Let's hear it for Bulldog!

I had heard the name 'Bulldog Drummond' used by/from my mother (now in her mid 90s) but had never actually known who he was or where he came from! After reading the previous reviewer's comments I thought 'why not chance it, and give him a whirl?'

I haven't regretted it - good rollicking entertainment, which speaks of its time. I can see how he was the forerunner of many who followed. I was a little surprised by some of the violence portrayed but it was minimal, deftly handled, not over-laboured and contributed to the plot - what dastardly villains these were!

Taken with a pinch of 21st century salt, these are worth a listen - I will be purchasing the next in the series with my next credit. I have a feeling they might give Paul Temple and Steve a run for their money.

Thanks, Audible, for bringing a new but 'classic' character in the British crime/adventure canon, to our attention and for our entertainment!

6 persone l'hanno trovata utile

What a delightful romp!

I loved Bulldog Drummond on first sight and can only just await the sequels. The next is to be released in September, I believe. How shall I wait that long?
How did another reader put it? Bulldogg Drummond is James Bond written by P.G. Wodehouse. Just so.
In recent times I went on the prowl for such oldfashioned vintage detective stories and found out that all over the web they are unearthing those nearly forgotten authors bit by bit. Marvellous! Get on with it.

4 persone l'hanno trovata utile

Perfectly pitched performance.

Beautifully clear reading, easily distinguishable character voices, this is paced just right. Although the story is a Boys' Own type adventure, the performance brings out nuances of thought and really rounds out Drummond's character.

3 persone l'hanno trovata utile

The 1st in the series

These are pure escapism and lots of fun. Being somewhat bored with what he sees as a sedate life following his time at the front, Hugh Drummond advertises for some adventure and amongst the quite numerous letters he receives in response he picks one from a lady in distress. And so begins an adventure that will introduce him to Carl Peterson, arch criminal and general ner-do-well. As he gets in deeper, he drags some of his pals along and they all have a jolly good time. The only issue I have is that we never do find out just what hold Peterson has over Phyllis's father. And as that was the main reason for Phyllis getting Hugh involved, I would have thought it a pretty important point to establish. But hey-ho, maybe it doesn't really matter after all. It was still jolly good fun and well worth a listen.

1 persona l'ha trovata utile

Sangfroid, So Good...

Bulldog Drummond is one of those Golden Age pulp heroes who, wildly popular in their heyday, have largely drifted into obsolescence; a name still lingering in the public consciousness but for the most part detached from any real recognition or awareness. Essentially a brutalised take on Sexton Blake, Drummond became a professed inspiration for James Bond and occupies a surprisingly murderous place on the spectrum of gentleman adventurers. Even by today's standards the violence can be quite shocking: Drummond's favoured proclivity during his First World War service being the nocturnal throttling of the enemy; elsewhere in this book he coolly forces a man into a bathtub filled with acid. Unsurprisingly, many of the less creditable social attitudes of the interwar years are also evident: the xenophobia, anti-Semitism and terrible class snobbery are all breathtakingly unabashed. Almost comical in their unthinking offensiveness here, these attitudes do become genuinely obnoxious throughout the next book (The Black Gang). In lieu of some subtle but judicious editing, the question arises not so much of how we should judge an author by the context of their times, but of how much we should judge a character by their author's prejudices.
And yet...
And yet this is a tremendously exciting adventure; it absolutely romps the course from beginning to end. It is a classic example of a page-turning, thumping good yarn. There are still instructive lessons here about story pacing and character dynamics. For all his private income public school privilege, for all his genial psychopathy, Drummond is a humorous, engaging hero: his avuncular 'hail fellow well met' irony and self-deprecation surely disguise a multitude of sins but you root for him all the way. Likewise, "evil genius" Carl Peterson is a card and it's easy to see why Drummond came to revel in their encounters.
Roy McMillan does fantastic work with these, perhaps making Drummond a more likeable hero than he truly deserves. Naxos and McMillan released audiobook readings of Sapper's first four Drummond novels and I'm only sorry they didn't do more.

Beautifully un-PC

Read very well by Roy McMillan but the plot is very weak . The characters would be more at home in a P.G. Woodhouse novel . Very much of its time .