...to autumn

 

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,

   Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;

Conspiring with him how to load and bless

   With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;

To bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees,

   And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;

      To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells

   With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,

And still more, later flowers for the bees,

Until they think warm days will never cease,

      For summer has o'er-brimm'd their clammy cells. 

 

                                                                                                                     John Keats 

You know, I have read these lines so many times, yet I've just noticed, that the whole stanza is a single sentence. I love this poem, 'To Autumn' by Keats; but you knew that.

 

Autumn is my favourite time of year; late summer has always felt like the end or culmination of the year and autumn, the beginning of a new cycle and a new year. For some reason, at this time of year, I've always experienced a sense of excitement about the future and it's endless possibilities. Perhaps as a consequence of our worldwide collective fate this year, my sense of change and renewal is even stronger and I look forward to what's to come with great enthusiasm and optimism. I'm already aware, that professionally at least, renewal is well under way.

 

Allow me to elucidate. Regular dippers into this blog, will know that gaps and delays in updating, usually correspond to periods of activity, rather than the opposite and that is certainly true of current circumstances.

 

As this month of September began, I found myself working on three concurrent series of audio book recordings, along with various other 'one-off' projects, to keep things lively and interesting. Less than a week old and September has offered up another audio book series and a further variety of 'one-offs', which will keep me very fully occupied, potentially for several months, if not several years to come; 'mellow fruitfulness' indeed!  

 

Because of the pandemic and lockdown, there is inevitably a bit of a gap in terms of output and so, this month, I have nothing to talk about in terms of new releases, though, be assured, things are getting busier now that lockdown is easing. In addition to home recordings, I've just spent the last week in a professional studio, recording a new audio book; the first time working away from home since February! And there's more to come very soon. 

 

A couple of years ago, as mentioned in these pages at the time (still here if you scroll down and go to 'older posts') I found myself working 'at capacity', as I described it, on a series of books by Dorothy Dunnett, 'The House of Niccolo'. In some ways, it was unhealthy to do so much in such a concentrated period of time; lack of sleep being a paramount concern, though the work itself benefitted I think, from being part of a seamless process. Despite the lack of rest and anything approaching a 'normal' life, my voice and performance levels were fully tuned up; in fact, for that fifteen week period of intense activity, there was never a time when I wasn't in work mode and I ended up recording something like 252 hours of narration, along with four audio drama productions.

 

Clearly, that level of output would eventually become impossible to sustain; book recording towards the end of the fifteen weeks, had become physically uncomfortable, as sitting for such extended periods of time, put bizarre stresses on my body. I promised myself that I would never repeat that level of work, though it's starting to look like the next several weeks will be just as intense. Just thinking about what has to be done between now and Christmas is almost too overwhelming to contemplate, so I'll have to mentally compartmentalise each project, so that I don't get ahead of myself. 

 

I'm currently recording a book a week and the next one starts on Monday, so I have homework to do today and tomorrow. I've already done quite a bit of work on the text, so it ought to be just a case of reminding myself of the narrative and characters, rather than having to start from scratch.

 

I can't close a posting without adding an image and a bit of 'media'. The Drama Channel here in the UK, is currently broadcasting the entirety of 'Allo, 'Allo, a tv sit-com I worked on in the late '80's (!!!) and to coincide with the re-run, I was asked to record an interview podcast and if I can sort out the tec, it should appear via this link,  'Allo, 'Allo, along with an image of me from the closing credits of a particular episode.  

 

Apologies for posting a link rather than the podcast app; it's no longer possible to directly embed HTML code apparently!

 

I was 'John Readman' in those days, because another actor already had my name and Equity regulations prevented two actors having the same one; John Banks is my real name - but you knew that too.

 

 

Thanks as always for stopping by, that's...

 

 

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