INSPIRED BY A VOICE
‘The Gentleman’s Dilemma’ by Jane Dunn
I love audiobooks; I particularly love my audiobooks and, like many keen listeners, the narrator, the voice, is as important as the story. When it’s right, it adds so much nuance to the character and so much enjoyment to the whole experience.
Boldwood Books give their authors a choice of narrators, and I have been delighted with the wonderful actors I’ve chosen for all my books. In the first, The Marriage Season, Ruth Redman did a wonderful job with my sisters and their adventures in the London Season. Then my second, An Unsuitable Heiress, has so many young male characters I decided to go for a male actor. I played all three suggested voices to my friends and we unanimously decided on Richard Attlee, without realising we’d chosen the voice of the immortal Archers character, “Kenton Archer”.
Richard created such brilliant voices for my three young male friends in An Unsuitable Heiress, I fell in love with the sexy drawl he gave to Lord Purfoy. Raven Purfoy was the most cynical of handsome young men and, inspired by Richard Attlee’s super suggestive voice, I knew that I had to write a book to give Raven his own love story. This became my fifth novel, The Accidental Debutante, and I was lucky enough to have Richard narrate Lord Purfoy’s story too, doing the encore for that fabulous drawl.
Book number five followed two further novels, A Scandalous Match and A Lady’s Fortune, both brought to wonderful life by the incomparable actor, Jenny Funnell. Then novel number six, The Gentleman’s Dilemma (published October 16th 2026), is the story of the last of those young friends met in book number two. Ferdinand Shilton, nicest and handsomest of men, a dandy but not just a dandy, finds love at last and, again, I’m so lucky that Richard Attlee agreed to narrate this book too.
Experience has taught me that Audio books, at their best, are a completely new art form, with the written novel at its heart but with so many unexpected and satisfying nuances of character and meaning added by the best of narrators. This is why I was inspired by Richard Attlee’s voice to write about two people I had thought in the original book were only supporting characters; his voice made them into heroes with their own stories. Thank you, Richard.
Richard Attlee’s experience as a narrator
Narrating Jane Dunn’s Regency trilogy (An Unsuitable Heiress, The Accidental Debutante and The Gentleman’s Dilemma) has been great fun. It’s a world where the men are predominantly gorgeous, rich and blessed with fantastic physiques, all of which I can of course relate to…in my dreams. There isn’t a paunch or a double chin in sight, and that extends to the female characters. They are generally very attractive, spirited, smart and resourceful, and more than able to hold their own.
When it came to finding voices for this large cast of characters, as with other books, I drew on those from my own life: friends, family, teachers and actors whose voices have lodged in my head over the years. Men are usually easier; women are more of a challenge, as my now throaty bass voice can disappear into its Regency boots, especially first thing in the morning.
And the aim is to give everyone a distinctive sound without making a meal of it. Jane’s books are fast-paced, dramatic and hugely romantic, so I try to keep out of the way, and let the beautiful dashing people get on with being beautiful and dashing…until they end up in bed together. Not the whole cast, I’m not sure the publishers would approve of that, just our loved-up, loveable leads.
Pick up your copy of The Gentleman’s Dilemma!
