Reader Profile: Nathaniel Parker

Not that I’m abandoning my swooning adoration for the voice of Simon Jones, but Nathaniel Parker does offer some serious arguments for why he should be my true favourite reader. In truth, I have many favourite readers who would inspire me to choose books I'd never heard of merely because they were reading them. Simon Jones, Nathaniel Parker, Jayne Entwistle – all are pretty much perfect in my books.

Parker, however, is today's profile. Born in 1962, Nathaniel Parker grew up knowing he wanted to be an actor and pursued the craft at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts (LAMDA). He has had a stellar career on both stage and screen, and in the TV world is probably known best as Inspector Lynley in the BBC series based on the books by Elizabeth George. He is probably best known in the audio world as the reader for the Artemis Fowl books by Eoin Colfer and more recently the Young James Bond series. Overall he has over 60 audiobooks to his credit.

Nathaniel Parker is a master at creating consistent and distinct voices that make his audiobooks a real treasure for the ear and the soul. What I love about Parker's voice is how skilled he is at rapidly changing between extremely different characters, seemlessly carrying on complex conversations. When I'm listening I completely forget that there really isn’t an entire cast of dwarves, elves, fairies, centaurs and humans standing around a microphone recording the Artemis Fowl books and going out for a beer and nachos together after. It jams my brain cells to imagine one person reading all of those voices so consistently and quickly!


Thinking about Parker recording all these voices made me take stock of the characteristics I most value in an audiobook reader. So far I've come up with the following:

• Must have a pleasing voice (duh!)
• Must be able to create a variety of character voices that are:

·         consistent (ie Mulch Diggums always sounds exactly like Mulch Diggums),

·         distinct (ie Mulch Diggums doesn't sound like Butler),

·         and true to their characters (ie Mulch Diggums sounds exactly like I picture he would sound).

• Must be able to create new voices for each new book / series. For example, when I listen to something read by Parker that isn't Artemis Fowl, it would be really distracting to have Mulch Diggums' voice show up as a completely different character.

In the Artemis Fowl books Nathanial Parker has met and exceeded all of my criteria. I am now on a quest to find other books he has recorded, starting with the Young James Bond series. I don't even like James Bond – see how much a reader can have an influence over the listener?

If the technology gods are smiling on me, here is a sample of Nathaniel Parker reading The Arctic Incident by Eoin Colfer.