Audiobooks Director

…but an Audiobook is storytelling in its purest form – no sets, costumes, lights, music or other voices to aid either the actor’s or the listener’s shared imaginative investment in a text. Everything is done by a single voice, which can be really liberating for a versatile performer.

For a bookworm like me, working as an Audiobook Director is a total joy. I have directed well over 500 titles and counting. I respect the responsibility of bringing a book to life, whatever the genre or subject matter may be, and I get as much satisfaction from directing an interesting history book as from the most rip-roaring adventure.

I have worked for all the leading UK publishing houses, including Audible, Pan Macmillan, Penguin Random House, Harper Collins, Time Warner/ Hachette, Naxos, Hodder Headline, Faber, Orion, Cambridge University Press and BBC Worldwide, on everything from blue-ribbon classics to brand new releases. I work regularly with the finest voice artists in the industry, but I also enjoy working with actors who are just starting to find their storytelling wings.

In 2024/25 I directed a complete new set of Ian Fleming’s original James Bond novels, with an all-star cast of readers (Richard Armitage, Adjoa Andoh, Alex Kingston, Pippa Bennett-Warner, Mark Gatiss, Jon Culshaw, Johnny Flynn, Robert Glenister, Genevieve Gaunt, Daniel Weyman, Eleanor Matsuura, Kobna Holdbrook-Smith and Ben Willbond).  Other recent highlights include All the Sonnets of Shakespeare, read by Sir Kenneth Branagh and Lolita Chakrabarti (CUP), Tolstoy’s War and Peace performed by Thandiwe Newton (Audible) which won an Audie Award in 2023, Andrew O’Hagan’s epic Caledonian Road, performed by Michael Abubakar and the impressive debut novel The Names by Florence Knapp, performed by Dervla Kirwan. 

I am currently directing Genevieve Gaunt performing Beth Brower’s comical-historical-romantical-tragical-magical-whimsical series The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion, a project which will take us approx 4 years to complete.  We are six volumes in now and have already established over 100 different characters.  The books are a total joy to work on and we are having a lot of fun.  Volumes 1-8 (1883-1884) will start releasing from 14^th August 2025.  The journals will eventually chronicle 4 years in the life of Emma and Co (1883-1887).  So, we will be returning to St. Crispians regularly (and happily) to record an estimated total of 25 volumes.  Emma’s personal motto – ‘Imperterritus’ (‘Undaunted’) – seems particularly apt in the circumstances!