Which Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes recording should you buy?
The second Holmes story collection, and the one with The Final Problem in it. The complete readings we list run 7 hrs 29 mins to 10 hrs 9 mins; beside them are the BBC radio plays and an AI voice, and the search is crowded with single stories and pastiches that borrow the title.
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Arthur Conan Doyle · 13 Audible UK recordings compared
Short answer
Derek Jacobi: complete and solo, and our pick for The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, so the stories stay in one voice. Simon Prebble, Ralph Cosham, Jonathan Keeble and the other complete readings in the table run 7 hrs 29 mins to 10 hrs 9 mins; choose on voice. Will Green and Jane Seaton's listing is titled "The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Collection". The Clive Merrison and Michael Williams edition is the BBC Radio 4 dramatisation, plays rather than readings, though the listing says unabridged. AI Voice Kokoro is a synthetic voice. And check the author line: there are "Further Memoirs" by other writers in the same results.
The recordings, compared
| Narrator | Length | Type | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Derek Jacobi Our pick | 9 hrs 5 mins | Unabridged | Complete and solo. Jacobi also reads The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. |
| Simon Prebble | 8 hrs 27 mins | Unabridged | Complete and solo. |
| Ralph Cosham | 7 hrs 34 mins | Unabridged | Complete and solo. |
| Stephen Jack | 8 hrs 31 mins | Unabridged | Complete and solo. |
| B. J. Harrison | 9 hrs 2 mins | Unabridged | Complete and solo. Listed as the Classic Tales Edition. |
| Jonathan Keeble | 8 hrs 46 mins | Unabridged | Complete and solo. |
| Rob Goll, Ben Lindsey-Clark, Elizabeth Klett and others | 9 hrs 21 mins | Unabridged | Complete, shared between several readers. |
| Peter Silverleaf | 9 hrs 7 mins | Unabridged | Complete and solo. |
| Stephen Scalon | 10 hrs 9 mins | Unabridged | Complete and solo. |
| Mark Young | 8 hrs 43 mins | Unabridged | Complete and solo. |
| Will Green and Jane Seaton | 7 hrs 29 mins | Unabridged | Complete, with two readers. The listing is titled "The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Collection". |
| Clive Merrison, Michael Williams and a cast | 8 hrs 46 mins | BBC full-cast dramatisation | The BBC Radio 4 plays: its description calls it part of the fully dramatised BBC Radio 4 canon, although the listing says unabridged. |
| AI Voice Kokoro | 11 hrs 4 mins | AI narration (Virtual Voice) | The text read by a synthetic voice. The description says "This audiobook is narrated by an AI Voice." |
