Reading aloud

Not content with writing these strange tvdetective books, I'm now getting the chance to read them, and aloud, too.

BBC Radio Devon have kindly asked me to serialise the most recent in the series, The Balance of Guilt.  I've completed a sequence of five recordings of various sections of the book, each lasting around five minutes.

As you can imagine, this entailed some considerable agonising. I wanted to give a good sense of what the book is about, but without giving away all the plot and twists and turns, and certainly not the ending.

If you consider the book is about 100,000 words long, and each reading no more than around 800, that's only a tiny fraction of the actual novel.

So, there were many late nights sat up in my lovely study, debating, deciding, then changing my mind, then changing it back, before I finally settled on which sections to read. 

Then came the actual recordings.  And for a chap who's quite used to sitting in front of a microphone, it was strangely nerve-pummelling.  I suppose it's the old story, because it's such a part of me, so very close to my heart, that makes it all the more pressured and potent.

I love reading aloud.  When I do a talk about the books, it's one of my favourite parts (although the audience may well disagree!) It takes me back to childhood, and being read to - and also to the old days of reading to Niamh. 

All these memories I could feel following me as I sat in the studio, reading away.  Never did I ever suspect I would become one of those people whose scribblings people read - a writer is the correct technical term, I believe?! - and it felt so curious, yet so warming and wonderful. 

This authorship lark is an utter privilege, and don't let anyone ever tell you otherwise.

I'd better mention the details of the serialisation, or I'm not doing my job and giving you the whole story.  The readings are on the excellent Judi Spiers programme, which runs from 9am to noon. I'm told I'll be on in the hour from 10 - 11.  If you miss it, the show is on the BBC iplayer for a week following the broadcast.  There is no excuse or escape!

Finally then, a song to go with this blog, and today I shall choose Radio Gaga, by Queen. Not as any comment on the fantastic medium of the wireless, because it gave me my break in the media back in my DJ days, and I love it greatly. 

It's because it's a great song, particularly when performed live.  Once I was lucky enough to see that, but there lies another story...