A master with epic length narrations of Ken Follett’s WORLD WITHOUT END, Steven Saylor’s ROMA, and Nobel Prize winner Orhan Pamuk’s SNOW. And he’s got Earphones Awards from A to Z, including PROVENCE A-Z, INVISIBLE WALL, and THE LONG WALK. --2007 Narrator Yearbook

John handles the detail-rich naval history and adventures of Patrick O'Brian, Dewey Lambdin, and Steven Pressfield with impeccable British authority. He's convincing, assured, and inimitably believable. Yet, in real life, this narrator is a dedicated landlubber! The authenticity of his portrayal of naval battles and explorers' adventures comes instead from careful, intelligent preparation. The rave reviews for O'Brian's POST CAPTAIN and THE MAURITIUS COMMAND suggest that John is certainly "master and commander" despite his affinity for terra firma. John says that he likes to "root himself" in a book and "get into its emotional core" before beginning any narration. Frequently he finds a commonality with an author -as he did when he recorded John Cornwell's THE PONTIFF IN WINTER and Louis De Bernieres's BIRDS WITHOUT WINGS—both Earphones winners this year. His flair with literary work-V.S. Naipul's HALF A LIFE, Kazuo Ishiguro's WHEN WE WERE ORPHANS—couples with his ability to build suspense-whether in works by Martha Grimes or John le Carré. His handling of detailed technical passages in the nonfiction of Compass and the balanced pacing of time frames in the complex fiction of le Carré's ABSOLUTE FRIENDS reveal other dimensions of his narrative skills. Producer Dan Musselman notes, "John's character voices are unique yet honest. He stays true to what the author has written and yet puts his own signature on it." John is also conscious of the listener's experience, and given the accomplishments of his first dozen years as an audiobook narrator, we look forward to his expanding audiography, which includes upcoming fantasy titles by George R.R. Martin and the young adult Edge Chronicles series.--2005 Narrator Yearbook

The cultured, versatile British voice listeners know from audiobooks such as A FINE BALANCE by Rohinton Mistry and TAI-PAN by James Clavell is most certainly not John Lee’s only note. John’s voice work in the animated series “Aeon Flux,” a Japanese anime; the movie Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust; and the recent TV series “Spawn” is a contrast to the audiobook titles John excels with. He wrote and produced the Indie film Breathing Hard, which has won eight film festival prizes but has not yet been distributed. As a narrator, John has proven himself skilled with a variety of accents, moods, and conversational pacing. His recent recordings of Dickens’s much-recorded classics A TALE OF TWO CITIES and GREAT EXPECTATIONS stand out. Books set in India such as HALF A LIFE by V.S. Naipaul, THE DEATH OF VISHNU by Manil Suri, or Mistry’s Booker finalist have all been stunningly read by John. Yet he seems equally comfortable with the Scots-Canadian stories of Alistair MacLeod, tales of the British Navy courtesy of Dewey Lambdin, or the village mysteries of Martha Grimes. --2002 Narrator Yearbook

John Lee