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Alan Bennett Reads Childhood Classics
Alan Bennett Reads Childhood Classics
Jan 14, 2026 6:07 PM

Author:Lewis Carroll,A. A. Milne,Alan Bennett

Alan Bennett Reads Childhood Classics

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.

Reviews

Publisher's description. How much can any of us do to save those we love from themselves? What does the dark legacy of guilt do to a person, to a relationship, to a family? Achingly poignant and sharply witty, this portrait of a single tragedy rippling across many lives has all the makings of an American classic.

—— Penguin

Beautiful, elegant, harrowing... This is a book that makes you eager, once more, for the complications of the world

—— Colum McCann

This beautiful, tragic novel will haunt you for the rest of your life... Michael is simply one of the finest characters I've ever come across... An extraordinary work of art

—— Paul Harding

Marvellously lucid and intelligent... [a] novel about family, love, and a despair that proves unbearable

—— Joy Williams

The funniest person in the world

—— Caitlin Moran

A great read.

—— Bella

A powerful tale of friendship.

—— Prima

Koomson brilliantly captures the fraught friendship between the two girls in this gripping tale.

—— Closer

Full of heart and sympathy.

—— Dail Mail

An absolute page-turner of a novelpowerful and oh so compelling When I Was Invisible left me with a tear in my eye and touched my heart

—— www.lovereading.co.uk

A thought-provoking, emotional drama.

—— Sunday Post

I’m a massive Dorothy Koomson fan, so I’ll be taking When I Was Invisible on holiday

—— Katie Fforde , Daily Mail, Summer Reads

Cancel the excursion to the ancient ruins and get poolside for this compelling story of love and forgiveness.

—— Sainsbury’s Magazine

A hard-hitting tale

—— Sun

Great heart

—— The Herald

Raw and emotional, this packs a punch

—— Fabulous

Koomson just gets better and better

—— Woman & Home

Tense and emotional with truly empathetic characters

—— My Weekly

A powerful story about friendship and forgiveness, fans of Dorothy Koomson’s novels will enjoy the clever twists and unexpected turns, which keep the reader enthralled

—— Candis

A powerful book … it’s always good to be thinking of a book long after you put it down

—— Woman’s Way (Ireland)

A beautiful and clever novel

—— The Culture Trip

Thematically taut and compulsively paced.

—— Edmund Gordon , Sunday Times

A very good novel of anxiety, embarrassment and also, somehow, the depths of Englishness.

—— Evening Standard

Marvellous, original and intelligent. Kunzru writes like a master storyteller... There's simply nothing [he] couldn't manage in prose

—— Literary Review

Publisher's description. Electrifying, subversive and wildly original, White Tears is a ghost story and a love story, a story about lost innocence and historical guilt. This unmissable novel penetrates the heart of a nation's darkness, encountering a suppressed history of greed, envy, revenge and exploitation, and holding a mirror up to the true nature of America today.

—— Penguin

Compulsively readable, masterly - a tour de force

—— Rachel Kushner

Riveting from the very first page, I was completely addicted... A literary thriller and a timely, unsparing excavation of the very real spectre of race in America's past and present. White Tears is proof that Kunzru is one of the finest novelists of his generation...

—— Mirza Waheed

Hari Kunzru is an incredibly versatile writer who is alert to the inequalities in the world... Powerful and complex, White Tears is a novel about abuses of wealth and power. Brilliantly orchestrated, unforgettable and devastating

—— Bernardine Evaristo

Hari Kunzru is one of our most important novelists

—— Independent on Sunday

Kunzru's engagingly wired prose and agile plotting sweep all before them

—— New Yorker

Elizabeth Strout's My Name is Lucy Barton shouldn't work, but its frail texture was a triumph of tenderness, and sent me back to her excellent Olive Kitteridge

—— Cressida Connolly , The Spectator

A rich account of a relationship between mother and daughter, the frailty of memory and the power of healing

—— Mark Damazer , New Statesman

This physically slight book packs an unexpected emotional punch

—— Simon Heffer , Daily Telegraph

A novel offering more hope

—— Daisy Goodwin , Daily Mail

My Name Is Lucy Barton intrigues and pierces with its evocative, skin-peeling back remembrances of growing up dirt-poor.

—— Ann Treneman , The Times

Masterly

—— Anna Murphy
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