Move over Jim Dale, there’s a new audiobook narrator in town

A quick message to announce something that I know some of you will have been waiting for as eagerly as when you used to wonder what colour socks your gran was knitting you for Christmas.

A few months ago in this blog, I mentioned that I had downed my quill pen in favour of a microphone and was in the process of recording the audiobook version of The Chomolungma Diaries narrated entirely by myself.

That’s right, now that you’ve picked yourself back off the floor, you didn’t misread.

I’m proud to say that audiobook is now here and available from a number of audiobook outlets.

For my previous audiobooks, I hired a professional actor, Philip Battley, to record the voices. It’s been well documented that the former Carry On actor Jim Dale narrated a staggering 134 different voices for the audiobook versions of the Harry Potter series. But I swear Philip narrated nearly as many for the audiobook version of Seven Steps from Snowdon to Everest alone.

So why did I decide to go it alone for The Chomolungma Diaries? It’s not because Philip wasn’t any good; in fact, he was too good. I laughed so much listening to some of his audio, that I had to keep my pee bottle beside me re-listening to his narration for tips.

I outlined my reasons for giving it a go in my earlier post, but the main reason is that narrators don’t come cheap, and while Seven Steps from Snowdon to Everest still sells in reasonable numbers, most of my diaries move off the bookshelves about as quickly as the immigration queue at Heathrow Terminal 5 (though I would like to stress that — as far as I know — no pregnant woman has ever fainted while waiting to buy one of my books).

Anyway, enough of my waffle. I promised a quick message. Suffice to say that ACX, the recording arm of Audible has stringent checks for both audio quality and artistic merit (well, TBH, they probably just check for umming and erring). I’m both surprised and happy to say that my production passed on both fronts with flying colours.

So without further ado, if audiobooks tickle your fancy or you’ve ever wondered what I talk like, click the big green button to find out more.