Mike Craven is celebrating his tenth anniversary in crime fiction. The Final Vow is an absolute humdinger of a book with which to celebrate. His long standing sleuth Washington Poe is back with Tilly Bradshaw as a random sniper's on the loose across the UK. It's a pulse raising heart stopper of a thriller and in this interview we discuss Mike's extensive research for each novel; why women' s pubes make good flyfishing ties and his next venture into the world of James Bond, for 9-12 year olds....
Aug 07, 2025•1 hr 6 min•Season 8Ep. 16
We're honoured to have one of Britain's finest writers join us on Bestsellers this week: Irvine Welsh. The man who brought us Trainspotting three decades ago is back with a brand new novel which follows on immediately after Trainspotting and Renton legging it with the cash. They're all here: Renton, Spud, Begbie, Sick Boy...Trying to turn into Men in Love. Enjoy! We kindly thank Irvine Welsh for permission to use two tracks from the accompanying album to this book: Men in Love - Irvine Welsh and...
Jul 31, 2025•1 hr 6 min•Season 8Ep. 15
Phil spent last weekend in Harrogate at the Old Swan hotel for the world famous Theakstons Crime Writers Festival. The Old Swan is where Agatha Christie emerged, after going missing in 1926, so what better place to stage a Crime Writing festival. This is a shorter than usual ep just to give you a flavour of how well the writers get on with each other and the lovely atmosphere in The Drinking Detective outdoor bar, as writers and crime fans mingle freely. This episode features cameos from Shari L...
Jul 24, 2025•15 min•Season 8Ep. 14
You know when a book comes along and just grabs you so you don't want to put it down? One Yellow Eye is one of those books. It's a thriller, a love story, it's also really witty oh and almost forgot, it does feature a zombie at its pulsing (just about) heart too. If you're concerned zombies are not for you (unless you're Natalie who wrote her uni dissertation about zombie movies) then do not fear - it's all about love, actually. Debut author Leigh shares how real life events inspired this tale, ...
Jul 16, 2025•1 hr 8 min•Season 8Ep. 13
Associate Professor of English, Alison Espach joins Phil and Natalie this week, to discuss her break out third novel, The Wedding People. This went straight into the New York Times Top Ten and has been picked up by Tristar to become a movie. It walks a tightrope of heart wrenching and seriously funny. Alison talks about posh hotels, weddings and her time working the photo both at them, plus her role as an Exec Producer on the movie of her own novel. TRIGGER WARNING: The plot of this book involve...
Jun 19, 2025•1 hr 5 min•Season 8Ep. 12
Looking for your next read to take on holiday, or the commute, or to read before bed? Then Nat and Phil have got you covered. Here they talk you through 10 new books they are either currently reading, or want to read - that's 5 choices from Nat, and 5 from Phil. There's a range of genres from mystery to memoir, love story to thriller, and hopefully at least one of these will be the next book you want to reach for too. The recommendations are: Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin Never Flinch by Step...
Jun 12, 2025•41 min•Season 8Ep. 11
On this episode we're talking the joy of thrillers as Iris Mwanza opens up about what inspired her debut page-turner, The Lion's Den. From growing up in a household where people would drop off boxes of books they couldn't take abroad, to channeling the themes of her day job at the Gates Foundation into her fiction work, Iris shares the challenges and rewards with getting a novel out of her brain and into a bookstore. She's currently working on not one, but two novels, one of which is a sequel to...
Jun 05, 2025•1 hr 19 min•Season 8Ep. 10
OK, so we love a book where music plays a key role but it's so hard to do that well, and make you truly believe in a made-up musician. Thankfully, Holly Brickley has played it brilliantly with Deep Cuts, about a music obsessive and a musician who meet at college and deeply impact each other's lives. Hopefully you trust our instincts, but just in case, actors Saoirse Ronan and Austin Butler are already on board to play those two roles in the upcoming movie adaptation. This chat with Holly covered...
May 29, 2025•1 hr•Season 8Ep. 9
The Master Crime Writer and Phil's all time favourite writer, Michael Connelly, returns to Bestsellers to talk about his 40th novel. NightShade features a brand new character, Detective Stilwell, whom Michael loves so much, he's going to return to in future books. We chat to him about the challenges of creating a brand new series when you're forty books in; where Stilwell fits into the Connelly Universe that already includes Bosch, Ballard and The Lincoln Lawyer and why his characters who all wo...
May 21, 2025•1 hr 4 min•Season 8Ep. 8
Chris Chibnall is responsible for writing some of the biggest moments in British television. From Broadchurch to Dr Who, you'll have seen his work on screen. Now he's turned his attention to novel writing and speaks to Phil and Natalie about his debut, Death at the White Hart. It's a Christie-esque whodunnit with a follow up already in the works and he's adapting his own novel himself for ITV. Here he speaks about the challenges of page versus screen, the joy of acquiring new skills later in his...
