Our Constant Narators

I've seen lots of tweets today, mourning the death of a favourite NLS narator, Roy Avers. I've noticed how the Bard community seems to set much more store by their narators than RNIB Talking books do, though we all have our own favourites. This was firmly brought home to me recently when, during the eighty years presentation for RNIB talking books, in their "Meet The Narators" article, the narators we were asked to meet weren't the working narators who put thousands, maybe tens of thousands of hours into reading our books every week, but the celebrities who make the occasional appearance to the studio, or the ones who read audio books in other places and whose readings RNIB then gain a licence for.

It is wonderful to hear famous voices on our talking books, of course it is, but it doesn't alter the fact that we should be thankful every day to the amazing people who spend so much time, energy and talend giving us all kinds of books to read. Where are their thanks, their accolades? Where are the articles about them? If there are any I haven't been able to find them. I owe such a lot to my constant narators, voices of my youth and childhood: Andrew Timothy, Gretel Davis, Elizabeth Proud, Peter Barker, Stephen Jack, Marvin Kane, Phylis Boothroyd, Arthur Blake, Gabriel Wolf, so, so many more. And to more modern narators: William Roberts, Steve Hodson, Liza Ross, Haywood Morse, Simon Vance, I could go on and on and on.

I remember reading Simon Vance's wonderful naration of Robert A Heinline's The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress. I loved the way he read it, it's since become one of my all time favourite books. I so wanted to thank him, but those were the days before my first computer, I had no sighted help and no Perkins, so I let the chance pass and I told myself he wouldn't care one way or the other. A few years later I was reading Stephen King's The Green Mile. William Roberts was reading it and I tell you he rocked it! I had Email by then and I rung up talking books and asked where I should send a mail that would reach him. I had my answer, so I wrote a thank you and sent it. I wasnt' expecting anything, I just wanted to tell him how much the reading had meant to me.

The next morning I opened my in-box and there was a personal Email from him. He said, among other things, that most of the time narating was like reading into a vacuum. You never knew whether your work was good, bad or indifferent. He was pleased I'd enjoyed the way he'd read the book and it made me alter my thinking.

I can't say I now go around dropping thank you EMails like confetti, though I do send a fair few, but I am a lot more conscious of what I owe to the people who read my books. I am one of those people who don't like, cannot get on with the EBook. I'll read them if I have to, but for me there's a special connection between a good narator and a listener. A good narator can make you feel you're there. He or she can take you away from reality, close the door behind you and draw you away to another world by the power of his or her voice. Some narators, like the ones who work for Callibre, do this voluntarily, for some it is their job and earns them some or most of their living, maybe even all of it for all I know. I do know my world would be very much the poorer without them, and expressing our gratitude when we can must be a good idea.

Which reminds me: about that The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress Reading ... I have some unfinished business to take care of there! :)