Christopher Eccleston narrates Cold Bath Street audiobook

4 February 2019

Award-winning actor lends his support to Preston-based ghostly thriller published by UCLan Publishing

Actor Christopher Eccleston is helping to bring the supernatural thriller book Cold Bath Street to life by narrating the novel’s audiobook.

The award-winning actor who has appeared in a variety of British television dramas, including playing Doctor Who, has voiced the book written by New York Times best-selling author and Preston-born AJ Hartley, which is published by the University of Central Lancashire’s (UCLan) own publishing house.

It marks another milestone for Cold Bath Street, which is set around the Miley Tunnels that lie under Preston and are supposedly haunted, after it was nominated for one of the most prestigious children’s book prizes in the world, the Carnegie Medal, last November. The book was edited, project-managed, designed and produced by students on UCLan’s MA Publishing course in the only student-led, student-run publishing house in the world, UCLan Publishing.

Christopher said: “Cold Bath Street is just a brilliant, brilliant, brilliant book. I was so happy to narrate the audiobook because I think Andrew’s writing is superb. The book is an anthem for our times and it is wonderful that it is set in the North. I think what UCLan Publishing is doing, especially in improving regional diversity, is amazing and I was very glad to give my time for this cause.”

"The book is an anthem for our times and it is wonderful that it is set in the North. I think what UCLan Publishing is doing, especially in improving regional diversity, is amazing and I was very glad to give my time for this cause."

Christopher got involved in the Cold Bath Street project after playing Macbeth in Stratford-upon-Avon for the Royal Shakespeare Company and it was pointed out to him that the play draws many parallels with Cold Bath Street with themes of supernatural, ghosts and death.

In an interview with The Bookseller, Christopher said: “We did an event where Andrew [Hartley] talked about his book and his notion of the supernatural, and I spoke about playing Macbeth and my notions of the supernatural. It helps that the book is set in Preston, Lancashire, and I’m from Salford in Lancashire. We’re from a very similar generation. We seem to have an odd understanding of each other.”

The Cold Bath Street audiobook will be launched at the prestigious London Book Fair on the 11 March with an audiobook panel event fronted by AJ Hartley, Christopher Eccleston and UCLan Associate Professor of Publishing and Head of the Publishing House Debbie Williams.

Debbie said: “This is another exciting development for Cold Bath Street and I want to thank Christopher for lending his support to a book that’s really put Preston and UCLan Publishing on the map. We’re a small publishing company competing against huge, well-established publishing houses and the success that we’ve experienced with Cold Bath Street has been phenomenal.”

Following the success of Cold Bath Street, AJ is already working on a sequel, due to be published in October, called Written Stone Lane that is based on a ghost myth around the Written Stone near Longridge in the Ribble Valley.

UCLan Publishing is also working with AJ on another children’s book, Monsters in the Mirror, due to be published on the 1 March and available for pre-order on Amazon. An author event with AJ to promote the book will take place at Preston Waterstones at 2.00pm on Saturday 9 March.