Untold Stories Part 4: A Common Assault

by Alan Bennett (Narrator)

This is the fourth recording from 'Untold Stories', containing 'A Common Assault', 'The History Boys' and 'Arise, Sir...' 'Untold Stories', Alan Bennett's first major collection of prose since his bestselling 'Writing Home', brings together the finest and funniest of his writing over the last ten years. After 'Untold Stories: Part 1: Stories', 'Part 2: The Diaries' and 'Part 3: Written on the Body', 'Part 4: A Common Assault' contains two more reminiscences from Bennett's life and an essay on the class system. 'A Common Assault' describes an incident in Italy when he was mugged, and found himself trying to give a statement to the police in bad Italian. 'The History Boys' harks back once more to Bennett's time at school, and shows how the raw material of experience was eventually transformed into the highly-acclaimed stage play 'The History Boys'. 'Arise, Sir...', finishes on a light-hearted note, in which Bennett muses on the Honours List in typically iconoclastic mode.

2 CDs. 2 hrs 24 mins.

Genres: Audiobook

2 pages, Audio CD

Published September 4, 2006

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.

Alan Bennett is an English author and Tony Award-winning playwright. Bennett's first stage play, Forty Years On, was produced in 1968. Many television, stage and radio plays followed, along with screenplays, short stories, novellas, a large body of non-fictional prose and broadcasting, and many appearances as an actor. Bennett's lugubrious yet expressive voice (which still bears a slight Leeds accent) and the sharp humour and evident humanity of his writing have made his readings of his own work (especially his autobiographical writing) very popular. His readings of the Winnie the Pooh stories are also widely enjoyed.

Reviews

[Julie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Thoroughly depressing. The straightforward style of writing & deadpan deliverance by the author himself is at odds with the tragic information being imparted. I recommend if you are going to read this book that you avoid the audio version. I found that I needed more time to absorb & process the details of his mother's treatment for depression & his feeling of responsibility for his Father's death. Overall, I felt that it was an incomplete, potted history of his parent's marriage that I would rather have never read. I am left feeling very disenchanted.

[Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another selection of stories written and read by Bennett.
Much about childhood and upbringing including the emerging realisation that he is gay and going to the pictures - not the cinema or the movies. Enjoyable.

[Jo Marchant · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just Alan's voice lifts my day, I love these stories, great read!

[Sophie Bowns · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’d love to read more of Alan Bennett’s work!