Audiobooks

Enthusiasts will need no urging to buy Some Experiences of an Irish RM (Cover to Cover, 8hrs, pounds 21.99), but if you've never read (Edith) Somerville and (Violet Martin) Ross's novels, don't be put off by its title. This is one of the funniest, most charming books in the world, memorably witty and romantic. Written by two cousins who found in each other lifelong soulmates, it was instantly successful when published in 1899. A critic called it "a book no self-respecting person could read in a railway carriage with decorum".

Although episodic, it is constructed as tightly and subtly as a Bach fugue, and abridgement would be indecent. The story's trenchant Irishisms are hugely enhanced by T P McKenna's drinkable brogue. This is that rare thing, an audio book you will play time and time again.