Alan Bennett Reads Childhood Classics: The Wind in the Willows; Alice in Wonderland; Through the Looking Glass; Winnie-the-Pooh; The House at Pooh Corner

Lewis Carroll · A.A. Milne

Mar 2017 · BBC Digital Audio · Narrated by Alan Bennett

About this audiobook

Alan Bennett reads five much-loved stories by Kenneth Grahame, Lewis Carroll and AA Milne.

Alan Bennett’s distinctive readings of these cherished children’s stories have become classics in their own right. Portraying each character in his own inimitable fashion, his delightfully expressive voice perfectly conveys the sparkling humour, charm and magic of these timeless tales.

The Wind in the Willows tells the classic story of Ratty, Mole, Badger and Toad (of Toad Hall) and their waterside adventures.

Alice in Wonderland sees Alice following a white rabbit down a hole and embarking on a series of adventures with some of the most weird and wonderful characters ever encountered.

Through the Looking Glass continues Alice’s adventures, as she sees another world in the looking glass and wishes she could go there.

In a selection of stories from Winnie-the-Pooh, Pooh goes visiting and gets into a tight place, Eeyore loses a tail, Piglet meets a Heffalump, Eeyore has a birthday, and an ‘expotition’ to the North Pole is mounted.

The House at Pooh Corner finds Pooh and Piglet building a house for Eeyore, whilst Tigger comes to the forest and has breakfast. Piglet nearly meets the Heffalump again, Pooh invents a new game, and Owl moves house.

Duration: 7 hours 50 mins approx.

Ratings and reviews

gets me to sleep and stay asleep except for the cymbals noise in one of the stories which always wakes me up unfortunately. i have to listen to uk voices not american.

such a happy path to wander down with the wonderful tones of Alan Bennett ❤

About the author

Alan Bennett was born and brought up in Leeds. He read history at Oxford and collaborated with Peter Cook, Jonathan Miller and Dudley Moore in the revue Beyond the Fringe in the West End and on Broadway. Bennett’s first stage play, Forty Years On, played for more than a year in the West End. Subsequent plays included Getting On (1971) and the farce Habeas Corpus (1973). His television plays include An Englishman Abroad (1983) starring Alan Bates and Carol Browne and A Question of Attribution (1988) which examined the treachery of art historian Sir Anthony Blunt. Alan Bennett’s other best known works include his adaptation of The Wind in the Willows (1990) for the National Theatre, The Madness of George III (1991, also for the National and subsequently an Oscar-winning film) and, for BBC TV, two series of the monologues Talking Heads. His collection of diary entries, essays and reviews, Writing Home, was Book of the Year in 1994. Alan Bennett has made many recordings for the BBC, including The Lady in the Van about the eccentric Miss Shepherd, who lived in a van in his garden, and which he adapted for the stage in 1999 and for the cinema in 2014. 2005 saw the publication of his first major collection of writing since Writing Home. Untold Stories brought together the very best of his writing, as well as his much-celebrated diaries from 1996-2004. In 2006, following a sell-out tour, Bennett’s play The History Boys returned to the National Theatre for an extended run. Set in a boys’ grammar school in Sheffield, it garnered many awards and went on to tour New Zealand and Australia and open in New York in 2006. It received six Tony Awards, and was adapted for the cinema that same year. Among Alan Bennett’s more recent work are the stage plays The Habit of Art (2009), People (2012) and Cocktail Sticks (2012) and the novella Smut (2011).