Lesley

Some EXTRAORDINARY pronunciations

Reviewed: 04-19-20

When a narrator can jolt a listener out of a world created by the author it is woeful. It's so hard to pick up the thread and move on when the irritation lasts a while. This narrator seemed incapable of sounding o as in hot, cot, dot etc. He insisted on adding an r... so hot became hort, cot- cort etc. I'm pretty sure it was an affectation (probably trying for received British accent) because every so often he forgot ... er I mean forgort haha and pronounced that sound as most people would... When he did slip up it was when he was moving faster through the text at moments of tension. He put in an OK effort in tone, pitch, speed etc, but there were a few 'blinders' in pronunication appart frorm the o sound.
If the story had been weaker I would have given up long before the end. Do editors ever listen to the product part way through a recording??? If they did, they could catch these irritants and deliver a much better product... er... prorduct.

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some really irritating pronounciations

Reviewed: 04-13-19

Note for the narrator: Yorkshire is divided into Ridings. Little Riding in the book doesn't exist... but one would assume it was riding not ridding. It sounded so very silly Little Ridding?????? A double consonant makes the vowel soft e.g. rid. A single consonant makes the vowel say its name e.g. eye R eye ding.
Apart from this irritation, I quite enjoyed the book... harmless fluff with characters I cared about.

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Please Narrators do a bit of research!

Reviewed: 11-17-17

This was a very so-so text and narrated to match - mediocre. I do WISH that narrators would research pronunciation before recording. For this narrator's future use:
Blenheim Palace = Blenm Marlborough = Marlbra.
The point of getting such pronunciations right is that MISpronunciation jolts you out of the story and into a world of irritation. You miss bits of the story whilst mentally correcting and wishing for improved narration.

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34 people found this helpful

spoiled by narrator

Reviewed: 11-10-17

The narrator gave an irritating, monotone performance. Some extraordinary pronunciations of quite ordinary words in common use. Has she lived under a stone that she has not picked up how words are said?

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2 people found this helpful

Wonderful

Reviewed: 07-08-17

I have not read any of Mr Russell's work before and was oh so pleased to have found this author. Such well researched and informative work and presented in a manner that didn't send me to sleep. Jenny Funnell's performance was alive, but she did have some 'interesting' pronunciation moments. These, however, did not detract from the overall pleasure of listening. DO TRY ! worth the credits.

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1 person found this helpful

Not the Best of Ms Weir's works

Reviewed: 07-08-17

Not the best of Ms Weir's works, but not a total disaster either. The facts were there and they were presented in an interesting manner, but oh dear oh dear Ms Weir can't do believable dialogue. To impose contemporary suburban housewife dialogue on a Tudor girl just did not work! I much prefer Ms Weir's non fiction. It is interesting, informative and above all unpretentious.

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worth the credit

Reviewed: 04-19-17

I seldom write positive reviews, but here one is. A well researched, well organised, factual history read beautifully. Nothing jarred. Nothing irritated. I am really glad to have purchased this book.

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5 people found this helpful

Spoilt by a poorly edited, inadequate narration

Reviewed: 04-01-17

The information was well researched and interestingly laid down. The narrator, however, realllly reallllllly let it down. She needs to work on breath control because at times, she established a pattern of 3 words (delivered with a downward inflection implying a full stop) 4 words (full stop) thus leaving sentences hanging.

I realise that a person who mispronounces words is a victim of a language-poor environment. They only know of words by reading, not by hearing. I don't wish to demean such readers, but this particular narrator must have been living under a rock not to know how to pronounce such common words as papal (pronounced by Anne Somerset as (p)apple) or papist (pronounced by Ms Somerset as pap ist ) or Ovid as (oh)vid. There were too many of these to list here... so SHAME on the EDITOR who gave himself a mention at the end.

Part of the storyteller's art is NOT to jolt the reader out of the spell of the world they are creating. Poor breathing causing strangely delivered sentences and mispronunciations do just that. I kept being reminded that I was listening. Mind you. I had quite. A few laughs. But I don't think. This was. The intention of. The Writer.

If the information wasn't so well written I would have returned this book. Persevere if you can. There are stretches where the narrator does relax and read in an adequate manner.

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17 people found this helpful

Narrator ?? hmmmmmm !

Reviewed: 03-04-17

If you can persevere with the narrator you can get used to it and be offended by the narration less and less frequently until eventually you won't notice it. Extraordinary intonation but wonderfully clear diction. Information very interesting and well written.

I'm an insomniac and I'm glad I bought this book because I use it as a sleep aid...the narration inflections are a predictable pattern.

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written by a yearning 14 year old

Reviewed: 01-28-17

Hills and Doon meets Maigret. Old fashioned police procedures told in a breathless, kittenish, naive voice. It had the yearnings of a 14 year old's dreams. I only made it to chapter 10 before my ears ran away screaming from my head. The narrator did her best with a very silly piece of work.

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1 person found this helpful