Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Faber, unabridged, 6 CDs,£24.47 Buy the audiobook
The Scarecrow by Michael Connolly
Orion, 5 CDs, £14.67 Buy the audiobook
What happens when Martin Jarvis, who is inseparably associated with the Just William books, narrates William Golding’s Lord of the Flies? There are a few uneasy early minutes: Piggy’s first few lines could have come straight out of Richmal Compton. But Jarvis soon shakes off the ghostly echo of William by giving Piggy a nasal whine so jarring that you sympathise with the vendetta waged against him.
Jarvis finds an upright voice for would-be chief Ralph, a tartly superior one for Jack the painted hunter. Faber has missed a trick in not releasing this earlier; parents of the many