We are delighted to announce that once again we are the accessibility partner for the world-renowned Hay Festival, bringing a fantastic range of books and writers to our members so they can join in with this highlight in the literary calendar.

This year we were very excited to launch the first-ever Calibre Audio Awards, honouring the best audiobooks added to Calibre's collection in the last 12 months. We are now delighted to share the results.

We are once again delighted to be the accessibility partner for the British Book Awards. Showcasing the best of British talent, a panel of writers, broadcasters and industry experts will select winners from 72 shortlisted titles across 12 categories, and we are busying ourselves to add as many as we can to the Calibre collection.

If you love listening to books but wish you could share your thoughts about them with others, then why not join a Calibre telephone book group.

We are delighted to announce another new partnership for Calibre Audio, with Aylesbury Waterside Theatre. The theatre is showing the brilliant West End production of David Walliams’ Billionaire Boy, and with opening night coinciding with World Book Day on 3rd March, they will be helping to raise awareness of our service.

We are so thrilled to announce that we are a new accessibility partner for World Book Day! Celebrating their 25th anniversary this year, World Book Day promotes reading for pleasure, offering every child and young person the opportunity to have a book of their own. We have joined forces with them to bring all our members the same books in audio ready to share for World Book Day on 3rd March.

Following on from our recent focus on crime books, we're delighted to have discovered this interview in the Calibre archives with author Kate Ellis.

Calibre Audio is delighted to be able to announce that Dame Judi Dench has become the charity's new Patron.

This month on 'Meet the Narrator', David Hobbs takes us into his studio to share his recording secrets...

Our newest Meet The Narrator offering is Ann Stutz, who has just finished her 150th recording for Calibre!

With a new 'add to postal list' feature added to our Play Calibre site, here's all you need to know about our postal service...

Would you like to be part of our member panel? Read on for details of how to join and give us your opinions...

We are excited to once again be the accessibility partner for the Reading Is Magic Festival, a five-day celebration of children’s literature and books. Running from 27th September to 1st October, Reading Is Magic beams a series of free events and activities straight into schools and homes across the world.

Did you know that if you own an Alexa or Google smart speaker, you can now use it to listen to your Calibre books? Decide if that works for you with a free 6-month trial....

We all know that it's important to have a Will, but for many of us running around and leading busy lives, it's something that often gets pushed to the bottom of the list...

On our podcast this month we are delighted to feature an interview with Alison Weir, historian and author of some of our favourite historical novels and biographies.

If you haven’t seen it, the latest research from the National Literacy Trust offers new insights into the way reluctant readers, young people and underrepresented children consume audio.

A slightly delayed meet the narrator for the month of June, but one well worth waiting for ... the hugely popular Bob Rollett.

Our friends at Dolphin have been working hard at bringing out new and innovative ways to increase accessibility and GuideConnect is their latest.

Here at Calibre we were saddened to hear of the death of Lucinda Riley this week, who has died of cancer aged 56. After an early career as an actor, Lucinda wrote her first book age 24 and went on to become a bestselling author of romantic and historical fiction. Her books have been translated into 37 languages and have sold 30 million copies worldwide.

For May, our Meet The Narrator is the very talented Alice Barclay, who has been narrating for Calibre for nearly ten years.

Following on from our successful webinars that we held earlier on in the year, we are thrilled to be able to announce 5 new dates. Join Dave Salisbury and Colin Shales from Dolphin and Emma Scott from Calibre Audio to discover how to use the EasyReader app to find, download and read titles from Calibre Audio.

We are honoured to be the accessibility partner for this year's British Book Awards and are highlighting the shortlisted books in our collection so that the awards can be accessible to as many people as possible.

This week here at Calibre, we have once again launched our annual appeal. It seems, perhaps, that we are always asking so we wanted to take a small moment to explain why.

Our April Meet The Narrator is the popular James Murphy, who has been narrating for Calibre for over five years.

We were delighted to be asked to partner with the National Paralympic Heritage Trust to make a video highlighting the work of Sir Ludwig Guttmann, whose story is told in Spirit of Stoke Mandeville: The Story of Sir Ludwig Guttmann written by Susan Goodman.

Let’s face it, it’s not only adults who can feel a bit low or a bit anxious. Throughout the month of March, we have been featuring a Reading for Wellbeing page on our website with articles written with the grown-ups in mind. So it's about time we featured some of our best children’s books too to help you feel happy, confident and ready to take on the world, super-hero style!

As part of our introductions to some of our lovely narrators who work mainly behind the scenes, we will be bringing you podcasts and interviews from the people you have often met only by voice. Next, the lovely Katherine Shaw.

