The day started with a phone call to Fiona Hutchinson to (unfortunately) explain that I was, rather stereotypically, running late and slightly disoriented as to where I was supposed to be. After a brief bout of anxiety about finding a new place, I discovered the home of a charity called Listening Books—approximately a ten-minute walk from Borough station.

Why was I looking for a book with ears? I’d been invited by RASP Publishing to record the two poems I’ve had published in their audiobook version of the poetry anthology Forgotten Letters. With many of their subscribers being dyslexic, visually impaired, or living with other physical disabilities, it was a wonderful opportunity to reach an empathetic audience.

With a bit of help from Jenny acting as my SatNav on the phone (my iPhone was on the blink, so I couldn’t use Maps), I eventually made it to their door. I was greeted by Fiona Hutchinson, the Copyright and Communications Manager, signed in, and met the friendly bunch upstairs. I was then swiftly whisked downstairs to meet Will Parker—whose name I remembered thanks to the visual mnemonic “Shakespeare dressed as Spiderman.” We did a couple of takes, and hopefully a few of the expletives I uttered while stumbling over my words will be edited out. The poems recorded were “Where Ya Comin’ From” and “The sWord”.

Listening Books is a fantastic charity that enables people to access the written word when they might otherwise never have had the chance. With Stephen Fry as a patron and The Baroness Warnock DBE as president, I didn’t feel the slightest bit intimidated… (yeah, right!).