Category: Our Collaborators

Julian writes: Kevin Coyne. Are We Dreaming?

It’s 10pm in the NOP Office and Paul has vey kindly stayed back to help me craft the perfect song to woo the perfect woman.

“Rule one,” he asserts. He can be quite assertive when he puts his mind to it, can Paul I thought. “Kevin Coyne never sang pretty. He growled, he cracked, he groaned. His songs were the sound of a man trying to wring meaning out of a damp Tuesday in Derby.”

“I can groan!” I’m cheered up already.

“Not theatrically!” he’s now insistent. “Authentically.”

“And the difference is…?” I’m already feeling out of my depth.

“One is pain. The other is you. Rule two: Coyne wrote about people, not abstractions. No metaphors about “brand ecosystems” or “emotional synergy.”

“Right. No synergy. No ecosystems.” I cross them out of my notebook discreetly.

“And rule three: Deep down, Kevin Coyne was tender. A bruised tenderness.
Not your usual “Federer of Feelings” theatrics.

I nod solemnly. “I can bruise tenderly if I have to.”

“God help us.” Paul starts pacing the floor, looking this way and that, on the search for something, I’m not quite sure what.

“Cigar?” I proffer. He looks at me in a strangulated kind of way and looks to the ceiling.

Want to know why Maja is so struck by the work of Kevin Coyne? Just take a look here!

Samuel James: Voice Behind the New Confessions of an Ageing Tennis Player Audiobook

Soon to be launched on over a million ears across the length and breadth of the land – the entire world indeed – is the audiobook of Confessions of an Ageing Tennis Player, read by the one and only Samuel James who says:

“The idea of an epic battle between the common man and the forces, trying to keep them at bay is always a winner with me. Nick’s brilliant balance between humour and tragedy had me cheering for Lord Andrew whilst at the same time wishing he could find someone, anyone, to just sit down with for a serious talk over a cup of tea …  Iparticularly enjoyed recreating a well known – and cringeworthy – interview with a certain political leader on the BBC!”

Samuel was born in Portsmouth and raised in southeast London. He trained as an actor at Mountview Theatre School and is an audiobook graduate with Helen Lloyd Audio.

Sam’s theatre credits include Twelfth Night and Women Beware Women at the National Theatre, and the original West End productions of Ragtime and The Full Monty. He is a familiar face on television appearing in everything from sit com to prime-time drama. 

Sam’s audio work includes over 100 full cast audio productions for the BBC, Audible Studios and Big Finish. He was nominated Best Supporting Actor at the BBC Audio Drama Awards for his performance as Billy in The War of the Worlds and he co-starred in Black Eyed Girls for the BBC, which won the Best Original Audio Drama Award. 

Audiobook highlights include Bram Stoker’s Dracula for Spotify Audiobooks and Barry S. Richman’s Follow the Drum for Podium Entertainment. He is currently recording 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea for Spotify Audiobooks – and is delighted to be the voice of the beleaguered and deluded hero in The Confessions Series, his first narrations with Raconteurs Audio. 

Here’s to the first of many collaborations with Samuel and his production company, Raconteurs Audio!

Buy your own CD of the audiobook here:

Confessions of an Ageing Tennis Player: the Audiobook

Confessions of an Ageing Tennis Player: the Audiobook

Confessions of an Ageing Tennis Player is now available as an Audiobook on CD.

£10.00
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Behind the Scenes: Crafting an Audiobook with Raconteurs Audio

We’ve been delighted to work with Raconteurs Audio, the production company who are the guiding lights in turning Confessions of an Ageing Tennis Player into an Audiobook. We met the company at the Troubadour conference in Leicester in September and it’s been full on since then. We asked Helen, founder of the company, about what interested in her working on the book. She says:

“When we met at the Troubador conference and you showed me the book I was intrigued. What a challenge to turn this beautifully illustrated book into an audiobook. Finding the right voice was only the first step … making sense of the layout of the MS was another challenge, and I know parts 2, 3 and 4, will each present a new set of conundrums to overcome. From a producer’s point of view working on a book that is so clearly character led, where the humour is quirky, when it is a book with attitude, is always a joy. Getting across the almost schizophrenic narrative voice, and in due course bringing in all the other characters is enormous fun, then fitting it all together into one seamless production is what makes our job unique. It’s a real privilege when an author trusts us to bring their words to life.”

