AudioFile is celebrating 30 years of Naxos AudioBooks. Narrators David Timson and Rupert Degas joined our Behind the Mic podcast host, Jo Reed, to tell listeners about their time working with Naxos, publisher of audiobooks with a focus on classic literature since 1994. You can hear that conversation below, and read on for more comments from Naxos's narrators. Congratulations, Naxos!
And many more narrators have kind words to share about their years with Naxos:
“Many, many happy returns to Naxos, who time and again with their recordings forge a precious connection with the classics and revivify them for a new generation. It is a privilege to help channel this endeavour. Long may Naxos continue to honour the best literary talent with human voices!” — Clare Wille
“As a narrator of audiobooks I know that, working for Naxos, I’ll be recording a well-chosen and significant book with an experienced producer who has also got to know the text, and I’ll have the time to deliver the recording to the best of my abilities. As a listener, I know that any Naxos narrator will have been afforded the same treatment and so I can relax into a book knowing it will have been carefully, meticulously crafted. There’s a reason Naxos is so well-regarded: They really know their stuff.” — Jot Davies
“Being asked to narrate audiobooks for Naxos continues to be a source of pride and a professional highlight. In the competitive field of literary classics, their name guarantees quality recordings, always directed, edited, and proofed to meticulous standards by the best in the business.” — Leighton Pugh
“I’ve spent many long, tiring, hot or cold (depending on the aircon), sometimes gruelling and sometimes hilarious hours in small dark rooms talking out loud to long-suffering and possibly unconscious producers for Naxos. But I wouldn’t change it for the world. I look back with great fondness and heart-warming memories.” — Julian Rhind-Tutt
“Naxos have been a big part of my recording life. They gave me my first break in audiobooks with BLACK BEAUTY, and as I now have over 900 titles on Audible, I owe them a huge debt of thanks. When I’m asked to record a title for Naxos, I know it will be a wonderfully creative experience, so my answer is always a big fat YES PLEASE! Congratulations on 30 great years, and here’s to many more.” — Jonathan Keeble
“To read a Naxos title fills me with joy, as not only are they all classics but the time the producers/editors take, the care and attention over ensuring the nuance of a paragraph-long sentence is perfect, means they always deliver gold. Here's to another 30 years!” — Lucy Scott
“Naxos AudioBooks is thirty years old and going strong!! I have been privileged to be asked to narrate for Naxos on one or two occasions, and their exemplary choice of classic authors and material has widened my literary horizons enormously. To name but a few (deep breath):
Dickens and Durrell, Gogol and Gissing,
Gorky, Collins, Chekhov and Poe,
Dostoyevsky, Bulgakov, Laclos and—who’s missing?
Manzoni, McGonagall, Rumi, Rousseau,
Kierkegaard, Kempis, Khayyam and Proust,
Lessing, Longfellow, Lovecraft and Lear,
An army of authors, one might say “a Host,"
So plug in your headphones, and lend them your ear(s)!
And I haven’t even mentioned their extraordinary stable of top-notch narrators. (I would, but I’ve had to have a little sit down after all that terrible rhyming.) Here’s to the next thirty years, Naxos AudioBooks!” — Nicholas Boulton
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Clare Wille photo by Samuel Black Photography, Jonathan Keeble photo by Michael Pollard, Jot Davies photo by Max Barstow, Leighton Pugh photo by KevinMurphy, Lucy Scott photo by Ruth Crafer, Nicholas Boulton photo by Dan Reid, and Julian Rhind-Tutt, David Timson, and Rupert Degas photos courtesy of the narrators.
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