Starting in late June, I'm scheduled to record the eight books of Dorothy Dunnett's 'The Niccolo Books' series, a project which should be fun and which certainly falls into the 'great challenge' category of narration. As far as I can estimate, the shortest of the eight books has a running time of about 24 hours; others are well up into the 30 hour plus range; a little bit like The Malazan series I did a couple of years ago I suppose.
However, in the meantime, I have three audio dramas to record next week and a non-Niccolo book in the first week of July, so, lots of prep as I'm sure you can imagine!
In the other meantime (?), here are some details of an audio book I recorded in April which was released at the end of May:
"Rock and Roll Is Life is the new novel from the country's leading man of letters, D. J. Taylor.
You may remember the Helium Kids. Back in their late '60s and early
'70s heyday, they appeared on Top of the Tops on 27 separate occasions,
released five Billboard-certified platinum albums, played sold-out shows
at Madison Square Garden and were nearly, but not quite, as big as the
Beatles and the Stones.
Three decades later, in the big house on the outskirts of Norwich,
Nick Du Pont is looking back on the roller-coaster years he spent as
their publicist in a world of licensed excess and lurking tragedy. What
follows is not only the story of a rock band at a formative time in
musical history, when America was opening up to English music and huge
amounts of money and self-gratification were there for the taking.
For the tale is also Nick's - the life and times of a war baby born in a Norwich council house, the son of an absconding GI, whose career is a search for some of the advantages that his birth denied him. It is at once a worm's eye of British pop music's golden age and a bittersweet personal journey, with cameo appearances from everyone from Elvis and Her Majesty the Queen Mother to Andy Warhol.
Rock and Roll Is Life is a vastly entertaining, picaresque and touching novel inspired by the excess and trajectories of the great '60s and '70s supergroups and of the tales brought back from the front line by a very special breed of Englishmen who made it big in the States as the alchemists and enablers, as well as the old making way for the new in the era of the baby boomers.
At its heart is one man's adventure and the poignancy of the special relationships that dominate his life."
Three decades later, in the big house on the outskirts of Norwich,
Nick Du Pont is looking back on the roller-coaster years he spent as
their publicist in a world of licensed excess and lurking tragedy. What
follows is not only the story of a rock band at a formative time in
musical history, when America was opening up to English music and huge
amounts of money and self-gratification were there for the taking.For the tale is also Nick's - the life and times of a war baby born in a Norwich council house, the son of an absconding GI, whose career is a search for some of the advantages that his birth denied him. It is at once a worm's eye of British pop music's golden age and a bittersweet personal journey, with cameo appearances from everyone from Elvis and Her Majesty the Queen Mother to Andy Warhol.
Rock and Roll Is Life is a vastly entertaining, picaresque and touching novel inspired by the excess and trajectories of the great '60s and '70s supergroups and of the tales brought back from the front line by a very special breed of Englishmen who made it big in the States as the alchemists and enablers, as well as the old making way for the new in the era of the baby boomers.
At its heart is one man's adventure and the poignancy of the special relationships that dominate his life."
©2018 D. J. Taylor (P)2018 Little, Brown Book Group
* * * * *
Tomorrow, 7th June, sees the release of M.W. Craven's fabulous novel "The Puppet Show", which I also recorded in April. The audio book and printed novel are being released simultaneously and I've been invited to the launch party tomorrow evening. Having had no opportunity to listen to the recording yet, my fingers are very firmly crossed in the hope that I haven't made a horrrible mess of it! That aside, it should be a fun evening; I'll let you know... !
...all for now, more just as soon as it happens!
