The 20 best audiobooks

A panel of experts select their faourite 20 audiobooks published in the last 12 months.

Harry Patch - the only surviving veteran of the trenches - has been selected for the Best Audiobooks of the Year 2009 with his life story, The Last Fighting Tommy by Richard Van Emden, read by Alan Howard. The story of an ordinary man’s extraordinary life, The Last Fighting Tommy includes an original recording from Harry Patch, who turned 111 on 17th June this year.

The Best Audiobooks of the Year 2009 is launched tomorrow (July 2nd), by a panel of key figures from audio publishing, trade press and national media. The panel’s selections were based on excellence in several criteria: quality of literary content, abridgement, reading, production value and sound quality.

Listen to the extracts from the winning selections by clicking the image to the right.

Listeners can vote for their own favourites at www.20bestaudiobooks.com