J.M.W. TURNER Ackroyd's Brief Lives

British narrator Nicholas Guy Smith gives the visionary Cockney painter Turner a voice of his own, distinct but not exaggerated, in this cursory but informative biography. In reading quotations, Smith takes the occasional opportunity to act and to provide other voices as well. His narrator's voice is more restrained but still cordial and energetic. He renders the text with clarity and skill, though he sometimes tries a bit too hard to be expressive, to inject feeling into the sentences. A few of his pronunciations, oddly British or simply idiosyncratic, may give listeners, especially Americans, pause. But, overall, this is a bright and spirited treatment of a unique figure in the history of art. W.M. © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine [Published: FEBRUARY 2015]