A Voice Like Velvet (Aka The Announcer)

Can the best-known voice in the country be the unknown cat burglar the police are hunting for?

It is wartime Britain. By day Ernest Bisham is the eponymous velvet-voiced announcer for the BBC that the whole country recognizes and even idolizes for it’s the time when the nation looked for heroes and Bisham’s steadying, reassuring ‘presence’ is a great morale booster. 

But Bisham has a secret. By night, he is a daring almost reckless cat-burglar, who seems to get a kick from danger and challenging Scotland Yard. And he seems to be getting away with it easily… with each escapade more daring than the next. However, time is running out for him… 

When Donald Henderson’s Mr Bowling Buys a Newspaper caused something of a sensation, his publishers were keen to capitalise on their author’s popularity, quickly reissuing The Announcer with the more appealing title A Voice Like Velvet.