodia's Angkor Wat and the hidden shangri-las of northern Laos.
-
-
fun filled travellog
- By tarun on 07-22-19
By: David Cohen
-
Neither Here Nor There
- Travels in Europe
- By: Bill Bryson
- Narrated by: Bill Bryson
- Length: 5 hrs and 38 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
You'll stop at Europe's most diverting and historic locales and view the Old World through Bryson's tourist eye view in this affectionate, blisteringly insightful, and riotously funny pilgrimage from the frozen wastes of Scandinavia to the chaotic tumult of Istanbul.
-
-
reader beware
- By Marina on 11-19-03
By: Bill Bryson
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
Walking On Glass
- By: Iain Banks
- Narrated by: Peter Kenny
- Length: 8 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Her eyes were black, wide as though with some sustained surprise, the skin from their outer corners to her small ears taut. Her lips were pale, and nearly too full for her small mouth, like something bled but bruised. He had never seen anyone or anything quite so beautiful in his life. Graham Park is in love. But Sara Fitch is an enigma to him, a creature of almost perverse mystery. Steven Grout is paranoid - and with justice. He knows that They are out to get him.
-
-
Outstanding Stories - Dead End
- By Michael Fuchs on 09-24-21
By: Iain Banks
-
The Quarry
- By: Iain M. Banks
- Narrated by: Peter Kenny
- Length: 9 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Eighteen-year-old Kit is weird: big, strange, odd, socially disabled, on a spectrum that stretches from "highly gifted" at one end, to "nutter" at the other. At least Kit knows who his father is; he and Guy live together in a decaying country house on the unstable brink of a vast quarry. His mother's identity is another matter. Now, though, his father's dying, and old friends are gathering for one last time.
-
-
By Iain Banks, not Iain M. Banks
- By Reader X on 05-19-18
By: Iain M. Banks
-
Stonemouth
- A Novel
- By: Iain Banks
- Narrated by: Peter Kenny
- Length: 11 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Stewart Gilmour is back in Stonemouth. After five years in exile his presence is required at the funeral of patriarch Joe Murston, and even though the last time Stu saw the Murstons he was running for his life, staying away might be even more dangerous than turning up. An estuary town north of Aberdeen, Stonemouth, with its five mile beach, can be beautiful on a sunny day. On a bleak one it can seem to offer little more than seafog, gangsters, cheap drugs and a suspension bridge irresistible to suicides.
-
-
Pretty Offensive Stuff
- By MJ on 10-20-12
By: Iain Banks
-
The Steep Approach to Garbadale
- By: Iain Banks
- Narrated by: Peter Kenny
- Length: 13 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Wopuld family built their fortune on a board game called Empire, now a wildly successful computer game. So successful, in fact, that the American Spraint Corp wants to buy the Wopulds out. Alban, who has been evading the family tentacles for the last few years, thinks Spraint should be treated with suspicion, but he also has other things on his mind. What, for example, drove his mother to take her own life?
-
-
Entirely enjoyable. More AudioBooks by Iain Banks?
- By Daniel on 08-23-09
By: Iain Banks
-
Espedair Street
- By: Iain Banks
- Narrated by: Peter Kenny
- Length: 8 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Daniel Weir used to be a famous - not to say infamous - rock star. Maybe still is. At thirty-one he has been both a brilliant failure and a dull success. He's made a lot of mistakes that have paid off and a lot of smart moves he'll regret forever (however long that turns out to be). Daniel Weir has gone from rags to riches and back, and managed to hold onto them both, though not much else. His friends all seem to be dead, fed up with him or just disgusted - and who can blame them? And now Daniel Weir is all alone.
-
-
Almost really really great
- By David Shear on 01-28-14
By: Iain Banks
-
The Bridge
- By: Iain Banks
- Narrated by: Peter Kenny
- Length: 9 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A man lies in a coma after a near-fatal accident. His body broken, his memory vanished, he finds himself in the surreal world of the bridge - a world free of the usual constraints of time and space, a world where dream and fantasy, past and future, fuse. Who is this man? Where is he? Is he more dead than alive? Or has he never been so alive before?
-
-
Sci-fi fans might skip, but it’s fantastic and well crafted
- By Moore Creative on 07-25-18
By: Iain Banks
-
Walking On Glass
- By: Iain Banks
- Narrated by: Peter Kenny
- Length: 8 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Her eyes were black, wide as though with some sustained surprise, the skin from their outer corners to her small ears taut. Her lips were pale, and nearly too full for her small mouth, like something bled but bruised. He had never seen anyone or anything quite so beautiful in his life. Graham Park is in love. But Sara Fitch is an enigma to him, a creature of almost perverse mystery. Steven Grout is paranoid - and with justice. He knows that They are out to get him.
-
-
Outstanding Stories - Dead End
- By Michael Fuchs on 09-24-21
By: Iain Banks
-
The Quarry
- By: Iain M. Banks
- Narrated by: Peter Kenny
- Length: 9 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Eighteen-year-old Kit is weird: big, strange, odd, socially disabled, on a spectrum that stretches from "highly gifted" at one end, to "nutter" at the other. At least Kit knows who his father is; he and Guy live together in a decaying country house on the unstable brink of a vast quarry. His mother's identity is another matter. Now, though, his father's dying, and old friends are gathering for one last time.
