The Listening Books Podcast is back for series 3!
This series is going to be bigger and better than ever. We'll have interviews with your favourite authors and narrators, light-hearted literary games, and plenty of book recommendations to keep you going!
The first episodes is live now, featuring an interview with author and podcaster Caroline O'Donoghue.
Listen NowOverDrive is currently doing scheduled maintenance on their service.
OverDrive provides the download and streaming service available through our website and on the OverDrive and Libby apps. As a result there may be some distruption to service today.
We are sorry for any inconvenience caused.
Independent small press Arachne Press have taken a leap into the world of Audio Books, with nine books due for publication this year to be simultaneously released as Audio books.
Arachne Press Director, Cherry Potts, says “Thanks to a grant from Arts Council England, we are able to take a broad spread of books into the audio market – short stories, poetry, a dystopian novel and a YA novel, plus three anthologies.
“We are pleased to be partnering with Listening Books for the mastering and remote production, while our actors work from a variety of home studios, from the professional to the airing cupboard! Lockdown has meant we needed to make the most of every route to the reader, and audio books fit well with our commitment to accessibility, and working with Listening Books means we are also supporting a charity with similar aims. An added bonus with this venture is that we can support actors prevented from working on stage.”
Claire Bell, Deputy Membership and PR Manager, at Listening Books says
“I’m delighted we are working with Arachne to produce these titles. Having launched our new website this year, we know how important accessibility is and are very happy to be working with Arachne to provide their titles in the audio format. Having provided an audiobook service to children and adults since 1959, this partnership will not only support the charity through Listening Books Productions, but will make a whole new range of titles available for the print impaired.”
Cherry Potts added “We are auditioning actors now, and are thrilled to announce that our YA novel, Zed and the Cormorants by Clare Owen, will be narrated by Sophie Aldred (Dr Who, Dennis the Menace).”
February is LGBT History Month in the UK, raising awareness of the history of the LGBTQ+ community in the UK. It's also a time to promote inclusion of the community and continued contribution to society, allowing LGBTQ+ people to live to their full potential.
To celebrate the month, why not listen to an audiobook featuring an LGBTQ+ relationship? We've put together a collection of some of our favourites that you can borrow from our library, including classics, historical romance, and young adult audiobooks!
Browse The Collection
February has arrived, and it's the month of love!
As we'll probably all be spending the whole of the month in lockdown, why not treat yourself to a date with one of our classic romance novels? Narrated by people including Maxine Peake, Charlotte Richie, and Juliet Stevenson, you're bound to be swept away by these audiobooks.
Browse The Collection
Suddenly found yourself homeschooling again?
School closures don't have to mean that you can't get accessible educational audiobooks. We've created a collection of audiobooks perfect for remote learning from home. There's everything from set texts, study guides and revision aids, to other fascinating non-fiction audiobooks for children. Plus, many of them have been recorded in our professional studios, which means they are often unavailable in audio format anywhere else!
See The List
Looking to challenge yourself this year? Look no further than our new and improved Audiobook Listening Challenge!
With 10 tasks to complete throughout the year (plus 5 turbo tasks for big audiobook listeners!) there's plenty of challenges to be had. If you've wanted to listen to more audiobooks, or try listening to different types of audiobooks, then this challenge is the perfect way to get started.
Learn MoreWe will be able to continue our postal CD service through this upcoming lockdown.
As before, the majority of our staff are continuing to work from home, but at the moment some staff are able to make it into the office to continue to send and receive CD audiobooks on a part time basis.
Our digital download and stream service will always be available 24 hours a day, and we are still offering all members on a CD only membership access to our digital audiobook library during this time.
Email the team on support@listening-books.org.uk if you have any questions.
Contact UsThe Listening Books office will be closed from 24th December 2020 to 4th January 2021. During this time our phone lines will be unavailable, but you can send an email to our support team and they will respond to you as soon as possible in January!
Our online service will still be available 24 hours a day, so you can download and stream digital audiobooks from our library.
Visit the library
Our podcast has returned! We have two brand new special episodes dropping in your podcast feeds.
The first is an interview with Adam Buxton, author of Ramble Book, talking about what writing an autobiography is like, comedy, music, the 90s, and more! Find it wherever you get your podcasts, or on our website.
And don't forget to review and subscribe!
