The author Bill Bryson is sitting before a lectern in Audible's London headquarters, narrating his latest book, a disquisition on human biology called The Body: A Guide For Occupants. Seen through the window of the recording booth, Bryson's face is largely obscured by the microphone in front of him, but his voice is clear and measured. On the other side of the glass, Bryson's producer follows the text on an iPad, adding cryptic marks to the margins with a stylus.
Bryson makes steady progress until he runs into the word glomerulonephritis, which he can't get his tongue around. He backs up to the beginning of the sentence, as if preparing to charge at a thicket, but when he reaches the word it defeats him again. "Fucking hell," he says, under his breath.
