A Terrrible Disappointment

I had read Yeldham's "Murrumbidgee Kid" in print (not yet available as audiobook) and I enjoyed it very much. I was looking forward to my first Yeldham audiobook but it was very disappointing. The narrator sounded bored and clearly conveys that to the listener. Having the same name as the book's editor, I am presuming it is the same person - perhaps she had read it many times and really was tired of it. Unfortunately she does a great injustice to the book. Even if one gets past the narration, the story was just ordinary - more like a simplified movie script than the complexities of a good book. And it lacked some authenticity. I haven't listened again but it seemed to me that one of the characters (Julia) was catching a train between two rural towns to get some clothes and then another train from the rural town to Sydney so that she could catch an afternoon flight from Sydney Airport to Longreach. I have no particular knowledge of railway and airline routes or schedules in wartime New South Wales but the writer, although claiming to be Australian, betrays serious lack of knowledge of geography and distances. Not sure I can bring myself to any more Yeldham books, He needs both a good editor and good narrator.

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