Paths Of Glory is a semi-biographical story of George Mallory and his attempt to be the first person ever to climb to the top of Mt. Everest. The story covers a thirty-two year period of George Mallory’s life beginning, of course, with his childhood and ending with his third, and un-known to him-his final attempt to climb Mt Everest in 1924 aged thirty-seven. Unfortunately it shall always remain a mystery as to whether the real George Mallory ever achieved this goal as he was last seen four hundred feet from the top.

Jeffrey Archer manages to go into great detail about Mallory’s life, being careful not to miss out a single, important moment. He finds a way to mix fact with fiction that works extremely well. Archer covers each part of Mallory’s life including his relationship with his father who always encouraged his love for climbing and adventure and his school years when climbing took a back seat to education until he found friends with and equal amount of enthusiasm for climbing. Although Archer does go into great detail, I also liked how he leaves the reader wanting to find out more about George Mallory and his exciting life, especially his mysterious disappearance.

The audio-book version of Archer’s story works very well. His language is descriptive and interesting and this comes across quite nicely. Roger Allam does a very good job with the narration and keeping the novel alive and exciting, perhaps more so than in its original book form.

Paths of Glory audio book (11 hours and 9 minutes in duration) is available to download now to your iPod, Mp3 Player, Computer or CD.

This book is a fantastic read and has a wonderful range of different stories such as Oscar Wildes hilarious story ‘The model Millionaire’ about a young man who’s fortune takes a turn for the better, Gerald Griffins terrifying “The Brown Man”, James Joyce’s “Araby”, Oliver Goldsmiths “Adventures of a Strolling Player”, Sheridan Le Fanu’s story about Sir Dominick Sarsfield or the “Faustian” and of course Agnes Castle’s romantic “Rosanna”.

This book works wonderfully in an audio book format. The imaginative and descriptive language is even better spoken aloud especially with the rich voiced narrator T.P. McKenna who’s expertise and experience with story telling is made clear in this audio-book. His smooth voice really adds some authenticity and a nice edge to each beautifully written short story. Each character is given a different voice to a point where you would swear you were listening to a whole cast and not just T.P. McKenna.

Classic Irish Short Stories audio book (2 hours and 57 minutes in duration) is available to download now to your iPod, Mp3 Player, Computer or CD.

The audio book is beautifully narrated by Kati Nicholl and Kerry Shale, who really succeed in bringing Swarup’s masterpiece to life. The story revolves around the childhood and adolescence of two young brothers from the Mumbai slums, one of whom goes on to become a contestant on a television quiz show. Against the odds, the main character, Jamal, makes it to the final question, worth the almost unimaginable sum of twenty million rupees. Fearing cheating, an interrogation ensues in which details of the boys’ life are revealed in tracing his apparently obscure knowledge back to his youth running around the Mumbai slums and the often terrible things that happened to him along the way. We travel with Jamal as he meets his Bollywood idol, experiences first hand the Hindu-Muslim riots, is forced into street begging by a local gangster and finally finds a job as a ‘chai wallah’ in one of Mumbai’s many international call centres.

The delightful audio ultimately tells a story about love in difficult circumstances but there is not an ounce of cliché in it. One of the most original books to appear on the audio scene in a long time, Slumdog Millionaire will enthrall you from the very beginning and you will struggle to switch it off. The sounds and vitality of urban India are brilliantly captured by the narrative making listeners feel that they are in the heart of the action throughout.

Slumdog Millionaire audio book (6 hours and 7 minutes in duration) is available to download now to your iPod, Mp3 Player, Computer or CD.