Audiobooks by Will Self

"Standing by the mailbox in Ithaca, New York, Elaine thinks of her child and husband, an Ivy League academic, inside her house and wonders...is this it? As she begins to push back against the strictures of her life in 1950s America, she undertakes a disastrous affair that ends her marriage and upends her life. Based on the intimate diaries Will Self's mother kept for over forty years, Elaine is a writer's attempt to reach the almost unimaginable realm of a parent's interior life prior to his own existence. Perhaps the first work of auto-oedipal fiction, Elaine shows Self working in an exciting new dimension, utilizing his stylistic talents to tremendous effect."

Will Self (Author), Laurel Lefkow (Narrator)

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Why Read: Selected Writings 2001-2021

"From one of the most unusual and distinctive writers working today, dubbed 'the most daring and delightful novelist of his generation' by the Guardian, Will Self's Why Read is a cornucopia of thoughtful and brilliantly witty essays on writing and literature. Self takes us with him: from the foibles of his typewriter repairman to the irradiated exclusion zone of Chernobyl, to the Australian outback and to literary forms past and future. With his characteristic intellectual brio, Self aims his inimitable eye at titans of literature like Woolf, Kafka, Orwell and Conrad. He writes movingly on W.G. Sebald's childhood in Germany and provocatively describes the elevation of William S. Burroughs's Junky from shocking pulp novel to beloved cult classic. Self also expands on his regular column in Literary Hub to ask readers how, what and ultimately why we should read in an ever-changing world. Whether he is writing on the rise of the bookshelf as an item of furniture in the nineteenth century or on the impossibility of Googling his own name in a world lived online, Self's trademark intoxicating prose and mordant, energetic humour infuse every piece."

Will Self (Author), Will Self (Narrator)

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The Examined Mind: A BBC radio collection exploring the history, philosophy and science of self-help

"This collection brings together history, science, philosophy and comedy to explore our age-old search for meaning. We live in an age of self-improvement and self-examination - lifehacking, wellbeing, self-care, mindfulness retreats - but this seemingly very modern phenomenon is a pursuit that dates back for millennia. Join comedian Robin Ince to explore how the ancient Greeks aimed to get happier, healthier and richer. Will Self asks some of Britain's key scientists, philosophers and faith leaders to share their conclusions on the meaning of our existence. Historian Kate Williams investigates the Grandfather of Self-Help, Samuel Smiles' 1859 book Self Help, and its lasting influence. In 'Hell is Other People', performer Byron Vincent attempts to overcome his paralysing fear of social situations. Emma Barnett traces the multi-billion dollar mindfulness industry to its Buddhist roots to discover whether it's just another health fad. Comedian Felicity Ward tries to solve her mental health issues, one app at a time. Sian Williams presents a practical guide to boosting brain power through exercise, relaxation, stimulation, sleep and diet. From the ancient Greeks to the present day and even into the future, The Examined Mind provides an unique insight into our constant quest to be better people."

Byron Vincent, Emma Barnett, Felicity Ward, Kate Williams, Robin Ince, Will Self (Author), Bryon Vincent, Emma Barnett, Felicity Ward, Kate Williams, Robin Ince, Sian Williams, Will Self (Narrator)

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Dr Mukti and Other Tales of Woe

"Shiva Mukti is a hardworking and conscientious psychiatrist, who, in the inauspicious surroundings of St Mungo's - a central London hospital of more than average decrepitude - does his level best to staunch the flow of mental illness. But Mukti is not a happy man, beset by thwarted ambition and sexual frustration, he now finds himself in thrall to the more successful and urbane Dr Zack Busner, consultant psychiatrist at Heath Hospital, and an originator of the once modish Quantity Theory of Insanity. Why is it that Busner seems so intent on fostering a professional relationship with Mukti? Is it his way of putting his junior colleague in his place? Or is Busner - as Mukti begins to suspect - a member of a sinister cabal? And what about the schizophrenic patients Busner refers to Mukti for his opinion, are they merely sick people, or in fact human weapons in a bizarre psychological duel?"

