David Hewson
Back in May Richard Armitage and I won the Audie for best original work for our take on Shakespeare’s famous love story. It’s normally $24.95 on Audible US. But today it’s deal of the day which means you can get our award-winning audio version for just $3.95.
You can find it here. You don’t have to be an Audible member to take advantage of this offer. But it is within the Audible US store only… and the offer ends at midnight.
Well… we did it. Last night in the elegant surroundings of the New York Historical Society, Romeo and Juliet: A Novel won the Audie for best original work. Given the strength of the competition I had talked myself into believing we didn’t stand a chance. But you never know, do you?
The Audies are a wonderful institution and very much a level playing field which is not always the case with these things. None of the nominations get past the first post unless they’ve been through a field of volunteer listeners sifting them out. It really is about the work, not the schmooze or politics.
It’s important to emphasise too that this is an award for the people behind the work, not just the author. Without Richard Armitage’s immense skills as a narrator and interpreter… without Audible’s formidable attention to detail when it comes to production, direction and delivery this could never have worked,
I’m indebted to you all, and none more than Steve Feldberg, the producer, who first decided to take a chance on rewriting Shakespeare eight years ago with Macbeth. One of the many things I love about Audible is that it’s a publisher willing to take risks. And without risks there can be no creativity.
To you all and the many listeners to my adaptation of Juliet and her Romeo who’ve supported it from the start… a million thanks.
Here’s the moment it happened… and who better to break the news than that fantastic narrator and actress Lorelei King…
Verona, 1499, a city torn by a vendetta between the houses of Capulet and Montague. Then a secret love affair begins as Juliet, facing a forced marriage, meets the young son of their rival house.
A story all the world’s familiar with, but retold here mainly from Juliet’s point of view, and with the same kind of changes to the plot that Shakespeare himself performed on the Italian originals that preceded him.
As some of you will know, this was first written as a one-man audio play for that amazing one-man repertory theatre Richard Armitage, commissioned by Audible. The resulting work, now nominated for an audio Oscar, the Audie, prompted lots of people, Richard included, to ask… when’s the book coming out?
To be honest I hadn’t even thought of it at the time. Big publishers tend not to like material that comes out as audio first, and in the book world I tend to wear the label of crime or thriller writer, not a historical author.
And next came a request from Audible in Germany for the story to be turned back into a full-length dramatic production. But the pleas for a book kept coming in… so here it is thanks to a young, energetic British publisher the Dome Press.
Let me stress this a new work. While it follows the original audio in theme and quite a lot of the prose, it takes a few different turns, partly because the original was a script and also because I learned a few tweaks along the way with each new iteration of the work. So you can’t listen to it word-for-word against the Audible version. There’s also a new foreword written by Richard.
It’s available in the UK in hardback and paperback from all the usual sources, including Goldsboro where you will find signed copies available. It’s a very handsome production, for which I’m grateful to Dome’s publisher Rebecca Lloyd and the founder David Headley. I’m also indebted to Audible for all the support I’ve received in getting the project off the ground in the first place, and, of course, to Richard for both his amazing performance in audio and the insights he added from his perspective as an actor.
You can find lots of background material about the book here. If you feel like visiting Verona and seeing some of the real-life locations — it’s a lovely place and I recommend it — you can read a few travel tips from my visits here. And here are some of the key locations you can explore by the medium of Google Maps too.
I’m absolutely gobsmacked to tell you that Romeo and Juliet, my adaptation for Audible narrated so splendidly by Richard Armitage, has been nominated for an audio ‘Oscar’, the Audies.
Wow. This is my third nomination, the first two with my good friend A.J. Hartley for Macbeth and Hamlet (the latter with Richard too). I’m incredibly grateful to all the people at Audible who made this project possible, and Richard for a narration performance that exceeded my wildest dreams.
Here’s the full list — such company to be in. The winner will be announced in New York City on May 31st. Thanks again everyone!
David Hewson