I have, over the years, amassed a large library of audiobooks. Like my physical book collection it has somewhat overtaken my ability to keep up with it. However, I recently began to make inroads in my audiobook tsundoku- do the Japanese have a word for the digital equivalent of a pile of unread books? – by listening to my collection while out walking Rousay, our collie, in the morning. In an attempt to keep up the momentum of listening, when I reach the conclusion of one book I have devised a system to pick the next. It is very simple and possibly a bit OCD. I began with Animal Farm and then on to The Benn Diaries and Cannery Row. Can you see the pattern? I am going through my long library in alphabetical order with the twist that I am picking the first one in the collection with each letter. When I complete the alphabet I will return to A and pick the second on the list then the second B and so on. While convoluted it does mean that I don’t have to stress over which to choose next out of all the ones I have bought over the years. It works for me and keeps me going.
D was A Damsel in Distress, E was Eggs, Beans and Crumpets, both by P.G Wodehouse. I then had a poetic break with The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser before coming back to Wodehouse again with Galahad at Blandings, read by the fabulous Jeremy Sinden who is sadly no longer with us. I think Sinden is the best reader for Wodehouse I have enjoyed so far. Jonathan Cecil has read the previous Wodehouse audio books which I have listened to and he does have that Woosterish upper class foolishness about his voice that suits the books so well. I also notice Martin Jarvis reads some of them. However, Sinden seems to get to the heart of each character so beautifully with only his voice to demonstrate the various personalities. I think I have a complete collection of P.G Wodehouse on audiobook so I will be enjoying Wodehouse’s humourous characters and the various readers bringing them to life for many mornings.
Besides the fact that the Empress of Blandings is quite probably the greatest literary figure ever (and I will brook no arguments on this), Clarence Threepwood 9th Earl of Emsworth features in many Wodehouse tales and is a great comic foil. However, his brother Galahad, the main protagonist in Galahad at Blandings, is by far the more interesting and funny character. Perhaps it is an early critique of the ‘heir and spare’ situation where the elder brother who will inherit the estate is more serious-minded (at least about prize winning pigs) if somewhat dim while the younger brother is a free and adventurous spirit who can get up to all sorts of shenanigans in and out of the Pelican Club!
Galahad’s plans and misdemeanours are the backbone of the book but what took me somewhat by surprise is Clarence’s previously overlooked, at least by me, adherence to Marxism, shouting ‘Capital, Capital, Capital’ regularly and often. Has anyone investigated P.G Wodehouse’s attempts to subliminally implant Marxist ideology through the medium of light comic books? There’s a PhD in this I think!
Significantly Different 