Favourite Audiobook Narrators (Classics like Dickens)

[Procrastoolate]

DS has trouble reading and they will be looking at Oliver Twist next. I'll watch the film with him but want to get an audiobook faithful to the original text so he can listen and read at the same time. I listened to a couple- one was awful and the other has music in the background so is unsuitable for him. He has difficulty hearing/processing so it needs to be a clear and understandable recording (like the Harry Potter audiobooks) with not too much of an accent to stand a chance of him agreeing to listen to it.

Which narrators should I be looking for?

Martin Jarvis does a reading of Oliver Twist, which is available via Audible. He has a warm, lucid style that allows the story to be front and centre. I haven't listened to his Oliver, but he makes a lovely job of David Copperfield. There are a couple of dramatised recordings, but that means a variety of readers, which probably wouldn't suit your DS as it would mean chopping and changing - not ideal for someone with processing difficulties.

Yes, I'll add my vote for Martin Jarvis. I know it sounds horribly snobbish, but I do like a smooth RP accent. I can't bear the American accent and couldn't sit through an audiobook read in one.

Stephen Fry reads wonderfully. Laying in a hot bath listening to him read P. G. Wodehouse or Sherlock Holmes is my idea of heaven. If he happens to read this (ha), please, please record Patrick Fermor's A Time of Gifts. God, how I'd love to hear Stephen Fry read that.

The greatest audiobook I have ever listened to is Michael Maloney reading Evelyn Waugh's Decline and Fall. Maloney also recorded Aldous Huxley's novel Chrome Yellow. Honestly, I can't recommend them highly enough.

Simon Callow is very good. Brian Blessed is also great. I listened to him read his own book, Absolute Pandemonium, and laughed so much I had to pull the car over. I don't know whether he has recorded any of the classics.

Martin Jarvis for Dickens. He makes it all so accessible. It’s a clichéd phrase but he really brings the stories and characters to life.

It’s neck and neck between Anton Lester and Martin Jarvis for me. Both are outstanding in their readings of Dickens.

Anton Lesser is without compare for me. He's such a good actor anyway and his readings are wonderful.

Mil Nicholson on Librevox is great at developing different voices for the characters and Frederick Davidson for a lovely old fashioned accent with a slice of sardonic humour