Which Bring Up the Bodies recording should you buy?
Under this title: complete readings by different narrators, an abridged reading that nothing in its title or description identifies, and multi-book sets with the trilogy's name on them that Audible's listing data marks abridged.
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Hilary Mantel · 5 Audible UK recordings compared
Short answer
Ben Miles. He reads the whole trilogy, and his listing says he was cast by Hilary Mantel herself and played Cromwell in the Royal Shakespeare Company adaptation, so if you heard Wolf Hall in his voice this is the same one. Simon Vance's earlier reading is complete as well. The complete readings here run 14 hrs 33 mins to 16 hrs 22 mins, each marked unabridged, and the store does not explain the difference. Julian Rhind-Tutt's is an abridgement, and nothing in its title or description says so: Audible's listing data and the running time are the only signs. The multi-book sets that carry this title alongside the others in the trilogy are marked abridged in the same way: the Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies set describes its contents as "expertly adapted versions", and the set subtitled "The Wolf Hall Trilogy" prints only the blurb for The Mirror and the Light.
The recordings, compared
| Narrator | Length | Type | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ben Miles Our pick | 16 hrs 22 mins | Unabridged | Complete and solo. Miles reads the whole trilogy, so this follows on from his Wolf Hall. |
| Simon Vance | 14 hrs 33 mins | Unabridged | Complete and solo; the earlier of the complete readings, from the same publisher as the Miles edition. |
| Julian Rhind-Tutt | 7 hrs 48 mins | Abridged | Abridged: 54% of the shortest complete reading here. Neither the title nor the description says so; Audible's listing data does. |
| Dan Stevens, Julian Rhind-Tutt, Anna Bentinck | 15 hrs 53 mins | Abridged, two-book collection | Wolf Hall and this book in one listing, with a listening guide called The World of Wolf Hall. Its description calls the novels "expertly adapted versions", and Audible's listing data marks it abridged. One running time covers everything in it. |
| Dan Stevens, Julian Rhind-Tutt, Joseph Kloska, Anna Bentinck | 27 hrs 27 mins | Abridged, three-book collection | Wolf Hall, this book and The Mirror and the Light in one listing, subtitled "The Wolf Hall Trilogy". Audible's listing data marks it abridged; its description is the blurb for The Mirror and the Light and never says so. |
