Square Haunting: Five women, freedom and London Between the Wars – Francesca Wade
Read by Corrie James
Running to 350 dense pages, I saved my eyes and listened to the audiobook. I did have to buy the paper book, though, for the photographs of the square and the five writers, intellectuals and feminists involved: H.D. (the poet), Dorothy L Sayers, Jane Ellen Harrison (an anthropologist), Eileen Power (a historian) and Virginia Woolf, who all lived in Mecklenburgh Square, London (although not necessarily in the same time period).
The book is really five potted histories of these women, but it is all fascinating. The life of Virginia Woolf is well-known but I was interested in hearing about the lives of the other women.
At first, I felt Corries James’ narration was a bit thin and wavering, but I got used to it and enjoyed having this book read to me.
Her Husband: Hughes and Plath, a Marriage – Diane Middlebrook
Read by Bernadette Dunne
What a fantastic book this is. Perhaps we all think we know a bit too much about the relationship between Hughes and Plath but Middlebrook does a thorough, academically acute and emotionally intelligent analysis of the attraction (almost obsession) of the two and how their marriage influenced their respective work. Her critique of their poetry is excellent with enough quotes to makes me follow up and read the poems she refers to. I learnt so much and felt I was in competent and brilliant hands.
Bernadette Done is wonderful as narrator: assured, throaty, intelligent. You feel she is someone who would not be out of place at the Algonquin. A wonderful listening experience.
The Seven Doors – Agnes Ravatn
Charlotte Strevens
This is a taut, intellectual psychological thriller set in Norway. The main character, Nina, is a middle-aged literature professor, and when she is tangentially connected to the disappearance of the tenant in her and her husband’s rental house, she decides (as she suggests in an address she gives) that literature academics are better at solving crimes than the police, and accordingly sets out to find out what happened to the missing woman. The seven doors is a reference to the fairy tale of Bluebeard, and folklore, literary and psychological allusions make this a very satisfying read. Charlotte Strevens has just the right amount of Norwegian accent to give this flavour, and her dry, clear intonation suits Nina beautifully.
Witchmark CL Polk
Read by Samuel Roukin
Witchmark is set in an alternate world that has the flavour stylistically of the first world war. Our hero, Miles Singer, is the doctor at a hospital treating the war wounded. He has special healing powers that mark him as a witch, a sub-culture that is hunted down and consigned to asylums, so he has to keep his identity a secret. Miles is an honourable man in a dishonourable time. He reminded me somewhat of Nicolas Sayre from Garth Nix’s Abhorson books (wonderful audiobooks read by Tim Curry). Samual Roukin’s narration is just as wonderful – the sort of gentle, rich voice that it is a pleasure to be in the company of.