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Your favourite narrator


chesilbeach

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A great narrator can make all the difference to whether I enjoy an listening to a book, so I wondered if anyone has a particular favourite narrator of audiobooks?

 

My top favourite has to be the mellifluous Stephen Fry, who I could listen to forever. I've listened to him read the entire Harry Potter series to me many times, and I thoroughly enjoyed the collection of Oscar Wilde short stories he read to me.

 

I've also loved Simon Callow reading some of the P. G. Wodehouse Jeeves and Wooster series, another one of the great voices who is perfectly suited to narration.

 

My favourite female narrators have been Joanna David who I listened to reading some Jane Austen books, including the wonderful Pride and Prejudice, and her voice is perfect for the style of the writing, and also Anna Massey, who narrated a Radio 4 series called This Sceptred Isle which was absolutely wonderful.

 

What about everyone else?

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This should be a very useful thread Chesilbeach. biggrin.gif

 

For me, my favourite so far has been Jesse Bernstein, who has done all the Percy Jackson books. He's really good at the different voices, considering he has humans, monsters and gods to cover - and even his female voices are good.

 

One I will be avoiding is Tanya Eby. I bought Ice Cold by Tess Gerritsen, but I'm afraid the narration is making it a struggle. She's a fast reader, and also quite harsh and metallic sounding. :(

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  • 1 month later...

Great thread Chesil, I love Audiobooks :) My favourite male narrators are Stephen Fry of course, Simon Prebble, Alex Jennings and Steven Pacey. Stephen could read anything and make it interesting, his Harry Potter readings are legendary and easily the best audiobooks I've ever heard. Simon's reading of 'Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell' is just perfect (I've also heard him reading 'The Pickwick Papers' and 'The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes' and he is exactly right for both. I love Tony Robinson's reading of the Discworld novels and only wish they were not abridged versions. Kenneth Branaghs 'Cider with Rosie' is also absolutely fantastic and I liked his reading of 'The Magicians Nephew' by C.S. Lewis also (wish that he had narrated all of the Narnia books but alas they all had different narrators.) Rob Inglis is fantastic at reading 'The Hobbit and 'the Lord of the Rings' which cannot have been the easiest of task's .. the songs alone must have been a trial.

 

Although I do like Joanna David and Anna Massey's narration, I only like it if they are reading genteel kinds of books, especially Austen etc, I'm not so keen on their contemporary readings. I like Juliet Stevenson's narration because she always gives it 100% and her reading of 'Northanger Abbey' is just sensational. Likewise Patricia Routledge reading 'Wuthering Heights' was a total surprise to me ... just fantastic.

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Stephen Fry is definitely one of my favourites, although I have to admit Jim Dale's voice for Mundungus Fletcher was perfect for the character. I also really like Nathanial Parker. He did a really good job with the Artemis Fowl series. His voice for Artemis was absolute perfection.

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  • 1 month later...

I have most of the P D James 'Adam Dalgleish' novels on audiobook and they are read by Michael Jayston who is very good indeed, in my opinion. Also I love to listen to Winnie the Pooh and Wind in the Willows read by Alan Bennett

 

My friend likes to listen to the 'Just William' books as read by Martin Jarvis!

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OK, I don't know many English speaking narrators. But I love Stephen Fry (I love his Harry Potter audio books and can't stand the famous German ones read by Rufus Beck. Rufus Beck is one of the most famous German narrators but after listening to Stephen Fry I cannot understand that!) And lately I discovered David Ledoux. I love him reading Maggie Stiefvaters Sam to me!

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  • 8 months later...

I love listening to Michael Kramer and Kate Reading, they work together on the Wheel of Time audio books and once I'm published, I'm begging them to read my books!

 

I also love Stephen King's narration. He has an amazing narrative voice. who better to read an awesome book other than the writer himself?

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Loads of you have already said it - but it has to be Stephen Fry - with the HP series being one of the most amazing audiobook series ever. I originally bought the first three HP books on CD for my mum after she had two strokes. She firmly believes that somehow it helped her recover - and I love the man for that! Seriously though, he could read out my weekly shopping list and make it sound enchanting!

 

The other person that springs to mind is Miriam Margolyes :)

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  • 3 weeks later...

I'd forgotten I'd started this thread! A few weeks ago I listened to Simon Callow reading a P. G. Wodehouse Jeeves and Wooster book, and extremely enjoyable it was. One thing I've noticed about my preferences are that I mostly seem to prefer British narrators, and on top of that, British narrators who have "posh" accents (for want of a better word). I'm going to be looking out the Mapp and Lucia series on audio book at some point, and I would imagine they would almost certainly have a beautifully spoken English accent narrating them.

