Your favourite narrator

[Lilliputian]

I can't disagree with Stephen Fry, but I also love Juliet Stevenson. She doesn't get the attention she deserves as an actress, and what a voice.

[Janet]

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!!!    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.

I  nearly downloaded this (and still might) but some of the comments say that the collection (71 hours!!) is difficult to navigate, and as I've listened to four of the books I'd like to be able to skip to the unread ones. 

 

I haven't been in this thread before, being new to audio books, but I'm another who likes Juliet Stevenson as a narrator.  I also really like Amelia Fox.  Carol Boyd who narrated South Riding was just superb.

 

We also really liked Peter Forbes narrating Peter May's Coffin Road.  Other favourites have been Robert Hardy and Timothy West. 

[Madeleine]

I listened to Emilia Fox reading "The Miniaturist" for one of the BBC's Book of the Week slots, and she was brilliant. 

[chesilbeach]

I  nearly downloaded this (and still might) but some of the comments say that the collection (71 hours!!) is difficult to navigate, and as I've listened to four of the books I'd like to be able to skip to the unread ones.

I hadn't read those comments. I wonder if it depends on which app you use to access them? I usually just select the chapters view to pick a specific section in an audiobook, but then I guess it's not often you don't actually just listen to a book in a linear fashion.

[Janet]

I'm currently listening to the fifth book.  I might download this at some stage to listen to with Peter in the car, but I will wait for now. 

[chesilbeach]

I  nearly downloaded this (and still might) but some of the comments say that the collection (71 hours!!) is difficult to navigate, and as I've listened to four of the books I'd like to be able to skip to the unread ones.

 

Audible have just released a PDF that you can view on their website or download which is a detailed guide on the books and stories, and where they can be found in the audio book, down to which chapter you need to listen to for a particular story.

[Guest Scribbla]

My favourite would have to be Paul Vaughan. He narrated many audio books, but I chiefly remember him for his narration behind the 1984 Television move "Threads". 

[timebug]

I have not listened to many audiobooks, but the jewel in my small collection has to be Rob Inglis reading 'The Lord of The Rings' books.He also does a great job on 'The Hobbit' but LOTR is a brilliant piece of reading. He also sings many of the songs from the story, to tunes he apparently made up himself!

And after a while, you know which character is speaking (as he reads the lines) from subtle changes of voice in the narration.

[Hayley]

On 09/07/2022 at 9:18 AM, timebug said:

I have not listened to many audiobooks, but the jewel in my small collection has to be Rob Inglis reading 'The Lord of The Rings' books.He also does a great job on 'The Hobbit' but LOTR is a brilliant piece of reading. He also sings many of the songs from the story, to tunes he apparently made up himself!

And after a while, you know which character is speaking (as he reads the lines) from subtle changes of voice in the narration.

He is my favourite too  

[France]

I've got several favourites:

Kobna Holbrook-Smith - The Rivers of London series

Michael Sheen - his reading of La Belle Sauvage and The Secret Commonwealth are sublime.

Christian Rodska's Falco books by Lindsay Davies (sadly he doesn't do them all)

Juliet Stevenson makes even the dullest book sound wondeerful.

[Vilandra]

I generally listen to audiobooks that are “classes” not actual books, but I get anything narrated by Richard Armitage. He reads a lot of Agatha Christa, and his David Copperfield was also terrific. He wrote an original audio story called Geneva that he co-narrates with Nicola Walker that’s great, and his narration of The Jane Austen Society by Natalie Jenner made me go out and buy the actual book. Anytime I think I could have been an actor, all I have to do is listen to his narration to realize that no, I couldn’t have lol. He just does all the voices so well, it makes the story so easy to follow. 
 

[France]

David Monteath is a superb narrator and has the most delicious Scottish accent!

[Madeleine]

Robert Bathurst (from Cold Feet) is also highly thought of, and has just been nominated for a major award.

[poppy]

I've recently purchased Audible and for my first free credit I chose The Mapp and Lucia Collection Vol 2 (unabridged).

I absolutely love Prunella Scales narration, but the third book Trouble For Lucia is narrated by Lisa Daniely. I see she's a highly respected narrator but I find it almost impossible to listen to. She uses such a silly voice and it's very difficult to distinguish the dialogue between the different characters.  They just don't seem to suit the character, either. 

 

I'm going to get Volume one for my next credit and these are narrated by Geraldine McEwan, Prunella Scales and Patricia Gallimore. Should be a real treat!

They are both also available read by Georgina Sutton who does it very well, but I feel the other narrators use more expression.

[France]

If you have Audible Plus (titles you can listen to for free) included in your subscription I strongly recommend The Wolf Den by Elodie Harper. It's about a brothel in Pompei and has both a great  storyline and a pitch perfect narrator in Antonia Beamish.

 

Audible Plus can be quite difficult to find good books on but there are gems among the dross. A lot of books are up there for a limited time (you'll usually see a note) so the trick is to download it before. They don't then take the download back!

[poppy]

Thanks for that, France! I do have the Plus one, I thought for the extra cost, it was worth it to be able to keep all books I downloaded.