She Do the Police in Different Voices

The Rising of Bella Casey is to be RTE Radio’s Book on One next week, January 20 – 24. The night-time slot consists of 15-minute excerpts broadcast, Monday to Friday.  One of the challenges of the programme is to edit down a 300-page novel to roughly 25 pages so that the listener gets a flavour of the book. That’s producer’s Aoife Nic Cormaic’s job.

Sometimes the books are read by actors; sometimes by the authors.  I chose to read mine.  It’s a strange experience.  On the one hand, who could be more familiar with the text than the writer? On the other, editing and reading for radio requires you to look at the book almost as if you’d never seen it before.Unlike a public reading,where you can make eye contact with your listeners and judge the reaction, the broadcast is a dramatised interpretation aimed at a faceless audience.

Having done the recordings, now the challenge is to listen back to them.  And to hear your voice as other people hear it!  RTE Book On One is on nightly, 11.10pm