John Aubrey cover art

John Aubrey

My Own Life

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John Aubrey

By: Ruth Scurr
Narrated by: Mark Elstob
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About this listen

Shortlisted for the 2015 Costa Biography Award.

This is the autobiography that John Aubrey never wrote.

You may not know his name. Aubrey was a modest man, a gentleman-scholar who cared far more for the preservation of history than for his own legacy. But he was a passionate collector, an early archaeologist and the inventor of modern biography. With all the wit, charm and originality that characterises her subject, Ruth Scurr has seamlessly stitched together John Aubrey's own words to tell his life story and a captivating history of 17th-century England unlike any other.

©2015 Ruth Scurr (P)2022 W F Howes Cultural & Regional Historical Biography Middle Ages

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Critic reviews

"An audacious and successful attempt to write a biography in the subject's own words. Scurr has ingeniously edited Aubrey's swift, vivid prose into a coherent account of the life lived by one of the most interesting (and interested—in everything) writers of our most exciting century, the 17th. Irresistible." (Guardian)

"To me this book is a delight and…it is the one that I would take with me to a desert island." (The Times)

"Writing a biography of a biographer that doubles as an experimental analysis of biography itself is a formidable and astonishing achievement. That it is also profoundly affecting is what makes John Aubrey: My Own Life a triumph." (Stuart Kelly, The Times Literary Supplement)
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This is NOT narrated by Rachel Atkins. I am again so disappointed by the slapdash attitude of Audible. So often in non-fiction there are missing (or never considered) PDFs, misnumbered chapters, chunks of missing or repeated passages and other howlers. It is speaks of lack of basic checks. I suspect the production staff are underpaid and overworked. I am giving the book 5 stars in every category because this is not the fault of the author or narrator, who are both excellent but instead venting my ire via the review.

Great book but cursed by Audible sloppiness

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Make sure you flick through the contents pages and start listening when the actual fictional diary begins. The first chapters are just a reading of glossary and notes to the book. i don't even know why the producers bother to include these parts. After all they have no compunction about leaving out the index!
The narration was good. The story was mostly quite boring and repetitive but I find that quite comforting! it just shows how most people's lives are that way. My overall impression is that people were bonkers in the 1600s. How could they have believed all that hocus pocus they imagined in order to explain phenomena? it makes you wonder what people will think of US in 350 years time.
I did enjoy this book, though mainly because I cannot resist diary formats. It makes me feel pleasantly nosey!

I like the diary format

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