She goes on to describe how Raconteurs itself started.

“The idea for Raconteurs happened in 2018 when a group of British Audiobook narrators met over coffee and bagels in a Manhattan 24-hour diner. Three years later Raconteurs Audio LLP was formed, and we produced our first audiobook, a collection of short stories by H. G Wells. This was awarded a prestigious Audiofile Magazine Earphones Award.

Since then, we have gone from strength to strength: we have another Earphones Award and an Audie Nomination to our credit, and work regularly with indie authors, as well being a production partner for mainstream publishers. Our core partnership remains at the heart of the business, as we continue to build our network of carefully selected narrators from around the world. 

We are immensely grateful to the authors and publishers who trust us with their work, and we do all we can to bring their words to a listening audience, creating audiobooks of which we can all be proud. 

And here at NOP, we’re delighted to be working with Raconteurs and can’t wait to hear the magic they’ve woven!

Want to see more about the book itself? Just click here:

Julian writes: Kevin Coyne. My Saviour.

It’s the NOP Office, late Monday afternoon. Paul is sketching brooding human forms as per. Somewhere, the kettle moos. I feel I have no other option than to strike a conversation with Paul, who may inadvertently provide me with the key to Maja’s heart.

“Paul? Paul? Have you got a moment? It’s a matter of… emotional urgency.” I begin, not wishing to impose myself too much.

Paul doesn’t look up but mutters,”Nothing good ever begins with those words.”

I plough on regardless.

“You know Kevin Coyne, right? Derby College of Art? Emotional rawness? Husky transcendence? Singing like a man wrestling poetry out of the working class Midlands?

Paul looked up slowly.

“Julian… I knew Kevin Coyne. I didn’t just know the music — I knew the man.
We once drew the same life model and both of us cried afterwards.”

“Exactly! That’s the energy I need.” I think I’m winning him around.

Paul puts pencil his down.

“Why?”

“Because Maja has taken a liking to him. And I,” I place my hand on my chest, perhaps overly dramatically but I thought it was worth a go. “I must meet her where she musically lives.”

“So you want to write a Kevin Coyne song? You? Julian… Kevin wrote about pain. About brokenness. About people who’ve stared too long at the cigarette end of life. You go home and steam your face with eucalyptus.

“But I can channel pain!” I protested. “I’ve known heartbreak… I’m knowing heartbreak right now! Just last week Maja ignored my Spotify playlist suggestions.”

“That’s not heartbreak. That’s mercy.”

“But you must help me, Paul, please! You went to art college with him! You understand the soul of Kevin Coyne! Teach me to sound rugged and emotionally unavailable!”

He sighed.

“Julian… you are neither rugged nor emotionally unavailable. You are…a labrador in a polo shirt.

“But a labrador… with a guitar?”

He sighed reluctantly.

“Fine. If it’ll stop you hovering like a narrative mosquito… I’ll help.

Success! At last! With Kevin by my side – albeit in the shape of a proxy Paul – where could I go wrong?

Want to know why Maja is so struck by the work of Kevin Coyne? Just take a look here!

Kevin Coyne plays ‘Mad Boy’ for Confessions of an Ageing Tennis Player

When Paul Warren, the Confessions illustrator and I first met, we soon realised we were both fans of the Derby born musician, Kevin Coyne. I had seen Kevin several times, and Paul was lucky enough to be one of his best friends and study with him at the Derby College of Art.

We both thought it would be terrific if Kevin’s role in our lives could be acknowledged in the Confessions… book and so were delighted when Helmi, Kevin’s wife, allowed us to use of Kevin’s song, Mad Boy, as the accompanying song for Confessions of an Ageing Tennis Player. If you’re listening up there, Kevin, we hope we’ve done you proud.

Confessions of an Ageing Tennis Player

Confessions of an Ageing Tennis Player

“I don’t like your attitude!” snaps “Serena Williams” as we square up over the club’s dubious grass courts. But I am “Andy Murray”, the greatest tennis GOAT ever, no really I am and you “Serena” are blocking me from my ultimate goal: chairman of our local club.

A riotously funny illustrated comic guidebook about obsession, ageing, sporting fantasy and the gap between imagination and reality.

Follow a man of a certain age — self-styled as “Andy Murray” — on his spirited, surreal journey through dreams of Wimbledon glory, club politics, and the absurdities of success that never quite arrives. The first in the Confessions series.

£19.99
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