Audiobooks have grown massively popularity in the last couple of years. Audio revenue for UK publishers surged by a third between 2023 and 2024, with book lovers spending a record £268m on audiobooks, according to the Publishers Association.
It's easy to see why: unlike a print or ebook, you can enjoy an audiobook while you do other things, like the washing up or take the dog for a walk.
It's also a very intimate act, especially if the book's author is narrating - there's nothing than hearing someone's words in their own voice. Whether you want a gripping thriller or a celebrity biography full of shocking revelations, here are the best audiobooks to listen to in August.
A Pressing Engagement by Jilly Cooper
First published in 1981 as part of short story collection Lisa & Co, this is the first time A Pressing Engagement has been recorded as an audiobook. Set in London in 1978, it's the story of Hester – a secretary stuck in the monotony of administrative work, whilst her older boyfriend, Julian, refuses to commit. When Hester is offered a role assisting with an exciting film producer, she sees a chance for everything to change. But leaving means breaking her boss's heart – until she hatches a plan: fake an engagement. The catch? Her supposed fiancé, childhood friend Nico, has no idea. The starry cast includes Hannah Waddingham, Richard Ayoade and Bessie Carter (Bridgerton).
AUDIBLE A Pressing Engagement by Jilly Cooper
Murder At The Vicarage by Agatha Christie
Toni Collette, Kit Harington, Lolly Adefope and Hugh Dennis atre part of the starry cast for this new adaptation of the Christie classic. In the rural idyll of St Mary Mead, the despised Colonel Protheroe is found dead in the vicarage study. Though the Colonel had many enemies, the violence of his death shocks the sleepy village and starts the tongues of the local gossips wagging. The first suspects are the Colonel's beautiful young wife, Anne, and her purported lover, handsome artist Lawrence Redding. But St Mary Mead is full of secrets, and the real killer could be anyone.
AUDIBLE The Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie
We Tell Lies by K.L. Slater
This twisty new thriller from the author of Message Deleted is the perfect holiday companion. Emily has a beautiful new home and money in the bank and a promise from her partner Oliver that their life as con artists is over. It's time for a fresh start... until unsettling messages start to arrive and Oliver begins to act strangely. Narrated by Robin Laing, Sam Stafford, Alix Dunmore.
The Castle by Jon Ronson
Whatever he writes about, journalist Jon Ronson is always insightful and interesting. His latest non-fiction audiobook,which he narrates himself, examines the masculinity crisis and is as funny as it is exposing. When Jon Ronson received a series of mysterious texts from his son Joel who’d been lured to a mysterious castle in suburban Connecticut where a wealthy older man is recruiting young women to be his 'princesses'. So begins Ronson's deep-dive into the manosphere and a mystery surrounding the man who owns the Connecticut castle.
Muriel Spark: A BBC Radio Drama Collection by Muriel Spark
Bringing together dramatisations of some of some of Spark's best works including The Girls of Slender Means and The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, as well as a bonus episode of The Essay: All Miss Brodie’s Girls. The casts feature Celia Imrie, Patricia Hodge, Siân Phillips, Mark Straker, Sorcha Cusack and Maggie Service.
AUDIBLE Muriel Spark: A BBC Radio Drama Collection by Muriel Spark
Big Little Truths by Liane Moriarty
This sequel to Moriarty's huge best seller Big Little Lies picks up the story 10 years later as Celeste, Jane and Madeline become parents to teenagers. Life is a rollercoaster as they deal with tantrums and their own trubles. Then a freshly severed finger is delivered to the school principal's desk and the past comes zooming in. Narrated by Caroline Lee.
AUDIBLE Big Little Truths by Liane Moriarty
Death Writ Large by Susie Dent
The second book in Dent's Oxford-set crime series is a clever, twisty mystery. When mysterious symbols appear as graffiti around Oxford, lexicographer Martha Thornhill recognises them from an alphabet created by a deceased writer whose papers she once worked on. But this is no publicity stunt, and tensions intensify when further graffiti is found near the body of a university lecturer. Narrated by Louise Brearley.
Sophie, Standing There by Meg Mason
Mason’s last book, Sorrow And Bliss, was a huge word-of-mouth hit, selling more than 100,000 copies. Like its predecessor, this new novel is a raw account of a woman on the brink – this time, Sophie, an event organiser, recently separated and feeling a bit lost – and a deeply relatable, intimate listen, read by Katherine Parkinson.
AUDIBLE Sophie, Standing There by Meg Mason
Tenderness by Rowan Beaird
This absorbing novel takes place at a wedding where everyone has a secret and disaster looms. On a remote island off the Virginia coast, family and friends gather to celebrate the nuptials – but all anyone can talk about is the bride’s recent time in a Californian cult and whether she’s really left it behind. Narrated by Evan Sibley, Katharine Chin and Pete Cross.
Brand Beckham by Alison Boshoff
This explosive biography takes a look at the fallout between Brooklyn Beckham and his parents, David and Victoria. Read by Clare Corbett.
AUDIBLE Brand Beckham by Alison Boshoff
