A Word In Your Ear: The Pit and The Pendulum and Other Tales of Mystery and Imagination<br></br>Down Under

The blackly Gothic stories and poems of Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) are so legendary that casual reference to the Fall of the House of Usher and the Masque of the Red Death is now made by people who have never actually read a word of Poe. But his reputation as a master of the grotesque and macabre has veiled the real cause of his fame: an astonishing mastery of language and literary technique which made Arthur Ransome, himself no mean story technician and a considerable literary critic, liken his stories to rare coloured goblets or fantastic metalwork. Although it has to be said that there are moments of sublime ridiculousness in The Fall of the House of Usher, The Pit and The Pendulum and Other Tales of Mystery and Imagination (Naxos, c 5 hrs, £11.99), William Roberts's reading does full justice to Poe's subtly contrived effects.

It felt distinctly odd to switch over to the latest Bill Bryson, Down Under (BBC Word for Word, c 12 hrs, £29.99), as it too is read by William Roberts. But it didn't take long to adjust or to laugh aloud instead of shuddering. All Bryson books make superb audio-listening. Your attention can wander but it's easy to pick up the drift of things again. He is not short of sardonic criticism of a country that is distinctly careless with both its prime ministers and its aboriginal peoples, but ends up falling in love with the human eccentricities and geographical glories of the world's largest and most friendly island.