Bill Bryson, Meg Rosoff, Sally Rooney and Kate Riordan: This week’s best audiobooks

The Body

Bill Bryson                                                                                         Read by Bill Bryson

The human body is two-thirds oxygen. We grow about eight metres of hair in a lifetime. In the past 10,000 years, the brain has shrunk by an amount equivalent to the volume of a tennis ball. 

You can only ever see soap lather as white, regardless of the colour of the soap. Every page of Bryson’s page-turning pop science book is packed with extraordinary facts like these and it’s a treat to hear it read in the author’s soothing, slightly quizzical voice. 14hrs, 47mins

The Great Godden

Meg Rosoff                                                                                Read by Andrew Scott

Rosoff is the queen of the coming-of-age story. In her latest a family are joined on their summer holiday at the English coast by two American teenagers. The temperature rises both literally and metaphorically and an ill-starred romance has ramifications for everyone. 

Andrew Scott – the ‘hot priest’ from TV’s Fleabag – is an excellent choice as narrator; his languid delivery is perfect. 4hrs, 9mins

Normal People

Sally Rooney                                                                        Read by Aoife McMahon

You’ve watched the global hit TV adaptation, you’ve read the best-selling novel but if you still can’t get enough of Marianne and Connell’s on-off relationship, the audiobook is the answer. 

Actress Aoife McMahon is the go-to narrator for books by cool, young Irish writers. She has narrated both of the novels Rooney has written to date, as well as Exciting Times, the brilliant debut by Naoise Dolan whom critics have compared to Rooney. 7hrs 36mins

The Heatwave

Kate Riordan                                                                        Read by Miranda Raison

News of a fire at their old family home in Provence means that Sylvie and her 13-year-old daughter Emma have to return to the house they left ten years earlier. The place is filled with memories of Sylvie’s first daughter and Emma and her mother will have to confront the truth about Elodie’s death all those years ago. 

This tense psychological drama brilliantly evokes its South of France setting and is terrific summer escapism. 8hrs 45 mins

Audiobooks available at audible.co.uk