I HEAR YOU!

When I began writing novels I expected, as all novelists do, that when my work was published it would be read - that readers would, silently, read my words and 'hear' the voices of the speakers as they interpreted them for themselves. It never entered my head that my books would be heard too - that an acclaimed actress would read my books, unabridged, cover to cover, and read them in her voice, not necessarily how I heard them in my own head when I was writing them. The first - TO TURN FULL CIRCLE - in my trilogy was read by Juanita McMahon, who has significant experience in theatre, television, and film.

Juanita was also asked to read EMMA: There's No Turning Back, because she is also an accomplished audiobook narrator who gives powerful and moving performances.

The third in my trilogy, EMMA AND HER DAUGHTER, is to be published in January 2015 and I hope that Juanita will go for the hat-trick and read this one, too. When Choc Lit sold the audio rights for my novella, HOPE FOR HANNAH, which is set on Dartmoor, a different actress was asked to read my words. This time Penelope Rawlins did the honours. Penelope has worked in the theatre and in radio. Her theatre performances include The Lady Vanishes, Brief Encounter, and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? I find this a huge honour for a work that only goes to 33,000 words or so, and it was something I never expected to happen - an audio of a novel, yes, but not a novella - so this has come as a huge surprise and a delight.

Now here comes the irony - as many readers of this blog will know, I am profoundly deaf. While I have a cochlear implant which is fantastic for one-to-one conversations it isn't, alas, up to interpreting broadcasted voice. So I have never heard how Juanita and Penelope have brought my story to life, as it were. My daughter and my daughter-in-law have listened to them all and both tell me that they 'hear' like a totally new book to them. And this has got me thinking - I imagine that today one can buy audio versions of most of the classics, but while Jane Austen, George Eliot, the Bronte sisters, and so many, many more will have seen the printed versions of their novels, none of them will have 'heard' recordings of their works. I wonder what they would have made of that, had they been able to 'hear' their words broadcast?