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Dorothy L. Sayers

A Careless Rage for Life

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Dorothy L. Sayers

By: David Coomes
Narrated by: Wanda McCaddon
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About this listen

Known to millions as the creator of Lord Peter Wimsey and the best-selling author of a dozen detective novels, Dorothy Leigh Sayers was in reality a complex woman - moved, she said, by “a careless rage for life.” It is this complex Sayers, brilliant student, controversial apologist, witty, bawdy, intolerant of fools - he woman “terrified of emotion” - who is revealed in this new biography.

The production of Sayers’ radio play on the life of Christ, The Man Born to Be King, raised a storm of controversy. Reveling in the verbal battle, pugnacious, tenacious, she nonetheless pursued the Christian faith not merely as an intellectual godgame, but as the dominant force in her life. The Wimsey novels’ treatment of the themes of justice, guilt, punishment and the imperatives of personal responsibility reflect her beliefs.

©1992 David Coomes (P)2000 Blackstone Audio, Inc. Literary History & Criticism Witty

Critic reviews

“Narrator McCaddon enhances Coomes’ extensive use of Sayers’ letters by reading them in character, adding to our sense of the author speaking to us in her own voice. Her British accent lends crisp authority and distinction, doing full justice to such splendid passages as Sayers’ introduction to her translation of Dante’s Inferno. She sets a swift pace that carries us along, dropping in deft pauses to let us know the writer is about to change course. The clean, uncluttered production gives the author the stage.” (AudioBooksToday.com)
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As a Dorothy L Sayers fan I was excited to find this reading of David Coomes' biography.
However, I've struggled with the audio quality - Wanda McCaddon is clearly a good reader, but the audio is very harsh and hard on my ears, I suspect it's a digitisation issue.
I've enjoyed listening to Wanda McCaddon reading EF Benson's Miss Mapp (in her other guise of Nadia May), so I don't believe it could be her mellifluous tones.

Interesting biography, sound quality too harsh

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