The Hippopotamus Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

Stephen Fry (Author, Narrator), Random House AudioBooks (Publisher)

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Ted Wallace is an old, sour, womanising, cantankerous, whisky-sodden beast of a failed poet and drama critic, but he has his faults too. Fired from his newspaper, months behind on his alimony payments, and disgusted with a world that undervalues him, Ted seeks a few months repose and free drink at Swafford Hall, the country mansion of his old friend Lord Logan.

But strange things have been going on at Swafford. Miracles. Healings. Phenomena beyond the comprehension of a mud-caked hippopotamus like Ted....

Listening Length

9 hours and 1 minute
Author

Stephen Fry
Narrator

Stephen Fry
Audible release date

2 September 2010
Language

English
Publisher

Random House AudioBooks
ASIN

B08NKCP7VB
Version

Unabridged
Program Type

Audiobook
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Product details

Listening Length	9 hours and 1 minute
Author	Stephen Fry
Narrator	Stephen Fry
Whispersync for Voice	Ready
Audible.com.au Release Date	02 September 2010
Publisher	Random House AudioBooks
Program Type	Audiobook
Version	Unabridged
Language	English
ASIN	B08NKCP7VB
Best Sellers Rank	2,535 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals) 5 in Epistolary Fiction 11 in Dark Humour Literature & Fiction 21 in Movie, TV & Video Game Tie-In Fiction

Customer reviews

5 star		59%
4 star		19%
3 star		11%
2 star		3%
1 star		8%

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Top reviews from Australia

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Amazon Customer

brilliant as usual

Reviewed in Australia on 17 August 2022

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Fry’s own work in his own voice. Great stuff.
A Cleverly woven tale of depravity versus faith versus etiquette.
Don’t miss it!

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Wendy

Five Stars

Reviewed in Australia on 21 October 2014

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Delightful story about beliefs. Engrossing.

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Anna Beresford

Characters beautifully drawn, funny and

Reviewed in Australia on 26 February 2015

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A very quirky, enjoyable story. Characters beautifully drawn, funny and, at times, very naughty.

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Mrs C L Sharpe

Almost DNF but ended up enjoying it!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 27 October 2019

Verified Purchase

The story opens with Ted Wallace, a poet and drama critic who has fallen from grace. He happens to meet with his estranged god-daughter Jane in a London bar who asks him if he can visit Swafford Hall, which belongs to his old school and army buddy Michael Logan. She has been seriously ill with Leukaemia but says she is cured and that events at Swafford Hall have led to this miraculous recovery. She offers him a substantial amount of money to go and see for himself and report back to her and as Ted has just been fired from his job as a theatre critic from a newspaper, he agrees.
Ted is soon welcomed at Swafford Hall which he visits on the pretence of bonding with his 15 year old godson Davey. He along with a cast of upper class characters are invited to spend time at Swafford Hall and Ted has to do some detective work to try and ascertain if Jane’s claims are true.
I’ll be honest, for probably at least half of this book, I was really not enjoying it. Ted is a vile man – a man who has no respect for women. In fact in the first few pages he states that women would not be raped as much if they enjoyed sex more! I really disliked reading from his point of view and would have definitely given up were it not for the fact it was a book club book and that it was by Stephen Fry who I understood to be a good author. There are some disturbing under age sex scenes and around half way through there is also a graphic and shocking bestiality scene.
And then at some point, maybe about half way through it won me over! I couldn’t tell you what it was that changed…maybe I got used to Ted as a character (I think he wasn’t quite as vile later on), I started to find it amusing (not exactly funny) and the story became intriguing.
As a book club, we agreed it was maybe a more acceptable book back in the early 1990s – I think if this was written nowadays there would be uproar at some of the comments about women. If nothing else it meant we had a lively discussion and we were all generally agreed that we liked the second half more than the first and that overall we were glad to have finished. I’m not sure it is a book I would recommend – maybe try another Stephen Fry book first!

5 people found this helpful

Amazon Customer

Not for the faint hearted

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 7 December 2020

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This is the best funny entertainment I’ve read for ages. It’s vintage Fry so if you’re easily offended by lack of political correctness, sacrilege, homophobia and misogyny - all very tongue in cheek of course- possibly best not to bother. On the other hand if you revel in our number one national treasure’s intelligence and good humour it’s not to be missed.

Gino

Chapter 5 and the horse really

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 29 October 2021

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Hard read to start but worth plodding on

Michael John Hayward

Filthy language

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 15 March 2021

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Don’t like the language used.
Only read a couple of pages before it went into the bin.

Just could not get into the story at all and ...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 30 January 2015

Verified Purchase

Just could not get into the story at all and gave up about a third of the way through. I admire Stephen Fry as clever and witty, but this book left me cold. Sorry, but a group of us were going to review it for a book club - one person is struggling on, but the rest of us gave up after a few chapters, which were all incredibly long!

One person found this helpful

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The Hippopotamus Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

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