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Bath-based audiobook publisher AudioGO, formerly BBC Audiobooks, has secured "Titanic" star Kate Winslet to read the Mr Gum children’s books, written by Andy Stanton and published by Egmont imprint Jelly Pie.
The company has also announced that David Tennant and Bill Nighy will be among the actors reading forthcoming James Bond audiobooks.
Winslet has recorded four of the Mr Gum Stories initially and they will be available from September. AudioGO m.d. Mike Bowen said that this would be the first of a number of top names the company expects to sign up to help create audio books. He said, “We already have a number of famous names in our catalogue but we will be looking for more names with global appeal.” The books have sold more than 1.5m copies worldwide.
Also in September, just ahead of the new Bond movie "Skyfall", AudioGO is to release audio versions of 12 classic Bond titles, read by leading British actors including David Tennant, Bill Nighy and Rosamund Pike. The company has worked alongside Ian Fleming Publications on the initiative, which has been three years in the making. Vintage took over print and digital publication of the Bond titles earlier this year, but audio rights were not included in the deal.
AudioGo is currently digitising its backlist, which numbers over 3,000 titles including BBC-created content, for delivery via its website, mobile phones and 3G technology.