Riceyman Steps by Arnold Bennett
11 CDs, £30, from assembledstories.com

Alice in Wonderland & Nonsense Verse and Prose by Lewis Carroll
Oxford Storypods, 1 MP3 CD, £11.99 from oxfordstorypods.com

Peter Joyce is the most remarkable one-man band in audiobook publishing. Browse the lengthy list of very reasonably priced unabridged classics on his website (assembledstories.com) to find such unusual titles as Horace Walpole's Castle of Otranto, Emily Eden's The Semi-Attached Couple, Saki's Unbearable Bassington, Trollope's Harry Heathcote of Gangoll, George MacDonald's The Princess and the Goblin and G.K.Chesterton's Four Faultless Felons. Joyce, an experienced actor, reads them all himself. I was entranced by Arnold Bennett's subtle 1919 study of marital checks and balances in Riceyman Steps.

Alice in Wonderland & Nonsense Verse and Prose by Lewis Carroll is another excellent independent venture offering books with an Oxford connection. It begins with a multi-cast Alice in Wonderland. Alice (Katharine Eve) is fresh and matter-of fact; the White Rabbit is a jittery stickler for convention and the snarling between the Duchess and the Red Queen is terrible to hear. There is half an hour of Carroll's schoolroom skit, Sylvia and Bruno, a romping Jabberwocky, The Mad Gardener's Song and much more. Through the Looking Glass is due for release later this month.

An MP3 CD contains more audio (in this case, 3 hrs 30 mins) than a regular 80-minute CD. It works on computers and most CD players.

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