The Hills Are Alive With The Sound...

A shortish post from me this week.

The body as they say is willing but the brain has decided  to go on complete strike and be bloody difficult. Writer's block sucks.

Big time.

Still it could be worse.  This post could have started with "See Jane run.  See Dick run." which is just about the standard that my brain is capable of at the moment.

I'm going to blame it all on the BBC and Big Finish.

Now I never thought of myself as an audio book fan.  I had, of course, tried some many years ago but somehow I found them just a bit... flat.

Then I got onto Big Finish.  First with their array of Stargate audio books and then with their 8th Doctor Who adventures starring Paul McGann as the Doctor. Wanting to expand my horizons from just listening to science fiction I then discovered the BBC or more accurately BBC4.

It was like finding the holy grail.  Or least what I imagine it would be like.

The variety that the BBC produces is enormous.  From comedies to crime dramas to Shakespeare and Sci-Fi.  I have become hooked.

And like all addictions I just have to share.  So here's just a small taste of what I have been listening to and more.

Murder in the title [compact disc] : a Charles Paris mystery / Simon Brett.

I *adore* Bill Nighy.  So when I found that he featured in a series of radio dramas featuring an alcoholic, womanising actor who seems to constantly stumble across dead bodies where ever he goes I just had to give them a try.

And I'm so glad I did.  The Charles Paris mysteries featuring him are just marvellous with Nighy being... well Nighy..

Cabin pressure. Complete series 2 [compact disc] / written by John Finnemore.

A BBC4 find.  The appeal of this was that it featured Benedict Cumberbatch.  Or the Cumberbeast as he is known as to his many fans.  It also sounded really funny.

And it is. Gloriously so.

 In fact I guarantee this will have you laughing out aloud.

The adventure collection. Volume 2 [compact disc]

As a Doctor Who fan I just had to try these series of adventures read by David Tennant.

Though they don't have a full-cast like the ones above, Tennant's voice worked really well for me.

Then again I'm probably biased.


Torchwood [electronic resource] : the lost files.

The last story in this audio book made me cry.

Really.

I bawled my eyes out.

If that's not a recommendation I don't know what is.

Desert Island Discs [compact disc]

I haven't listened to this - yet.

But it's on my list.

The idea of famous people being interviewed about what book, music etc they would take to a desert island sounds fascinating, so how could I not give it a go.

The big sleep [compact disc] / Raymond Chandler.

I love the movie The Big Sleep with Humphrey Bogart so finding out that there was a audio-dramas - done by the BBC no less, I just had to add it my list of To Be Listened To.

It also features Toby Stephens (member of the RSC,  son of Dame Maggie Smith and the villain in the James Bond movie Die Another Day).

I can so imagine him as P.I. Philip Marlowe.

Christmas fiction for non-Grinches

Yes, yes, a post with a Christmas theme. What else would I be doing in December? (Aside from vacuuming tinsel off the carpet at regular intervals.) Thank goodness my family has gone to a ballot system for Christmas presents - one name, one present. So much easier.

Anyway, suppose I should talk about books, given that's what my masters let me out for. Christmas-themed anythings tend to bring me out in hives - especially holiday films and Mariah Carey albums - but I realise not everyone is as Grinchy as I am. Some of you even listen to Cliff Richard year-round. There is no hope for you.

To put fellow Grinches in the festive mood, here is a holiday assortment of Christmassy titles - some romance, some family dramas, some with a gripping mystery. To cater for those who love Christmas lists, I have attached the same.

We are an all-inclusive organisation.

By the way, you may notice extended loan periods kicking off around now, meaning you get to relax and take your time reading your holiday books. Our present to you.

With Love at Christmas

Juliet Joyce adores Christmas. She loves the presents, the tree, the turkey, the tinsel, everything. But this Christmas things are starting to get out of hand. Her son Tom is out of work and bringing home a slew of unsuitable partners; pregnant daughter Chloe and her little boy have moved back in; Juliet's father, Frank, is getting over a heartbreak of his own and Rita, her eccentric mother, is behaving more erratically each day. And has the chaos got too much for Juliet's husband Rick? With the big day fast approaching, Juliet hopes that she can stop everything spiralling out of control.

