Our people
Bill Dee
Director
In addition to serving as director of Listening Books, Bill also serves on the council of management of the Federation of Irish Societies, the UK representative body for Irish organisations, funded by the Irish and British Governments. He is a member of the independent advisory group (IAG) to City of London Police. Independent of the police force and drawn from diverse communities, the IAG’s role is to observe, advise and constructively criticise the police. Bill’s previous experience includes a trusteeship at the UK's largest volunteer centre at Southwark and seven years on the Independent Panel for Admissions and Exclusions Appeals for a prominent London college. At Depaul UK, one of the best known charities concerned with youth, homelessness and crime, he was a voting member at national level as well as serving on their London and South East region committee. He has broad consultancy experience, extending across several other UK and international charities.
Listening Books is closely aligned with the commercial audiobook industry and Bill was a member of the Working Party on Non-traditional Outlets, established by the Audiobook Publishers Association. Earlier in his career, Bill worked in the public and private sectors for ten years as a scientist and manager and his posts included senior microbiologist for London’s drinking water with Thames Water Plc. Bill is also managing director of a small publishing company he founded, which specialises in non-fiction books. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in 2005 and is also a fellow of the Chartered Management Institute
Louise Barling
Library & PR manager
Louise joined Listening Books in April 2004 on a six-month contract to cover maternity leave. Initially, she worked full time in the library and then moved on to divide her time equally between the library and our sponsored membership programme. Louise now manages the library and looks after the charities marketing and PR, on top of this Louise also runs our educational initiative, Sound Learning. Louise also volunteers during the summer months for Campaign Against Arms Trade.
Fiona Hutcheson
Copyright & communications manager
Fiona first joined Listening Books in April 2006 and worked as membership services assistant in the library. She was then appointed to the post of office manager & marketing coordinator in August 2009 before taking on the role of copyright & communications manager in August 2011. As well as choosing new audiobooks for our library, Fiona writes and designs all of our promotional material.
Robert Marchant
Office manager
Robert joined Listening Books in September 2009, having previously worked for King’s College London - as both administrative and research assistant - and as a volunteer in the education & student team at Amnesty International. Robert loves to read, especially books on history, politics and economics.
Jeremy Stokes
Membership services assistant
Jeremy has worked full time in the library for six years and previously in an adventure playground and as a chef.
Claire Jones
Membership services assistant
After graduating from the University of Surrey, Roehampton in 2005, Claire worked as publicity officer and administrative assistant for Bexley Academy of Music and Performing Arts. She joined Listening Books in May 2008 as a membership services assistant.
Cherry Gardener
Bookkeeper
Cherry was appointed as bookkeeper to Listening Books in June 2006. Prior to this, for seven years she worked as bookkeeper cashier to senior executives for a company of career advisors in Piccadilly, only leaving when the business was taken over. Earlier she worked for eight years as a bookkeeper to an American private investor living in Knightsbridge; this involved dealing with the everyday running of his office and household accounts until he eventually returned to America.
Will Parker
Audio producer
Will graduated from the London College of Communication, which is part of the University of the Arts, with a degree in Sound Art and Design in 2006, one month before he started at Listening Books. He has worked previously in recording studios and produced music for TV. He is an active electro-acoustic composer and is passionate about American literature.
Jenny Ades
Membership & recruitment administrator
Jenny joined Listening Books in August 2011 after finishing a youth exchange programme in which she spent time in Namibia and Wales. She has previously worked as an administrator in the marketing department of the Scottish Arts Council. She loves books and graduated with a degree in English Literature and Philosophy in 2007.
Martin Hardie
Accountant
Martin has been accountant at Listening Books since 1998. A Chartered Accountant and Finance graduate from the University of Wales, Martin manages the accounts of a dozen companies, of which half are charities. He counts reading amongst his most enjoyable pursuits.
Volunteers
Alan Watling
Volunteer
Alan retired from BT in 1996 after 31 years during which he worked on the development of Data Transmission Systems. He joined Listening Books in March 1998, and helps in the library where he checks in returned audiobooks and makes repairs or new copies for our MP3 CD library.
Linda Crimmen
Volunteer
Linda is married with two grown up children. Before volunteering at Listening Books she worked as a secretary for a film company, which she loved. In her spare time she enjoys going to the cinema and theatre and is an avid reader. Linda says, 'I enjoy volunteering ... It is great that there is a way of enabling people to access books by other means.'
Brian Butler
Volunteer
Brian started volunteering at Listening Books at the beginning of 2006. Brian also runs a photography group at Connect, a charity helping people with aphasia, which means they have difficulty talking, reading and writing.
Phyllis Ramage
Volunteer
Phyllis joined Listening Books in March 2011. She is a part-time lecturer in children's literature with the Open University and has a passion for children's books. She previously worked as a children's librarian for the London Borough of Harrow and enjoys volunteering at Listening Books as it reminds her of her time in libraries.
Dee Tsangarides
Volunteer
Dee has been volunteering with Listening Books since January and also helps out at Guide Dogs for the Blind. Previously she worked for The Church Commissioners and Church Urban Fund Charity and also a pharmacy. Dee says 'I love reading and couldn’t imagine not being able to, so Listening Books to me is a fantastic charity that I am proud to be associated with'.
