Mr. Atkinson's Rum Contract

Good afternoon and welcome to today's lockdown-update. Despite the enforced 'inactivity' of the last few weeks, officially announced here in the UK on the evening of 23rd March, I've actually been pretty 'active'. 

As I mentioned in the last update, my industry, like many others, has effectively closed down for the time being and none of us can work, with the exception of those narrators and actors who have access to a home studio and are able to record 'remotely'. I've been doing my very best to acquire the necessary basic kit to record from home and there's still much to do. I've been learning how to use the recording equipment I now have and that's going well, although the learning curve is initially, quite steep. 

The most critical element in the whole set up, is of course, the actual recording environment. The electronic gadgetry required to record to professional industry standard, can be severely compromised by a badly 'sound-proofed' room. Creating a workable recording room is a considerable technical challenge and so, as a speedy and hopefully professional sounding alternative, I've been researching the kind of audio booth which can be bought as a self-assembly kit. I'm pursuading myself that to acquire such an isolation booth would be a 'sound investment' (sorry...), so if I can find something that will not only do the job, but also physically fit into my house, that looks like the next logical step to take. At the moment, I have created a makeshift temporary 'studio' environment, which sounds fine, but would easily pick up the sound of passing cars, barking dogs, grass cutting and any one of a thousand other things my equally locked-down neighbours might come up with; so a proper solution has to be found soonish as I'm losing work, which never sits well, whatever the reason.

Just before lock-down kicked in, I recorded the audio book detailed below, for Harper Collins. It was published in all formats on 16th April and is available to download via amazon and audible:

Richard Atkinson was in his late 30s and approaching a milestone he had long feared - the age at which his father died – when one day he came across a box of old family letters gathering dust in a cupboard.

This discovery set him on an all-consuming, highly emotional journey, ultimately taking him from the weather-beaten house of his Cumbrian ancestors to the ruins of their sugar estates in Jamaica.
Richard’s searches led him to one forebear in particular, an earlier Richard Atkinson, a brilliant but flawed West India merchant who had shipped all the British army’s supplies (including thousands of barrels of rum) during the American War of Independence and amassed staggering wealth and connections along the way. ‘Rum’ Atkinson died young, at the height of his powers, leaving a vast inheritance to his many nephews and nieces, as well as the society beauty who had refused his proposal of marriage; 40 years of litigation followed as his heirs wrangled over his legacy.

Drawing on their personal correspondence, Richard writes with rare candour about his worldly ancestors and their involvement in the slave trade – for, like many well-to-do Georgian families, the Atkinsons’ wealth was acquired at a terrible cost, through the blood, sweat and lives of enslaved Africans. When the first of the Atkinsons sailed to Jamaica in the 1780s, the island was the jewel in the imperial crown; when the last of them returned to England in the 1850s, it was an impoverished backwater. This vivid tale of a single family, their lives and loves, set against a panoramic backdrop of war, politics and slavery, offers a uniquely intimate insight into one of the most disturbing chapters in Britain’s colonial past.

Produced at RNIB Camden Studios by Tom Harrison & Narrated by John Banks


 Running length: 12 hours - 40 minutes

©2020 Richard Atkinson (P)2020 HarperCollins Publishers Limited

As a neat little segue, during the recording of Mr. Atkinson at the RNIB studios, I was asked if I'd like to contribute to an RNIB Connect Radio program, hosted by author Red Szell. Now, as the idea of the interview was to talk about my various audio adventures, including the Mr. Atkinson story, I thought it churlish to say anything other than a gleeful - 'yes'!

The interview can be heard below; my ramblings start from around the 32 minute mark:

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Just to round off today's posting; Thursday at 8pm here in the UK, has become the time we all briefly step out of our houses and flats, to applaud NHS staff and thank them for the amazing work they are doing at the moment, under incredibly difficult and dangerous conditions, dealing with this awful C-19 pandemic, which has impacted on all of us.

Over the last couple of months, my friends Christopher, Oliver and Tamara, along with family members, Sasha, Jamie, Benjie, Isabelle and Alex, have all had the coronavirus and have all, mercifully, come through without need of hospitalisation, which, as I'm sure you will appreciate, is a great relief. 

Keep safe & stay well.

...all for now; more just as soon as it happens!