Audiobook narrator and storyteller
When former UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw was in Iran (as a tourist, with his wife) he found himself circling the Shiraz ring road, driven by (they suspected) a member of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps).
To calm their fears they listened to an audiobook of “Pride & Prejudice”.
A major retrospective exhibition of the work of war photographer Don McCullin (Tate Gallery, London until 6 May 2019) includes many of his most impactful photogaphs from the last 60 years, including conflicts in Vietnam, Northern Ireland and, more recently, Syria.
McCullin also documented human tragedy — the building of the Berlin Wall in 1964, a screaming widow in Cyprus, a Turkish Cypriot victim of civil war, a mother holding her wailing child during a devastating cholera epidemic in Bangladesh in 1971 (an image used on the front cover of the pioneering Sunday Times Magazine.
Don McCullin’s work was also the subject of a retrospective at the Imperial War Museum in 2012, reviewed at the time by Marina Vaizey in Cecil Beaton: Theatre of War (published in audiobook format).
A rare first edition of “Pride and Prejudice” is to be auctioned at Bonhams.
With over 20 million copies of the original book sold, Bonhams is expecting a sale price of between £15,000 and £20,000.
“Pride and Prejudice” has been adapted for television of films dozens of times — the first TV version was in 1938 starring Curigwen Lewis and Andrew Osborn, followed two years later by a big-screen version with Greer Garson as Elizabeth Bennet and Laurence Olivier as Darcy.
An unlikely Darcy in 1952 was Peter Cushing, better known for Hammer House of Horror movies.
And then of course there’s the timeless 1995 television series with Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth.
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.
According to Austen family legend, one member of every generation is the spitting image of Aunt Jane. Of those who came of age before the Second World War, that mantle fell on Diana Shervington.
Diana’s grandmothers, Louisa and Elizabeth, were sisters, both granddaughters of Edward Austen Knight, Jane Austen’s elder brother.
He was adopted by the wealthy Knight family, relatives of the Austens, as they needed an heir. He inherited Chawton House and estate in Hampshire, and provided Chawton Cottage for Jane and her sister Cassandra.
In the mid 1920s Diana and her family moved to Chawton House where they cared for an elderly relative from whom Shervington inherited many of Austen’s possessions. She was particularly fond of a rose cockade from 1798.
“Jane was always part of the scene,” she said of her youth. “I was given a set of the books when I was about 15.” Her grandmothers would speak of elderly family members who had known Austen. “They remembered her as being great fun,” Shervington said.
While much of Shervington’s adult life was given over to raising a family and pursuing her career as a sculptor, in recent years she had been a popular presence with Jane Austen fans (or Janeites), her extravagant hats and excited laughter brightening even the dampest of days. “I started researching [Jane Austen’s] music books ,” she said. “Gradually I realised that I could help others by showing them artefacts and giving talks. I’ve given some of Jane’s things to the Lyme Regis Museum, including some of her embroidery, the set of spillikins and some bone counters with letters on them that Jane probably used to learn her alphabet.”
Shervington was acutely aware of the many spin-offs from her ancestor’s oeuvre, although she had doubts about some of them. “I always fear these adaptations will not be very good,” she told The Times in 1971 when BBC Two was serialising Sense and Sensibility. “I’ve been reading a novel by Jane Austen again instead.”
After the BBC’s 1995 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice starring Colin Firth, the Austen “industry” took off. Shervington, the closest descendant of the original Austen family in years and looks, became something of a celebrity, with fans anxious to meet her. Visitors to Lyme Regis would be regaled with ever-growing tales of her family memories, often delivered from the spot on the Cobb where Louisa Musgrove falls in Persuasion, and would be invited to inspect heirlooms that had once been owned by Austen.
Although Shervington relished the attention, she never changed her view that some of the film adaptations of her great-great-great-aunt went too far. “They need to be kept in check,” she told Jane Austen’s Regency World magazine. “They are too sexy. There’s plenty of sexiness in Jane’s writing. It doesn’t need any more adding.”
Diana Shervington, descendant of Jane Austen’s family, was born on 10 January 1919. She died on 24 July 2018, aged 99.
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.
Audiobooks read by narrators with British voices are three times more popular with US listeners than American voices, according to a new survey by audiobooks.com.
Thirty-five per cent of those surveyed said they preferred a UK voice, compared with only 12 per cent who opted for one from the US.
Californian Shane Yule, who lives in Harrow in north-west London, said the result didn’t surprise him.
“The British accent is much easier on the ear.”
The same goes for authors, too.
Sophie Turner, author of Mistress and A Constant Love said:
“I had always said that if I did an audiobook, 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”.
Audiobooks of both Mistress and A Constant Love are available on Audible, Amazon and ITunes.
