On Tuesday, June 5th at 2pm in the Quad, I offered a reading at the Derby Book Festival entitled: Being There – a sense of place in the writings of G J Martin. The talk was well received and Liz Fothergill, the Chair of the Festival enjoyed the reading so much she suggested I should make an audio book. I mentioned this to my publisher, John Basford and, of course he knew a man. In fact it was the man, John Mayfield. Back in the day John Mayfield had a famous recording studio, a radio station and a good living. Just as video killed the radio star, technology ended John’s business. He had recorded Cider with Rosie with Laurie Lee and later compared the consistency of my voice to that of Antony Hopkins. a regular client. We recorded The Boy who made God Smile in my study as he believed the walls of books offered a muted sound area. He used a tiny microphone that was so sensitive that is could hear the distant rumblings of my insides and the song of birds in the next valley.

It took four full days of recording. We had a quick lunch then on we went. It was exhausting. Afterwards John Mayfield worked on editing the sounds for four weeks. We reconvened for another full day to fine tune. Two weeks later we published on Amazon Audible. The daunting greeting was that after all that work and expense the purchase price was crossed out and the audio book offered for free to Audible subscribers. The recording lasts 10 hours and costs £16.62 (if not free!). A bargain, I reckon.

John Mayfield is a singer. Look at Bandcamp and The Best of the Naughtiest Girl was a Monitor or Hush.

It was a splendid experience making the audio book, especially with such an expert. I won’t rush to do it again.

To purchase from Audible  click here