Read On - The Audiobook Show from RNIB
RNIB Connect Radio
A weekly show all about audiobooks recorded at the RNIB Talking Book studios.
We talk to your favourite authors and narrators, along with reviews and news about new audiobooks.
Presented and produced by Robert Kirkwood, you'll find a new episode here every Friday at 1pm plus bonus content such as longer uncut interviews and episodes of our occasional extra show, The Book Group.
Talking Books is a free service from RNIB giving access to over 40,000 fiction and non fiction books for adults and children. Find out more by searching for RNIB Library.
Get involved and join the conversation by emailing radio@rnib.org.uk or find Robert on Twitter @Talking_Books
Other great podcast channels from RNIB Connect Radio
Connect - Our main channel with news, features and articles on sight loss.
Conversations - Blind and partially sighted people speaking about a wide range of topics.
Tech Talk - Technology for blind and partially sighted people.
Sport - See sport differently.
The Happy Hour - Mental health, mindfulness, and overall wellbeing.
Tracks of My Life - Take a journey through our guest's life.
Support - Other podcasts from RNIB.
TV Guide - Daily audio TV listings
We talk to your favourite authors and narrators, along with reviews and news about new audiobooks.
Presented and produced by Robert Kirkwood, you'll find a new episode here every Friday at 1pm plus bonus content such as longer uncut interviews and episodes of our occasional extra show, The Book Group.
Talking Books is a free service from RNIB giving access to over 40,000 fiction and non fiction books for adults and children. Find out more by searching for RNIB Library.
Get involved and join the conversation by emailing radio@rnib.org.uk or find Robert on Twitter @Talking_Books
Other great podcast channels from RNIB Connect Radio
Connect - Our main channel with news, features and articles on sight loss.
Conversations - Blind and partially sighted people speaking about a wide range of topics.
Tech Talk - Technology for blind and partially sighted people.
Sport - See sport differently.
The Happy Hour - Mental health, mindfulness, and overall wellbeing.
Tracks of My Life - Take a journey through our guest's life.
Support - Other podcasts from RNIB.
TV Guide - Daily audio TV listings
Episodes
Mentioned books
Mar 24, 2023 • 58min
313: Lost in Translation
This week, let's explore the fascinating world of translating books. Join us as we delve into the intricacies of language and the art of transforming literary works from one tongue to another. Nicola Smalley chats about her work translating Norwegian and Swedish into English and instead of a 'books of your life' she gives us three favourites she's translated. Plus we listen back to how 'The Distance Between Me and the Cherry Tree' was translated from Italian.
Mar 17, 2023 • 58min
312: Narrator Gabriel Woolf
Today's show features a celebration of, and a chat with, one of the most distinctive and prolific voices in the RNIB Talking Books library, who first recorded for RNIB around 60 years ago, Gabriel Woolf.
Mar 10, 2023 • 58min
311: Books that Won the Oscar for Best Picture
From All Quiet on the Western Front, to 12 Years a Slave, and possibly returning to All Quiet on the Western Front, many winners of the Best Picture Oscar have been based on books. Robert Kirkwood grabs some popcorn and explores which of those books including Forest Gump, Silence of the Lambs, Gone with the Wind and the Godfather, amongst many others, are available in the RNIB Talking Books library.
Mar 3, 2023 • 58min
310: World Book Day 2023 and Tips on Writing with Sight Loss
This week blind author Ami Turnbull tells the Tech Talk team how she wrote her book 'More!', we talk to children's author Laura Ellen Anderson about Amelia Fang and being a previous World Book Day Book author and we hear all 13 titles that blind and partially sighted children can get for free on this year's World Book Day.
Feb 24, 2023 • 58min
309: Catherine Simpson and Rosanna Amaka
On today's show Robert Kirkwood chats to Catherine Simpson about her memoir One Body: A Retrospective and how anyone can pick up a free audio copy on World Book Night.
Rosanna Amaka weaves together the realities of war and the pain of first love in the brand new book 'Rose and the Burma Sky'.
We also get some more healthy book recommendations from Paulina Kuchorew and Barry Snell talks to someone who has been volunteering with Talking Books for over 50 years.
Feb 17, 2023 • 58min
308: C.K. McDonnell - The Stranger Times and The Dublin "Trilogy"
In today's show we talk to C.K. McDonnell about his series of books, The Stranger Times, including the brand new book 'Love Will Tear Us Apart' and also the "increasingly inaccurately titled" Dublin Trilogy.
Feb 10, 2023 • 58min
307: Jon Gingerich, David Graham and some AI narrators
In today's episode we hear from author Jon Gingerich about his book The Appetite Factory, and how he raced to finish the book as his eyesight failed.
We chat to our friends at Tech Talk about the new batch of AI narrators that are reading commercially available audiobooks.
And we chat to a proper human narrator and voice of everything from Daleks to Peppa Pig's grandpa via Parker in Thunderbirds, David Graham.
Feb 3, 2023 • 58min
306: Meik Wiking, Richard Wiseman, Percival Everett and Everything I Know About Love
This week Paulina Kuchorew talks to Meik Wiking about his book, My Hygge Home, Robert Kirkwood talks to Professor Richard Wiseman about fear, magic and smiling, Amelia Hilton reviews Everything I Know About Love by Dolly Alderton and we get the books of your life from Booker shortlisted author Percival Everett
Jan 27, 2023 • 58min
305: Claire Keegan, Candia McWilliam and some healthy book recommendations
On today's show we get some healthy book recommendations from the RNIB Talking Books Library, hear the Books of Your Life from Booker shortlisted author Claire Keegan, listen to Candida McWilliam's 'What to Look for in Winter - A Memoir in Blindness' and there's some news for RNIB Library members.
Jan 20, 2023 • 58min
304: Remembering Fay Weldon, The Bullet That Missed reviewed, plus NoViolet Bulawayo and Jonathan Dimbleby
On today's Read On we remember Fay Weldon and play her interview with Robert Kirkwood from the RNIB Talking Book Studios. We review Richard Osman's 'The Bullet that Missed', talk to Jonathan Dimbleby about 'Destiny in the Desert' and hear the Books of Your Life from twice Booker shortlisted author NoViolet Bulawayo.
