Which Jungle Book recording should you buy?
The first of Kipling's two Jungle Books runs about five to six hours. The same search sells it at 36 minutes rewritten for English learners, as three Mowgli stories, twice as a radio play, cut down under a famous name — and at over ten hours under exactly the same title.
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Rudyard Kipling · 12 Audible UK recordings compared
Short answer
Rhashan Stone, 5 hours: the Puffin Classics edition from Penguin, complete and solo. Ben Allen at 5h58 is complete too. Two things make this page harder than it looks. First, The Jungle Book is only the first of two, and the editions that carry both are sold under almost the same name: Ralph Cosham's The Jungle Book I & II at 11 hrs 8 and Homer Todiwala's The Jungle Books at 15 hrs 15 are both books, which is right for them and wrong if you wanted the first one. Benjamin May's edition is titled as the first book alone yet runs 10 hours 21, and its description does not mention The Second Jungle Book — check before buying. Second, the shorter editions are not what they seem. Tony Robinson's 2h40 is marked abridged in Audible's own listing data while its description calls it "the unabridged, downloadable audiobook edition". Peter Jeffrey's 2h25 is three of the Mowgli stories rather than the book, which also contains Rikki-Tikki-Tavi and The White Seal. And two readers for learners of English sit in the same results: an Oxford Bookworms edition at 1h10, and a CEFR A1+ edition at 36 minutes.
The recordings, compared
| Narrator | Length | Type | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rhashan Stone Our pick | 5 hrs | Unabridged | Complete and solo. The Puffin Classics edition, from Penguin. |
| Ben Allen | 5 hrs 58 mins | Unabridged | Complete and solo. |
| Benjamin May | 10 hrs 21 mins | Unabridged | Titled as The Jungle Book alone, at about twice the length of every other complete reading of it. The description does not mention The Second Jungle Book, so we cannot tell you whether both are included. Check before buying. |
| Ralph Cosham | 11 hrs 8 mins | Two-book collection | Both Jungle Books in one edition, which is why it runs longer than a complete reading of the first book. Right if you want both, wrong if you wanted The Jungle Book on its own. |
| Homer Todiwala | 15 hrs 15 mins | Two-book collection | The Jungle Books, plural: both books rather than the first one. The title is one letter away from the book most people are looking for. |
| Tony Robinson | 2 hrs 40 mins | Abridged | Marked abridged in Audible's own listing data, and the runtime agrees — but the description calls it "the unabridged, downloadable audiobook edition". The byline credits Robinson alongside Kipling. Both cannot be true. |
| Alistair McGowan | 1 hr 2 mins | Abridged | Abridged, in the Famous Fiction series. |
| Peter Jeffrey | 2 hrs 25 mins | Selection of three stories | Three of the Mowgli stories, read in full — not the book, which also contains Rikki-Tikki-Tavi and The White Seal. Listed as The Jungle Book: The Mowgli Stories. |
| David Shaw-Parker | 1 hr 10 mins | Oxford Bookworms graded reader | Not the book: "An Oxford Bookworms Library reader for learners of English." The title carries (Adaptation), so it is labelled. |
| Karen Kovacs | 36 mins | ELT graded reader (CEFR A1+) | Not the book. Listed as The Jungle Book Elementary, Level A1+, so the level is in the title — labelled, and a fraction of the length. |
| Eartha Kitt, Freddie Jones, Jonathan Hyde and cast | 2 hrs 15 mins | Full-cast dramatisation | A BBC Children's Classics dramatisation. A cast, not a reading. |
| Margaret Maynard and cast | 1 hr 17 mins | Full-cast dramatisation | Described as a dramatized version. A cast, not a reading. |
The recording we recommend is also on Audiobooks.com — the same Rhashan Stone reading, listed at 5 hrs when we checked on 11 September 2026. Their one-credit plan is listed at £7.99 a month before applicable taxes, and its credits expire after three months — the two models compared. We earn a commission on that link.