I reviewed the new edition of JRR Tolkien's selected letters earlier this year; and I saw at the time that the whole thing was also available as an audiobook - which was a mammoth twenty-nine hours yet cost me just one "Audible" credit to buy (less than five pounds).
So, strangely, the audiobook of Letters is much cheaper than the paper copy! (So long as you are an Audible member.)
Listening to these letters was a tremendously enjoyable experience - probably more so than reading them. Also I felt that I was taking in more of the meaning aurally, than when reading to myself - perhaps due its being easier to concentrate.
...For which much of the credit must go to Samuel West; who is "the voice of Tolkien" in this production.
Samuel West is a very experienced Tolkien audiobook reader of the Silmarillion and broadly Legendarium material, typically reading Tolkien's text - and has often made a team with his father Timothy - who plays the "editorial role" of Christopher's voice.
But these letters represent SW's greatest challenge yet; since there are so many of them and they lack an over-arching dramatic structure, and because they are letters rather than fictions, and were not intended for publication.
Yet West does a simply superb job! What greatly impressed me was his sustained focus on the reading; on the precise meanings of the sentences. He also made the letters dramatic - full of light and shade; with a wide range of emotions - happiness, anger, tragedy, irritation, the sublime... So that each letter becomes a structured exposition of some aspect of Tolkien the man.
I think this convincing interpretation of Tolkien as a character is made possible by Samuel West's unusually high intelligence for an actor - so that he pronounces extremely wide vocabulary of the words correctly, phrases the complex sentences grammatically, accurately inflects their meanings.
An unreserved recommendation from me - I anticipate relistening many times.
