Dracula, read by Anthony Valentine

Posted by Magersfontein on September 26, 2015 at 5:06pm

It's heavily abridged, of course, but very neatly. Anthony Valentine's fine reading was released at some time in the 1980s by Pickwick Talking Books.

In 1995 Anthony Valentine recorded a longer version of the novel for Talking Classics. Copies of that one occasionally turn up on Amazon, but the Pickwick recording seems to be as rare as - well, as my late friend Reg Beecham used to say, as rare as rocking-horse droppings.

Microsoft has drastically cut the available space on individual OneDrive accounts. If you'd like access to this recording, please tell me, and let me know your e-mail address so that I can send it to you.

Roger

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  • Magersfontein August 8, 2016 at 4:56pm

    Microsoft has drastically cut the available space on individual OneDrive accounts. You'll no longer find this recording at the above link - but I still have it (of course!) so if you want access to it, please tell me, and let me know your e-mail address so that I can send it to you.

    Roger

  • Austin Day October 26, 2015 at 4:09am

    Thanks Roger - new to me and I'm looking forward to hearing this rarity.

    Not Dracula related, but I've got "State of Decay", "The Speckled Band", "The Lighthouse & The Kimono" and "William & Mary" but none seem to be dated.

    It looks as if there were others, http://forums.doyouremember.co.uk/threads/12416-1980s-PICKWICK-TELL...

    http://www.cesnur.org/2003/dracula/III.htm#iiic mentions a 1987 Longman Valentine Dyall Dracula (is it this one www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0582010004 ?)

    • Magersfontein > Austin Day October 26, 2015 at 6:21am

      My fallible memory tells me that all the Pickwick Talking Books were released within a period of about 18 months. I do have others, including "The Speckled Band", "Two Jeeves Stories" and Frederick Forsyth's "The Shepherd".

      The Pickwick Tell-a-Tale Ladybird Horror Classics were part of a different series, adapted for younger children, and with the readers uncredited.

      I think I still have the Valentine Dyall "Dracula". It's aimed at schoolchildren, heavily abridged, and I remember being annoyed that the distances had been converted from miles to kilometres...

      I'll have a bit of a rummage and see what I can find!

      Roger

    • Austin Day > Magersfontein October 26, 2015 at 7:37am

      Not Martin Jarvis, but Edward Duke - "Jeeves takes charge" & "Jeeves and the old school chum".

      http://www.worldcat.org/title/2-jeeves-stories/oclc/19833854

    • Austin Day > Magersfontein October 26, 2015 at 7:22am

      Thanks Roger. I'd love to hear the Dyall Dracula - even with the annoyances. BBC4extra are doing a special soon http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/proginfo/2015/44/a-date-with-dyall

      Apologies for mixing the two tape series.
      Which Jeeves stories? Was it Martin Jarvis reading?

      ("We only ask because we want to know" - in Francis Matthews' sadly missed tones)

  • Gerald Lea September 30, 2015 at 5:45pm

    Cheers!

  • Michael Walker September 27, 2015 at 3:01am

    Awesome.

    Many, many thanks for this, Magersfontein. This was the first audiobook I ever bought, at Xmas time 1981, after listening to the play Sherlock Holmes V Dracula which was broadcast on December 19th that year.

    And the added bonus of the artwork as well.

    • Magersfontein > Michael Walker September 27, 2015 at 5:29pm

      My pleasure, Michael!

      1981, was it? There's no date on the label or the insert, and although, like you, I bought the cassette when it was new, I couldn't recall just when!

      Roger

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