Peter Bradshaw Audiobooks

The Guardian's chief film critic turns storyteller in Mercy, a full-cast Audible Original

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Who is Peter Bradshaw?

Peter Bradshaw, born in 1962, is a British writer and film critic – and for a generation of readers, the definite article among British film critics. He has been chief film critic at The Guardian since 1999, which means more than a quarter of a century of first nights, festivals and Friday verdicts, and he serves as a contributing editor at Esquire.

That longevity matters. Critics who last do so because they can actually write – because the prose gives pleasure even when the film did not – and Bradshaw’s verdicts have been part of the weekly rhythm of British film culture for decades.

Peter Bradshaw in audiobooks

This catalogue carries Mercy, which offers listeners something genuinely intriguing: the sound of a man who has spent decades judging other people’s work stepping out from behind the verdict. Critics who write bring an unusual asset – years of studying, at close range, exactly what works on an audience and what does not – and Bradshaw has had a longer apprenticeship than most.

For UK listeners the draw is precision. A writer trained on deadlines and word counts wastes very little, and Mercy carries the economy of someone who has spent a career noticing when others ramble.