Naxos audio books georgette heyer biography

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!