Audiobook narrator and storyteller
Excited to be working with member of Austen Authors Elaine Owen to record her An Unexpected Turn of Events (I just completed my reading of this wonderful book and I loved it from start to finish! – Amazon).
Mr Bennet outlives his wife and must make his way in a new life. Will he let the chance pass him by?
More news to come . . .
LL Diamond’s An Unwavering Trust is now published as an audiobook.
Two strangers with no one to turn to but each other — Fitzwilliam Darcy is in a difficult situation.
His father is pressing him to propose marriage to the last woman in the world he would wish to take
as his wife.
With a fortnight to announce his betrothal, he makes the acquaintance of Elizabeth Bennet, who is in a predicament of her own.
Could Darcy be willing to consider Elizabeth as a solution to his problem and to hers?
And can Elizabeth ascertain enough of Darcy’s character to trust him upon nothing but a first impression?
An Unwavering Trust is available on Amazon, Audible and iTunes.
Book 2 of Austen Author Sophie Turner’s A Constant Love series, A Change of Legacies is now available as an audiobook.
A story of love and family, it’s the sequel to A Constant Love.
Darcy and Elizabeth are about to have their first child, and the beginning of Georgiana’s married life does not go as smoothly expected.
Meanwhile, Mary Bennet finds herself romantically interested in a man. But will her own character and his family get in her way?
A Change of Legacies is available on Amazon, Audible and iTunes.
THE DUKE’S LAST HUNT by Rosanne E Lortz, now available as an audiobook, narrated by Verona Westbrook
With her third London season drawing to a close, the shy Eliza Malcolm seems unlikely to find any husband, let alone one with a title.
But when the Duke of Brockenhurst invites the Malcolms to visit Harrowhaven, Eliza’s father jumps at the chance to gain a wealthy son-in-law.
Surrounded by quarreling parents, tactless acquaintances, an aloof dowager, and the unsettling duke, Eliza looks for one person kind enough to help her navigate the murky waters of Harrowhaven’s secrets.
The audiobook of The Duke’s Last Hunt is available on Amazon, Audible and iTunes.
JUST PUBLISHED!
Sophie Turner’s latest Pride and Prejudice variation — read by Verona Westbrook, and available on Amazon, Audible and iTunes.
Chastened by Charles Bingley following Mr Bennet’s untimely death, Fitzwilliam Darcy determines he will offer marriage to Elizabeth . . . but forced by circumstances she marries another.
Years later, Elizabeth is a widow, and mistress of Longbourn. She has vowed she will never marry again.
A chance meeting at Netherfield brings them back together again, but Darcy will have to win more than her heart if he is to have any chance of making her mistress of Pemberley.
While listening to an audiobook you can conjure up your own images — what the characters look like, how they’re dressed, what kind of landscape the story is set in.
When these stories are transferred to television or film some of the magic can disappear.
I remember a long time ago listening to a radio version of Johanna Spyri’s classic children’s book Heidi, a story of an orphaned girl who goes to live with the grumpy grandfather in the Swiss alps.
Then, the same story appeared on television, and I was quite cross. The Heidi and the grandfather were from someone else’s imagination, not mine, and they didn’t seem right to me.
But I still remember the radio version in detail.
Similarly Barbara Sleigh’s The Kingdom of Carbonel (“the King of the Cats”) and Audrey Feist’s Wind Whistle Farm.
Thankfully, neither of these made it to television, so my childhood memories haven’t been shattered. But I still remember the “thump squeak” sound of the wooden leg of the evil Clint limping along the floorboards in Wind Whistle Farm and Mrs Catnip, the retired witch, from The Kingdom of Carbonel (the first time I came across the word “widdershins”).
MRS HUDSON is possibly the most famous landlady in literature — presiding over the comings and goings of Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson at 221b Baker Street in London.
She meets the clients, the villains and the Baker Street Irregulars, and gives her views on Victorian society — and women’s roles and rights — and explores the recipes she would have prepared for her famous lodgers.
Taken from a long-running series of columns in the Sherlockian journal Canadian Holmes.
IT SEEMS that audiobooks have attracted a new audience.
Research carried out by the Hartbury College in the UK, and reported by the Discovery Channel and the journal Applied Animal Behaviour Science, has shown that dogs relate more to audiobooks than to classical music.
The study investigated the effects on 31 dogs in a rescue centre. They were exposed to classical and pop music and music “designed” specifically for dogs, as well as audiobooks.
“We were surprised that audiobooks appeared to be more beneficial than classical music as this has been documented as having a positive effect on a range of other species, such as reducing abnormal behaviours in gorillas and elephants,” said Dr Tamara Montrose, Animal Behaviour and Welfare lecturer at the College.
Interestingly, classical music doesn’t seem to work so well with horses. The same college found that the equine favourite is Country & Western.
Perhaps not surprisingly, jazz and rock led to stressful behaviour such as stamping, head tossing, snorting and whinnying.
I wonder what they’d make of audiobooks?
ENCOURAGING news for audiobook fans.
The Audio Publishers Association say sales were 18.2 per cent higher than in 2015, totalling around $2.1 billion.
And the actual number of books sold increased by 33.9%: that’s 89½ million.
Last year titles from the main audiobook publishers came to 50,937 – a 43.1 increase over 2015.
A lot of this was from digital downloads. And almost 30 per cent of the audiobook audience listened on their smartphones.
The most popular categories in 2016?
Mysteries, thrillers and suspense, science fiction, fantasy and romance.
A CONSTANT LOVE
by Sophie Turner
“I had always said that if I did an audiobook of it, I would want it read in a British accent, which ruled me out. In came Verona Westbrook, with her lovely narration, to make both the characters and the setting come to life”
SWEET SURRENDER
by Wendy May Andrews
HOW TO CARE FOR A LADY
by Jerrica Knight-Catania
“I do love listening to your voice”
FLIRTING WITH SCANDAL
by Jerrica Knight-Catania
“Thank you so much for lending your lovely voice to this project”
“Very excited to have a Regency expert reading for me”
FRANCINE
by Alicia Cameron
MISS PHILPOTT AND THE FASCINATING MATHILDE
by Alicia Cameron
“Subtle characterisation . . . the Miss Philpott of my imagination”
ONE PERFECT AFTERNOON
by Jane Dawkins
TO WED AN HEIRESS
by Rosanne E Lortz
