Why narrating an audiobook is a LOT harder than you think

What notes would you need to make? Firstly, there’s the obvious: the dialogue. Marking up the characters’ speech in different colours helps you identify whose voice you need to use.

Then there’s sentences like this: “‘You need to speak quietly,’ she whispered.” Chances are that when reading the quote aloud you wouldn’t have seen the need to whisper until it was too late. You have to know a character’s tone before they talk – something Church achieves with a little note in the margin – a ‘Q’ in this case.

And that’s before you mark the beats (a signal to speed up or slow down the voice) and note any breathing points during particularly lengthy passages (particularly in Edwardian literature).

Then you’ll have to learn how to pronounce any problematic words, whether they’re a tricky medical term or in another language (“There’s always books with French in! And I don’t speak French!” laughs Church).

You may even need to research what a character sounds like if they exist in real life. “While doing one of Sharon Osbourne’s autobiographies I had to check what sort of voice these celebrities had that I hadn’t heard of,” says Church.

So, once you’ve managed all that prep – in three days, if you’re a pro, remember – you’re ready to enter the recording studio. And that’s where things get really difficult.