Disclaimer: I did not listen all the way through.

I bought this book because the idea intrigued me. I was slightly put off by the plethora of quotations at the beginning, one or at most two of which would have been sufficient. However, what caused me to stop listening was the narration.

It is not Mr Beadle's accent, or his tendency to confuse "th" and "f"; I admit I am not used to such turns of speech in an audiobook narrator, but I am aware of being old and old-fashioned and have learned to adapt to changing times. It is more serious than that. The book, we are told, deals with two distinct characters, named Louis Tumnal and Lewis Tumnal, a difficult device to bring off at the best of times. Unfortunately, Mr Beadle seems to use "Lewis" and "Louis" interchangeably, so that either the characters are switching places wildly and randomly, while each following a precisely parallel narrative, or there is going to be no hope of knowing which Mr Tumnal is being discussed at any given point. I could not continue on this uncertain basis, so I have with regret abandoned the book.

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