Rebuilding Coventry cover art

Rebuilding Coventry

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Rebuilding Coventry

By: Sue Townsend
Narrated by: Kate Lock
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About this listen

Coventry Dakin's tale begins with her accidental killing of her neighbour. Forced to flee the law, she deserts her council estate, her boring husband and two demanding children for the anonymity of London's cardboard city.

Originally published in 1988, Rebuilding Coventry is a brilliantly observed satire of Eighties Britain and the hypocrisy of the middle and upper classes.

©1988 Sue Townsend (P)2012 W F Howes Contemporary Fiction Fiction Genre Fiction Witty Funny

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Critic reviews

"Proof, once more, that Townsend is one of the funniest writers around." ( The Times)
"Townsend's wit is razor-sharp" ( The Daily Mirror)
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A good yarn in true Townsend style however the narration is difficult to listen to and the volume is highly variable.

Entertaining once you get past the narration

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Sorry, but I really have issues with the narrator... She's fine as long as she's not playing characters. But almost all the characters are totally over-acted, have bizarre intonations, and worse of all - are loud and booming, or loud and screeching, so that I constantly had to turn the volume up and down to hear the almost whispered narration and not get my eardrums blown out when characters started talking.

I love Sue Townsend but not the narrator

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What did you like best about Rebuilding Coventry? What did you like least?

Something different from Sue Townsend. A cockeyed take on the theme of someone taken out of their comfort zone and having to get by in a strange and hostile environment., (a woman flees Coventry to London after unintentionally killing a neighbour). Along the way she meets a number of weird characters and has some surreal experiences. The dialogue is great and the story is fine but the experience of listening to the book is spoiled by the narration. The West Midlands accents are so over the top and the narrator sometimes shouts the words, to the extent that I was unable to understand about a third of the text

What was one of the most memorable moments of Rebuilding Coventry?

The conversation in the pub at the beginning of the book

If this book were a film would you go see it?

Probably not but it would make a good TV two hour programme or mini series

Great story - terrible narrartion

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Another clever observational tale from Sue Townsend which kept me well entertained over the Christmas season.

Definitely worth a listen!

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Overall, not a bad book. Takes a while to get in to it, performance brings it alive.

Slow to start

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Purchased this book on a whim. Glad I did. Amusing easy read. Great, comical narration.

Sue Townshend her usual funny self

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Love Sue Townsend and all the other of her audiobooks but this is unbelievably bad. The narrator destroys it with her ludicrous, over-the -top voice acting. It's really terrible to the point I can't believe they released it. I want a new version with a new narrator I can actually enjoy.

Worst narrator I've ever heard

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Absolutely loved it! Another well written book by the late quirky author of Adrian Mole.

Recommended Read

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Annoyingly OTT and stereotyped characters and narration.
Sorry, I have nothing positive to say.

Couldn't finish it

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What disappointed you about Rebuilding Coventry?

I always have an audible tape on the go but can't stand to listen to the narration on this one. Irritating to the extreem.

Awful narration

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