Rightly shortlisted for the imminent 13th Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse for Comic Fiction award (sounds a good party), Sue Townsend’s The Woman Who Went to Bed For a Year (Whole Story, 9 CDs, 10½ hrs, £14.99) is given a new dimension thanks to its narrator Caroline Quentin.
Although she begins, as many actors-turned-narrators do, by overdoing things, when the thing in question is a satire on the infuriating new habit of ending every sentence on an interrogatory high, the comedy element is in fact glorified. Soon she settles down and does full justice to a rattling good story that will appeal to every mother and wife.
Eva is the worm who finally turns, the doormat who decides it is a tiger rug. Taking to her bed she leaves her selfish, unfaithful husband and fringe-Asperger twins utterly at a loss. I like the way that it is the grandmothers who take charge, resourcefully confronting the hordes of fans who decide Eva is an oracular saint as she peeks out of the window of her bedroom.
Also shortlisted is Terry Pratchett’s Snuff, which is available either unabridged, read by Stephen Briggs (audible.co.uk download, 11½ hrs, £24.09) ) or abridged, read by Tony Robinson (Corgi, 4 CDs, c. 5hrs, £16.99). Pratchett manages to juggle a Big Issue (genocide) and an intimate one (Sam Vimes’ cross-class marriage) in the fantastical context of Ankh-Morpork, leaving you chuckling and ruefully the wiser.
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