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I listened to an audio book of The Three Musketeers read by Michael York (who played D'Artagnan in the 1970s films) and he was marvellous. At one point, I thought the others were reading out their parts as he changed his voice to sound like them too!

 

I also downloaded a free audio book of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow from Librivox read by an American chap listed only as Chip and he was brilliant - and an amateur too! Such a great voice. He also read parts of Fanny Hill and his voice was so lascivious that I actually blushed whilst listening to it at times!

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 3 months later...

I've only listened to Richard Dawkins audio books which obviously he covered himself and The Origin of Species which he also narrated. I enjoy listening to him speak and what he has to say, as well as videos but I can't say he has one of those voices you could listen to all day like David Attenborough. I'm really hoping in the not too distant future you will be to programme audio books to a variety of actors voices but they won't come out awkwardly like a computer reading aloud. My favourite voice actor is probably Keith David (voiced Goliath in Disneys Gargoyles and many other things). Though strictly for audio books I can't say.

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One of my most favourite books is 'Midnight's Children' by Salman Rushdie. Reading the book is a joy, but I happened upon the unabridged audio book read by Lyndam Gregory, and it is truly magical. He brings the story to life so exquisitely it is such a pleasure to listen to it.

 

I would heartily recommend the audio (and the book!) to anyone.

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  • 1 year later...

So, I've just finished listening to Mansfield Park narrated by Juliet Stevenson, and while for the most part I enjoyed it, I really didn't like her voices for Fanny and Lady Bertram, in fact every bit of Lady Bertram's dialogue made me physically wince.  

 

I want to try listening to the rest of Austen on audiobook as it's perfect for the car, but I'm dithering on whether to try another Juliet Stevenson narration in case I have the same problem.  Have any of you listened to this or any other Austen narrated, and can you recommend a particular edition?  Initially, I'm particularly interested in Emma, as I found it hard to read, but have enjoyed Mr Knightley's Diary by Amanda Grange which retells the story from Knightley's perspective, so I'm hoping that maybe listening to Emma, I'll be able to appreciate it more.

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I'm not particular about narrators. One I do like and would prefer if his books were in his voice would be Stephen King.

 

I Like King as well, listening to Bag of Bones which is read by him and really enjoying it.

 

I'd say my favourite is John Lee who has narrated hundreds of books including Ken Follett's historical epics and The Count of Monte Cristo. Also really like Steven Pacey and Michael Page.

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  • 11 months later...
  • 2 years later...

Oh my goodness, Stephen Fry has just recorded Sherlock Holmes: The Definitive Collection for Audible.  It's all four novels plus the five collections of short stories and is almost 72 hours long!!!  :o  The full price is £69.99 but if you are a subscriber, it's just one credit.  I still have a credit from last month I haven't used, so I think this might be winging its way down to my Audible account later today. :lol:

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I legitimately just squealed as I read that, chesilbeach. I fell in love with Sherlock Holmes through some German audiobooks I had, and I wished for a new set of audiobooks each Easter, so this is perfect timing, really. I can't wait to listen to this wonderful collection lying in bed munching on some chocolate eggs =)

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Oh my goodness, Stephen Fry has just recorded Sherlock Holmes: The Definitive Collection for Audible.  It's all four novels plus the five collections of short stories and is almost 72 hours long!!!  :o  The full price is £69.99 but if you are a subscriber, it's just one credit.  I still have a credit from last month I haven't used, so I think this might be winging its way down to my Audible account later today. :lol:

Oh it's a must isn't it Claire. I'm definitely downloading it with my next credit which I think is already waiting for me. Oh happy days!! 

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Oh it's a must isn't it Claire. I'm definitely downloading it with my next credit which I think is already waiting for me. Oh happy days!! 

 

It definitely is.  It's too good an opportunity to miss, his delicious delivery coupled with the classic detective stories ... I can't wait to start!  I'm still listening to Lorna Doone at the moment, but as soon as I've finished that, I think I'll make a start on these.  It's lovely that they're all in one place too, so you can dip and and out in between other books too. :)

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It definitely is.  It's too good an opportunity to miss, his delicious delivery coupled with the classic detective stories ... I can't wait to start!  I'm still listening to Lorna Doone at the moment, but as soon as I've finished that, I think I'll make a start on these.  It's lovely that they're all in one place too, so you can dip and and out in between other books too. :)

It's broken my computer :lol: :lol: Audible have split it into six parts and I downloaded the first three no problem .. then things got sticky and I can't download the rest :( It'll be fine on my phone but to get it onto iTunes now is going to be tricky and that's how I usually get it onto my iPod. It's the computer .. it's limping on and basically doesn't want to know if you ask it to do anything. It'll sort itself out I expect but if it's on my phone (which it is) then I can always listen on that. 

I'm still stuck listening to The Muse .. but it's dragging  :blush2: 

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