Gordon Griffin

FROM THE OBSERVER SUNDAY APRIL 5: "Billy Elliot the book, the film, the musical and now the audiobook. And deeply affecting it is; a portrait of a widowed Durham collier desperately trying to keep his family together as grief and the miners' strike threaten to overwhelm him, Billy's 'bally' is inspirational, but it's only part of the story". I was pleased with that review because playing Dad in this audiobook was one of my greatest recording experiences and I'm doubly chuffed because I cast it!!!!

FEBRUARY 11 Talk went well at Crawley (must have done because they've asked me back!) Earlier in the day I did a radio interview for Southern Counties Radio about the talk and recording audiobooks in general. Fun!

MARCH 26 Essex Book Festival 2.00 Waltham Abbey

JULY 14 afternoon Strood Hall, Medway JULY 22 Reading (afternoon) JULY 23 Hayle Cornwall (afternoon)

The long list for the audible CrimeFest awards is out. From it the best crime audiobook of the year will be chosen. I am surprised and also chuffed that EIGHT of my recordings are on the list!!

SNAP! I am surprised how I can record a book on a subject and the very next book (by a totally different writer and oftena different period) can be about the same thing. Last year I recorded three books in a row all about art forgery; two of them were set in Yorkshire. I recorded Rachel Billington's mavellous novel Lies and Loyalties which introduced a Latin phrase I had not come across before....until it appeared in the very next book I recorded! Towards the end of last year I read the latest novel of William Brodrick called A Whispered Name about the First World War. Following closely on its heels was Anne Herries book called Love and War about....the First World War!

GREATEST HITS. When I first started doing Talks it was suggested that I should have a website concentrating on my audio recordings. I couldn't imagine who would want to go there. Nevertheless I set it up about two years ago (with a little help from Simon) and recently it reached 3000 hits. And counting! Incredible!!!

ALICE AFORETHOUGHT When I read extracts from Lewis Carroll's writings for a BBC Radio 4 programme about his life, I decided I'd like to record the Alice stories. Well, we don't always get we want. But I'm delighted to be producing Alice's Adventures in Wonderland for Jumbo in Hamburg. Alice is a wonderful, wacky, surreal story and I'm looking forward to being on the other side of the mic for this one. Well now I have done it and it seems to have been a success because we recorded Through the Looking Glass in December. (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass (Jumbo Medien)

ON THE NEVER NEVER....In the summer of last year I was in Hamburg where I had fun recording Peter Pan. Delightful stuff although I only had a day to record it all! But a sprinkling of fairy dust and I was flying! Peter Pan (Jumbo Medien)

MIND GAMES Set in Vienna around 1900 Frank Tallis' thriller FATAL LIES is the third volume in The Liebermann Papers series. Music-loving policeman Rheinhardt and psychoanalyst Liebermann work together to solve the crime. Liebermann is a disciple of Freud (who appears in the novel) and Gustav Mahler has a bit part too. Beautiful writing, marvellous characters and great fun to record Fatal Lies by Frank Tallis (Clipper)

PAINTING PICTURES 1 I like a challenge and The Painter of Battles by Arturo Perez-Reverte is certainly that! It's a gripping and dense tale of wars and history and painting. A complex series of arguments as well as a tense and dramatic tale. There was lots of research to do (one of the main characters is a Croat and so there were a lot Croatian place names to check out). As well as information of painters going back to time of the Bayeux Tapestry to the present day. The writer certainly knows his Bosch from his Boudin, his Kandinski from his Kokotcha. Four weeks to research and two days to record! The Painter of Battles by Arturo Perez Reverte (Clipper)

PAINTING PICTURES 2 Another writer who knows his painters is John Malcolm. His Circles and Squares is a more conventional thriller centering around the abstract painter Ben Nicholason. This book was also quite a difficult book to pull off. so I was delighted with a favourable review in AudioFile magazine. Modesty forbids me to reproduce the review....What am I saying!? Here it is:

"....It's difficult to imagine a narrator better suited to this mystery featuring art expert Tim Simpson - or more able to read the Wodehousian prose with such candour and finesse. Gordon Griffin's flexibility allows him to change accents during a three-way conversation, the mark of a polished professional. Griffin's accents are just right and he keeps listeners engaged as the story unfolds." So there! Circles and Squares by John Malcolm (Soundings)

