Georgette Heyer is credited with creating the historical romance genre, beginning with The Black Moth in 1921. She was influenced by Jane Austen and released Regency Buck in 1935, essentially establishing Regency romance as a sub-genre. This year, Naxos AudioBooks is releasing several unabridged Heyer titles – something we at AudioGals are rejoicing! Caz contacted Naxos to get the lowdown on this exciting news. And to celebrate, we are giving away five audiobooks – here are the details.
The Giveaway
We’re giving away five copies (downloads) of your choice of Georgette Heyer audiobook title courtesy of Naxos Audiobooks. Entry is simple. Just complete the easy entry form found at the bottom of the page by midnight (CDT) Thursday, September 25th. No comments are necessary to enter although we’d love to hear your thoughts in our discussion area. You may only enter once. We’ll contact the winners on September 26th so watch your email as we must have acknowledgement of your win within 24 hours. If we don’t hear from you, we’ll select another winner. The giveaway is restricted to the availability of the title in your area.
Talking with Nicolas
Caz: Over the past eighteen months, the audiobook production arm of the British recording company Naxos has put out eight new, unabridged recordings of books by Georgette Heyer, with another two due out before the end of this year. Although a large number of Heyer’s books have been available in audio format for some time (in the UK, at least) those recordings, made in the 2000s, were by no means a complete collection of her beloved Regency Romances. With, I think one exception, all these new recordings are of titles which have not been available in audio format before, so to have some of the “gaps” filled has been a real treat. Another treat is the fact that each of these titles has (so far) been superbly narrated; indeed, here at AudioGals, not a single one of them has received anything lower than a B for narration.
Being a long-term Heyer fan (her Regencies were my introduction to the world of historical romance), I was keen to find out how Naxos came to record these titles, and to get some insight as to how the narrators were chosen. With those – and more – questions in mind, I spoke to Nicolas Soames, Publisher at Naxos AudioBooks, and the man behind these terrific productions. Nicolas, welcome to AudioGals.
Nicolas: Thank you! It is a colourful, lively and entertaining site. I didn’t know it very well, so this has shown me how important Romance Audio is!!
Caz: It’s kind of you to say so. I’m a big fan of Georgette Heyer, and I know her books are perennial favourites amongst readers of historical romance, so it’s wonderful to have so many new – and excellent – audiobooks of her stories appearing. Naxos Audiobooks has a very strong back-catalogue of works of classic and contemporary literature and non-fiction, and but not so much when it comes to works of romantic fiction. How did you come to the decision to record works by Heyer?
Nicolas: Well, to be honest the prompting came over a coffee with the irrepressible Dominique Raccah of Sourcebooks. We were doing various projects together when Dominique said I should look at Heyer – she published all her Georgian romances in the UK.
Caz: I see they are released under the “Naxos Complete Classics” label. How do they fit in with other titles in that series?
Nicolas: Well, to be honest (again!), I wasn’t sure where they should go – until I started reading them. I was amazed at how entertaining, informative and downright funny they were. Funny, but also elegant, not to say classy. Heyer knew her period, her language, and had an unerring touch for character and situations. I had to say to my friends how much I enjoyed her, and ESPECIALLY when I heard fine readers bringing them to life in the studio. Suddenly, there was no doubt in my mind. These are CLASSICS! No point in beating around the bush. And I will defend that declaration against any pompous literary types who say otherwise.
Caz: You won’t get any argument from me on that! A few years back, you released a handful of abridged recordings of Georgette Heyer titles. Did you, at the time, envisage making unabridged recordings? Were these a way of “dipping your toes into the water” so to speak?
Nicolas: Alas, it was an even more commercial decision than that. The rights to the unabridged versions were simply not available, having been scooped up by other companies. When the situation changed and audio rights for a few unabridged titles became available, I jumped at the chance, aided by the literary agent Peter Buckman who gave Naxos AudioBooks as many as he could.
Caz: I see that there are some more releases lined up for 2014. Could you tell us about those?
Nicolas: Following Faro’s Daughter (read by Laura Paton) which came out in August, we have five more this year: The Corinthian (read by Georgina Sutton CD: September; download: now); Cousin Kate (read by Jilly Bond CD: October; download: now); Venetia (read by Phyllida Nash CD: November; download: now); The Spanish Bride (read by David Collins CD: November; download: now); and finally Arabella (read by Phyllida Nash) CD: December; download: now)
Caz: Are there any more Heyer titles planned for the future?
Nicolas: Alas, we can’t get any more!
