28/09/05 - Gordon Griffin - Spoken Word
Spoken Word Events on Wednesday, 28th September 2005
Around forty people came to Ascot Heath and Birch Hill Libraries to listen to actor and narrator Gordon Griffin talk about his career in spoken word. Gordon, who is close to completing his 340th audio book, told us about his early acting experiences and explained how he became an audio book narrator.
Gordon began his acting career in the theatre and went on to work in television and film. A personal highlight was working on a scene with Gregory Peck and Sophia Loren for four days!
Gordon said that people do not realise how much preparation goes into narrating an audio book. Indeed, he told us that by the time he goes into the studio to make the recording most of the work has been done. In advance he will read through and mark-up the script (for pauses, where to place emphasis, and to make notes on characters). He will also check on pronunciation and accents. The completed recording is double-checked to make sure that it does not deviate at all from the text of the book.
We were given a demonstration of Gordon’s skill as he read us extracts first from John Harvey’s ‘Flesh and Blood’ and then from Robert Goddard’s ‘Play to the end’. The latter showed an impressive ability to change accents during a three way conversation.
Gordon is currently working on recording ‘Hotel Babylon’ by Imogen Edward-Jones and is about to start recording James Meek’s ‘The People’s Act of Love’
Jo Middleton
Fiction Librarian
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