Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

  • The Ministry of Fear

  • By: Graham Greene
  • Narrated by: Oliver Chris
  • Length: 7 hrs and 36 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (50 ratings)
Offer ends May 1st, 2024 11:59PM GMT. Terms and conditions apply.
£7.99/month after 3 months. Renews automatically.
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.
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.
The Ministry of Fear cover art

The Ministry of Fear

By: Graham Greene
Narrated by: Oliver Chris
Get this deal Try for £0.00

Pay £99p/month. After 3 months pay £7.99/month. Renews automatically. See terms for eligibility.

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

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

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.

Listeners also enjoyed...

The Human Factor cover art
Stamboul Train cover art
The Captain and the Enemy cover art
The Heart of the Matter cover art
The Destructors and Other Stories cover art
See No Evil cover art
The House of Cain cover art
Vertigo cover art
Heads You Lose cover art
A Report of Murder cover art
Bodies from the Library cover art
The Killings at Badger’s Drift cover art
The Four Just Men cover art
Murder's a Swine cover art
The Widow of Bath cover art
The Man in the Queue cover art

Summary

Brought to you by Penguin.

For Arthur Rowe the charity fête was a trip back to childhood, to innocence, a welcome chance to escape the terror of the Blitz, to forget twenty years of his past and a murder. Then he guesses the weight of the cake, and from that moment on he's a hunted man, the target of shadowy killers, on the run and struggling to remember and to find the truth.

©2020 Graham Greene (P)2020 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

Greene was a force beyond his books (Melvyn Bragg)

What listeners say about The Ministry of Fear

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    32
  • 4 Stars
    13
  • 3 Stars
    3
  • 2 Stars
    2
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    30
  • 4 Stars
    6
  • 3 Stars
    4
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    26
  • 4 Stars
    11
  • 3 Stars
    3
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0

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

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

England, cake and guilt.

Written in 1943 this is an espionage thriller set in a London during the Blitz. It satisfies most as a piece of highly-honed period styling, being a take on the late Surrealism so trendy at the time. Thus, the protagonist's tragic quest through shabby reality is set in a theatre of dream and memory. I enjoyed this fusion of pulp mystery thriller and self-conscious artiness.

The clean modernity of Greene's prose lifts the artificiality of an ornate plot clear of the sort kitschy commercial surrealism which second-raters of the time seemed prone to. You can easily imagine it as a vehicle for Hitchcock to have adapted cinematically, being full of quirky characters and scenic details and shot-through with angsty atmosphere.

However, striking though it is as a piece of pop style, as a thriller with pretentions to literary substance it doesn't quite convince. I find the artificiality of the far-fetched plot makes the deeper underlying themes of spiritual quest in a nihilistic world seem a bit contrived and pretentious. The author's constantly trying to go for a sophisticated polish which comes off as a sort of sales pitch for a dark personal consciousness. In short, the fit isn't invisible enough to achieve the ambition. You get the sneaking impression that Greene is grooving on the blackness of Greeneland a little too much to be the truly classy adult entertainment he's aiming at.

I don't know where critics place the book in the author's oeuvre, but I'd guess it's not rated as being even in the same division as his later stuff.

But if you're up for a bit of slick period pop, go for it.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

10 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

an enjoyable story and well read

Great narration that brings to life the mind and thinking of the main character. And a good story of an unfolding mystery

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

excellent narration and story

Oliver Chris is an excellent narrator. I felt fully immersed in the tension of the story. Brilliant, loved it, going to try another Graham Greene but wished there were more with the same narrator.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

surreal or real

I thought the story gripping and liked that it wasn't clear whether it was meant to be realistic or surreal.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!