Hear This 20th June 2025

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Episode Transcript

S1 (00:18):
Take a look. Take a look inside the book. Take
a look.

S2 (00:33):
Hello and welcome to here this the Vision Australia library
radio show. I'm Frances Kelland, and on today's show we've
got a really interesting array of read recommended titles. So
I do hope you enjoy the show. Let's start off
today with a reader recommended for a narrator and says

(00:55):
thank you to Peter in New South Wales. Peter, um,
a little while ago, uh, said that he really enjoyed
the narration of David Banks. So he's narrated a few
books in the library collection. And yes, Peter, when I
had listened to his voice, I thought, wow, very smooth
and and very listenable. So I thought I would play

(01:15):
a sample of one of his novels. The book Lady
by Malcolm Forsyth. Jeanette West and Laura Stebbing operated the
mobile library. When Jeanette's body was found by the river.
Chief Inspector Milson wondered why anyone would murder such a
respectable and well-liked woman. There was no obvious suspect, but

(01:36):
as the investigation went on, he found that there was
more to the friendly librarian than he realised. Then Laura
took part in a reconstruction of Jeanette's movements. And suddenly
there were three suspects and three murders too. Let's hear
a sample of this mystery book. The book Lady by
Malcolm Forsyth and narrated by David Banks.

S3 (01:57):
Jack Chappell found the body at 6:00 in the morning.
It was barely an hour since dawn, and the April
morning was cold as his fishing boat sped upriver towards
the quay at Canford. On the last of the flood tide.
It huddled in the protective cuddy at the stern. Jack
Chappell was comfortably worn in a thick woollen jersey and

(02:18):
bib fronted waterproof trousers after a night's fishing in the
North Sea. He was looking forward to the breakfast of egg,
bacon and fried bread his wife would have ready for
him at his home in West Street, in the well
of the boat. His crewman was sorting the night's catch
into boxes. As soon as they berthed, the boxes of
fish and shellfish would be transferred to Fred Hall's freezer

(02:40):
sheds near the quay. From there, the seafood would be
despatched in white Suzuki vans to destinations all over East Anglia.
Jack Chappell eased the wheel and reduced speed to negotiate
the bend in the cone above Aylesford Creek, rounding the
Red channel buoy. He opened the throttle wide and the

(03:01):
vessel surged forward, bow wave foaming against her dark blue hull.
On the last stage of her journey. through the window
of the cuddy. He surveyed the familiar vista ahead of him,
a tall building clad with corrugated sheeting marked Hednesford's small shipyard,
and the beginning of the village breaking the skyline beyond

(03:25):
was the distinctive cupola on the tower of Saint Mary's Church.
His gaze roamed the deserted banks on either side, the
empty fields, the rusting framework of disused Ballast Quay. Then
something jarred his vision like a speck of dirt in
the eye. His eyes swept the starboard bank again and

(03:46):
spotted an alien splash of scarlet in the grass, holding
the wheel in one hand. He stepped from behind the
cuddy for a better view.

S2 (03:54):
And that was the book Lady by Malcolm Forsyth. Malcolm
is m a c o m m a. Forsyth is
f o r s y t h e f o
r s y t e. And the book goes for
five hours. So a nice short traditional mystery. So you're

(04:18):
not going to find any swearing in this. There are
dead bodies but again, nothing too grisly. And, um. Yeah,
I had to listen to this, and I couldn't stop
listening because the voice is so wonderful. Thank you, Peter,
for that recommendation for our narrator, David Banks, and a
little bit about David Banks. He was born in 1951.

(04:38):
He's an English actor, writer and author. Um, he's best
known for playing the Cyberleader in the Doctor Who series
Earthshock from 1982 and The Five Doctors from 1983, and
attack of the Cybermen 1985, and Silver Nemesis, 1988. He's
played many leading roles on the London stage and throughout

(05:00):
the UK. He writes and directs and has worked extensively
as a voice artist, recording over 100 audiobooks, and one
of the books we do have in the collection by
him is, um, Doctor Who Cybermen, published in 1988. This
is the history of the conceptual origins of the Cybermen.
So yes, we do have, um, Cybermen by David Banks

(05:23):
in the collection as well, narrated by him. And we
also have a couple of other Doctor Who books, one
written by him, Doctor Who, iceberg said in 2006. Also
an Iain Banks novel against a dark background, and the
Drenai Tales by David Gemmell. A few works in there
to enjoy by David Banks. The next one is another

(05:47):
narrator recommendation, and it's from Bob in the Act and Bob.
Thank you. Um, you mentioned that you really enjoyed Samuel
West's narrating, and you mentioned a book in particular, The
Shropshire Lad by A.E. Housman. Um, this collection contains a
cycle of 63 poems. Despite exploring themes of lost love, obsession,

(06:11):
pessimism and death. The poems became a best seller during
the Boer War and World War One. The collection, set
in a half imagined pastoral Shropshire, includes poems such as
when I Was One and 20, to an athlete Dying
Young and Loveliest of Trees, The Cherry. Now let's hear
a little sample of one of the poems from The

(06:34):
Shropshire Lad by A.E. Housman and narrated by Samuel West.

S4 (06:39):
From clay to heaven the bacon burns. The shires have
seen it plain. From north and south the sign returns
and bacon's burn again. Look left, look right. The hills
are bright. The dales are light between. Because tis 50
years to night. That God has saved the queen. Now
when the flame they watch. Not towers about the soil

(07:00):
they trod. Lads were will remember friends of ours who
shared the work with God to skies that knit their
heartstrings right to fields that bred them brave. The Saviors
come not home to night themselves. They could not save.
It dawns in Asia. Tombstones show and Shropshire names are read.

(07:21):
And the Nile spills his overflow. Beside the sovereign's dead.
We pledge in peace by farm and town. The Queen
they served in war and fire. The bacons up and
down the land they perished. For God save the queen.
We living sing from height to height is heard. And
with the rest your voices ring. Lads of the 53rd.

S2 (07:43):
So that was a Shropshire Lad by A.E. Housman A.E.
Housman was born in 1859 and passed away at the
age of 77, in 1936. The Shropshire Lad was published
in 1896, and it was during World War One that
his poems became very, very successful in terms of just

(08:05):
a younger audience. Um, during World War One, who were
facing the same issues on the very sharp end of love, loss,
death during First World War years. The next is non-fiction.
It is a sample of what I was hoping to
play last week, which is a sample of No Barriers
A Blind Man's Journey to Kayak, The Grand Canyon by

(08:28):
Erik Weihenmayer. No Barriers is about my journey since coming
down from Mount Everest in 2001, and the path to
where I am today. It is the story of my
own life, the personal and professional struggles in the pursuit
of growth, learning and family, as well as a dream
to kayak one of the world's greatest rivers as a
blind athlete. It is also about the many people I've

(08:50):
encountered along the way who possess what I call a
no barriers mindset, who live a no barriers life. It
highlights these pioneers who give those around them the courage
to do great things. People who have risked failure, transcended
their personal barriers and shown others a way forward. Scientists
and innovators. Artists and musicians. Climbers and adventurers. Activists and soldiers.

(09:16):
No barriers is a way of living, and it exists
in all of us like a deep internal light. But
sometimes through trauma, loss, isolation, and disillusionment, people get shoved
into a dark place and that light is almost extinguished.
Making hard choices is what feeds that light and becomes
the energy we need to propel us forward. This book

(09:39):
is about making the hard choices to fuel that flickering light,
so that we can ignite with purpose and become our
very best selves. Let's hear a sample of No Barriers
A Blind Man's Journey to Kayak The Grand Canyon by
Erik Weihenmayer. It's narrated by Holter Graham.

S5 (09:58):
The jetliner dipped and yawed, jolting me from my half
slumber and bouncing me into Jeff Evans, whose head was
resting on my shoulder. Get off me, I said. I'm
not your pillow. Yeah, you are, he said. You jacked
mine when I was sleeping. Jeff had been with me
on Mount Everest and I trusted him with my life.
We'd slept in many tents together, but using my shoulder

(10:19):
as a pillow was too much. My shoulders all wet.
I protested, have you been drooling on it? Nah. He scoffed.
That's not drool. I spilled my jack and coke on
you in the turbulence. Please return to your seats and
fasten your seatbelts, the captain's voice said through the speakers.
We're heading into some rough air again. With that, I

(10:40):
heard the movie come back on. It was vertical limit, ironically,
a mountain climbing film set in the Himalayas. As the
plane bounced and dipped, Jeff began describing the entertaining yet
absurd action scenes, avalanches thundering down the slopes and climbers
falling to their deaths. Jeff chuckled and nudged me in

