Last updated: 26 October 2026
By Tristan · Arts, exhibitions and creative culture
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Ten new listens for the first cold nights
These are the best audiobooks November 2026 has for UK listeners. Judi Dench tells her own story with help from two other voices. Martin Freeman reads Gromit's autobiography. Meanwhile Andy Serkis, Jo Brand and Laura Kuenssberg each read their own new books.
The list counts down from ten to one. I ranked each title on two things: what the recording adds to the printed book, and whether the runtime justifies the price. All ten have come out by the day this goes live, the last four on 5 November.
New to audiobooks? Start with Audible
You can buy every title below with an Audible credit, and new members get a 30-day free trial first. The current Audible UK offer and the steps to claim it are on my Audible page.
Looking for last month's picks? These are the November 2026 listens. Every edition since March 2026 is on my best audiobooks hub, newest first.
The best audiobooks of November 2026, at a glance
My best audiobooks November 2026 shortlist runs to ten titles in three sections, and together they come to 103 hours and 30 minutes of listening. The countdown finishes on the one I would start with, so it sits at the bottom of the page. Tap any title to jump straight to it. If you missed last month, my October 2026 audiobooks round-up has ten more.
Prices are Amazon UK audiobook prices, with the usual list price alongside. I checked these prices on Amazon UK on 26 October 2026, and any of them can change after release day.
Section 01 / Novels
Four novels, from small-town Ohio to a haunted library
A tentacled answer to a factory closure, a haunted reading room, a New York family after 9/11 and a teenage TV obsession that turns cosmic.
Monsters of Ohio, narrated by Wil Wheaton. Audible Studios.
Monsters of Ohio
Richland, Ohio, is in trouble, because the town's biggest employer is closing. Mike Boyd comes home after decades away with no plan to stay. Then he lands in the middle of local feuds, a private equity deal, executive theft and, in the publisher's words, "something extremely weird involving Jeremy Keller's prize cow".
Wil Wheaton reads it for Audible Studios, and Tor publishes the print edition. It comes from the author of Starter Villain, and the publisher pitches it at the same readers. However, the plot runs on American small-town politics and private equity money, so readers who know American small towns will get more of the jokes.
A closing factory, an old friend and a cow nobody can explain
Out 3 November · 8h 38m · £13.11, usually £14.98
From the Library of Jurgen Leitner, narrated by Christian Coulson, Jonathan Sims and Paul Sims. Penguin Audio.
From the Library of Jurgen Leitner
This is a horror novel set in the world of The Magnus Archives, the podcast Jonathan Sims wrote and starred in. Premee Mohamed, a Nebula Award winner, wrote it with him. Leitner keeps a private library of dangerous books, including a starving cookbook and a hardback that makes you dig. Two of his staff, a translator called Hugh Franklin and an acquisitions man called Sebastian Everett, work there years apart, and their stories run side by side. Penguin publishes it in the UK.
Three narrators share it, Sims among them. Since the podcast began as audio, the novel suits a listen more than most. Even so, if you have never heard the podcast, Leitner's name means nothing at the start, and fans will pick up references that a newcomer will miss.
Two librarians, two decades apart, and a cookbook that wants feeding
Out 27 October · 10h 29m · £10.49, usually £12.06
Hollow Bones, narrated by Rebecca Soler, MacLeod Andrews, Julia Whelan and Jodi Picoult. Penguin Audio.
Hollow Bones
Molly Fitzgerald was two months old when her mother went to an appointment in downtown New York on 11 September 2001 and never came home. Now Molly runs a department that plans for disasters. Her husband, Jesse, is a police polygraph expert with a fractured family of his own. Then a disaster strikes much closer to home. Penguin publishes it in the UK, and the publisher describes it as a story about mothers, daughters and "the lies we tell ourselves".
Four narrators share the reading, Picoult included, so the different voices should help keep the timelines apart. On the other hand, 15 hours and 39 minutes of grief and loss is heavy going on a commute. Also, the starting point is the attacks on New York, which some listeners will want to know before they press play.
A daughter who plans for every disaster, until one reaches her own family
Out 5 November · 15h 39m · £12.69, usually £14.51
Public Access Afterworld, narrated by Jane Schoenbrun. Sceptre.
Public Access Afterworld
Jane Schoenbrun wrote and directed the film I Saw the TV Glow, and this is the debut novel. On 12 June 2009, two lonely teenagers, David and Erin, watch American TV switch from analogue to digital. In the static afterwards, Erin glimpses a channel called Public Access Afterworld, and soon she vanishes. Fourteen years later, Bethany Peters, a trans content moderator in Austin, sees a young streamer repeat the same three words. Her search runs from rural Texas to 1940s Los Alamos. Sceptre publishes it with praise from Torrey Peters, who compares the thrill to David Mitchell.
Schoenbrun reads it, so you hear the story in the voice that wrote it. Still, this is the longest listen of the ten at 18 hours and 41 minutes. At £16.49, it is also the most expensive, which makes it the strongest case on the list for using a credit.