Caz: Well, that’s disappointing, to say the least. I’ve listened to quite a few of the recordings that are already available (recorded back in the early 2000s), and while some of them are terrific (The Unknown Ajax), some aren’t (Regency Buck); so I’d hoped that perhaps you’d be able to continue at some future stage, to make more audiobooks of her work available.
Nicolas: Once again, there is the issue of copyright permission. It is my hobby horse that the literary estates which control permissions give EXCLUSIVE rights. This is totally unnecessary for classic authors such as Heyer – or indeed any writer. What they don’t realize is that an audiobook performance is exactly that – a PERFORMANCE. Would we have only one recording of Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No 2? Or Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring? NO!
Caz: I couldn’t agree with you more. Back in the dim and distant past, I worked for some of the major classical music labels, and we could never have existed by thinking “oh – there’s already a recording of Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony by so-and-so – we can’t make another one!” I suppose it would be different if Ms Heyer’s work was in the public domain – there are plenty of recordings of the same books by Austen and Dickens, after all.
Nicolas: We want to hear different performances! The agents simply don’t realize that they could make MUCH more spondulicks (as happens in music – and not just classical music!) for the writer and the estate by allowing parallel performance rights. I have said it so often, and publicly – but with little effect!
Caz: Perhaps we shall have to start tub-thumping here at AudioGals, as well.
On a purely personal level, I am fascinated with the process of putting an audiobook together, and particularly interested in the way narrators are chosen. Something which comes up a lot when discussing books and performances with other audiobook afficionados is the fact that there are times one feels as though whoever has engaged a particular narrator for a project has clearly not even opened the book! With each of the Heyer recordings, I get the sense of the exact opposite. Each narrator has been very well suited to the material – Julian Rhind-Tutt, for example was so perfect for The Black Moth, that I can’t imagine anyone else reading it. What can you tell us about the way you have gone about selecting the narrators for these projects?
Nicolas: The very first consideration is gender. Should a particular book be read by a man or a woman? In some cases it could go either way, but often the decision is made because there is something especially prominent or forceful in the hero or heroine that tips the balance. Having decided that, we then think of readers. Richard Armitage has proved IMMENSELY popular (we get boxes of Belgian chocolates BEGGING us to engage him again – but alas, he is too busy filming!); and so have our other two male readers, Nicholas Rowe and Julian Rhind-Tutt. But in the main, I think a woman’s voice sounds best – faithful to both heroine and author. We get requests from listeners who know certain readers, such as Phyllida Nash. And we have our readers who we know can bring that light, educated touch to the narration – including Sarah Woodward, a strong classical actor, and Georgina Sutton, who read Thackeray’s Vanity Fair, which has much of the same character.
Caz: AudioGals is primarily devoted to audiobooks of romantic fiction, and as Naxos has done such sterling work with Heyer, I wondered if there are any other authors in the genre whose work you might be considering bringing to audio?
Nicolas: I am not sure, because we still have quite a number of central classics to do – we are preparing The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, for example, and more Virginia Woolf. But I would be very pleased to have suggestions!
Caz: I’m sure our readers will have plenty to say on the matter :) Nicolas, thanks so much for taking the time to chat – I hope appetites have been whetted; I know mine has!
Nicolas: Thanks for inviting me,
Time to Enter
It’s time to enter for your chance to win one of five download copies of your choice of Georgette Heyer audiobook title from Naxos Audiobooks.
Giveaway ended.
Are you Heyer fan? Would you listen to multiple versions by different narrators? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
The right narrator can give color to the written word. I’ve purchased abridged audio books (which I usually abhor) to enjoy the narration by a better voive actor.
Couldn’t agree more..and I’ve purchased abridged versions for the same reason
I’m ready to get on the bandwagon! More unabridged Heyers!
I’m so disappointed to hear of the difficulty of obtaining the rights to record more of my favourite author. I was really hoping that the Bath books would be re-recorded. Thank goodness Venetia and The Grand Sophy were two of those available to re-record or I might of gone mad:)
Thanks for the interview.
Thanks for the great interview!
Very interesting interview, thanks! If a book is a favorite, like most of Heyer’s works are, I would listen to different narrations. However, in order to purchase a second version I’d have to hear some very good reviews about the narrator. There are so many good books and so little time!
I agree with Jane A. Heyer’s books, both historical romances and cosy mysteries, are some of my favorites of both genres. I ‘d buy an abridged version only to hear a particular narrator; generally, I think too much of the detail and humour are lost in an abridgement. I’d buy more than one version of an unabridged favorite novel, to hear a well-reviewed narrator. (I’d do the same for some of my other favorite classic novels, such as Jane Austen’s).
