Strathmore titles recognised in ‘Audible Best of 2024’
Audible Best of 2024: top 20
Charles Spencer
Having previously published works of history, Charles Spencer puts his pen to a subject it’s clear he wishes would become history. In this brave and incredibly vulnerable account, Spencer candidly unpacks his memories of the cruel schooling institution he came of age in, and explores the scars that those years forever stamped on him.
Andrew O'Hagan
It’s an impressive feat when an author can put together a dense, exciting story that is both strongly character driven and a biting critique of high society and modern politics. It’s another accomplishment entirely when a narrator like Michael Abubakar brings that story to life so vividly.
Audible Best of 2024: bios & memoirs
Charles III: New King. New Court. The Inside Story
By: Robert Hardman
Narrated by: Robert Hardman
By: Rebecca Achieng Ajulu-Bushell
Narrated by: Rebecca Achieng Ajulu-Bushell
Audible Best of 2024: celebrity memoirs
By: Charles Spencer
Narrated by: Charles Spencer
The Memoir
By: David Baddiel
Narrated by: David Baddiel
Audible Best of 2024: fiction
By: Colm Tóibín
Narrated by: Jessie Buckley
By: Fiona Williams
Narrated by: Ben Allen, Jessica Hayles, Lee Braithwaite
By: Andrew O'Hagan
Narrated by: Michael Abubakar
Audible Best of 2024: kids & family
Skandar and the Skeleton Curse
Skandar, Book 4
By: A.F. Steadman
Narrated by: David Dawson
Audible Best of 2024: non-fiction
A History of Women in 101 Objects
A Walk Through Female History
By: Annabelle Hirsch, Eleanor Updegraff - translator
Narrated by: Gillian Anderson, Katy Hessel, Anita Rani, Jackie Kay, Len Pennie, Shirley Manson, Rebecca Solnit, Sandi Toksvig, Marina Hyde, Naomi Shimada
Audible Best of 2024: romance
The Powerless Trilogy, Book 2
By: Lauren Roberts
Narrated by: Cecily Bednar Schmidt, Chase Brown, Jared Zeus
Audible Best of 2024: sci-fi & fantasy
By: Adrian Tchaikovsky
Narrated by: Ben Allen
Audible Best of 2024: well-being
Your guide to turning loss and grief into happiness
By: Lucy Edwards
Narrated by: Lucy Edwards
Audible Best of 2024: top series additions
Rebus Novels, Book 25
While we wholeheartedly enjoyed the first series of Rebus on BBC this year, the magic created by Rankin and Macpherson will always be our favourite way to experience these characters and mysteries. Midnight and Blue marks the incredible 25th entry into this iconic series.
2024 Roundup
2024 got off to a marvellous start with the release of House of Broken Bricks by Fiona Williams, published by Faber. Narrated by Jessica Hayles with Ben Allen and Lee Braithwaite this is a very beautifully written debut. Other gems this year for Faber include Andrew O’Hagan’s multi-character masterpiece Caledonian Road. It was an absolute narrative feat on the part of Michael Abubakar. Alexandra Harris recorded The Rising Down, her take on Sussex history. We also recorded the hilarious The Unfinished Harauld Hughes, written by Richard Ayoade and starring the author and friends (Lydia Fox, Noel Fielding, Sally Hawkins, Stephen Merchant, Chris Morris and David Mitchell) and complete with music and sound effects. There was also The Lost Love Songs of Boysie Sing by Ingrid Persaud and read by the author with Martina Laird, Melanie LaBarrie, Chanel Quesnel. Another multi-voice project was the much anticipated YA book Songlight by screenwriter Moira Buffini, featuring Saffron Coomber with Sam Crerar, Katy Sobey, Joe Gaminara and Antonia Beamish.
More exciting YA titles were two Lauren Roberts's Kingdom of Ilya books: Powerful read by N’dea Miles and Kevin Shen and Reckless read by Cecily Bednar Schmidt and Chase Brown with Jared Zeus. Also for Simon & Schuster we recorded The Dagger and the Flame by Catherine Doyle (read by Freddy Carter and Emily Carey) and continued with books three and four of the Skandar series (Skandar and the Chaos Trials and Skandar and the Skeleton’s Curse) narrated by David Dawson.
We’ve welcomed quite a few famous faces to our studio recording their own books: Jokes, Jokes, Jokes by Jenny Éclair, She Speaks! By Harriet Walter, Friends of Dorothy by Sandi Toksvig, There and Back by Michael Palin, My Family by David Baddiel, Absolutely by Joanna Lumley, These Heavy Black Bones by champion swimmer Rebecca Achieng Ajulu-Bushell and A Very Private School by Earl Spencer.
For Macmillan we’ve been gradually rerecording the Peter James / Roy Grace backlist with Daniel Weyman, and also the new title, They Thought I Was Dead (about the mystery Roy Grace’s wife Sandy) read by Gemma Whelan. More series continuations came with Map of Bones by Kate Mosse narrated by Hattie Morahan which concludes The Joubert Family Chronicles. Prasanna Puwanarajah narrated the latest Alan Hollinghurst book, Our Evenings. We've also had the privilege of recording Colm Tóibín's books Brooklyn (read by Saoirse Ronan), Long Island (read by Jessie Buckley) and Nora Webster (read by Niamh Cusack). Rose Boyt read the extraordinary book Naked Portrait about her relationship with her father, Lucian Freud. There was a new Ben Aaronovitch, read by Kobna Holdbrook-Smith (of course!) for Orion: Masquerades of Spring. Russell Tovey and Penelope Keith narrated another Orion titles, The Fellowship of Puzzlemakers by Samuel Burr. While on the theme of puzzles, for Bloomsbury Olivia Vinall recorded The Puzzle Wood . And, on the topic of Kobna Holdbrook Smith, another Bloomsbury titles was Kobna recording The Great When. We had the honour of recording Nobody Knows But Everybody Remembers with Mark Long of People Show, marking the 50th anniversary, and celebrating the history, of the experimental theatre company.
Charlotte Ritchie read Mallory Vayle and the Curse of Maggoty Skull. Dungeon Runners, narrated by Adrian Grey, Kristin Atherton and Max Dowler was an action-packed romp full of music and sound effects. And, in the year of Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour we have to mention Sugababes’ Jade Ewen narrating Look What You Made Me Do!
June 2024
We are delighted to claim a role in four of Audible’s ‘The best listens of 2024 (so far)’:
A History of Women in 101 Objects
The House of Broken Bricks
A Very Private School
and Caledonian Road