At the start of the pandemic, I was working as the General Manager of a historic castle and wedding venue in Essex and after being furloughed for a few months I was made redundant when the venue was unable to operate at normal capacity due to COVID restrictions.

I found myself a digital marketing role for a software company that kept the mortgage payments up to date!  As the ongoing COVID restrictions were still in place and I was now able to work remotely, I decided to take advantage of the opportunities that working from home afforded me.

The lack of commute (approximately 2 hours a day) meant that I could spend extra time focussing on personal projects.  Now for many years, people have said to me that I should be a voiceover artist and it’s always been a dream of mine.  I’ve always been involved in performing arts throughout my life and drama lessons at school had given me the tools I had to perform.

I had already converted my small spare bedroom into a home office, so then I set about adapting it into a home recording studio.  Foam tiles were stuck to the walls and a giant red rug was hung.  A basic recording set-up was purchased and I was ready to record.

I spent a few days researching how to get voiceover work and learning the types of work available.  I spoke to friends and colleagues and spent my evenings reading articles on the subject.  I knew I wanted to record an audiobook and I came across the ACX (Audiobook Creation Exchange) website, which is run by Audible.  Authors post their books on the site and potential narrators can record auditions and submit them.  And audition I did!

I landed my first audiobook quicker than I expected and began the rather daunting task of recording the novel.  The manuscript and author notes were sent to me and I got to work annotating it and discussing how to voice the many characters with the author.

Ask any audiobook narrator and they will tell you that recording an audiobook is an absolute marathon, and it really was.  I began recording in April 2021 and the final book was published in January 2022.  Over those 8-9 months I had recorded, recorded, edited, mastered and submitted 8.5 hours of audio, 86,892 words with 12 different characters, (including Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher).  The author and I are very pleased with the end result and I will be undertaking the other two books in the series later this year.

The Banqueting Club, a political mystery/thriller set in the heart of the 1980s government, written by George Fairbrother and narrated by Alistair McMillan is out now on Amazon, Itunes and Audible.  

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Banqueting-Club-Armstrong-Burton-Book/dp/B09RKTYPCW/ref=tmm_aud_swatch_0 _encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

Alistair McMillan is available for voiceover projects and can be contacted his website at www.alistairmcmillan.co.uk