May 08, 2025•1 hr 10 min•Season 8Ep. 7
The bestselling author of Elizabeth is Missing is back with a brand new chilling thriller called Sweat. Set around gyms and exercise, the book features a woman who gets the opportunity to exact revenge on a controlling ex-boyfriend. But will she get away with it and at what cost..? It's a deeply personal book for Emma. She talks openly about obsessive fasting and over exercising after pregnancy and how both these things influenced this novel. There's also plenty of laughs and no amount of persua...
May 01, 2025•59 min•Season 8Ep. 6
This is the book for you if you've ever wanted to know what it's *really* like to do a job that is very different to yours. Charlie Colenutt has interviewed and collated the work stories of 68 employees, from a range of backgrounds, at varying stages in their careers, who all share the truthfulness of their working lives. There's joy and stress and sadness and life-changing moments to enjoy here, and Charlie himself is a gifted storyteller. Charlie also shares the books he loves that you might l...
Apr 24, 2025•1 hr 6 min•Season 8Ep. 5
This book has so much to offer. It delves into cultures of silence within families, how that affects relationships between mothers and daughters, and draws on Tara's exoticism, as she describes it, being a child of divorce growing up in Kolkata in the 1980s. And we haven't even mentioned the descriptions of food yet, which are many, all deserving of their place here and might make you hungry. A most excellent combination in storytelling. Plus for more detail on the books Tara has loved as a read...
Apr 16, 2025•1 hr 3 min•Season 8Ep. 5
Julia Raeside is no stranger to writing or comedy, having written for a number of UK broadsheet newspapers. But this is her debut novel which she's set in the world of stand-up comedy. It explores the sometimes toxic nature of male comedians using coercive controlling behaviour with women and is adroitly observed. Julia tells Phil and Natalie why she thinks Comedy needs it's own HR department; she talks about what it was like completing and editing a novel for the first time and she reveals the ...
Apr 10, 2025•1 hr 5 min•Season 8Ep. 3
This is fiction, pure fiction, but Asia Mackay has a particular skill for making this tale about a married couple who happen to be serial killers, relatable. There's so much humour in her writing, and it feels incredibly cinematic which is why it's being adapted for the screen already. Asia has also started a parallel career as a screenwriter too, which we get into in this episode as well, so plenty to enjoy whether you're a reader, a writer or aspiring to be in the future. Plus Asia has a stack...
Apr 03, 2025•58 min•Season 8Ep. 2
Bestsellers is back for Season 8. Phil & Natalie have sweat blood and tears to bring some of the bestselling writers in the world to your ears for this season. And we start with the master of the courtroom thriller, making a welcome return to Bestsellers: Scott Turow. Scott created Rusty Sabich forty years ago for Presumed Innocent. Now he's back in the final of the Presumed triumvirate, titled Presumed Guilty, where the lawyer finds his life turned upside down when his lover's son is accuse...
Mar 27, 2025•1 hr 16 min•Season 8Ep. 1
Our final episode of Season 7 is a cookbook special. But TENDERHEART is so much more than just a cook book. It's Hetty Lui McKinnon's way of processing the loss of her father aged just 15. He was the fruit n veg man, the father who left crates of exciting fresh produce in the hallway for his children to investigate. And now a parent herself to teenage boys, Hetty uses her brand new vegetarian and vegan recipes combined with an autobiographical narrative, to share her love of vegetables with us a...
Dec 05, 2024•1 hr 16 min
This week's episode is the multi best selling Irish writer, John Boyne. You will almost certainly have read The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas or The Heart's Invisible Furies and the latest venture for John is a quarter of books which he's been releasing every six months. Next year, he'll release them in one compendium called The Elements. But hot on the heels of Water and Earth, comes Fire: a disturbing novella which looks at child sexual exploitation from the point of view of a female abuser of yo...
Nov 28, 2024•58 min
Here are Phil and Natalie's Books of the Year for 2024. Five picks each. You'll find all of them with links to buy each book on our website Thanks so much for listening. Please remember to rate, review and subscribe to our podcast and don't forget to subscribe to our mailing list on our website, to hear about Season 8 exclusively...! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Nov 21, 2024•37 min
This episode has it all - writing yourself into fiction, being inspired by classic literature, the joy and benefits of being a bit spiky, oh, and there is a fair amount of swearing in this. As an added bonus - depending on your point of view - Nat and Phil also divulge their favourite swear words at the end of the ep... This Motherless Land is Nikki May's story inspired by Jane Austen's Mansfield Park, but takes it to a totally different place and time and feeling. It's a joy to read and Nikki i...
