We were delighted to welcome multi-award winning stage, screen and voice actor, Richard Armitage, to the School to discuss his debut novel, Geneva, as part of our Inspiring Talks Series in association with Linghams Booksellers.
Richard, best known for his roles in Peter Jackson’s Hobbit trilogy, Captain America and Ocean’s 8, was in conversation with fellow crime writer, Clare Mackintosh who had a wonderful presence on stage and good rapport with Richard. They began the evening discussing how Richard had got into voice acting whilst working on the TV series, Robin Hood. He was asked to record audiobooks for the first season of the series and realised he enjoyed the process of doing something he hadn’t done before. He told the audience how audiobooks had enabled him to read books he wouldn’t necessarily get the opportunity to read, and how there was a sense of responsibility to the author to do their words justice when reading aloud.
Richard discussed how he was approached by Audible to write a crime novel which piqued his interest personally preferring the genre. Deciding not to use a ghost writer, he started to structure the story providing detailed character biographies and chunks of chapters to his publishers whilst taking on suggestions from his editor. When asked how he found the time to write between his other projects, he told the audience how he had written parts of the book on various sets between takes and enjoyed the process getting lost in the world he was creating.
After discussing the book, (and nearly a few spoilers!), Richard read excerpts from Geneva leaving the audience on the edge of their seats with the gripping language read in his trademark baritone voice. Fans were pleased to hear that the book had already been chosen for a six part TV adaptation starring Richard himself as male lead, Daniel. After the talk, Richard kindly answered questions from the audience and explained he was already in the process of writing a second book which was another standalone story. Audience members then got to meet Richard for the opportunity to have their books signed and a photograph.
.jpg.aspx "Collage-(2).jpg")
The evening was thoroughly enjoyed by all who attended and we’d like to thank Richard and Clare, along with Linghams Booksellers, for a wonderful evening.