Listen Now
We have funding available to provide a number of free memberships for people living in Northern Ireland.
For those who would find it difficult to pay Listening Books' annual membership fee (starting at £20 per year) and live in this area, we have a limited number of free memberships available for access to our online and postal audiobook service.
So if you have an illness, disability, learning or mental health condition that is impacting on your ability to read or hold a book, then find out more about our memberships!
Find Out More
Snowy landscapes, presents galore, and maybe even a murder... Our collection of festive favourite audiobooks is here!
Browse The Collection
If you've been missing our top 10 downloads then you're not alone - we've missed updating it!
Luckily, it has returned! We'll be updating it the beginning of each month with some of the previous month's most downloaded and streamed audiobooks from our library.
If you want to see what we've all been listening to then find the link in the menu under Library. Or, click the button below!
Top 10 Downloads
We're delighted to announce that we have received a £5,000 grant from The MCKS Charitable Foundation UK. We’re so grateful for this generous support to help us continue our work.
We are pleased to announce we are able to continue our postal CD service through the November lockdown.
The majority of our staff are continuing to work from home, but we do have one member of the team who can make it into the office to continue to ensure you get your CD audiobooks. However we rely on Royal Mail, and can't predict how they will be affected, so if you haven't received your books do let us know.
Our digital download and stream service will still be there for you, and we are offering all members on a CD only membership access to our digital audiobook library during this time.
Please email support@listening-books.org.uk if you have any questions.
16th October 2020
We are pleased to say that the technical issue that affected borrowing and listening to titles since yesterday evening has now been resolved. You should now be able to access the Listening Books service on our website and using the OverDrive and Libby apps.
If you are still having problems accessing the service, please contact our membership team by emailing support@listening-books.org.uk or calling 020 7407 9417.
16th October 2020
There is currently a technical issue which is affecting listening to books on our website, plus login for the OverDrive app and our OverDrive powered website.
We are working hard to get this fixed and do apologise for the inconvenience this is causing for members.
It's October and, predictably, it's rainy and dark outside, which makes this the perfect time to borrow one of the brand new audiobooks we've just added to the library!
If you're a fan of Adam Buxton's podcast then you'll love his memoir, Ramble Book. Or, if you're a big crime novel fan, then check out Sarah Pinborough's latest, Dead to Her. There's also the bestselling novel-in-verse The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo, which was shortlisted for the Waterstones Children's Book Prize and the CILIP Carnegie Medial in 2019.
See all the titles we've added by visiting our library page!
Library
...It's the scariest audiobooks in our library!
It's the spookiest time of year and we're getting in the spirit with a list of some of the most frightening audiobooks you can borrow from our library!
Whether you like vampires and haunted mansions, or just want to listen to Hercule Poirot at a Hallowe'en Party, then try one of our terrifying titles on our Overdrive page.
Take Me to the Spooky AudiobooksWe are delighted to introduce you to our new and improved website at www.listening-books.org.uk! We've worked hard to create our new site, we're very proud of it and hope you like it too. Most of you will be able to see the new website straight away, but don't worry if you can't! It may take a few hours longer to update for some users.
For members, please check your emails as we've sent you some important information as well as details about all the amazing new features. If you have any questions, please contact our membership team at support@listening-books.org.uk.
Happy Listening!
We are delighted to say we are now able to safely operate a reduced service for our members who borrow our MP3 CDs, and have begun to send out more books. Our delivery rate will be much slower than usual - please do bear with us as we try and send out as many CDs as we can!
If you have CDs you have been keeping aside you can now send them back to us if it's convenient and safe to do so. If you'd rather not go out to post them at the moment, it's absolutely fine for you to keep them until you are ready to send them back. If you would like some more books, contact us on 020 7407 9417 or at support@listening-books.org.uk.
Our online services continue to run 24 hrs a day, 7 days a week and although our offices are closed, you can still contact staff via email and telephone as normal. If you are a member who usually accesses our CD service, we are offering you a free upgrade to our download and streaming service for the duration of the lockdown period. If you need any help to use this service, please contact us on 020 7407 9417 or at support@listening-books.org.uk.
If you are unable to use the online service and have not yet spoken with a member of the team, please do get in touch on 020 7407 9417 or at support@listening-books.org.uk.