Will Self (Author), Will Self (Narrator)

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The Quantity Theory of Insanity

"The fictional world of Will Self is unlike any other. In The Quantity Theory of Insanity, we learn, amongst other things, the dark and terrible secret of Ward 9, why you are right to think that London is full of dead people and that each and every human being is caught up in a colossal balancing act between the sane and the insane ... The Quantity Theory of Insanity is acerbic, satirical, hilarious and, most of all, utterly unique in imaginative vision."

Will Self (Author), Will Self (Narrator)

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Will

Will Self (Author), Will Self (Narrator)

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Will Self's Great British Bus Journey

"Will Self takes a 1,000-mile tour of the UK by bus and coach, exploring urban Britain and British identity at a time of flux. Bus and coach windows afford him a different perspective on the nation. He eschews the bright lights of the big cities, heading instead for smaller urban centres. His objective is to speak to Britons about how they view their cities and themselves in 2018. Over ten programmes, Will's trip takes him to Plymouth, Swansea, West Bromwich, Wolverhampton, Preston, Middlesbrough, East Kilbride and Derry-Londonderry. In the fish and chip shops, the B&Bs, the pubs and car repair garages, Will debates the state of British identity - and discovers that Britain today has become a highly debatable land. Produced by Laurence Grissell."

Will Self (Author), Will Self (Narrator)

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The Book of Dave

"What if a demented London cabbie called Dave Rudman wrote a book to his estranged son to give him some fatherly advice? What if that book was buried in Hampstead and hundreds of years later, when rising sea levels have put London underwater, spawned a religion? What if one man decided to question life according to Dave? And what if Dave had indeed made a mistake? Shuttling between the recent past and a far-off future where England is terribly altered, The Book of Dave is a strange and troubling mirror held up to our times: disturbing, satirizing and vilifying who and what we think we are."

Will Self (Author), Will Self (Narrator)

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Phone

"For four characters the five hundred-quid worry bead in their pocket may be both a blessing and a curse. For elderly Dr Zachary Busner it's his life line to his autistic grandson Ben, whose own connection with technology is, in turn, a vital one. For Jonathan De'Ath , aka 'the Butcher,' MI6 agent, the phone may reveal his best kept secret of all: that Colonel Gawain Thomas is his lover."

Will Self (Author), Mike Grady (Narrator)

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Dark: Stories of Madness, Murder and the Supernatural

"Dark offers chilling stories, both fiction and real life, about the things that scare us the most: murder, hauntings, visitations, insanity and our own vulnerability! Examined through the eyes of some of the world's most gifted writers- Edgar Allan Poe, Rudyard Kipling, Robert Frost, W.W. Jacobs, Iain Banks, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Paul Bowles, Will Self, Marjorie Bowen, A.M. Burrage, Blue Balliett -we feel the malice of serial murderers, the cold evil of the undead, the unreasoning hatred of the insane, and, most of all, the incomprehensible suffering of their victims!"

A.M. Burrage, Blue Balliett, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Edgar Allan Poe, Iain M. Banks, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Marjorie Bowen, Robert Frost, Rudyard Kipling, W.W. Jacobs, Will Self (Author), Colleen Delany, Graeme Malcolm, Grover Gardner, John Hitchcock, Simon Prebble, Vanessa Maroney (Narrator)

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Shark

"4th May, 1970. President Nixon has ordered American ground forces into Cambodia. By the end of the day four students will be shot dead in the grounds of Kent State University. On the other side of the Atlantic, maverick psychiatrist Dr Zack Busner has been tricked into joining a decidedly ill advised LSD trip. Five years later, sitting in a nearby cinema watching Steven Spielberg's Jaws, Busner realizes the true nature of the events that transpired on that dread-soaked day."

Will Self (Author), Jonathan Keeble (Narrator)

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Umbrella

"Shortlisted for the 2012 Booker prize: Could modernity be an illness? Umbrella follows the story of Audrey Death, who fell victim to the encephalitis lethargica, sleeping sickness epidemic at the end of the First World War and has been in a coma ever since. Arriving at the asylum she still lingers in, maverick psychiatrist Zack Busner becomes involved in an attempt to bring her back to life - with wholly unforeseen consequences."

Will Self (Author), Mike Grady (Narrator)

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