A lost channel, a missing girl and the night TV went digital
Out 27 October · 18h 41m · £16.49, usually £18.89
Section 02 / Lives
Four true stories, three read by their authors
A political editor, a comedian and an actor read their own books. Gromit leaves the reading to Martin Freeman.
Pay Attention, narrated by Laura Kuenssberg. Little, Brown.
Pay Attention
This is Laura Kuenssberg's first book. She was the BBC's political editor and has reported on Westminster for two decades, from the financial crash through Brexit to the rise of social media. Her publisher, Little, Brown, says the book explains how British politics became "a brutal soap opera". It also argues that politicians need to pay more attention to the public.
She reads it herself, and a broadcaster's voice suits a book built on her own reporting. However, this is one of the dearer picks at £15.70. A book about current politics also dates quickly, so listen soon rather than saving it for next year.
Twenty years at Westminster, and how politics became a soap opera
Out 5 November · 8h 53m · £15.70, usually £17.94
Decline and Falling Over, narrated by Jo Brand. Penguin Audio.
Decline and Falling Over
Jo Brand is getting older, and the advice about ageing well has mostly made her tired. So this is not, in her words, a "'life begins after menopause' pep talk". Instead, she writes about not changing her pants, the joy of becoming an "invisible" older woman and the uses of selective deafness. Kathy Burke calls it "full of Jo's trademark wry wit and wonderful wisdom" on the Penguin listing.
Brand reads it in the same deadpan voice she uses on stage. Nevertheless, by its own description the book is "completely unscientific and largely unresearched". If you want practical help with getting older, this will not give it to you.
Ageing her own way, with no pep talk and no plan
Out 5 November · 7h 33m · £11.99, usually £13.79
My Pressures, narrated by Andy Serkis. Penguin Audio.
My Pressures
Andy Serkis grew up between Ruislip and Baghdad, and then became Gollum, Caesar in Planet of the Apes and Ulysses Klaue for Marvel. His memoir goes behind the scenes of all of those, and of Star Wars too. The twist is in the structure: the book is a conversation between Serkis and the characters he played, asking what they would make of the man who brought them to life. Penguin's description traces the idea back to the day his cat coughed up a fur ball and sounded like Gollum.
Serkis reads it himself. For a performer whose career is built on voices, that is the point of choosing the audiobook. On the other hand, at 13 hours and 6 minutes it is a long listen. If you want a straight life story told in order, the back-and-forth with his characters may frustrate you.
Gollum, Caesar and the actor who played them, in conversation
Out 3 November · 13h 06m · £11.99, usually £13.79
Grand: The Autobiography of Gromit, narrated by Martin Freeman. Penguin Audio.
Grand: The Autobiography of Gromit
In the films, Gromit never says a word. Here he tells his own story, "as told to Nick Park", while Wallace is busy building a typewriter with wheels and a flame-thrower. The publisher's opening has Gromit point out the house rule on the fridge, where "No Flame-Throwers" is at number three. Martin Freeman reads it, and Park told Chortle: "Martin is not doing a Gromit 'voice' as such."
At 6 hours and 3 minutes, it is the second shortest listen here and one of the two cheapest at £10.49. It works for a family car journey too. The catch is that one comic idea, a dog finally speaking, has to carry six hours, so it will suit fans of the films more than anyone new to them.
A dog with a lot to say, and a list on the fridge
Out now · 6h 03m · £10.49, usually £12.06
"I'm obsessed with problems, the kind where one person and a lot of math are all that stand between survival and disaster."
Andy Weir, executive producer of Exoplanet, speaking to Kirkus Reviews
Section 03 / Made for listening
A full-cast drama, and Judi Dench in her own voice
A full-cast science fiction thriller, and a memoir with a conversation that is only on the audiobook.
Exoplanet, an Audible Original with Anthony Mackie, Ariana DeBose and John Leguizamo.
Exoplanet
Benjamin Percy wrote it and Andy Weir, the author of The Martian and Project Hail Mary, is executive producer. The starship Wild Blue Yonder breaks apart in a quantum anomaly. As a result, each survivor crash-lands in a different era on the same planet. Anthony Mackie plays the chief engineer in the present, Ariana DeBose the first officer in the past and John Leguizamo the science officer in a machine-ruled future. Ray Porter, who narrated Project Hail Mary, plays the engineer's virtual assistant. Skywalker Sound did the sound design, in Dolby Atmos.
This is the only title here built from scratch for audio, and the three timelines suit separate voices. However, it is an audio drama of 4 hours and 8 minutes, not a full-length novel. As an Audible Original, it is only on Audible and Amazon, with no print edition to switch to if the format does not work for you.
Three crew members, three eras and one planet that wants them dead
Out 5 November · 4h 08m · £14.06, usually £16.07
Is It Too Late to Make a Run for It?
Judi Dench wrote her memoir with her friend and writing partner, Brendan O'Hea, and Penguin published the hardback on 22 October. It starts with her childhood in York, the parents who shaped her and the brother who encouraged her to act. After that, she covers her best-known screen roles, her marriage to the actor Michael Williams and her love of animals. Along the way come pranks on stage and off, the time the Oscars locked her out and a close call with crocodiles in Borneo.
