SHORT BIOGRAPHY
Zeb Soanes is a trusted newsreader and reassuring voice of the Shipping Forecast to millions of listeners on BBC Radio 4. He is a regular on The News Quiz, has reported for From Our Own Correspondent and read for Poetry Please. Sunday Times readers voted him their favourite male voice on UK radio. On television he launched BBC Four, where he presented the BBC Proms.
He studied Creative Writing and Drama at UEA and has written for The Observer, Country Life and The Literary Review. His best-selling first book for children, Gaspard the Fox, illustrated by James Mayhew, began a series of stories inspired by his remarkable encounters with a real urban fox, for which he was made the first patron of The Mammal Society.
He trained as an actor and has earned a reputation as ‘the go-to person for music narration’ (Daily Telegraph) performing favourite works for children with the UK’s leading orchestras, including Peter and the Wolf, Babar the Elephant and Paddington; his third book in the Gaspard series, Gaspard’s Foxtrot, has been adapted as a major new concert work by Jonathan Dove, touring the UK in 2021.
Gaspard the Fox in bookshops
New Recording of Walton Façade out now