THE ROTTERS' CLUB

Ben Trotter and his friends go to the posh King William's School in Birmingham in the 1970s. They work on the school news paper, listen to punk rock, worry about girls and IRA bomb-ings, and wait two years to get holiday photographs developed because of a strike. Characters abound in this novel, but Colin Buchanan is equal to the task of developing varying pacing and accents to handle them all. His performance is brilliant. Occasionally he is even required to sing--as when Ben's younger brother, Paul, is overheard singing (or screaming?) the only two lines he knows of a Sex Pistols' song as he cycles across the hills. Buchanan will make listeners smile as they remember the feeling of teenaged angst. A.B. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award (c) AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine [Published: FEB/ MAR 05]