(11:01):
the ribs. The rescuers just leaped over a 30 foot wide,
gaping crevasse and caught on the other side with the
points of their ice axes. He laughed. Like that could
ever happen. I've done that a lot of times myself, dude,
I replied, and then listened to a giant explosion on
the screen. What the heck was that? I asked. Uh,
guy just threw a bomb made out of nitro and

(11:23):
a mountainside disintegrated. Jeff answered. Don't ask me why. Don't
make any sense. Can't remember if we brought any nitro,
I said. Yeah, I think we forgot that on the
equipment list, he retorted, as overly dramatic as it all was.
The high altitude scenes got me thinking about the gravity
of what we were about to do. I'd agreed to

(11:46):
lead six of the teenagers from Sabrina's school, Braille Without Borders,
on an expedition, and this would be our first of
two trips to Tibet. We couldn't bring all 30 of
Sabrina's students, so she had handpicked four boys and two
girls who had adventurous spirits, those who she thought were
poised for great things in their lives.

S2 (12:06):
And that was a sample of No Barriers A Blind
Man's Journey to Kayak the Grand Canyon by Erik Weihenmayer
Erik is e I k that's e I k. Um
weihenmayer or weihenmayer is w e h e n m
e w e h e y e r. We also

(12:32):
have touched the top of the world. A blind man's
journey to climb further than the eye can see. And
that's also available in Braille. Erik was born with retinoschisis,
a degenerative eye disorder that would leave him blind by
the age of 13. And to touch the top of
the world contains a lot about that personal experience for him.

(12:54):
Also about his climbing many of the snow capped summits
around the world, including Mount Everest. So touch the top
of the world is sort of an earlier story. Deal
talks a lot about his family and the impact of
his blindness. He was born in 1968 and really, it
should be a fantastic in conversation with him. That's coming

(13:14):
up on the 8th of July. So just a couple
of weeks to go. So that's he's going to be
in conversation with Vision Australia's David Tredinnick. And it's a
free online event. And it starts at 12 p.m. in
the afternoon. So Tuesday, July the 8th at 12 p.m..
Call the library if you've got any queries about that

(13:34):
exciting event in conversation with Erik Weihenmayer. We have a
recommendation next from Vision Australia staff members, both V, who
I'm sure you may be familiar with from many of
the events that Vision Australia have had online events and
V is in the library, and he, um, hosts a
lot of those. Or you may know of Ed. Ed

(13:56):
has been with the organization, has been with Vision Australia
for many, many years. He was one of the early
developers of the online Daisy player here at Vision Australia Library,
which I remember him joking. The wireless daisy players were
the product of many cups of coffee and just playing
around with rubber bands. Um, as he puts it, very simple,

(14:16):
very humble. He's had a great impact on the organisation
over the many years he's been here. They both recommended
independently Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. This is
by Robert M Pirsig, and this is the extraordinary story
of a man's quest for truth. It will change the
way you think and feel about your life. The cycle

(14:39):
you're working on is a cycle called yourself. Robert M
Pirsig says the study of the art of motorcycle maintenance
is really a study of the art of rationality itself.
Working on a motorcycle, working well and caring is to
become part of a process to achieve an inner peace
of mind. The motorcycle is primarily a mental phenomenon. This

(15:02):
book details a cross-country motorcycle trip by a man and
his 11 year old son, as well as his quest
for truth. This is a gentle, sort of homespun wisdom
type of book that was incredibly influential. So let's hear
a sample. It's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
An inquiry into Values by Robert M Pirsig. It's narrated

(15:25):
by John Chancellor.

S6 (15:27):
I can see by my watch without taking my hand
from the left grip of the cycle that it is
830 in the morning. The wind, even at 60 miles
an hour, is warm and humid. When it's this hot
and muggy at 830, I'm wondering what it's going to
be like in the afternoon. In the wind are pungent

(15:50):
odors from the marshes by the road. We are in
an area of the central plains filled with thousands of
duck hunting sloughs. Heading northwest from Minneapolis toward the Dakotas,
the highway is an old concrete two laner that hasn't
had much traffic since a four laner went in parallel
to it several years ago. When we pass a marsh,

(16:14):
the air suddenly becomes cooler. Then, when we are past,
it suddenly warms up again. I'm happy to be riding
back into this country. It is a kind of nowhere
famous for nothing at all, and has an appeal because
of just that. Tensions disappear along old roads like this.

(16:35):
We bump along the beat up concrete between the cattails
and stretches of meadow, and then more cattails and marsh
grass here. And there is a stretch of open water.
And if you look closely, you can see wild ducks
at the edge of the cattails and turtles. There's a
red winged blackbird. I whack Chris's knee and point to it. What?

