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Title: Gillespie and I

Author: Jane Harris

Narrator: Anna Bentinck

Format: Unabridged

Length: 19 hrs and 6 mins

Language: English

Release date: 10-12-11

Publisher: Whole Story Audiobooks

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 10 votes

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

Longlisted for the 2012 Orange Prize for Fiction

Sitting in her Bloomsbury home, with her two birds for company, elderly Harriet Baxter sets out to relate the story of her acquaintance with Ned Gillespie, a talented artist who never achieved the fame he deserved. Back in 1888, after a chance encounter, young Harriet befriends the Gillespie family and soon becomes a fixture in all of their lives. But when tragedy strikes - leading to a notorious criminal trial - the certainties of this world all too rapidly disorientate into mystery and deception.

Members Reviews:

lacks pace and plausibility

An over-rated book, I think. To start with, it is too long to sustain a pretty thin plot, and lacks both pace and narrative drive. The plot's plausibility gets preposterous towards the end, and the characters are not that convincing. The only thing that kept me going to the end was the outstanding narration. Anna Bentinck could recite a telephone directory and bring it to life. She certainly earned her money on this book.

Like watching paint dry

It said on the back 'literary crack cocaine.' I stopped listening after 4h 38m in which NOTHING HAD HAPPENED. It's a long book and I'm sure it must get better but, really, life's too short. There isn't even any pleasure in the mundane details of the lives of the characters, like there is with a really good writer. Just... nothing going for it. I'm returning mine.

Sublime

Wonderfully written and expertly narrated, Gillespie & I is a chilling tale of altered perceptions, half truths and obsessive love. Jane Harris is a supremely talented storyteller.

A wonderfully skillful masterpiece

This tale was brilliantly written and very well narrated. At first I felt that the pace was too measured but realized that this was part of the perfect rendition. The story was staged around the turn of the 19th Century and written in the first person making it an inciteful vignette of the time. The characters are beautifully understated and the tale well structured. It is the very "quiet" nature of the narrative that gives it such a powerful kick. It was long but not a word was superfluous. I look forward to more by this author and will certainly look out for narrations by Anna Bentinck.

Chilling and Compelling

Brilliantly read by Anna Bentinck (not only does she cope with a range of accents she even modulates her tone to reflect the 'young' and 'old' periods in the narrator's life) this audiobook had me gripped until the final seconds. It focuses on the tragic fate of the artist, Ned Gillespie as told by his close friend and great admirer Harriet Baxter. What becomes increasingly apparent however, is that this is only one, far from impartial, view of events...

Don't miss out on this one - the closing sentence truly sent a shiver down my spine!