Neville Jason

Jason became most notable for his career as an audiobook narrator and director.[6] He began working with Naxos Audiobooks in 1987[7] and would go on to record over 60 books for their label. His recordings included the collected works of T. H. White,[8] novels by Thomas Hardy, and an unabridged recording of War and Peace.[7] For his work in audio, Jason won four AudioFile Earphone Awards as a reader, and two Talkie Awards as a director.[2] His final recording for Naxos was Primo Levi's The Periodic Table, which he had selected himself. [2]

Jason received international media coverage for his recordings of Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time (regarded by Guinness World Records as the longest novel ever written). [9] In the 1990s, he recorded a 36-hour abridgement of the novel, under its traditional title of Remembrance of Things Past. In 2002, he wrote a biography The Life and Work of Marcel Proust, which he recorded over 3 CDs for Naxos.[10] In 2010, Jason recorded a 10-hour "essential" abridgement of the novel to introduce new readers.[11] In 2011, he was asked by Naxos producer Nicolas Soames to record a complete and unabridged reading of the novel. Jason recorded the 1,260,000 words of the novel over 45 days.[7] Jason would record approximately 9 hours' worth of material over 3 days, followed by 3 days rest, and then resuming. Between each volume of the novel he took a week off.[12] The recordings received enthusiastic reviews, with Michael Mott writing in The Sewanee Review that "Jason creates his own masterpiece for which his training as a singer must be in part responsible".[13]