For some people, reading a good book is as much a part of their daily routine as cleaning their teeth or eating and drinking. For others, reading is a passion or a hobby that they try to fit into their busy lives wherever possible. So, what could be better for a book lover, particularly those in the latter category, than being given more great reasons to read?

We are thrilled to announce that Calibre Audio has partnered with RealSAM Smart Speaker to bring accessible audiobooks to smart speakers across the UK.

This year we decided that we would introduce you to some of our lovely narrators who work mainly behind the scenes, but without them our books would not be recorded, and we would not be able to provide the service that we do. So, throughout the year we will be bringing you podcasts and interviews from the people you have often met only by voice. First up, the wonderful Kim Ismay.‍

We want to reassure all our members that our postal service is back up and running and will continue to run alongside our download and streaming offerings. In addition to that, there is now a way that you can add to your postal book lists online

We know that homelearning is sometimes a struggle, even for those of you who have dug deep and discovered their inner teacher alive and kicking within them! So to hopefully get this new week off to a good start, we have pulled together a list of the best free resources currently available and hope you (or a small person nearby) finds them useful.

Without our amazing Production Department, none of the audiobooks in our library would be available for our members to borrow.

Reading books has been proven to have many health benefits, from reducing stress and helping to combat memory loss, to boosting mental health.

Can you help us fill our advent calendar and our real library with some wonderful new books - the perfect present for booklovers this Christmas?

An update from our CEO on the continuation of Calibre services now that we are entering a second lockdown...

We have been lucky enough to secure an interview with Alan Pickering, former government pensions advisor, and the subject of 'Look Where You're Going' by Paddy Briggs.

We are excited to announce that The National Paralympic Heritage Trust has partnered with Calibre Audio to produce the audiobook version of the biography “The Spirit of Stoke Mandeville, The Story of Sir Ludwig Guttmann”.

National Reading Group Day takes place on Saturday 20th June in celebration of reading groups and the positive effect that these groups have on their members. The benefits of being part of a reading group have been widely discussed including social interaction and sharing the love of books and reading.

Quizzes have been going great guns during lockdown and we've all enjoyed spending extra time with our pets - or seeing other people's gatecrash a video call! So what could be better than a combination of the two - a dog quiz suitable for all the family.

It’s Hi VIS Fortnight, a country-wide initiative to highlight accessible library services and alternative formats available to visually impaired people. To celebrate this year’s theme of ‘the word in all its formats’ we thought we would bring your attention to some inspiring and informative stories on how some individuals have coped with the challenges of sight loss.

Reading books has many health benefits; from reducing stress and helping to combat memory loss, to boosting mental health. Books provide us with companionship, adventure, empathy and enjoyment, and listening to audiobooks extends all of this to people who cannot read printed books.

Here at Calibre two of our volunteers have spoken of their memories 75 years on, as they remember a day of exuberant celebrations after the terrible loss and deprivations of the time. Denise, our Editorial Coordinator, spoke to Jane and Mary over the telephone.

We are over a week into the 2.6 Challenge and our fundraisers are going from strength to strength to raise some much-needed funds for Calibre Audio.

Despite the continuing lockdown, and all the challenges that this brings, our Membership teams have caught up on the backlog and are processing your requests as normal.

I am delighted to announce that from Tuesday 14th April we will be reopening our CD’s and memory sticks service.

Did you know that all our members have access to stream our audiobooks online all day, everyday? That means no more waiting for books in the post; you can choose what to listen to, when you want to with 24 hour access to our website. If you are unsure how to do this, we are here to help.

If you have read a great book and want to signpost it to others, call our new dedicated answerphone on 01296 767 355 and leave your review in a message – and we can then share it on our website and social media, allowing other readers to discover your hidden gem.

We have sifted through the best free online resources to keep your children connected to the world of books. From listening to the children's laureate read to Harry Potter quizzes, this is just the tip of the iceberg of support available at this time.

This year we are delighted to be working with CILIP’s Carnegie and Greenaway Awards by making their shortlist accessible on audiobooks for everyone with a print disability.

The 13th March would have been the 102nd birthday of Calibre member Marjorie Blamey, MBE. Marjorie became one of the world’s best known botanical illustrators and her wonderful work can most likely be found on all of our own bookshelves. She illustrated such classics as the Collin’s Gem Guide to Wild Flowers and Cassell’s Wild Flowers of Britain.

It’s World Book Day and children across the country are dressing up as their favourite book characters to celebrate their love of books and reading. Not to be outdone, staff and volunteers at Calibre Audio are joining in the fun.

Today, in support of World Book Day, Calibre Audio announces the next phase of its development with exciting changes to the service.