Books: Spoken Word

Realms of Gold

Read by Samuel West with Matthew Marsh

Naxos, 2hrs 30mins, pounds 8.99 tape, pounds 10.99 CD

WE CAN all mutter phrases from Keats's Ode to Autumn and Ode to a Nightingale, but how many of us know the context in which they were written? This imaginatively constructed selection from Keats's letters works both as a biography and a showcase for his poems, most of which he sent to friends and relations in the body of a letter. It also tells the pathetic story of his jealous passion for Fanny Brawne, and of the onset of the tuberculosis which would kill him at the age of 26. Samuel West's reading conveys both Keats's grandeur and his petulance. Includes booklet with the text of all the poems read, and markers for the CD version.

A Man in Full

Read by Peter Marinker

Isis, unabridged, c30hrs, pounds 25.99

THE GROWING popularity of spoken word in the UK is at last bringing down the cost of uncut books on tape. I'm not going to take back my recommendation earlier this year of the abridgement of Tom Wolfe's A Man in Full, but I have to say that this full-length version is magnificent listening. It tells of the parallel lives of a debt-loaded conglomerate king and an idealistic worker at the bottom of his organisation, and of how, through the unlikely inspiration of the ancient Greek Stoic Epictetus, they both transform their lives. Their stories are the framework for a vast and vivid mirror of the dubious morals - and touching dreams - of Middle America today.