-
-
By Iain Banks, not Iain M. Banks
- By Reader X on 05-19-18
By: Iain M. Banks
-
Stonemouth
- A Novel
- By: Iain Banks
- Narrated by: Peter Kenny
- Length: 11 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Stewart Gilmour is back in Stonemouth. After five years in exile his presence is required at the funeral of patriarch Joe Murston, and even though the last time Stu saw the Murstons he was running for his life, staying away might be even more dangerous than turning up. An estuary town north of Aberdeen, Stonemouth, with its five mile beach, can be beautiful on a sunny day. On a bleak one it can seem to offer little more than seafog, gangsters, cheap drugs and a suspension bridge irresistible to suicides.
-
-
Pretty Offensive Stuff
- By MJ on 10-20-12
By: Iain Banks
-
The Steep Approach to Garbadale
- By: Iain Banks
- Narrated by: Peter Kenny
- Length: 13 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Wopuld family built their fortune on a board game called Empire, now a wildly successful computer game. So successful, in fact, that the American Spraint Corp wants to buy the Wopulds out. Alban, who has been evading the family tentacles for the last few years, thinks Spraint should be treated with suspicion, but he also has other things on his mind. What, for example, drove his mother to take her own life?
-
-
Entirely enjoyable. More AudioBooks by Iain Banks?
- By Daniel on 08-23-09
By: Iain Banks
-
Espedair Street
- By: Iain Banks
- Narrated by: Peter Kenny
- Length: 8 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Daniel Weir used to be a famous - not to say infamous - rock star. Maybe still is. At thirty-one he has been both a brilliant failure and a dull success. He's made a lot of mistakes that have paid off and a lot of smart moves he'll regret forever (however long that turns out to be). Daniel Weir has gone from rags to riches and back, and managed to hold onto them both, though not much else. His friends all seem to be dead, fed up with him or just disgusted - and who can blame them? And now Daniel Weir is all alone.
-
-
Almost really really great
- By David Shear on 01-28-14
By: Iain Banks
-
The Bridge
- By: Iain Banks
- Narrated by: Peter Kenny
- Length: 9 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A man lies in a coma after a near-fatal accident. His body broken, his memory vanished, he finds himself in the surreal world of the bridge - a world free of the usual constraints of time and space, a world where dream and fantasy, past and future, fuse. Who is this man? Where is he? Is he more dead than alive? Or has he never been so alive before?
-
-
Sci-fi fans might skip, but it’s fantastic and well crafted
- By Moore Creative on 07-25-18
By: Iain Banks
What listeners say about Raw Spirit
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Kathryn Lamb
- 02-03-21
Best time I’ve had in months!
If you love whisky or if you love Scotland (hopefully you like both) or if you love driving on the open road, this is a MUST read. Brilliantly written (Banks does hop around a bit from topic to topic but my A.D.D.appreciated that fact rather then experiencing annoyance or confusion) but he eventually gets back to the most important topic of whisky. And you’ll have such a blast going down those sidebars with him, you’ll hardly notice. I think this is much down to the narration. Tom Cotcher may be my favourite Scottish Audible narrator, and that’s saying something given the other gents I’m comparing him to, also remarkable actors. He completely honours Banks’ story and I laughed out loud many, many times. Cannot recommend highly enough!!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Marcos Ibarguen
- 07-28-22
I miss this guy!
First off, the reading by Tom Cotcher gets an A+. I could listen to this guy’s rich, delicious Scottish burr all day, even though I can’t understand half of it! Just a wonderful reading, full of enthusiasm and richly rolling r’s…
This is Banks’ only non-fiction book, and it’s about scotch whisky, which is not a topic I’m particularly interested in. After resisting for years, I finally bought this just because I miss Banks and wanted to hear from him again. The book turns out to be much more than a mere recitation of Banks’ tour of Scotland’s distilleries. It’s a bit of a memoir (including some very interesting bits from his writing career), a bit of travelogue (this man seriously loved his country), a bit of political commentary (focused on Gulf War 2), and a cornucopia of often hilarious digressions, anecdotes and random thoughts. It is of course marvelously well written. It’s very informative on the subject of single-malt scotch, about which I knew next to nothing, and is overall very entertaining. I probably should have read it on Kindle as many of the pronunciations of place names and distilleries are almost incomprehensible, but like I said above, I would not have missed Tom Cotcher’s delicious reading. Banks turns out to have been quite the lover of life, motorcars, long drives in the highlands, motorcycles, boats, and of course scotch. As entertaining as I found the book, I had to ding it for the political stuff, which I agree with but which doesn’t help the narrative, and for far too many detailed descriptions of specific roads taken, kind of like having road maps of someplace you’ve never been being read to you – gets boring after a while. Also in the end the distillery visits and whisky samplings got kind of repetitive, despite Banks’ impressive efforts to say something unique about each and every one. That said, I was inspired to pick up a bottle of Glenlivet Caribbean Reserve, which I am very much looking forward to trying out. Mr. Banks, you are sorely missed.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful