When I was given my first razor blade, roll of tape and chinagraph pencil I knew I was going to love editing… it wasn’t that long ago was it? I remember the frustration of trying to find a particular section that had been chopped and put to one side when the next edit spot had been found, but nothing beat the smooth, sound of a seamless cut.

In my other life as a radio news journalist the creative process was limited to clips for the news or short illustrated packages, it was so satisfying to get the right soundbites with a clever bit of writing married up with quality sound effects and music clips – the basics of sound design.

For nine years I scripted and edited the Richard and Judy Bookclub Podcast it was fun to create ludicrous scenarios and our hosts were always game for a laugh, as in this episode with Jodi Picoult for her book The Storyteller. It evolved over the seasons but I liked the playful ones the most.

When the pandemic struck it seemed work was going to be a little thin on the ground but my very good friend Bob Jones (aka thatRobJones) had a sound design role for me on what turned into a series of projects for China Plus.

Surely everyone’s heard the saying “The journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step”, but how much more there is to Laozi’s Dao de Jing . Bob’s interpretation of the 81 chapters come in perfectly sized listens of less than 15 minutes.

Really enjoyed working with Bob, great scripts and the opportunity to build a specific sound for longer form speech based work, an extended series of linked podcasts and the chance to learn a thing or two about the history of China. While “The West” was grubbing around in the dark ages, China’s Song Dynasty (960-1279) was powering ahead in technology, science, philosophy, mathematics, and engineering – gunpowder, compasses and printing presses all coming into being.

The Tang Dynasty (618-907) is seen by those who judge these things to be as a high point in Chinese civilisation, something of a golden age where poetry, painting and pottery flourished.

On Series 3 of Chinese Folk Tales , I was so lucky to project manage with friends: Rob Jones, Paul Osbourne and Victoria Meakin not only VoiceOvers but also voice actors.