It’s time for another Reading Wales opportunity aka 1st March – 31st March dive into the literature and language of Wales courtesy as ever of Paula at Bookjotter.
In honour of the occasion – and to try something a bit different – I have downloaded two audio books from Welsh publisher Parthian’s website. I have discovered an app called Glassboxx a platform which enables indie publishers to supply (and benefit from) audio content without having to involve Amazon. The dowload speed wasn’t great – but I’m in the country and the…er… download speed isn’t great. I’ll let you know how I get on with my first audiobook experience. I shall be listening to:
Danny Abse. Ash on a Young Man’s Sleeve, Parthian Books. Read by Griff Rhys Jones.
The publisher says:
Synopsis:
Widely acclaimed for its warm humour, lyricism and honesty, as well as its accurate evocation of the thirties, Ash on a Young Man’s Sleeve has become a sung-after classic. In this delightful autobiographical novel, Dannie Abse skilfully interweaves public and private themes, setting the fortunes of a Jewish family in Wales against the troubled backcloth of the times – unemployment, the rise of Hitler and Mussolini, and the Spanish Civil War.
About the author:
Dannie Abse ((22 September 1923 – 28 September 2014)) was a Welsh poet and physician. He began his medical studies at the Welsh National School of Medicine and qualified as a doctor from Westminster Hospital, London in 1950. While still a student his first book of poems was published and his first play performed. Further poetry volumes followed over the decades, culminating in his New & Collected Poems (2003) and Running Late (2006). His first novel, Ash on a Young Man’s Sleeve appeared in 1954. The Booker long-listed The Strange Case of Dr Simmonds and Dr Glas appeared in 2002. His three prize-winning plays were collected in The View from Row G (1990) and his autobiography, Goodbye, Twentieth Century, was published in 2001.
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My second book is written and narrated by John Sam Jones. The Journey is Home: Notes from a Life on the Edge.
The publisher says:
In this clear and absorbing memoir John Sam Jones writes of a life lived on the edge. It is story of journeys and realisation, of acceptance and joy. From a boyhood on the coast of Wales to a traumatic period studying at Aberystwyth, to a scholarship at Berkley in California as the AIDS epidemic began to take hold before returning to Liverpool and north Wales to work in community engagement and sexual health. A journey of becoming a writer and chronicler of his experiences with award-winning books and the desire to become a campaigner for LGBT rights in Wales. The adventure of running a guest house in Barmouth where he eventually became Mayor with his husband, a German academic, who he had married after a long partnership.
Ooh, these look good, Frances! 😀
Thanks Paula. Audiobook is a great departure for me. It’s 21st century here we come! Oh and best of luck with your move.
Thanks for linking to my post Paula
I have never tried an audiobook either but Griff Rhys Jones could read the telephone directory and I would still listen. I read this Dannie Abse book very many years ago
Haha. Yes I agree. The voices he does are spot on.
Is that an image of Bala Lake? For me it’s such a quinessential Welsh view.
I do believe it is. How clever of you. It was taken quite a few years ago now but definitely that area of Wales.
I have almost exactly the same photo taken in 1991!!
Ooh, I’ve added The Journey is Home to my wishlist – and I’ve met Dannie Abse! He came and gave a poetry reading when I was a schoolgirl and I (the horror, the horror) gave him some of my own woeful poems to look at! Deary me. I hope you enjoy these.
You met him! I’m sure he enjoyed reading your poetry. He was a great man.