Bath-based BBC Audiobooks hosted a sell-out event for the Bath Literature Festival. Reading Between the Lines: From Page to Production featured Rula Lenska, Lynne Truss, Sir Derek Jacobi, and Lorelei King in an entertaining and lively discussion about the art of the audiobook. They were joined by Sunday Times audio critic Karen Robinson, BBC Audiobooks' Publishing Director Jan Paterson, and Senior Producer Kate Thomas. The panel discussed all aspects of what makes a good audiobook. Topics debated ranged from casting, production, recording, accents, pronunciation, translation, and editing. Rula Lenska, Sir Derek Jacobi, and Lorelei King are all highly respected readers having recorded numerous titles for BBC Audiobooks and other publishers. Lynne Truss appears in the audiobook versions of her two best sellers Eats, Shoots and Leaves and Talk to the Hand.
Sir Derek George Jacobi, CBE is an English actor and film director.
An acclaimed stage actor, who has also appeared in many films, such as Henry V, Dead Again, Gladiator, Gosford Park, The Golden Compass, The King's Speech and My Week with Marilyn.
Jacobi has narrated audio book versions of the Iliad, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C. S. Lewis and two abridged versions of I, Claudius by Robert Graves. In 2001, he provided the voice of "Duke Theseus" in The Children's Midsummer Night's Dream film. He is also the narrator for the BBC children's series In the Night Garden.