Spain: The inside story of an audiobook

Now I know how Weller feels. Two days at the mic, trying to get everybody up to my standards, fixing the mistakes of others on the hoof…

While it is been thrilling when people enjoy the stories and interviews from which I’ve constructed the Barça and Spain books, the truth is that it was one hard slog writing them.

So, for that reason, I often don’t read the book for months on end once it’s published. Then it comes time to record the audiobook.
You turn up at a studio and suddenly the pressure is on to read well over 100,000 words, with as few glitches and stammers (or swear words) as possible in under three working days.

The Barça book was done in the RNIB studios in Camden – a really cool location right by the canal – while Dom Joly was recording one of his books at the same time. He used to wander about the office during breaks with his mobile glued to his ear. I was REALLY tempted to do his old, “I can’t talk I’m on THE PHONE” routine … because nobody will ever have done that to him before.

The Spain book was with Rushforth Media, in Archway. A roasting hot studio (pictured above), pegged to a microphone with an editor listening to my every word, every comma, every breath.

They don’t get many authors reading their own books – it’s mostly done by actors. Okay, I’m certainly the Gene Hackman of sports writers but you know the story. We wanted Joan Collins but she was doing her hair; Ian McKellen begged but we didn’t really believe he knew the offside rule and Jack Nicholson mistook the first one for Basketball: The Making of the Greatest … we’ve not spoken since.

So there I sat, officially an ‘actor’ as far as Equity is concerned, calling everyone “luvvie” and doing some of my best ‘out loud’ reading since primary school.

Because it’s usually an actor reading someone else’s book there’s not normally a single change. But I can read ahead of what I’m saying and would often try to weed out repetition or phrases which read okay in print but do not sound so smooth out loud. On agreeing that it was my book and I could do what I liked, the editor told me that Germaine Greer was the only other author/reader who’d adopted this approach – on her world-famous book The Female Eunuch – so I think she’s in good company.

t was refreshing and enjoyable to read it again particularly after so many months. I found myself getting wrapped up in the anecdotes and descriptions of the action – remembering being there, the hairs standing up on the back of my neck as Spain won Euro-World Cup-Euro. What a ride.

Hopefully this audiobook will make you feel slightly closer to the remarkable events which brought Spain’s historic treble.

Read Next Interview with the Herald Read Next Spain: Behind the Camera Lens