So I still need to thank all the people that helped put me on the stage that I was lucky enough to share on Monday evening at the 35th British Book Awards. It's a long list but have a look, you may be on it! And if I can clap enthusiastically for over 2 hours of nominees, I hope you can read a few minutes of text to honour lots of hard-working people with the same attention that I was briefly awarded. Without them, I wouldn’t have made it this far.
*deep breath!*
The NIBBIES PEOPLE
Thank you to hosts Rhys Stevenson and especially Lauren Laverne for calmly helping me out onstage when I pleaded "Where do we look??" Although you can see from the photo that I still can't follow basic instructions...
Thank you to all the Bookseller judges that voted for us, especially Mr Julian Rhind-Tutt for your kind words and a handshake as warm and charming as any Green Wing fan could have imagined! ( I hope you had fun on the Audible reboot).
Thank you to announcer Alan Dedicoat for your gentle and tactful voice of god ‘shushing’ where needed. I approved.
Thank you to all the event staff who kept us fed, hydrated or dehydrated as appropriate, kept the party going, and retrieved my umbrella from the cloakroom at lightning speed!
THE Bunny VS Monkey PEOPLE
Thank you…
Mr Jamie Smart, for being the creative powerhouse and wellspring from which all these amazing characters, worlds, inventions and stories flow.
Keely Armstrong for the herculean editing and vibrant sound-design that was the MAIN reason this book could come close to matching the energy of the comics. You set the standard for Andre Ricardo to ably follow, and you were the one in the trenches with me for some pretty complex scenes!
Poppy Knight for handling with grace and skill the trickiest task of them all: adapting a comic book to audio.
Vicky Sayers and Rose Lander for giving me this amazing opportunity in the first place.
Thank you to all the other producers, proofers, admin ninjas and other unsung heroes at the green machine of Bolinda who action-beaver away behind the scenes every day, and thank you Georgia, Cara, Emily, Hayley, Zoe and the mighty Alex for making Table 80 the place to be on Monday night!
Thank you to the readers of the Phoenix and the readers and listeners of Bunny VS Monkey, for enjoying the mayhem!
THE AUDIOBOOK PEOPLE
Thank you…
Author Will Carver and Gareth at Chatterbox Audio who took a chance on me and started it all. Gareth you've built a great company with great people.
Chris Perks who gave me confidence and landed me my first kid's audiobook when he was at White House Sound. Another powerhouse of an individual. You work so hard, and I never thanked you properly when you left. Someone give this man more money, wherever he is now!
Arran and Dave at Audio factory who helped me survive lockdown. Thank you for always raising the creative bar and pushing for the kind of rates that will enable sustainable storytelling and a better calibre of production in the UK.
All those producers (full-time or otherwise) who do at least two people's jobs, and offered encouragement, direction, mentoring or critique, especially when I first started narrating, including: Amelia Paul, Carolyn Oldershaw, Derryn Edwards, Ben Findlay, Roy McMillan, Jennifer English, and Andrew Kingston.
BOOK & LIBRARY PEOPLE
Thank you to all the staff and volunteeers past, present and future of the Billericay Library in Essex, as well as at The Bookseller, and The Reading Agency for the Summer Reading Challenge. Between these three I got access to audiobooks, comics and books.
THE PEOPLE I LOVE
Thank you to my friends and partners past for putting up with me and often putting me up. Don’t know if I could have walked this road as long without your belief, companionship, sound advice and listening ears.
Thank you to siblings and extended family for all your support and encouragement, and for sharing a love of storytelling, audio, radio and creative madness.
And above all thank you to mum and dad for my ears and tongue, for making the time to read stories to me, and telling me to do what I love. Thank you for trusting me.
THE PEOPLE IN THE STORIES - WHY IT ALL MATTERS
Audiobooks helped me realise what magic was contained between the covers of those strange papery things called books. Comics and graphic novels helped paint the mental pictures that make a story come alive, and were vehicles for powerful stories in their own right ('Maus', 'Persepolis', 'Waltz with Bashir'). Audiobooks and comics both helped me read better and sharpened the tools of imagination enough to crack open those daunting lumps of pure text that are 'books'. Those muscles of hard practical literacy seem ever more essential in navigating a world of contracts and research papers, op-eds, fact-checkers and ai-generated product reviews. Above all, these stories in all their forms helped teach me how to feel. The ability to privately step inside the mind of another, a person perhaps very different to you, is something we still desperately need.
Thank you for coming to my TED talk.
THANK YOU FOR LISTENING!
This has been ‘A Post-Nibbies Thank-you.’ Written and read, by Ciaran Saward.
You’ve reached the end. Well done sausage.
(If I’ve missed anyone out, do get in touch and let me know!)