My Body is a Meadow
My Body is a Meadow
Recording a voice that refuses to be fenced in 🌿🎙️
Some books arrive with a quiet presence. Others arrive with purpose.
My Body is a Meadow by Bethany Handley does both.
From the moment we stepped into the recording process, it was clear this wasn’t just a lyrical exploration of nature — it’s a challenge. A call to look again at the landscapes we love, and ask who they’re really for.
The story it tells
Bethany’s relationship with the Welsh countryside is deeply personal. It’s where she has always felt most at home. But when she became a full-time wheelchair user in her twenties, that sense of belonging was abruptly interrupted — not by nature itself, but by the barriers placed around it.
And those barriers are everywhere.
Nearly one in four people in the UK are Disabled, yet tens of thousands of public rights of way remain inaccessible across England and Wales. This book writes directly into that reality — unflinching, honest, and necessary.
It’s political, yes. But it’s also lyrical. Personal. Human.
Bethany invites you to wheel alongside her — through landscapes, stories, and questions that don’t have easy answers:
What does access to nature really mean?
Who gets to feel “at home” outdoors?
And what might change if we reimagined that access entirely?
Along the way, the journey takes in everything from the feral boar of the Forest of Dean to the hidden stories told by maps — each one revealing something deeper about exclusion, ownership, and belonging.
In the studio
Capturing this audiobook wasn’t about softening the message. It was about holding space for it.
We approached the recording with a clear focus:
Clarity — ensuring every word lands with intent
Pacing — giving weight to the moments that need to sit with the listener
Honesty — keeping the performance grounded, never overworked
There’s a particular balance in a book like this. It carries both fire and fragility. Push too hard, and you lose the nuance. Hold back too much, and you lose the urgency.
The aim was to let both coexist — to allow the listener to feel the beauty of the writing and the force of its message at the same time.
A voice that carries
The praise surrounding My Body is a Meadow speaks volumes.
Described as:
“Urgent and beautiful… essential reading”
“A passionate call for an inclusive countryside”
…it’s clear this work resonates far beyond the page.
And in audio form, that resonance becomes something even more immediate. You don’t just read Bethany’s experience — you hear it, sit with it, move through it.
Why this matters
This isn’t just a book about nature.
It’s about access.
It’s about equity.
It’s about rethinking the invisible lines we draw — across landscapes, communities, and each other.
And as a studio, it’s a privilege to help bring projects like this into the world. Stories that don’t just exist to be consumed, but to shift perspective. To open doors. Or, in this case, to question why they were closed in the first place.
If you’re working on a project with something to say — something that deserves to be heard as clearly as it’s written — we’d love to help you shape it into sound. 🌾✨