DANCE TO YOUR DADDY......A number of years ago I went for an interview for a film called The Dancer that was to be filmed in the North East. Some years later I did a rather good singing audition for the musical version of that film which in the meantime had changed its name to BILLY ELLIOT. I didn't get parts in either the film or the musical. But I did get to record the audiobook. The book tells the story of Billy (coming from a similar background to myself and also from the North East I identified with Billy's story) through the voices of Billy, his brother, his dad and his dance teacher etc. I'm Jackie (Billy's dad) and I really enjoyed playing a Geordie character again. I'm so at home with the accent and I find the story funny and very moving too. Billy Elliot by Melvin Burgess (Clipper)

BEFORE THE MAST......... I have recorded a number of Patrick O'Brian books featuring the wonderful Captain/Commander/Admiral Aubrey so I was delighted to get the chance to record a book by O'Brian that was written before his successful sea stories. The Catalans was written in 1953 and is a dense and detailed novel set before and just after the Second World War in a village near Perpignan where the inhabitants are mostly Catalan speakers (O'Brian was obviously fascinated by the Catalans. Maturin, Aubrey's friend in the naval books is half-Catalan.) I guess that the book was an obvious one for me to record as I'd actually spent a few years learning that complicated and historic language. In the novel there are few references to the sea or boats but rather it tells the tale of this ancient village in the hills surrounded by vineyards. There is one dialogue between two middle aged friends -sitting in the garden with cigars and drinks as the sun goes down- that could come from a Chekhov play. The Catalans by Patrick O'Brian (Soundings)

“Sometimes, rarely, you finish an audio book and wonder if you will ever hear such a perfect combination of voice, text, and mood again. Gordon Griffin won an award for his reading of Oxygen; I’m not surprised.........” Sue Arnold, The Guardian.B	ABOUT ME; I've been an actor for over 40 years and I've performed in everything from Shakespeare to rock musicals but what impresses people most is that I once presented Play School and the fact that I'm one of the people telling you to Mind the Gap on London Underground! For the past 20 years I've been involved in recording audiobooks. I'm already way over the 400 mark and if I didn't have a list of all those books I don't think I'd believe it! This website will concentrate on the audiobooks and will, I hope, answer most of the questions that I'm asked when I go around the country talking about what I do. How many books have you recorded (click here)? How do you prepare a book (click here)? Have you ever appeared on television (you guessed it, click here). The website will be active (I'll update as often as I can giving details of what I'm up to) and interactive. I'd really welcome your comments! Click to email me

