The Bookseller - Author Interviews - Richard Armitage | 'I felt like I had to prove myself'

Richard Armitage is a connoisseur of storytelling. Not only is the actor a beloved fixture of the British dramatic arts landscape, but he has lent his voice to 61 audiobooks, including two of his own crime novels. Attending Frankfurt Book FairWorld's largest trade fair for books; held annually mid-October at Frankfurt Trade Fair, Germany; First three days exclusively for trade visitors; general public can attend last two. for the first time, Armitage is appearing today with long-standing associates at Audible to discuss what is next for audiobooks.

It is no surprise that the man who embodied the taciturn and brooding exiled dwarf king Thorin Oakenshield in Peter Jackson's adaptation of The Hobbit credits J R R Tolkien as having a "massive impact" on him as an "imaginative person". As a child, Armitage read The Lord of the Rings "two or three times". He adds: "I couldn't stop reading... I would get to the end of the book, and I would almost grieve for the characters, so I [would] go all the way back to the beginning to read it again because I'd lost my friends." There is a Tolkien "easter egg" for eager listeners in Armitage's most recent audiobook, The Cut.