(16:59):
He hollers. Blackbird. He says something. I don't hear what
I holler back. He grabs the back of my helmet
and hollers up. I've seen lots of those, dad. Oh,
I holler back. Then I nod. At age 11, you
don't get very impressed with red winged blackbirds. You have

(17:21):
to get older for that. For me, this is all
mixed with memories that he doesn't have. Cold mornings long ago,
when the marsh grass had turned brown and cattails were
waving in the northwest wind.

S2 (17:36):
And that was a sample of Zen and the Art
of Motorcycle Maintenance An inquiry into Values by Robert M Pirsig.
Robert is r o b e r t r e
r t middle initial m and surname Pirsig. P I
r s I p I r s I g. And

(17:56):
that book goes for 16.5 hours. This was originally published
back in 1974. And I'm just looking on Wikipedia here.
And it says in its introduction, Pirsig explains that despite
its title, it should in no way be associated with
that great body of factual information relating to Orthodox Zen
Buddhist practice. And he adds, it's not very factual on

(18:20):
motorcycles either. Pirsig received 121 rejections before an editor finally
accepted the book, and he did so thinking it would
never generate a profit. But it ended up selling 5
million copies. And for those who are interested in motorcycles, um,
his motorcycle in this is a Honda Cb77 and the

(18:40):
journey takes him from Minnesota to Northern California. Different people
join him on the way. Him and his son. And
it's sort of a they call it a sort of
fictionalized autobiography of a trip that he did do in 1968.
In a 1974 interview with the National Public Radio, Pirsig
stated that the book took him four years to write,

(19:02):
and he continued at a job at the time of
writing computer manuals and what's happened to Pirsig? His 1967
Honda Cb77 Super Hawk. Well, the Smithsonian National Museum of
American History have taken it along with the book's original manuscript,
and it's been 51 years since its release. And the

(19:23):
Smithsonian note that it's part of that whole American tradition
of taking to the road, which is a recurring theme
in the nation's mythology and a demonstration of rugged American individualism.
A most influential book. That's Robert Pirsig, Zen and the
Art of Motorcycle Cycle maintenance. There is a theme to
a lot of today's books and the last two books.

(19:45):
And now this one. This was a request by one
of the library members to have this book put into audio.
It is the Totem Pole by Paul Pritchard. So thanks,
David for this. This was produced under the Personal Support
program and it's now in the collection. Mountain climbing defined
Paul Pritchard's existence, existence and signposted his horizons. One of

(20:08):
the leading climbers of the 1980s and 1990s, his adventures
took him from his Snowdonia base to the Himalaya, from
Karakorum to Patagonia, from Baffin Island to Pamir. Winning the
Boardman Tasker Award for Mountain Literature in 1997 with his
book Deep Play, allowed him a life dedicated to climbing.

(20:30):
Paul spent the prize money on a round the world
climbing tour, which eventually found him in Tasmania, attempting the
most slender sea stack on the planet. The totem pole.
On Friday the 13th of February 1998, Paul's life was
changed by a TV sized boulder which fell from the

(20:50):
sea stack and struck him on the head. He spent
the next years fighting the hemiplegia, which paralyzed the right
side of his body and caused such a terrible brain
injury that doctors thought he might never walk or speak again.
Over the following year, Paul began to collect his experiences
from the panic of the ten hour rescue to the

(21:10):
triumph of regaining abilities previously thought lost and using only
one finger, he punched them into his computer one letter
at a time. Let's hear a sample of this book,
The Totem Pole by Paul Prichard. It's narrated by Bill James.

S7 (21:27):
The winner of this year's Boardman Tasker Award is Paul Prichard.
To the screams of my entourage. I walked up to
the stand to collect my certificate and gave a very
short speech because I was told to tar. I made
up was the extent of it. It turned out that
Simon Yates's book Against the Wall, about a trip he

(21:49):
made with me to Patagonia, was a very close second.
I posed for photos with Maggie Bodie, my editor, Ken Wilson,
my publisher, Mary Metz, the representative of my US publisher,
and Graham Cooke, the production manager. With Celia by my side,
I felt like I had it all. We went crazy
at a salsa club in Brixton, squirming and gyrating to

(22:13):
the strains of the lambada rolling home in the daylight
of early morning, and I knew that I was surely
going on my round the world trip. Nothing could stand
in our way now. Celia surfaced from the wash. It
was dawn, and she was practising her dives off the jetty.
Kinabalu was an ever present entity that dominated the skyline

