Well, why not give listening a go? You'd be surfing a trend: audiobook sales reached new heights in the past 2 years while we've been intermittently confined. Once a favourite only for the daily commute, audiobooks have come out of the car, off the train and into our homes like never before. One stat says that, for the first six months of 2021, sales leapt by some 70% compared with the same period in 2019.
And it's not just adults who are listening. Audiobooks are increasingly popular for children. Parents who want to limit youngsters' screen time - and stimulate their imagination - are encouraging the trend. It can also help struggling or novice readers to follow a print book, line by line, while they listen... creating a paired activity for eyes and ears.
So, for my adult readers, I'm delighted to announce the arrival of The Fire Portrait as an audiobook, available from January. Beautifully read by Joanna Bending, it will keep you busy for 11 hours and 16 minutes! As ever there are stories behind a production such as this, especially where local language pops up from time to time in the text. The Afrikaans pronunciation of the letters v, w and g are particularly challenging for narrators. For example, the name of my controversial wheeltapper in the book, Wynand Louw, needs to be pronounced as Vay-nunt Low. There are one or two other examples that I will leave you to discover! A novel like this can't be authentic without some salty phrases!
But Joanna was undaunted and rose to the occasion with the help of an audio guide that I recorded for her. I'm thrilled with the result and I hope you will be, too.
Perhaps you might settle down and enjoy it with a delicious koeksister?
(A traditional deep-fried plaited doughnut dipped in syrup, calorie count best ignored)
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