R4 Alexander McCall smith bedtime story

[Bruisername]

Are the taking the piss? This must be the worst piece of writing and storytelling I have ever heard!! Is it a social experiment?

Don’t know but I have the BBC Christmas collection of stories on audible and AMS short stories are shit in that collection. V disappointed in the selection tbh… and don’t rate AMS as a result.

Well don’t waste your time on this miss McDonald nonsense then!!

i’d only ever read some of his no 1 detective series and felt a little uncomfortable as I know Botswana and it felt weird. So thought his writing on home turf may be better. I was wrong!!

I heard that it was going to be AMS. Thought I'd give it a go with the expectation that if it was no good I'd be bailing out. I think I bailed a couple of minutes in and never went back.

I'm biased though, right from first encountering it, I've been mystified by the appeal of AMS's writing.

right from first encountering it, I've been mystified by the appeal of AMS's writing.

Agree

I just don’t understand how someone thought that was worth the effort to record - if I were from a Scottish island I would be seriously annoyed by being presented that way!!!

I tried to read No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency once, a long time ago.
I gave up on it on the first page.

AMS has never appealed to me but I thought I'd give this a go, won't bother now!

Well you could and find that I have been very ungenerous!!!

I've listening to it today. It's very 'AMS'. I can't see the appeal. The same goes for most books in that slot.

Many R4 dramas set in a region seem to involve overly strong accents.

There was one set somewhere about 20 miles from where I grew up and I have cousins born and bred there, but the accents were laid on with a trowel.

Yes the accent was a big focus it felt

the last two book at bedtime have been books I really enjoyed reading but they didn’t really appeal with the way they were abridged

That sounds like it might be the book I took advantage of the 99p offer and the fact it was partially set on Mull. What a lot of shite. And bloody Amazon are still sending me emails trying to get me to buy more of his tripe. Not a chance. Somebody must like his writing though, he's doing alright on it.

I also have a problem with the abridging generally. I've listened to a few - Elinor Oliphant, Yellowface - and I really felt they were missing something.

It seems to be a bit of a monopoly with the people producing it too

If I listen to Book at Bedtime and hear the abridged version of a book I've read, it comes across as an impressionistic version of the book with the "greatest hits" of scenes and dialogue. It most definitely feels like it's lost something.

I find listening to abridged books best for "experiencing" books I'm interested in but would never make it to the top of my pile of books to read.

I gave up on AMS a while ago. I read the first few No 1 Ladies Detective Agency (my uncle is mentioned by name in one!) but started to find them tedious. I enjoyed some of the Isabel Dalhousie books, but never got on with his others. The last one I read just seemed as if he hadn't put any effort into writing it at all.

Yes agree.

the recent one ‘the memory police’ lost a lot of what it was saying. Anything ambiguous doesn’t really work imo. I prefer ones that are a straightforward mystery or such like.

@Latenightreader , what was enjoyable about them other than your uncle being named? Why did you find them tedious?
The author seems like a nice chap.

He seems very accomplished in many fields but I don’t know how he managed to get this last book published!!!

i blame Eileen McCreadie - she seems to be responsible for a lot of the dreadful book at bedtime

Just looking at his biography - he went to the same school as DH

i wish I liked his book more!!!

I've met the author and he was lovely! I enjoyed the first few because of the setting and they were quite gentle stories. I think they had a bit more going on that the later ones. I gave up on the Botswana books because there seemed to be a pinch of plot which advanced really slowly, with a lot of padding. It is probably about ten years since I read one, but I remember reaching the end and knowing I'd never read another. I might be doing them a disservice, but they were a bit too slow and gentle for me.

Thanks. I think what put me off mainly was that it was a white man writing about a black woman.

Eilidh McCreadie - Wikipedia

Yes - he’s spent a lot of time in Botswana and it makes sense for the detective to be a woman there. I guess it brought Botswana to the public eye a bit more

I didn't really give the book a chance, but I don't think I will.
Sounds like an interesting country. A friend lived there for a year or so in the 1980s and another friend went on a safari holiday there last year, but that's not going to be a representative opinion of the country or people.

Regardless, I don't generally enjoy Book at Bedtime.

My fil lived there for 10 years and it is a lovely place.