Recording more than two dozen audiobooks this year, Simon picked up seven(!) Earphones Awards, including Wilbur Smith’s THE QUEST, Peter Carey’s THEFT, Anthony Trollope’s THE WARDEN, and Rob Gifford’s CHINA ROAD. --2007 Narrator Yearbook
"Ah. Simon Vance," Kate Fleming sighs. "What do I love about Simon Vance?" Kate has directed him in several audiobooks, including L.M. Boston's THE STONES OF GREEN KNOWE and Elizabeth Nunez's PROSPERO'S DAUGHTER. "Without resorting to vocal gymnastics," she says, "Simon is one of those narrators who can tap into a vast reserve of imagination to find the right feel for his characters."
Simon says PROSPERO'S DAUGHTER was an enjoyable challenge with it's "three distinct sections with different first person accounts of the same events--one a native of the Caribbean and another a young girl!" The British-born Audie winner "absolutely loves" recording audiobooks. "They're my mainstay," he says. Indeed, he has had to curtail what he calls "tramping the boards" on Bay Area stages lately because he is in such demand as a narrator. Working under the noms de guerre of Robert Whitfield and Richard Matthews, as well as his own, he has impersonated Jesus and Buddha in THE LOTUS AND THE CROSS, a whole pack of scheming Aussies in THEFT, Jesus again plus Oscar Wilde and Blaise Pascal in SENSE AND SENSUALITY, Yankee dissidents in THE WHISKEY REBELLION, and a cast of snobbish Brits in the comic A SPOT OF BOTHER, among many other dramatis personae.
AudioFile's reviewers have praised Simon's ability to capture "the listener's ear in the first few minutes," his "unique voice and vision for every character," and his "subtle intonation." His clarion baritone voice gives him a youthful sound, belying his 22 years as a narrator. He began his career in England by reading for the blind and delivering the news for BBC. He relocated to the U.S. so that his then-wife, an American, could be near her folks. "In the long run it was a good idea," he says. "I do love it here now." Remarried, he remains near San Francisco where his children live, recording in his own home studio or shuttling to Oregon, Seattle, or New York for various clients. "This has been a most enjoyable and successful audiobook year for me," he told us. "The other aspects of my acting career have taken a bit of a back seat, but I will never stop putting myself 'out there' given the chance. I'd like to work more in film." Ultimately, what he desires most in his professional life is "steady work and," he hastens to add, "the respect of my peers. Narrators are such a great bunch--Kate Fleming, Grover Gardner, Scott Brick . . . I could go on, it's a growing list--I feel honored to be considered in their company."--Yuri Rasovsky
- 2006 Narrators Yearbook
When Simon Vance was about 10 years old, his father gave him a tape recorder, and he’s been “playing with a microphone and making silly voices” ever since. Simon won the 2006 Audie Award for Science Fiction for Richard K. Morgan’s MARKET FORCES. “You venture into so many different worlds. From week to week you don’t know which planet you’re going to be on, which country you’re going to be in.” Simon began his audio career by reading audiobooks for the UK’s Royal National Institute for the Blind for 10 years before coming to the U.S. in 1992. Then, he began reading for Blackstone Audio (as Robert Whitfield) and Books on Tape (as Richard Matthews). Simon estimates he’s “closing in on 300” audiobooks. He just finished recording THE SECRET RIVER, an Orange Award winner by Kate Grenville. “It’s the story of a fellow and his family who are sent as convicts to New South Wales at the turn of the nineteenth century. It describes the first meetings between Aboriginals and whites in Australia. It’s a terribly moving book.” Among his other recent projects: THEFT by Peter Carey and the newest in Jasper Fforde’s “nursery crime” series, THE FOURTH BEAR.
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