WHAT WE DO

Craftsman Audio Books is committed to producing unabridged recordings of fiction for listeners of all ages. Every title added to our catalogue is the result of a very careful process of selection.  The emphasis is on quality not quantity.  This is no corporate sausage factory where producers are indifferent to the books they are recording.  In the years that we have been publishing, we have only ever adapted books that we care passionately about, and these are books with a strength of writing that marks them out immediately.  By combining this writing with a wonderful group of actors we are able to produce audio books that demonstrate a clear understanding of what the author is trying to achieve. We are proud to be different. 

HISTORY

Craftsman Audio Books was founded in the 1990s as a family company, and is now an associate of the Pelican Group of Companies. Publisher Tim Cook began his career producing radio commercials and later founded the audio list at Orchard Books working with many of the industry's best-known readers on productions integrating sound effects, music and songs. In total, Tim has 20 years experience in book publishing, editing numerous titles. His devotion to the audio book medium is reflected in the care with which each Craftsman title is produced.

MUSIC

Original music has always been a feature of our titles as important to our recordings as the cover design is to a printed book. Currently we are commissioning music from the East Anglian composer Leigh Odlin whose atmospheric and richly-textured orchestral pieces add a new dimension to many of our recent recordings including critically praised compositions for The Complete Ghost Stories of M. R. James and The Tombs of Atuan.

OUR READERS

Craftsman selects its readers with great care - you could almost say that they were the Craftsman rep company. Not only is each one a highly accomplished audio book reader (a very rare and special skill in itself), they have also worked extensively in theatre, television and film. We look for actors who bring subtlety, nuance and, where it is needed, humour to our recordings.

HONESTY

From time-to-time, we make mistakes. But we want to rectify them and learn from them. So if there is any aspect of our work that you need to comment on, please do not hesitate to get in touch.