A voice

There used to be a little drama slot every day on the radio, in Woman’s Hour, just quarter of an hour every day for a week with a serial; they had all sorts of different things and I don’t always listen because I actually don’t particularity like Woman’s Hour. However I just caught the tail end of something, a man and a woman speaking, and my attention was immediately caught by their voices. They both had really distinctive voices, full of character, and very pleasing to the ear. I had missed the episode but I made sure it caught up with it, and discovered the serial was “The Pillow Book”, by Robert Forrest, based on a real person, Sei Shōnagon who was a lady of the court of the Empress Consort Teishi around the turn of the tenth and eleventh century. Robert Forrest had written a series of mysteries based around Lady Shōnagon.

The person playing the part of Lady Shōnagon was Ruth Gemmell, she of the amazing voice. Ruth was born in the north-east and is an actress who has been in many TV dramas, films, theatre and on the radio. She has such a very distinctive voice, that once you have heard it you will recognize it every time. having heard her as Lady Shōnagon I suppose I foolishly imagined she might be Japanese (yes I know she has an English name) but she is English, is very beautiful, and is always excellent in whatever medium or role she is working.

You can listen to Ruth as Lady Shōnagon here – and I bet you will want to listen to all the other episodes too!