I still can’t get over the amazment of hearing ‘The Ferryman’s Daughter’ being read as an audiobook by the wonderful Karen Cass. So when I saw that Elizabeth Morton is narrating her new book ‘A Last Dance in Liverpool‘, I couldn’t resist asking her about how she went about it – especially in the middle of a pandemic!
Narrating your own book is not for the faint-hearted, so it does help that Liz is an actor, known (among other things) for playing Madeleine Basset in ‘Jeeves and Wooster’ and Linda in the Liverpool sitcom, ‘Watching’. Her husband Peter Davison is also an actor (don’t mention Darleks!), as are her sons.
The results are fascinating – and unexpectedly hilarious. A real insight into the world of audio books.
So Liz, I have to ask what made you decide to narrate your own book?
Well, this was certainly a very different experience to the launch of my last book! I did the narration for A Liverpool Girl, at Isis sound studios some time after the book came out earlier this year.
It was only when Peter converted our very small dusty cupboard under the stairs into a 
makeshift recording studio and I kept seeing not only him, but my two boys darting off from their breakfast cereal to do recordings, and also signs appearing around the house saying ‘walk quietly down the stairs’ that I decided I should get in touch with Isis Audio and ask them if they would like me to try and do the recording for my new book, A Last Dance in Liverpool from home.
Did you experience any particular problems working in a cupboard?
Initially there were problems with the noise from the fridge after I kept forgetting to switch it off, then problems with forgetting to switch it back on again and all the food defrosting but that’s another story. Eventually I got the hang of it.
The sign …
And did you enjoy narrating ‘A Last Dance in Liverpool’?
I so enjoyed playing all the characters and even though I have done some work for Big Finish Audio, narrating my books has felt like a return to acting, albeit in this case, perched on a wobbly stool in the dark and with Stanley the dog threatening to bark at the postman at any moment.
A very innocent-looking Stanley
It’s strange also, how it feels like you are seeing the text for the first time, even though I wrote it. Not sure why, but I guess because you are coming at it from a different perspective and it’s important you immerse yourself in the characters so you stop worrying about things like structure and writing style, and that’s quite freeing. I write many different voices, and I would move from Irish, to Liverpool, to Lancashire, often on one page. Keeping the narrator’s voice, which is my natural Northern accent, from veering into one of these other voices, is also tricky.
Technically, when I made a mistake, I had to clap to mark the retake, so when I sent the files to the editor she would then work from those cues. Is this the future? My under-stairs cupboard? I missed walking on Whitley Bay beach at the end of each recording day which is what I did when I recorded earlier in the year, but for now, you’ll find me quite happy in the cupboard under the stairs.
Hope you enjoy the new book!
Thank you Liz for the inside story. I’ll never listen to an audio book in quite the same way again. And I’m looking forward to hearing you read A Last Dance in Liverpool!
A last Dance in Liverpool
You can get the audio edition, narrated by Liz Here
All she wants is one last dance…
Lily and Vincent have been dancing everything from the waltz to the foxtrot together since they were six-years-old. Now a teenager, Lily realises she has feelings for Vincent that she never knew were there.
However, with Vincent off to war, Lily is evacuated to a mother and baby home with her younger siblings. It is there that she finds she has more in common with the fallen women than she once thought. But as the bombs begin to fall in Liverpool, will she ever see her sweetheart again?…
A heart-warming saga for fans of Call The Midwife from the author of A Liverpool Girl.
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