FROM THE OBSERVER SUNDAY APRIL 5: "Billy Elliot the book, the film, the musical and now the audiobook. And deeply affecting it is; a portrait of a widowed Durham collier desperately trying to keep his family together as grief and the miners' strike threaten to overwhelm him, Billy's 'bally' is inspirational, but it's only part of the story". I was pleased with that review because playing Dad in this audiobook was one of my greatest recording experiences and I'm doubly chuffed because I cast it!!!! FEBRUARY 11 Talk went well at Crawley (must have done because they've asked me back!) Earlier in the day I did a radio interview for Southern Counties Radio about the talk and recording audiobooks in general. Fun! MARCH 26 Essex Book Festival 2.00 Waltham Abbey JULY 14 afternoon Strood Hall, Medway JULY 22 Reading (afternoon) JULY 23 Hayle Cornwall (afternoon) The long list for the audible CrimeFest awards is out. From it the best crime audiobook of the year will be chosen. I am surprised and also chuffed that EIGHT of my recordings are on the list!! SNAP! I am surprised how I can record a book on a subject and the very next book (by a totally different writer and oftena different period) can be about the same thing. Last year I recorded three books in a row all about art forgery; two of them were set in Yorkshire. I recorded Rachel Billington's mavellous novel Lies and Loyalties which introduced a Latin phrase I had not come across before....until it appeared in the very next book I recorded! Towards the end of last year I read the latest novel of William Brodrick called A Whispered Name about the First World War. Following closely on its heels was Anne Herries book called Love and War about....the First World War! GREATEST HITS. When I first started doing Talks it was suggested that I should have a website concentrating on my audio recordings. I couldn't imagine who would want to go there. Nevertheless I set it up about two years ago (with a little help from Simon) and recently it reached 3000 hits. And counting! Incredible!!! ALICE AFORETHOUGHT When I read extracts from Lewis Carroll's writings for a BBC Radio 4 programme about his life, I decided I'd like to record the Alice stories. Well, we don't always get we want. But I'm delighted to be producing Alice's Adventures in Wonderland for Jumbo in Hamburg. Alice is a wonderful, wacky, surreal story and I'm looking forward to being on the other side of the mic for this one. Well now I have done it and it seems to have been a success because we recorded Through the Looking Glass in December. (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and *Through the Looking Glass (Jumbo Medien)* ON THE NEVER NEVER....In the summer of last year I was in Hamburg where I had fun recording Peter Pan. Delightful stuff although I only had a day to record it all! But a sprinkling of fairy dust and I was flying! Peter Pan (Jumbo Medien) MIND GAMES Set in Vienna around 1900 Frank Tallis' thriller FATAL LIES is the third volume in The Liebermann Papers series. Music-loving policeman Rheinhardt and psychoanalyst Liebermann work together to solve the crime. Liebermann is a disciple of Freud (who appears in the novel) and Gustav Mahler has a bit part too. Beautiful writing, marvellous characters and great fun to record Fatal Lies by Frank Tallis (Clipper) PAINTING PICTURES 1 I like a challenge and The Painter of Battles by Arturo Perez-Reverte is certainly that! It's a gripping and dense tale of wars and history and painting. A complex series of arguments as well as a tense and dramatic tale. There was lots of research to do (one of the main characters is a Croat and so there were a lot Croatian place names to check out). As well as information of painters going back to time of the Bayeux Tapestry to the present day. The writer certainly knows his Bosch from his Boudin, his Kandinski from his Kokotcha. Four weeks to research and two days to record! The Painter of Battles by Arturo Perez Reverte (Clipper) PAINTING PICTURES 2 Another writer who knows his painters is John Malcolm. His Circles and Squares is a more conventional thriller centering around the abstract painter Ben Nicholason. This book was also quite a difficult book to pull off. so I was delighted with a favourable review in AudioFile magazine. Modesty forbids me to reproduce the review....What am I saying!? Here it is: "....It's difficult to imagine a narrator better suited to this mystery featuring art expert Tim Simpson - or more able to read the Wodehousian prose with such candour and finesse. Gordon Griffin's flexibility allows him to change accents during a three-way conversation, the mark of a polished professional. Griffin's accents are just right and he keeps listeners engaged as the story unfolds." So there! Circles and Squares by John Malcolm (Soundings) DANCE TO YOUR DADDY......A number of years ago I went for an interview for a film called The Dancer that was to be filmed in the North East. Some years later I did a rather good singing audition for the musical version of that film which in the meantime had changed its name to BILLY ELLIOT. I didn't get parts in either the film or the musical. But I did get to record the audiobook. The book tells the story of Billy (coming from a similar background to myself and also from the North East I identified with Billy's story) through the voices of Billy, his brother, his dad and his dance teacher etc. I'm Jackie (Billy's dad) and I really enjoyed playing a Geordie character again. I'm so at home with the accent and I find the story funny and very moving too. Billy Elliot by Melvin Burgess (Clipper) BEFORE THE MAST......... I have recorded a number of Patrick O'Brian books featuring the wonderful Captain/Commander/Admiral Aubrey so I was delighted to get the chance to record a book by O'Brian that was written before his successful sea stories. The Catalans was written in 1953 and is a dense and detailed novel set before and just after the Second World War in a village near Perpignan where the inhabitants are mostly Catalan speakers (O'Brian was obviously fascinated by the Catalans. Maturin, Aubrey's friend in the naval books is half-Catalan.) I guess that the book was an obvious one for me to record as I'd actually spent a few years learning that complicated and historic language. In the novel there are few references to the sea or boats but rather it tells the tale of this ancient village in the hills surrounded by vineyards. There is one dialogue between two middle aged friends -sitting in the garden with cigars and drinks as the sun goes down- that could come from a Chekhov play. The Catalans by Patrick O'Brian (Soundings)