Simon’s Comments (group member since Apr 24, 2022)



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Apr 24, 2022 04:49PM

50x66 This 'League' was first created as far back as 2005, and was located on the old Amazon Forums. This league is my own league, and is my own opinion. I am always open to suggestions, or criticism, which might have a bearing on future adjustments, but it will always be my own list, and not representative of the general views of this list. People are welcome to submit their own Top 5, or maybe even Top 10 narrators, if they want to!

The following league is split into four distinct divisions. The top division, 'The Premier League', is the only one that is star rated. The names that appear in the subsequent three divisions, are in no particular order. A brief description of each division is placed in brackets to the right of the division name. This is a work in progress, and there are many narrators I have listened to, who have not yet been added to this list:

The League Of Narrators

The Premier League (The absolute best!)

Steven Pacey **** (Exceptional reader, full of interesting acting, good accents, and excels when the action gets fast and furious)
Stephen Fry **** (Expressive reader, particularly inventive with character voices, and great acting. Top notch!)
Angus King **** (Recent addition to this elite club of 4 star readers, who is just simply excellent at everything, including adding a sense of distance to voices, to add a 3D touch)
Robert Glenister **** (His reading of Cormoran Strike alone, proves his versatility with voices, with inspirational acting making for excellent dialogue)
Ian Hanmore *** (Beatifully expressive reader, with excellent acting and accents. Almost a four star narrator)
Sean Barrett *** (The only reason this reader isn't four stars is that he doesn't quite have the expressive range of those in that group, but very, very good anyway)
John Heffeman *** (Subtle, but appropriate, with very natural accents. Good acting and very clearly spoken)
Finlay Robertson *** (Very similar to John Heffeman, with all the same attributes)
Tim Mchin ***
Michael Kramer *** (An American reader that is exceptional with his characterisations. He even did a masterful job with an English accent set in London...Mike Carey's 'The Devil You Know'.)
Michael Beck ***
Stephen Thorne ***
Joanne Froggatt *** (One of my highest rated female readers. Understated with inventive voicing. Many will know her as 'Anna' in Downton Abbey.)
Jeff Harding *** (Jeff will always be Lincoln Rhyme for me, but he also gave the best reading of 'The Da Vinci Code'!
David Thorpe *** (Good reader, very clean, clear, and enthusiastic - Best book, The Verdict)
Peter Forbes *** (Brings clarity to a broad north Scottish accent, for those of us who struggle with accents. Excellent acting and voices)
David Monteath***
Peter Capaldi **
John Chancer **
Michael Tudor Barnes **
Juanita McMahon **
Greg Wise **
Ralph Cosham **
James Masters **
Joe Jamieson **
John Banks **
Colleen Prendergast **
Paul Thornley ** (Good steady reader, good acting, and good accents. He has noticeable patterns though, but these are easily forgotten, given his other good points)
Jonathan Keeble **
Rose Ackroyd *
James Daniels * (Canadian narrator)
Frank Muller *
Humphrey Bower *
Sian Thomas * (Good but sometimes easy to miss what she says as she often speaks too quickly, and a semi posh accent is clips and words are difficult to define...this is probably isolated to those of us with hearing issues)
Peter Mayhew *

Division Two (Good & Steady readers - Above average!)

Dick Hill (Good reader, but no good at doing ethnic accents...to the point of non existence)
Clive Mantle (Husky voice becomes samey...seems good at childrens books, but may not suit adult thrillers etc)
Nick Hendrix
Antonia Beamish (Good with narrative, but below average dialogue, definitely in the bottom region of this division)
Scott Brick (Good reader, but has general depressing tone in everything he reads)
George Guidall (Quite an elderly sounding voice, so younger characters are less believable)
Kate Reading (Good reader, but has patterns)
Andrew Wincott (good reader, but has noticeable patterns...however, these patterns were minimised in the second book I listened to by him)
Saul Reichlin (good, steady, but totally unbelievable accents)
Jim Franzione (Fine for Chet & Bernie, does comedy well, but very average at narrative)

Division Three (Bearable if desperate.)

Roy Dortrice (failure to recall which accent to give which character)
Laural Merlington (No emotion, uncreative acting, no light and shade to reading, too rushed)
Christopher Eccleston (Reads without acting, accents, or emotion...totally monotoned)
Greg Patmore (strange way of speaking)
Greg Wagland (nasal sounding voice, which he changes for some characters, however, he forgets the voice tone he has given a character, and makes it very hard to ascertain which character is speaking. He also mispronunces words that really shouldn't be, such as 'Misper', where he puts the emphasis on the 'per' part. He also completely mispronunced the guitar brand Ibanez)
Jan Cramer (Mostly wooden acting. Not the best accents. Annoying regular pattern, even in dialogue. Often wrong inflections.)

Division Four (Unbearable!)

Vari Sylvester (Amateurish accents, inability to recall which accent for which character, and terrible acting of dialogue)
Roy Avers (Terrible...stiff wooden acting that is hard to listen to)