We'd like to send our best wishes to Silksoundbooks star audiobook reader Siân Phillips who celebrates her birthday today.

Siân was born in Wales and is forever identified on TV as Empress Livia in the classic BBC series I, Claudius in which she starred with fellow Silksoundbooks reader Derek Jacobi.

Siân was brought up bilingual in both English and Welsh and performed on the Welsh radio station at age 11. She toured extensively for the Arts Council in Wales in original Welsh plays and in translations from the English classics before becoming an award-winning TV actress in her late teens. She attended the University of Wales and trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, making her London debut as Hedda Gabler in 1957.

In June 2000, she was awarded a CBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours list. She is also a leading light in Social, Welsh and Sexy (SWS), the London-based organisation for Welsh socialites.

Siân provided spoken word backing to a track on Rufus Wainwright's 2007 album Release the Stars, performing live with him at the Old Vic Theatre in London in 2007 and is currently starring in London's west-end in the comedy Calendar Girls.

Siân's reading of George Elliot's Silas Marner is available as an unabridged audiobook exclusively from Silksoundbooks.
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