Glenys Grey
Volunteer
Glenys is a retired civil servant who has been a volunteer at Listening Books for just over a year. When not at Listening Books, she spends her time reading (especially big, fat nineteenth century novels), playing the piano, researching her family history, cooking and trying to learn Welsh. She and her husband enjoy exploring London, historical and modern, and caring for a very spoilt cat.
Trustees
Gillie Howarth
Chairman
Gillie Howarth is Head of English at Westminster Under School where she is also responsible for the school’s Public Benefit and Outreach programme. She is a passionate believer in the capacity of books to open up new worlds for young and old alike. One of her first initiatives at Listening Books was to develop the children’s library and she is a keen advocate of the charity’s educational programme, Sound Learning, which gives young people who have difficulties accessing or decoding print the opportunity to excel alongside their peers. ‘Listening to stories goes far back into prehistory and is the original way knowledge passed down through generations. Far from being a second best option, listening captures the distinctive atmosphere of a book in a way reading may fail to do. After all, which of us would prefer to read a play rather than see it? Once you have listened to a great book, you feel the same way’.
Anne-Marie Williams
Treasurer
Anne-Marie Williams has been treasurer of Listening Books since 2006. It is her job to make sure the charity's money is properly looked after, something which is obviously vital for the charity's success. As treasurer she draws on her previous work experience in the City, firstly as an investment analyst for a stockbroker, and then as a fund manager for an insurance company. Anne-Marie says, 'I value my role in the charity since I believe passionately in what the charity does, and feel strongly that books should be available to be enjoyed by everyone, whatever their circumstances.'
Julia Eccleshare
Trustee
Julia Eccleshare is co-director of The Centre for Literacy in Primary Education. Julia is a writer, broadcaster and lecturer, and The Guardian’s children’s books editor. She is a judge of the Branford Boase first novel prize and was a judge for the Whitbread Children’s Book prize in 2001. She won the Eleanor Farjeon Award in 2000 in recognition of her outstanding contribution to children’s books. In addition to numerous anthologies, her books include 'Treasure Island: The Woman’s Hour Guide to Children’s Reading' (BBC Books, 1987), 'A Guide to the Harry Potter Novels' (Continuum, 2002), 'Beatrix Potter to Harry Potter: Portraits of Children’s Writers' (National Portrait Gallery, 2002) and, with Nicholas Tucker, 'The Rough Guide to Teenage Books' (Rough Guides, October 2003).
Christopher Sinclair-Stevenson
Trustee
Christopher Sinclair-Stevenson has been connected with the world of books for nearly fifty years. First as a publisher and subsequently managing director of Hamish Hamilton, then as an agent after he left the company which he set up under his own name. He is also a writer, mainly in the area of history. He has been a trustee of Listening Books for over a decade, and has been able to make use of his experience and contacts built up over the years.
Zoe Richmond-Watson
Trustee
Zoe Richmond-Watson worked as an editor in book publishing and magazines before setting up and running the Talking Book Club, a mail-order audiobook service, from 1989-2005.
David O'Neill
Trustee
David is currently the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) strategy manager for the London borough of Lambeth. He works closely with the senior leadership team in schools and their ICT managed service provider to implement Lambeth’s ICT strategy. Previous to this he was the ICT curriculum advisor for Redbridge, where he strategically managed the implementation of ICT across their primary and secondary schools. He was a secondary national strategy consultant for ICT prior to his promotion to ICT advisor. He has 14 years’ teaching experience and was subject leader for ICT and business at Sarah Bonnell School in Newham, the Ilford Ursuline School and Oaks Park High School in Redbridge, a PFI build where he determined the ICT output specification. He is also an accredited OFSTED inspector and an ICT mark assessor. David has completed the graduate certificate in education leadership, management and consultancy at the Institute of Education in London and has a BA degree and higher diploma in education from University College, Cork.
Nick Forster
Trustee
Nick Forster is Head of Sales at AudioGO, formerly BBC Audiobooks. His knowledge of the publishing sector and of the commercial audiobook market are an invaluable addition to the board.
President
The Rt. Hon. Lady Warnock DBE
President
From 1949 to 1966, The Rt. Hon. Lady Warnock was a Fellow and tutor in philosophy at St Hugh's College Oxford. Then, from 1966 to 1972 she was headmistress at the Oxford High School for Girls. She was Talbot Research Fellow at Lady Margaret Hall (1972-1976) and from 1976-84, she was a Senior Research Fellow at St Hugh's College, becoming an Honorary Fellow of the College in 1985. She then became Mistress of Girton College, Cambridge (1986-89). In 2000 Lady Warnock was a visiting professor of rhetoric at Gresham College, London.
Lady Warnock was a member of the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) from 1973 to 1981. She was chair of the UK Committee of Inquiry into Special Education (1974-78). From 1979 to 1985, she advised the UK committee on animal experiments and from 1982 to 1984 she chaired an inquiry into human fertilisation. She was created a life peer in 1985 as Baroness Warnock, of Weeke in the City of Winchester.
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General enquiries: 020 7407 9417 / info@listening-books.org.uk
020 7234 0522 / library@listening-books.org.uk
020 7403 1377
Registered charity number: 264221 Patron: Stephen Fry President: The Rt. Hon. Lady Warnock DBE
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