Tom Michell Audiobooks

The Penguin Lessons: a warm, funny travel story read by Bill Nighy

1 audiobook reviewed

★ 4.5/5 average

10 listener ratings

Who is Tom Michell?

Few titles are as disarming as this one. The Penguin Lessons brings Tom Michell to our catalogue with a listing that sits across travel and comedy, and the combination is the whole promise: a story from somewhere else, told with a light touch and no great solemnity.

Six hours and two minutes counts as short by the standards of travel writing, and shortness suits this sort of material. Anecdote is a delicate form. It thrives on economy and curdles the moment a writer starts overexplaining the joke.

We keep to the book itself, which is more than enough to be going on with.

Tom Michell in audiobooks

The Penguin Lessons is read by Bill Nighy, and that casting is the single best reason to choose the audiobook over the page. The dry timing, the slight hesitation before a punchline, the refusal to oversell a funny line: all of it flatters writing built on understatement.

Ratings sit at 4.5, though on a small body of reviews, so read them as encouraging rather than conclusive.

This makes an ideal weekend listen, or a gift for someone who insists they do not get on with audiobooks. It is waiting below.