Audiobooks

The Colour of Magic read by Nigel Planer Poets for Pleasure read by Nicol Williamson, Douglas Hodge, T.P. McKenna

Reading Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels could so easily be overplayed for laughs but Nigel Planer gets it absolutely right on the first unabridged recording of The Colour of Magic (Isis Audio Books, 7hrs, pounds 19.99). Fairly good abridged Discworld tapes are available from Corgi, but Pratchett's books are short enough and the jokes good enough to hear in full.

Poetry is perfect material for audiotapes: easy to assimilate in bite- size chunks on short car journeys or at bedtime. Poets for Pleasure (Hodder Headline, 4 hrs, pounds 17.01) has Nicol Williamson sounding a shade after-lunchish as he reads Blake, but Douglas Hodge does wonders for Keats and McKenna gives a crisp freshness to Yeats.

Christina Hardyment