Douglas Adams’s Starship Titanic
by Terry Jones (Pan, 1997)
audiobook read by Bill Nighy (Pan, 2023)
Given only a three-week deadline, Jones produced a passable Adams pastiche. Starship Titanic has its moments but more often serves to highlight, through laboured contrast, the finesses that Adams himself sweated blood over in pulling off his particular brand of freewheeling facetiousness.
The Elephant Who Liked to Smash Small Cars
by Jean Merrill; ill. Ronni Solbert
(The New York Review Children’s Collection, 2015) [First published by Pantheon Books, 1967]
![Book cover: “The Elephant Who Liked to Smash Small Cars” by Jean Merrill; ill. Ronni Solbert (The New York Review Children’s Collection, 2015) [First published by Pantheon Books, 1967]](https://www.derelictspacesheep.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Merrill_Solbert_Elephant-Who-Liked-to-Smash-Small-Cars.jpg)
A simple, whimsical picture book that revels in its tale of comeuppance. The elephant, gleeful smasher of cars, changes his ways after receiving a taste of his own medicine. Solbert’s crayon illustrations evoke the spirit of preschool paintings or early computer games.
Death-Watch
by John Dickson Carr (Harper & Bros., 1935)
audiobook read by Jonathan Keeble (Oakhill, 2019)
Carr obviously spent a long time working out not only how the murder could have occurred but also how those involved would likely have acted and how events might be misconstrued. Despite Gideon Fell’s rumbustious presence, it’s all rather scientific and dry.
Jumping Jenny
by Anthony Berkeley (Hodder & Stoughton, 1933)
audiobook read by Seán Barrett (Soundings, 2022)
Musing upon what looks to be a house-party suicide, prominent amateur detective Roger Sheringham, present from the outset, indulges one fancy too many and accidentally implicates himself as prime suspect in a murder! A droll study in dramatic irony and narrative doctoring.
Grosse Pointe Blank
dir. George Armitage (1997)
Professional hitman Martin Blank suffers an existential crisis when work takes him back to his hometown on the weekend of his ten-year high-school reunion. While the low-key oddball script provides an obvious vehicle for John Cusack, it’s Minnie Driver behind the wheel.
BBC War Reports, World War Two: On Air
narrated by Richard Baker (AudioGO, 2010)
Recorded speeches and BBC radio reports, often recorded live at the scene of military operations, linked and contextualised to present an unfolding narrative of the Second World War. Notable for its sense of immediacy and earnest commitment to including the listening public.
Thirteen Guests
by J. Jefferson Farjeon (Collins, 1936)
audiobook read by David Thorpe (Soundings, 2020)
A relatively simple murder mystery obfuscated through excessive characterisation of players who are dropped without a second thought. Short and accessible but holds back its detective (the energetic, straight-shooting Inspector Kendall) until the race is more than half run. Perfunctory twist ending.
Prelude to Foundation
by Isaac Asimov (Doubleday, 1988)
audiobook read by William Hope (HarperVoyager, 2023)
Self-indulgent. Asimov trades on his name more than his ideas, with middling prose and revelatory twists that survive only through clumsy concealment beneath a glut of character-voiced speculation as to how future society might function. Hope’s Seldon accent is a brave choice.
The Cornish Coast Murder
by John Bude (Skeffington & Son, 1935)
audiobook read by Ben Allen (Soundings, 2016)
A simply told, engaging mystery featuring an amateur detective (a vicar) and a police inspector working in loose collaboration. While Bude rather gropes towards an understanding of the genre, his protagonists do likewise with the crime. The audiobook reading is decidedly Cornish.
Doctor Who: Voyager
by Steve Parkhouse; ill. John Ridgway; colours Gina Hart (Marvel, 1985)
Frobisher is introduced, joining a more proactive, less bombastic Sixth Doctor in an adventure trippy enough to have rounded out The Trial of a Time Lord. A preponderance of dark hues serves to foreground the SF (and make Baker’s coat blend in!).