Audiobook

My First Book

This is not a children's book, as may be supposed from the title, but a collection of essays first published in The Idler magazine, in which over twenty well-known authors write with characteristic style and humour of their experiences in writing their first book... and getting it published.

Authors include Jerome K. Jerome, R. L. Stevenson, Bret Harte, Rider Haggard, Rudyard Kipling, Conan Doyle and Mary Braddon. Full of charm, humour and pathos, this book is like a fireside chat with great writers of the past, as well as being a fascinating insight into the literary scene of the late 19th century.

The listener is warned that a few of the authors give away the ending of their book, especially when they were pressurised into changing it by the publisher.
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Here are links to online texts of the works discussed, where available:
Ready-Money Mortiboy;
The Family Scapegrace;
The Wreck of the ‘Grosvenor’;
Physiological Aesthetics;
Philistia;
The Shadow of a Crime;
Departmental Ditties;
The Trail of the Serpent;
The House of Elmore;
Dawn;
Hudson Bay;
The Premier and the Painter;
The Western Avernus;
A Life’s Atonement;
A Romance of Two Worlds;
On the Stage and Off;
Cavalry Life;
Dead Man’s Rock;
Undertones;
Idyls and Legends of Inverburn;
Treasure Island

(Summary by Ruth Golding)

Running Time: 9 hours 09 minutes 01 second(23 chapters)

Language: EnglishRead by: Ruth Golding, Patti Cunningham

#	Chapter Name
	Introduction Ruth Golding	17:09
	Ready-Money Mortiboy Ruth Golding	20:59
	The Family Scapegrace Ruth Golding	18:47
	The Wreck of the Grosvenor Ruth Golding	21:05
	Physiological Aesthetics and Philistia Ruth Golding	20:41
	The Shadow of a Crime Ruth Golding	36:04
	The Social Kaleidoscope Ruth Golding	25:07
	Departmental Ditties Ruth Golding	11:02
	Juvenilia Ruth Golding	18:39
	The Trail of the Serpent Ruth Golding	24:49
	The House of Elmore Ruth Golding	15:42
	Dawn Ruth Golding	30:11
	Hudson's Bay Ruth Golding	17:58
	The Premier and the Painter Ruth Golding	28:25
	The Western Avernus Patti Cunningham	16:29
	A Life's Atonement Ruth Golding	24:12
	A Romance of Two Worlds Ruth Golding	31:13
	On the Stage and Off Ruth Golding	35:57
	Cavalry Life Ruth Golding	31:21
	Californian Verse Ruth Golding	22:03
	Dead Man's Rock Patti Cunningham	22:12
	Undertones and Idyls and Legends of Inverburn Ruth Golding	31:11
	Treasure Island Ruth Golding	27:45