Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

Preview
  • Dorothy L. Sayers

  • A Careless Rage for Life
  • By: David Coomes
  • Narrated by: Wanda McCaddon
  • Length: 7 hrs and 13 mins
  • 3.7 out of 5 stars (9 ratings)

£0.00 for first 30 days

Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Dorothy L. Sayers

By: David Coomes
Narrated by: Wanda McCaddon
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £15.99

Buy Now for £15.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Summary

Known to millions as the creator of Lord Peter Wimsey and the best-selling author of a dozen detective novels, Dorothy Leigh Sayers was in reality a complex woman - moved, she said, by “a careless rage for life.” It is this complex Sayers, brilliant student, controversial apologist, witty, bawdy, intolerant of fools - he woman “terrified of emotion” - who is revealed in this new biography.

The production of Sayers’ radio play on the life of Christ, The Man Born to Be King, raised a storm of controversy. Reveling in the verbal battle, pugnacious, tenacious, she nonetheless pursued the Christian faith not merely as an intellectual godgame, but as the dominant force in her life. The Wimsey novels’ treatment of the themes of justice, guilt, punishment and the imperatives of personal responsibility reflect her beliefs.

©1992 David Coomes (P)2000 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Critic reviews

“Narrator McCaddon enhances Coomes’ extensive use of Sayers’ letters by reading them in character, adding to our sense of the author speaking to us in her own voice. Her British accent lends crisp authority and distinction, doing full justice to such splendid passages as Sayers’ introduction to her translation of Dante’s Inferno. She sets a swift pace that carries us along, dropping in deft pauses to let us know the writer is about to change course. The clean, uncluttered production gives the author the stage.” (AudioBooksToday.com)

What listeners say about Dorothy L. Sayers

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 3.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    2
  • 4 Stars
    3
  • 3 Stars
    3
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    3
  • 4 Stars
    3
  • 3 Stars
    3
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    2
  • 4 Stars
    2
  • 3 Stars
    4
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Interesting biography, sound quality too harsh

As a Dorothy L Sayers fan I was excited to find this reading of David Coomes' biography.
However, I've struggled with the audio quality - Wanda McCaddon is clearly a good reader, but the audio is very harsh and hard on my ears, I suspect it's a digitisation issue.
I've enjoyed listening to Wanda McCaddon reading EF Benson's Miss Mapp (in her other guise of Nadia May), so I don't believe it could be her mellifluous tones.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful