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Kingdom by the Sea
- A Journey Around the Coast of Britian
- Narrated by: Ron Keith
- Length: 14 hrs and 24 mins
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Summary
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What listeners say about Kingdom by the Sea
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- Amazon Customer
- 29-10-20
A Great Book but .....
Paul Theroux has written a humourous and insightful book but the narrator is awful his attempts at local accents are execrable and detract mightily from the performance
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall
- andrew
- 02-03-13
Interesting look a things I had forgotten 1982
Good start and nice idea behind the book. It looks at the English from an Americans eyes. Paul Theroux does this in an excellent manner. The narative was very good, and the facts interesting. What lost if for me was he rushed the story down the east coast to finish. This could have been because of the train strike, but it spoiled the end. I would love to see somone do this book again 30 years on and see how things have chnaged,
All in all good read, the narrator is not good at accents and this would have helped.
Would recomend
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- Philly B
- 28-04-21
The people & the places.
Paul Theroux knows how to describe the people of Britain. With wit & charm he explains why we are British whilst traversing the coastline of this fair isle. Brutal honesty is his bag! Funny & informative.
A joy from start to finish.
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2 people found this helpful
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- jonathan ellis
- 18-12-13
Terrible narrator
Is there anything you would change about this book?
Get a different narrator. I can just about stand his clipped public school type accent (even though he is playing the part of an Anglicised American) but when he changes speech to convey the conversations of the locals that he meets on his way around the coast they all sound exactly the same - and that is as a straining (constipated?) Brummie - about as far from the coast as you can get. It's all a bit superior and condescending
Would you be willing to try another one of Ron Keith’s performances?
Definitely NOT if part of that performance includes him attempting to portray any other English rubes
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1 person found this helpful
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- Robin C
- 29-12-15
Disappointing narration,
Having read the book a few times over the years I thought I'd invest in the Audible version as well. The narrator is hopeless at accents which is bizarre considering the verbatim reporting of his casual encounters en route form an important part of the narrative. Mr Keith is as distant from an Anglicised American as it's possible to get and although I don't expect narrators to do impressions of authors his delivery was so far from what I expected as to take most of the pleasure from the story.
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1 person found this helpful
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- guzzi
- 12-01-17
A Good Book but let down by the reading
I enjoyed this book when I first read it, way back in the 80s. It has dated rather, and Theroux makes some fundamental mid judgements about Britain. But I would have enjoyed it so much more as an audio book with better voicing. An American reader, for example? Someone who could make it live.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall
- Elizabeth
- 07-04-13
Understated
This book was interesting but could not be described as uplifting. Partly this is due to the period that the author went on his journey, the Falklands war and the country in recession but also the writing style. Paul Theroux is very good at portraying sadness, neglect etc but not so good at portraying those parts of the coast that he found beautiful, uplifting and enjoyable. I also think that making up fictional names for the people he met along the way allowed him to stereo type them and this was clumsy and detracted from the journey. This also added to the negative feel of the book. I have downloaded another book by the same author but I'm not sure if I am brave enough to listen to it.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Paul
- 20-08-21
Tedious…
The book says more about this patronising writer than it does about the subject matter.
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- Esther
- 01-11-13
dyspeptic view of people, badly read
I did not enjoy this and in fact gave up on it. I found Paul Theroux's contempt for everyone he met somewhat wearing - I just wish he'd stayed at home! The narrator's voice was fine when he spoke in his own gently Yorkshire voice but his accents were TERRIBLE! Even Cockney was beyond him and Devonian - well!
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall
- S. Collis
- 26-07-12
Truly terrible narration
I SO wish I'd read the previous reviews before downloading this - It's a pretty awful book anyway - with a horribly petulant tone/alternating with his maddeningly twee habit of making up silly names for the strangers he meets and the otherwise brilliant Theroux should be ashamed of it.
But the narration!! it's the least professional job I've ever heard. Ron Keith's attempts at regional accents are nothing short of hilarious - but ultimately EXTREMELY annoying. In the end I just managed to get though the book by seeing the funny side. In the Newquay section, listen out for the sound of his stomach rumbling and the faint sound of a two women's voices chattering away in the background. Highlights are the South African and Bristolian accents and the fact that he can't pronounce any place names south of Bridlington (Margit, Ramsgit..) Truly bad in every way
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11 people found this helpful