(22:35):
like no other mountain I have seen. At sunrise, about
5:30 a.m., the mountain was silhouetted against reds and oranges,
the shades of which you only witness on the equator.
We had decided to go snorkeling on the coral islands
of Mamutik and Sarpi before going on the mountain. We

(22:55):
were a little stressed out by life at home, and
felt we needed a short holiday before committing ourselves to it.
I'd never seen anything like it. Shoals of thousands of
stripy fish. In fact, fish of all colours and sizes
swam amidst equally brightly coloured corals. The fish in the
tank in the unit reminded me of those happy days

(23:17):
in Borneo. Angelfish and tiger barbs were the only ones
I recognised from that coral Paradise, though. However, it was
far from Paradise, above the swell. An air compressor run
from a generator put compressed air into the diver's tanks.
It ran all night and we couldn't get any sleep.
After two days, we returned to the mainland exhausted.

S2 (23:39):
And that was the sample of the totem pole by
Paul Pritchard. Paul is Paul, that's P-a-u-l Pritchard is p
r I t h a r. And that book goes
for eight hours and and six minutes to be precise.
If you happen to be in Tasmania, um, in Burnie,

(24:00):
specifically on the 17th of July, you can hear Paul
Pritchard talking and presenting a screening of his film Larapinta
end to end. Finding dignity in risk. This is a
filming of a tough trek that stretches through desert, mountains
and dry rocky river gullies from Alice Springs to Mount Sonder,

(24:22):
and is considered one of Australia's hardest multi-day desert walks.
It's a rough trek enough for non-disabled people, but the
Larapinta trail had never been achieved by an all disabled
team over 17 days. They travelled through some of the
harshest terrain in Australia. Paul Pritchard was part of that team.
Yvonna Keller, Paul Allen and Walter van Praag are the

(24:46):
team that set Burnie the Makers technology and innovation hub.
On the 17th of July at 6:30 p.m. till nine
9:00 so you can view the film and hear Paul
Pritchard talk. But that film is certainly worth looking out for.
Larapinta l a r a p I n t a.

(25:06):
End to end. And David also mentioned that he was
very impressed with the narration by our volunteer Bill James,
which is lovely to hear. Thank you David and I
will pass that on to Robert DeGraw, our senior audio
producer to and thank you to Anne from the library
or from Vision Australia, who who sent through that recommendation
from David. And there was an article in the Guardian,

(25:30):
the UK Guardian on the 19th of June 2025. It's
an article by Ella Creamer and they're making the point
about audiobooks. So income from audiobooks have reached a record
£268 million in 2024. This is according to figures from
Publishers Association. Audiobook revenue generated by UK publishers rose by 31%

(25:56):
between 2023 and 2024, with income from audiobooks reaching a
record £268 million last year. We're seeing a real demand
for audiobooks given the unique way they fit into our
increasingly busy lives, says Debbie Hicks, creative director at the

(26:16):
Reading Agency. Charity audiobooks make reading more accessible, whether that's
for people with dyslexia or visual impairments, or simply those
who struggle to find time to sit down with a
traditional book. Dan Conway, chief executive at the PA, says
publishers have invested more and more in producing high quality
content that grabs attention. Some of the most successful audiobooks

(26:39):
of the past few years have offered listeners the opportunity
to hear world renowned figures deliver their stories themselves. And
we've also seen full cast productions, high profile casting, and
innovative recording techniques. It's something Vision Australia and Vision Australia
Library have been aware of for a long, long time.
And it's worth reminding people like David did in requesting

(27:03):
a totem pole as a personal support. And then it
goes into the collection. Any Vision Australia Library member, if
there are books that aren't available in audio and you
would like to have a listen, you can get up
to 365, the equivalent of A4 printed pages per year,
free to put into any format that you would like,

(27:24):
whether that is e-text or if it is Braille or audio.
So you just put in the request. Copyright librarian will
look into getting the rights to have that produced for
people with a print disability in the library. And, um,
it's it's wonderful to see these books hit the shelves
and be enjoyed by everybody. Thank you so much for

(27:52):
joining us on here. This thank you for the reader.
Recommended for narrators and titles. If you would like to
join the library. If you would like to recommend a book.
If you're a library member, you can always call 1300 654 656.
That's 1300 654 656 or email library at org. That's library org.

(28:15):
Have a lovely week and we'll be back next week
with more here this.