A Christmas Garland
The year is 1857, soon after the tragic Siege of Cawnpore. In the British garrison, a guard is killed and an Indian prisoner escapes, which leads to yet more British deaths. Cries for revenge are overwhelming. Despite no witnesses and no evidence, British medical orderly named John Tallis is arrested as an accomplice simply because he was the only soldier unaccounted for when these baffling crimes were committed. Chosen to defend Tallis, young Lieutenant Victor Narraway is not encouraged to try very hard. But with the help of a simple Christmas garland Narraway is determined to persevere.

Twelve Clues of Christmas
While serving as an assistant to the hostess of a large Christmas house party in Tiddleton-under-Lovey, Lady Georgiana Rannoch calls in her retired copper grandfather after dead bodies begin showing up in this fun 1930s crime caper.

Married by Christmas

All she wants is the perfect Christmas Eve wedding. It's been on Anna's wish-list since she was a little girl, dreaming of a far happier family life than she'd ever experienced. But now - only two weeks before her big day - her husband-to-be drops a bombshell...Only nothing's going to stop Anna's plans - not even the pesky inconvenience of discovering her groom already has a wife.

Merry Little Christmas
With four children, a Christmas cookbook to write, and her mum suffering from dementia, Cat Tinsall has plenty to juggle. When her eldest daughter, Mel, starts going off the rails, Cat has even more on her plate. Pippa Holliday adores her family, although often finds her hands full. When Dan is involved in a terrible accident, Pippa's world is suddenly turned upside down. Balancing her job as a school teacher with twins and her step-son Steven, isn't easy for Marianne North. With her husband's ex causing trouble, life is getting even trickier. As Cat, Pippa and Marianne help each other through a difficult year, they're all hoping for a much brighter Christmas.

Winter Flame
Eve has never liked Christmas, not since her beloved fiance was killed in Afghanistan on Christmas Day. So when her adored aunt dies, the last thing she is expecting is to be left a theme park in her will. A theme park with a Christmas theme. However, her aunt's will stipulates that Eve must run the park with a mysterious partner, the exotically named Jacques Glace. Who is this Jacques, and why did Aunt Evelyn name him in her will? But Eve isn't going to back down from a challenge. And maybe Jacques and his crazy ideas to make Winterworld more Christmassy than Lapland can melt Eve's frozen heart?

Deadly Patterns

Bliss, Texas, is gearing up for its annual Winter Wonderland festival, but when a mysterious Scrooge ends the merriment with murder, it'll take more than a ghost from Christmas past to set things right.

Merry Christmas, Alex Cross
It's Christmas Eve and Detective Alex Cross is called away from his family to resolve a horrific hostage situation that is spiralling out of control.

What Happens at Christmas
Camille, Lady Lydingham, wants an official engagement to a handsome, dashing prince for Christmas, but her plans go awry when she organizes a party for him to meet her unconventional relatives--and a former love interest also shows up.

Twas the Night After Christmas
Pierce Waverly, the Earl of Devonmont, has been estranged from his mother for most of his life. When his mother's new companion, Mrs. Camilla Stuart, writes to tell him that his mother is seriously ill, he goes home. But when he learns that the lovely widow tricked him in order to effect a holiday reconciliation, he refuses to stay unless she meets his "terms".

Some Kind of Fairy Tale

It is Christmas afternoon and Peter Martin gets an unexpected call from his parents. They have a visitor. His sister Tara. Twenty years ago Tara took a walk into the woods and never came back. The family have assumed that she was dead. Now she's back, dirty, dishevelled, but happy and full of stories about twenty years spent travelling the world. But her stories don't quite hang together. The intervening years have been very kind to Tara. She looks no different from the young woman who walked out the door twenty years ago. Peter's parents are just delighted to have their little girl back, but Peter and his friend Richie, Tara's one time boyfriend, are not so sure. Some would say it's as if she's off with the fairies. And Peter begins to suspect that the woods are not finished with Tara and his family.

As the Baron cried out: "Merry Christmas, my friend!"