Miss

The predictable one-dimensional characters, the predictable and unneccessary laciviousness, the lack of authenticity and the predictability.

Not written it.

Yes, except his Welsh accent was all wrong (I'm from North Wales, we don't speak like extras from Gavin and Stacey, we don't call our fathers 'Da' - hate it when the whole of Wales is charicatured as South Wales - we're far more lyrical up here - Bryn Terfel, Rhys Ifans - listen to their accents).

All but Aliona and Tom Builder.

I was so looking forward to listening to this, I love historical fiction, but there was nothing here which immersed me in the past, it was a modern story coincidentally set in 10th Century, with modern language, modern characters and modern sensibilities. It was beyond bad, really. I stuck with it until about three-quarters of the way through (admittedly, I increased the speed on my iPod to get through it more quickly) but the nastiness of the characters, the predictable way they acted, the vicarious pleasure Mr Follet seemed to take in the depravity shown towards women, it angered me and made my skin crawl. I abandoned the listen without regret.

Apart from being fairly tedious, I cannot fathom why this book is being read by an Australian, so many mispronunciations - these affect me like fingernails being scraped down a blackboard and I can't listen any more. If you're reading a book about England in the 1920's you should learn the correct way of pronouncing English; particularly how it would have been spoken in that era (before Holywood got its pseudo intellectual hands on it). Marquis is not pronounced marquee - except in French, valet is not pronounced valle, except in French, privacy is not pronounced as a form of private but of privy - globally. If you're not anal and pedantic like me then you may enjoy this but I had to give up after two chapters for fear there may be a lieutenant in it! By the way, I have nothing against Australian accents, Arthur Upfield's Bony novels are amongst my favourite audio books and I relish hearing the authentic Australian-English in those.