Free audiobook downloads this weekend

veggieblob

The season commences with seven free John le Carr! audiobooks. Saturday in the Guardian: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Sunday in the Observer: Our Kind of Traitor. See the paper each day this week for details on how to download.

Zanderman

Direct link for first book (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) is

http://www.audiogo.co.uk/guardian-tinker-tailor

You need to register - and then enter code tinker1 at checkout.

Code expires midnight on Friday 23rd September


Details of the book:

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Unabridged Reading

Author : John le Carre
Reader : Michael Jayston
Running Time : 12hrs 53mins

Mr George Smiley is small, podgy, and at best, middle-aged. He is disillusioned, wrestles with idleness, and has been deserted by his beautiful wife. He is also compassionate, ruthless and a senior British intelligence officer in short-lived retirement from the Circus the British Secret Service organisation situated in London. But Moscow centre has infiltrated a mole into the Circus and it's more than likely that the perpetrator is Karla Smiley's old adversary and his opposite number in Moscow. And when, at the dead of night, a member of the Cabinet offers Smiley the job to 'clean the stables, do whatever is necessary', it becomes a long and bitter battle of wits between Smiley, the master of deceit, and the enigmatic Karla...

silicondale

Did you actually try to download it, Zanderman and Veggieblob? After several pages of filling in forms, and also downloading java (which I have no other use for), and installing java (which it doesn't tell you is actually necessary), I managed to get a download manager window. Looked fine but stayed stubbornly on 0% until an error status message appeared and the window closed. Trying to download the alternative way, with a zip file, was even worse. Just arolling circle for several minutes, then Internet Explorer Cannot Display This Webpage. As someone who builds websites commercially, I don't consider this is worthy of a major national newspaper. It's just not professional. There isn't even a help desk open at weekends to telephone about it. It might be free, but if you can't actually download it, then it's worth every penny you've spent.
Do they really have to use AudioGo anyway? Don't they have their own in-house website people who could do the job far more simply and without requiring you to register for services you don't want?

barker99

I didn't have any problems dowloading - the actual download took a while but went smoothly and it's playing nicely

clemmatis

I had basically the same problem, silicondale. I emailed audiogo's customer support, but they only work weekdays. I might complain to the Guardian too, if this doesn't get sorted out fast.

edit simondale, I think the problem's caused by audiogo's site slowing down. Probably the book's in your download folder there, for download at any time. I found mine is, it just won't download now...

clemmatis

By the way, I posted the offer in the other freebie sub-forum, as no purchase is required,

Zanderman

The second book is "Our Kind of Traitor"

Link is http://www.audiogo.co.uk/observer-our-traitor

Code is traitor2

Expires midnight Sat 24th September

Book details:

Our Kind of Traitor
Unabridged Reading

Author : John le Carre
Reader : Michael Jayston
Running Time : 11hrs 23mins

Michael Jayston reads this taut, suspenseful novel from the master of spy fiction, John le Carre.

Britain is in the depths of recession. A left-leaning young Oxford academic and his barrister girlfriend take an off-peak holiday on the Caribbean island of Antigua. Seemingly by chance they bump into a Russian millionaire called Dima, who owns a peninsula and a diamond-encrusted gold watch. He also has a tattoo on his right thumb, and wants a game of tennis.

But he wants something else too, something which propels the young lovers on a tortuous journey through Paris to a safe house in the Swiss Alps, to the murkiest cloisters of the City of London and its unholy alliance with Britain’s Intelligence Establishment.

‘No writer has done more with the spy thriller than John le Carr!’ - Observer

A complete and unabridged reading by Michael Jayston.

PS for Silicondale - Sorry to hear you've had probs with audiogo's download - I should try it again after the weekend as it might just be overbusy. Or perhaps try another browser. As for why the Guardian don't do the download direct from their site - well, this is a promotion that's clearly a commercial partnership between the Gn and Audiogo - to promote both of them, and audiogo will be hoping for ongoing business from it (though if their site is slow they may not get it!). This is a normal arrangement for these sorts of promotion - with the onus on the provider (audiogo) not the promoter (guardian) for delivery. No different to, say, buying tulip bulbs on an offer from the telegraph - where the bulbs come form a seed merchant, not the telegraph.

Steppenwolf_2

I seem to remember that Audiogo have theor own download manager but I can't find it anywhere to install it - there's no mention of it on their website

clemmatis

Steppenwolf I think the download manager is the master.jnlp file that downloads when I *try* to download the books! -- which are still impossible to get in zip file form

I have emailed them again and will copy emails to the Guardian.

clemmatis

Steppenwolf I think the download manager is the master.jnlp file that downloads when I *try* to download the books! -- which are still impossible to get in zip file form

I have emailed them again and will copy emails to the Guardian.

eta Zanderman, I have tried three different browsers and three different download methods

audiogo do email acknowledgement of my "purchase" so I should be able to download the books eventually!

silicondale

Hi Steppenwolf. If you have java installed, their download manager downloads itself and starts automatically. If you don't have java installed you get directed to the java download site, but without any explanation of what you need to do. You need to download java and then install it before going back to the audiogo site. Their download manager will then open. Unfortunately that's all it did for me. It opened, it prompted for a download location, and then sat there with 0% downloaded until an error status appeared.

With the zip download option I did finally get a message - though a very brief one. It said just "item not found". And same again with today's title. This is from boomer.j-tao.com - presumably just a download site that Audiogo use.

Hi zander .... thanks for the suggestions. Tried google chrome instead of Internet Explorer, same result (i.e. nothing). I could try another browser but don't want to waste any more time on it. Waiting for customer services to open tomorrow.

- silicondale