We are looking for someone to fill the role of Titles and Copyright Co-ordinator (Maternity Cover)
If you have excellent organisational and communication skills, a broad knowledge of books and the UK publishing industry, would like to expand your experience in the charity sector and are interested in representing a charity that supports anyone with a print impairment, then we would love to hear from you.
Click here or on the link below to find out more about the role, and find details of how to apply.
Learn more about vacancies at Listening Books
Our office will be closed from Monday 22nd December at 3pm, and will open again on Monday 5th January 2026. During this time, our phone lines are unavailable, but please email info@listening-books.org.uk and a member of the team will contact you as soon as possible when we re-open in January. Alternatively, please call back on Monday 5th January 2026.
Our online services will be available as usual whilst the office is closed. If you need any help with accessing the service during this time, we have a range of help pages and instructions in the members’ area, in the FAQs on our website, and on our YouTube page. OverDrive also provide help guides for the Libby app here.
Wishing you all a happy festive period.
From everyone at Listening Books.
Our office will be closed on Tuesday 9th December from 12:30pm for a staff event. Our phone lines will be unavailable in the afternoon, but please leave a message, or email info@listening-books.org.uk and a member of the team will contact you as soon as possible when we reopen. Alternatively, please call back on the 10th December. Our online services will be available as usual.
Looking for an interesting Christmas gift? Don't forget that you can now purchase a gift membership to Listening Books online! With thousands of titles available, an online audiobook membership makes the perfect gift for a bookloving friend or relative. Click here to purchase today, or on the link below to find out more.
Find Out More About Gift Memberships
Looking for more content? Our blog articles cover all kinds of subjects, as well as guest articles from professionals in audiobook recording, or charities that support those that can benefit from access to audiobooks.
Our latest article is about Why Audiobooks Are Important For Teens.
Click on the link below to explore our latest article, plus many more.
Read more
We have been notified that some members are experiencing a playback error for some devices. We are looking into this, and hope to have this issue rectified as soon as possible.
Update 14th October: Issues now resolved.
We’ve recently teamed up with SNR Audio to add over 30 audiobooks to our catalogue, and we’re delighted to say there are more to come! The first batch of titles includes classics by authors such as Charlotte Bronte, Charles Dickens and E.M. Forster, ghost story and horror collections featuring works by authors like M.R James, Edgar Allan Poe and Mary Shelly, and traditional detective stories, such as the Inspector Alan Grant books by Josephine Tey!
SNR Audio was established in 2020 with the aim of publishing the highest-quality audiobooks worldwide. Since then, they’ve been shortlisted for two Audies and twice hit the #1 spot on Audible! We’re very grateful for their generous donation and look forward to working with them again in the future.
Interested in joining the Listening Books team?
We are looking for someone to fill the role of Membership and Marketing Assistant at Listening Books.
If you have proven social media experience, and are interested in joining our small team to help those with a print impairment access books, we'd love to hear from you.
Click here or on the link below to find out more about the role, and find details of how to apply.
Find Out More
Our list of the most popular titles for March is here!
Are your favourite titles listed? Or perhaps you are looking for some reading inspiration? Click here or on the link below to view our latest top 10.
View the Top 10
Beginning on the 1st May 2025, our membership fee will be increased from £20 to £25 per year for individuals. This decision was carefully considered, as we recognise the financial challenges many members face with rising costs. It's worth noting that our membership fee has not changed since 2009. During this time, we’ve grown our catalogue considerably and we are proud to offer a fantastic selection of audiobooks, along with thousands of newspapers and magazines.
If this change presents any difficulties for you, please feel free to get in touch when your renewal time comes. We’re committed to supporting our members and appreciate your continued support as we strive to provide the best service possible.
And the winner is...Rebecca Yarros for Iron Flame! Click here or on the video below to view the announcement from our patron, Stephen Fry.
Click here or on the button below to find out more about this title.
Borrow
It's a new month and that means another theme for our bookclub! Biographies, Memoirs and More is our theme for March and April. What are your favourites? Let us know on our page. If you aren't yet a member, join today to find out about all the great titles and suggest more for us to add!
Find out more
We were saddened to hear about the death of our former Trustee, Christopher Sinclair-Stevenson, who passed away on 20th January 2025. Christopher spent many years as a Trustee for Listening Books, providing much insight, advice and support, following a long career in publishing. He will be greatly missed.
You can read more about Christopher and his life here:
We hope all our members and supporters had a good festive period. Throughout the year we'll be adding more books as usual, bringing you more exclusive author interviews through Virtual Village Hall, as well as revealing the winner of the Members' Choice Award 2024!
Keep checking our website or member emails for more of your favourite Listening Books content.
As planned, OverDrive have sunset the OverDrive app and OverDrive Media Console. The final device to complete this process will be the Fire Tablet. Users running Android 9 or higher will see the sunset message and a reminder to download Libby from the 9th December 2024. Sunsetting will be complete for all platforms by 31st January 2025.
To use the service on a phone or tablet, members can use the Libby app. If you need any help to set up Libby, please don't hesitate to get in touch.