I feel the same way, Anne. I am currently listening to an abridged version of Sylvester narrated. Normally, I would only buy an unabridged audio, but I do make the exception for Richard Armitage who does such an amazing job narrating.
I’m the same way! Richard Armitage’s performance of those Heyer abridged titles totally worked for me. Plus I’m one who envisions the major players when reading or listening. What an image to envision!
I keep hoping he’ll narrate some of the unabridged titles but I wonder if his star has risen too far to consider audiobook narration?
Put my vote in for this one too–with classics like the Heyer greats (she did have a few misses), I’d definitely buy more than one narration. I was greatly distressed when Bolinda released the Heyer mystery canon, all of them narrated by Ulli Birve, who is, in my opinion, egregiously inept; I downloaded one of them, and have no intention of listening to (and certainly not of buying) her renditions of any of the others. Naxos has done a good job choosing Heyer narrators. They have my heartfelt thanks for producing these books, which have brought me such joy over the years and are getting a new lease on life in audio.
I definitely prefer unabridged! Historical romances are one of my favorite genres. Thanks for the giveaway!
I’d love to see more narrations offered. As you said, some of the 2000s performances are subpar. I was especially heartbroken that TOS is just horrifyingly awful (Garrett makes Avon sound like an octogenarian).
I’m really excited to see Arabella available soon. My first (although not favorite) Heyer.
The only misstep I’ve seen so far is that Claire Willis didn’t get to do the unabridged version of Grand Sophy. She’s much better suited to the book than Woodward.
I dislike abridged audio and never buy it and I’ll be the outlier here and say how happy I am that RA is too busy being an actor because I find his female voices to approach caricature.
If by some miracle you can eventually lay hands on These Old Shades rights, I’d love for Rhind-Tutt to read it which would be especially appropriate as he read TBM. :) Thanks for offering us hours of Heyer enjoyment.
Apologies to Clare Wille for getting her name wrong in my earlier comment. Also, is there an ETA for Arabella on Audible? So far I don’t see it.
Hope you don’t mind – I took the liberty of asking Nicolas and he said that Arabella is currently available as a download from their website (although I don’t have an Audible date) and that Clare Wille wasn’t available to record Sophy because she was “having a baby at the time of the recording!”
I think we can allow her that one ;)
Darn babies! :) Thanks for checking. I was hoping Nicholas was reading comments, so I could find out about Arabella but this worked as well. :)
Both Arabella and The Spanish Bride are now up at Audible :)
Amazon has a release date for the CD version of Arabella – 12/2/14. My guess is that the Audible version will be available at the same time.
I think it might be earlier though – the CD version of Venetia isn’t out until Nov/Dec, but the download was available in June.
You wouldn’t believe how excited I was for an unabridged Venetia! A lovely friend gifted me the Audible version and I’ve listened to it 5 times already. It’s my favorite Heyer.
Really interesting interview. Georgette Heyer was my intro into historical fiction too and I think I must have read most of her books and loved them all. Glad there are some new audio version coming out, I did listen to a couple of early samples but decided against.
I can say, hand on heart, that I have not been disappointed by a single one of these new Naxos recordings. I believe we’ve reviewed all (or most) of them here and the narrations have all been rated highly.
Were you all happy with Devil’s Cub? I couldn’t make it through the first half hour. I disliked the narrator that much.
I didn’t hate it as much as TOS but it’s definitely not one of the better ones.
Agreed. It’s a great shame that these aren’t available for the “Naxos Treatment”, as I’m sure they’d do a brilliant job. Who can we start complaining to?!
Thanks for the interview, Georgette Heyer is such an important author, both to readers across ages and genders, and for her role in creating a genre. I have listened to all the available Naxos unabridged titles and on the whole been pleased, although I would still have liked a male voice for the Masqueraders. Loved Venetia, a long time favourite and am always pleased to add to my collection. In terms of multiple recordings, sometimes, as in the case of a series I am attempting to track down, there are recording which cover the existing rights and yet they are almost impossible to locate. In those cases, unless the original is rereleased in digital format, it seems ridiculous to exclude anyone else from recording the title. As to more readily available titles, am I the only one with more than one copy of the print version of most of Georgette Heyer’s catalogue? I would love to have different interpretations available – not abridged. Bolinda audio are in the process of releasing the GH mysteries in audio with a single narrator. They are on my TBR list, it will be interesting to see how they work. Looking forward to Arabella, yay. Without Audiogals I may well have not found the new editions yet, much appreciated.
I’ve not listened to Heyer on audiobook but with so many of her books and so few minutes I can actually sit down with a print book, I’d love to give the audio a try!