Dench reads it with O'Hea and the actor Barbara Flynn. The audiobook also ends with a bonus conversation between Dench and O'Hea that is not in the printed book. That extra, together with Dench's own voice, is why it is my number one, and it is out already, so you can start it today.
The catch is that Dench does not read the whole book alone, and the listing does not say how the three voices split it. If you want ten hours of Dench and nobody else, that may disappoint you.
Seven decades on stage and screen, told by the woman who lived them
Out now · 10h 20m · £11.99, usually £13.79
Credit or cash for the best audiobooks of November 2026?
This month the answer flips from October. Audible Premium costs £8.99 a month for one credit, and the credit buys a book you keep. Every one of my best audiobooks November 2026 picks costs more than that on Amazon UK. The cheapest are Grand and From the Library of Jurgen Leitner at £10.49, and the dearest is Public Access Afterworld at £16.49.
So a credit is the cheaper way to buy any title on this list. Buying all ten in cash comes to £129.00, while ten months of Premium credits cost £89.90, which saves you £39.10. If you only want one or two, spend your credits on the dearest, such as Public Access Afterworld or Pay Attention. The table shows each price and list price.
| Title | Runtime | Amazon UK price | List price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monsters of Ohio | 8h 38m | £13.11 | £14.98 |
| From the Library of Jurgen Leitner | 10h 29m | £10.49 | £12.06 |
| Hollow Bones | 15h 39m | £12.69 | £14.51 |
| Public Access Afterworld | 18h 41m | £16.49 | £18.89 |
| Pay Attention | 8h 53m | £15.70 | £17.94 |
| Decline and Falling Over | 7h 33m | £11.99 | £13.79 |
| My Pressures | 13h 06m | £11.99 | £13.79 |
| Grand | 6h 03m | £10.49 | £12.06 |
| Exoplanet | 4h 08m | £14.06 | £16.07 |
| Is It Too Late to Make a Run for It? | 10h 20m | £11.99 | £13.79 |
Runtimes from the Audible UK catalogue. Audible plan prices from Audible's plans page.
Audible Standard, and other places to buy
Meanwhile, the cheaper Audible Standard plan, at £5.99 a month, works differently. You pick one audiobook a month, but you can only listen to it while you are a member, whereas a Premium credit buys a book you keep. Audible is also running an offer of £59.99 for a year of Premium, which it puts at about £5 a month, and the terms are on its plans page. Audible is no longer the only place to spend a credit, either. My comparison of Bookshop.org audiobooks and Audible covers where else to buy.
What I left off, and why
Three more titles nearly made my best audiobooks November 2026 list. Lisa Jewell's All She Wants for Christmas comes out on 2 November. It is an Audible Original with Ruth Wilson, Matthew Rhys, Phoebe Dynevor and Harriet Walter, and it runs to 4 hours and 33 minutes. Because it is a Christmas story, I am holding it for my December list. If you want it before then, you can pre-order it on Amazon UK.
Greg Wise's Grief Talking, his book about loss, read by Wise himself, was the eleventh title on my list, and it comes out on 5 November. Danny Beard reads Paul O'Grady's At My Mother's Knee...And Other Low Joints, due on 26 November, but it has no runtime listed yet, so that one moves to December too. Alternatively, if you want one book to read rather than ten to listen to, my Book of the Month picks a single title every month.
Best audiobooks November 2026: your questions answered
Which of these can I listen to already?
Is It Too Late to Make a Run for It? and Grand came out on 22 October. From the Library of Jurgen Leitner and Public Access Afterworld follow on 27 October, then My Pressures and Monsters of Ohio on 3 November. The last four arrive on 5 November, so you can buy all ten by the day this goes live.
What is the best audiobook of November 2026?
My pick is Judi Dench's Is It Too Late to Make a Run for It?, because Dench is one of its three readers and the audiobook ends with a conversation that is not in print. For a full cast, choose Exoplanet. For the longest listen, Public Access Afterworld runs to 18 hours and 41 minutes.
How much do these audiobooks cost?
On 26 October 2026, the ten cost £10.49 to £16.49 on Amazon UK. Their list prices run from £12.06 to £18.89. All ten together came to £129.00, or £147.88 at list price. Prices can change after release day, so check before you buy.
Is an Audible credit better value than paying cash this month?
Yes. A Premium credit costs £8.99 a month, and every one of the ten costs more than that in cash. The saving per title runs from £1.50 on Grand to £7.50 on Public Access Afterworld.
Which one suits a commute?
Exoplanet at 4 hours and 8 minutes, or Grand at 6 hours and 3 minutes. Both are short enough to finish in a working week. By contrast, Hollow Bones deals with grief and loss over more than 15 hours, so it suits longer sittings.
Are any of these Audible Originals?
One of them: Exoplanet. It is only available on Audible and Amazon, with no print edition. Audible Studios made the Monsters of Ohio audiobook, but Tor publishes the novel in print. The other eight all have print editions, so you can switch format if the narration does not suit you.
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