Our office is closed on Monday 2nd December from 12:30pm for a staff event. Our phone lines are unavailable this afternoon, but please leave a message, or email info@listening-books.org.uk and a member of the team will contact you as soon as possible tomorrow. Alternatively, please call back on the 3rd December. Our online services will be available as usual.
Voting for our Members' Choice Award 2024 is now open. If you are a member, and would like to take part, check our next newsletter for a link to the voting form.
Click here or on the link below to find the nominees for this years award.
Click here to view the nominees
Are you interested in volunteering? We are looking for two new Trustees to support the work of the charity.
If you are strategic, friendly and passionate about access to literature and learning then we would love to hear from you. You will help shape our strategic direction, and be a part of ensuring we are able to continue to support our members to access books.
You can find more information on our pages here.
Find Out More
Unfortunately there is a widespread technical issue with our audiobook provider. They are aware of the issue and are working to resolve the issue ASAP. You can find updates here: OverDrive Status. Apologies for any inconvenience for our members.
It's the 40th anniversary of Volunteers' Week! Taking place from 3rd - 9th June this year, we wanted to say a huge thank you to all of our volunteers, past and present, who have helped us to deliver our audiobook service, and reach those who can benefit from access to audiobooks. Your help and support is invaluable.
Thank you all!
After many years at 12 Lant street, we are excited to be moving to new premises. Our new address is Listening Books, The Foundry, 17 Oval Way, London, SE11 5RR. All other contact details remain unchanged.
As of January 2024, we made the very difficult decision to phase out our CD service. Every effort has been made to contact every user of the CD service to alert them to the changes. The CD service for current members will end in May 2024 and no more CDs will be sent out after this date. Our online service will still be running, providing access to a large catalogue of audiobooks which we will continue to grow, and which can be accessed from a computer, smartphone or tablet. We also offer thousands of newspapers and magazines online in audio.
If you have not yet tried our online service, and would like help getting started, please get in touch with our Membership Team at support@listening-books.org.uk or call 020 7407 9417.
Our staff will be taking a break during the bank holiday weekend, but our online audiobook service is still available 24/7. If you need any help during this time, you can find extensive instructions in your account, as well as on our YouTube page at https://www.youtube.com/c/ListeningBooks.
Alternatively, email support@listening-books.org.uk or leave a message on 0207 407 9417 and we'll get back to you as soon as possible next week.
Unfortunately, due to staff sickness we are a little short staffed today. If you cannot get in touch by phone, please leave a message and we will get back to you as soon as we can. Alternatively, please email support@listening-books.org.uk.
And the winner is.....Bleeding Heart Yard by Elly Griffiths! Click here or on the link below to view the announcement from our Patron, Stephen Fry.
Click here for the announcement
The Listening Books office will be closed from 3pm on Friday 22nd December 2023 until 2nd January 2024. 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.
For those members with access to our online services, including magazines and newspapers through PressReader, these will be available as usual while the office is closed. If you need help accessing our online audiobooks, please get in touch before the 22nd December. You can also find a range of instructions in the Member Dashboard section of your account.
Season's Greetings from everyone at Listening Books!
Email our membership team
The Listening Books office will be closed from 11am today. Please email info@listening-books.org.uk or telephone 02074079417 and leave a message. A member of staff will get back to you as soon as possible on Thursday.
Send an emailIf you missed our live Q+A with Paterson Joseph, the full recording is now available!
Click here or on the video below to view the interview.
This week Jessica talks with award winning actress and narrator Polly Lee.
She talks about some of the books that have stayed with her, including Soman Chainani’s School for Good and Evil series, and the voices she would have done differently if she’d known how the series would play out.
Click here or on the link below to listen.
Listen Now
If you love the book Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus, then you need to listen to the latest edition of The Listening Books Podcast!
In conversation with host Jessica Stone, Bonnie tells us about how her career as a copywriter shaped her approach to writing the novel, the one mispronunciation in the audiobook, and why she needed to break some rules to write this story.
Click here or on the link below to listen.
Listen Now
We are very grateful to the Smurfit Kappa Foundation for their generous support which will allow us to grow our audiobook collection by some 600 titles over the next 3 years!
What better way to demonstrate the benefits of using audiobooks through Listening Books, than by hearing from our members. In this short video, our staff, narrators and ambassadors present some of the comments we receive.
Watch Video Here
Join Emily as she chats with Jonathan about his upcoming new book and answers your questions about The Bingo Hall Detectives series, being a writer and any other questions you want to ask him!
This informal session will be perfect for fans of murder mysteries and cosy crime, as well as aspiring writers looking to chat to a seasoned professional.
Our new blog is here!
Listening to audiobooks is a great way for children and adults to read more, and this summer, children can use their membership to take part in the Reading Agency's Summer Reading Challenge.
The challenge, which started in Scotland on Saturday the 24th of June and in England and Wales on Saturday the 8th of July, allows you to set a reading goal for your child, who can receive special badges throughout the challenge, and a certificate upon completion.
This summer the Challenge focuses on the theme “Ready, Set, Read!” and all the books are centred around staying active through games, sports or adventure.
Click here or on the link below for more tips for keeping your child motivated during the challenge.
Read Now