Nov 14, 2024•1 hr 5 min
This episode is devoted to Nat and Phil's recommendations of additional books they've been loving, or that are at the top of their to-be-read pile! Choices include a love story, a thriller or two, a decent pick of celebrity memoirs (with valid reasons given!), a cookbook with soul, and a book for adults that happens to be written as if it's a kids picture book. Hope you find something in here to tickle your reading fancy... and if you enjoy this episode please rate, review and subscribe on Apple...
Nov 07, 2024•45 min
There's a lot of juiciness to this episode - from how books are marketed, to the amount of research needed for historical fiction, and letting creativity flow where it needs to, which might just lead an author to the stage, or the QE2... Kate Mosse has achieved so much already and we loved being steeped in the history of her Joubert family as their story concludes in The Map of Bones - but - as ever, it doesn't matter if you're new to her stories or a longtime fan, hopefully we've got you covere...
Oct 31, 2024•1 hr 7 min
Phil & Natalie were delighted to return to Chiltern Kills this year. The crime festival which raises funds for the homeless is in its second year, organised by writers Tony Kent and Paul Waters. Its a beautiful day out where crime fiction fans get to genuinely mingle with their print heroes. Some things you need to know before listening: *At the beginning every time we tried to introduce a guest, Tony Kent walked out onto stage, hence the laughter! *Whilst we were doing our session, Jeffrey ...
Oct 23, 2024•47 min
Phil and Natalie are delighted to welcome Sir Ian Rankin to BestSellers in the week where his new Rebus - the 25th Rebus thriller - goes straight in at No.1 in the Sunday Times Top Ten Hardback Fiction chart. In this ep, Ian talks about how hard this book was to write; why he's a frustrated Rock Star and why he's attracted to the darker side of the human condition. You'll also find the books he recommends from other writers at our website: bestsellerspodcast.com Enjoy! Hosted on Acast. See acast...
Oct 16, 2024•1 hr 8 min
Can you believe it...? Not only are Phil and Natalie back for season SEVEN (cue Len Goodman impressions) but we have also been double nominated at this year's Independent Podcast Awards in Best Books and Best Arts & Crafts Categories. Thank You for all of your support, virtual coffees on Ko-Fi and subscribing and downloading our podcast. It means a lot. Enough Gushing! We're Back with a returning writer. A man whom we both love very much. It's the wonderfully modest Jason Rekulak. His new th...
Oct 09, 2024•1 hr 14 min
Tim Booth, yes that Tim Booth, singer with the band James, has a lot to say about writing his first fiction novel. He's well aware of the clichés about rock star books and is here to address them all. Nothing was off limits, so there's talk of sex and drugs and rock'n'roll, but also vulnerability and confidence and truth'n'lies. The genesis for the story came 28 years ago, but the catalyst was an LA writing group that frankly could make up the subject of an entirely different book! It's a though...
Jul 17, 2024•1 hr 23 min
Phil first met Chris Whitaker on the radio during lockdown, when Chris published, 'We Begin At The End.' His extraordinary new book, 'All The Colours of the Dark,' also features a strong teenage lead character, facing some pretty dire circumstances. Chris tells Natalie and Phil he drew on his own early years trauma to create his new hero, Patch. He also opens up about being arrested, accused of a financial crime, just as his last novel was coming out. And he reveals he's come to love The Muppets...
Jul 10, 2024•1 hr 6 min
Abir Mukherjee is the hugely successful writer of five historical crime novels. He created the Wyndham and Banerjee series of thrillers, starting in 1919 India, each book progressing towards Partition. His brand new novel - Hunted - is a stand alone contemporary edge of the seat thriller which took Abir over three years to write and resulted in him forming a mentoring group with luminaries such as Val McDermid, Lee Child, Mick Herron and Ruth Ware who all gave different advice on how to craft a ...
Jul 03, 2024•1 hr 2 min
Want even more book recommendations? We got 'em for you! There are 8 books to discover from Nat and Phil's reading stacks - ranging from an action thriller to a drama stepped in the '68 music scene, to short stories and a collaborative book featuring dozens of writers. These are all stories that have grabbed our attention, some we've read, some we're mid-read and some we've yet to start, but all sound fascinating and we hope might make choosing that summer read a little bit easier. Have a listen...
Jun 26, 2024•38 min
Mark Billingham makes a welcome return to BestSellers. This is his second book in his brand new tragic-comic series of DS Declan Miller books. Book Two - The Wrong Hands - starts with a botched briefcase robbery inside of which is a pair of severed human hands! In this edition Mark speaks candidly about how nervous he is of putting book two out there; he reveals when Tom Thorne will return and Natalie gives him the ultimate back cover blurb! We Love Mark Billingham and we think after this episod...
Jun 19, 2024•56 min
