Review for the BBC audio dramatisation.

I'm amazed that a book of 960 pages could possibly be cut down to 4.75 hours listening time, without it feeling hacked, but this audio version of The Far Pavilions has achieved just that. I haven't read the book so I have no idea what is missing, but the BBC dramatisation gave a very atmospheric rendition of the adventures of Ashton Pelham-Martyn, born in India, of English parents but raised as a native Indian. He then returns to relatives in England and trains to be a British soldier. Being fluent in Indian dialects, it is not long before he is stationed with the Raj, back in India of the 19th Century.
He has strong opinions, often at odds with his superiors and he voices or acts on these rather too enthusiastically at times. This gets him into some awkward situations. He is a good soldier, however, and keeps the listener's support through thick and thin. True to form, he falls in love with totally unsuitable women, but it all adds to the excitement!

The dramatisation is narrated by no less than 25 actors, unlike many audiobooks where one, or at most two, voices attempt to cover all the characters of a book. My favourites were Ashton (also known as Ashok), read by the wonderfully British accent of Blake Ritson and Sita, who raises Ashook as her child until she dies - continuing to narrate the story in spirit form, in the voice of Vineeta Rishi.
What I didn't like was all the overly dramatic huffing and puffing, hence the four star rating. Audio kissing didn't come over very romantically, either.

With wonderful descriptions of both India and Afghanistan, adventure and romance, this is an excellent listen. Recommended. ( )

The Far Pavilions by M.M. Kaye – historical story of adventure and romance

This is a review of the BBC Radio 4 dramatisation (on 4 CDs), not the whole book.

Unsurprisingly, as this is from the BBC, the dramatisation is excellent, with a wonderful cast who turn in really believable performances. The sound quality is great; in fact, I was listening on earphones while doing the gardening, and at one point I mistook the background noises for something actually happening in the street outside!

As for the story itself, well there are many good reviews on here which I won’t try to emulate. Suffice it to say that I was carried along on the story of Ashok who is brought up in India by his Hindu nurse, and then in his teens send to England to be educated and sent to Sandhurst, returning to India as Ashton Pelham Martin, army officer. Back in India, he puts his understanding of the local people (Hindus and Muslims) to good use, but also falls in love with an Indian girl.

I found the story fascinating and the characters reactions and behaviours believable. Some scenes that that may have been in danger of being soppy were well done and sad without overdoing it. I also felt that it raised issues that are still relevant today, particularly about how we treat people who come from a different culture from ours

However, I don’t feel I can give the book the glowing review that so many people have given it here. Possibly this is because of the serious abridging that the BBC had to do to reduce the story to 4 or 5 hours in length. ( )