Newsletter Subscribe to our blog via email. Opt out any time - please see our Privacy Policy
Amy Flinders is the Copyright Manager for Listening Books. She has worked for the charity since 2014. Abigail Jaggers spoke to her about what a copyright manager does, how she chooses what audiobooks to buy for the library, and why there aren't audiobook versions of every book.
February 26, 2018
0 Comments
This doesn't just happen in classics. Authors of historical fiction often use historical slang to make their settings more realistic. Here are some of the best old slang expressions from the past that are inadvertently hilarious now.
February 12, 2018
1 Comment
Nicholas de Garis is the Audio Producer for Listening Books. He works in our in-house recording studios making educational audiobooks for our Sound Learning service. Abigail Jaggers spoke to him about what an Audio Producer does, what's involved in editing an audiobook, and his dream audiobook to record.
January 22, 2018
0 Comments
November 2017 marks 100 years since the Battle of Passchendaele ended. To commemorate this we recommend a list of First World War books, from must-reads to forgotten classics.
November 6, 2017
0 Comments
For every heart-breaking novel or laugh-out-loud comedy, there are stories that scare us silly. They are the ones that stay with us, or that we scare our friends with. No matter how many times we read them, they frighten us over and over again. So why do we like scary stories so much?
October 23, 2017
0 Comments
Robert Thorogood is a screenwriter and author. He is best known for the Death in Paradise TV series. In 2008 he was a finalist for the Red Planet Prize, which aimed to find undiscovered writers. This gave him the opportunity to pitch his idea for a television series about an English policeman in the Caribbean to Tony Jordan, the creator of Life on Mars and Hustle. Death in Paradise first aired in 2010, and it has gone on to be one of Britain's most popular TV shows, with an average of 9 million viewers for Series 6.
October 2, 2017
0 Comments
This year, the UK is celebrating Banned Books Week to highlight the history of censorship. One of the most famous examples is Lady Chatterley's Lover by D. H. Lawrence. The book was famously banned in the UK because of its explicit content. In 1960, Penguin Books won a court case to publish it due to the 'Obscene Publications Act'. This act said that any book considered obscene but with "redeeming social merit" could be published. After six days, the jury found the book was not obscene. It sold out across the UK on the first day of publication, with 200,000 copies bought. Almost 60 years on, this is considered a landmark case that represented the end of an era.
September 25, 2017
0 Comments
The story concerns warring families in the fictional land of Westeros. They compete to be the ruler of the seven kingdoms and sit on the Iron Throne against a backdrop of dragons, zombies and giant direwolves. But how do you decide what books to read after Game of Thrones? Whether you relate more to the conniving Cersei Lannister, headstrong Arya Stark, or mother of dragons Daenerys Targaryen, here are books to read based on each family to tide you over until the next series.
September 18, 2017
0 Comments
The summer holidays might be over, but that doesn't mean you can't find the time to relax with an audiobook! We've got some brilliant new titles that we'll be adding to the library over the next few weeks. Here's a selection of the autumn listening we've got in store...
September 8, 2017
0 Comments
There are many reasons why some people think audiobooks might not be for them. I know, because I used to be one of those people. I thought my tiny attention span wouldn't be able to tolerate listening to the same person read for ten hours. Or I thought that it might not feel like I'd really 'read' a book. I now hang my head in shame and admit how wrong I was. All I needed was a great first audiobook.
September 4, 2017
0 Comments