Harper Seals Dahl Deal

HarperChildren's Audio recently completed the acquisition of audiobook rights to 20 works by Roald Dahl, the late British author of such contemporary children's classics as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and James and the Giant Peach. Ana Maria Alessi, editor at HarperAudio, negotiated the deal with the Dahl estate.

"We started relaunching children's audio a little over a year ago, and we had a few Dahl titles on our backlist," explained HarperAudio associate publisher Carrie Kania, referring to the abridged recordings of Matilda and other Dahl books that were part of the Caedmon Audio catalogue acquired by Harper in 1987. "We started looking at the Dahl contracts because they were drawn in the 1970s when most recordings were abridged to fit [the specifications of] a vinyl album," she said. "We approached the Dahl estate about renegotiating what we already owned and acquiring some other works, and a bit later we got ourselves a 20-book deal. This really puts us on the map in the children's audio world."

Harper is now in the process of producing new unabridged recordings of Dahl's books, aiming to bring out "two or three per season," according to Kania. First up are The BFG read by Natasha Richardson, Revolting Rhymes/Dirty Beasts read by Alan Cumming, The Twits read by Simon Callow and Boy read by Derek Jacobi. Next fall will see the unabridged audiobook debut of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. "We're bringing it out on CD and cassette and will be promoting it with a great poster," Kania noted. "We hope it—and all these titles—will bring new listeners to children's audio."