Looking for your next read? Then take a listen as it's Natalie's turn to share with Phil the books she's loved recently, in the hope that you'll find something to love too! Various genres are covered, from fiction to fantasy to food! If you want to get ahead and know what's coming up, or want to look these up afterwards, here's Nat's latest reads: Rebecca F Kuang 'Yellowface' Nikki May 'Wahala' Taffy Brodesser-Akner 'Fleishman is in Trouble' (and the TV adaption on Disney+ in the UK) Taylor Jenk...
May 03, 2023•45 min
So many good books to share! This week Phil takes us through what he's been reading to inspire your next read. From thrillers to autobiography to one of the biggest debuts of recent times. Plus Kazuo Ishiguro shares why he loves working in mainstream popular culture, a writing legend after our own hearts! If you want to know the books discussed ahead of time - or look them up after listening - Phil's been reading: Bono 'Surrender' Harlan Coben 'I Will Find You' Don Winslow 'City of Dreams' Denni...
Apr 26, 2023•41 min
Andy Nyman & Jeremy Dyson are the team behind GHOST STORIES. They met as teenagers and bonded over their shared love of magic which is the subject of their first collab novel. Andy is a magician in his own right and frequently works with Derren Brown; Jeremy is a founding member of The League of Gentlemen and has co-written on Killing Eve. This book has already triggered an eight way auction for screen rights. It's fantastic and in this hugely uplifting episode you'll hear them both discuss ...
Apr 19, 2023•1 hr 13 min
Jason Rekulak is a hugely talented story teller. He's only written two books: An Impossible Fortress and the new novel, Hidden Pictures, where he's combined with two illustrators, to bring to life pictures a five year old in the story is drawing. He's gone from writing a coming of age comedy to a psychological thriller which Stephen King says is, "A one of a kind thriller. You won't put it down." Phil & Natalie hope he'll one day say the same about this podcast! Hosted on Acast. See acast.co...
Apr 12, 2023•1 hr 7 min
A treat of an episode! Curtis Sittenfeld is the author who's given us Rodham, Prep, American Wife, and now this new beaut of a book, Romantic Comedy. Come for the book chat but stay for how you go about disguising comedy TV gold Saturday Night Live in a story, and meeting Jay-Z on his private jet. Hope you love this one as much we do! If you do enjoy these chats, we'll keep making them, and if you're in a position to be able to support Bestsellers, we'll never turn down a coffee, metaphorical or...
Apr 05, 2023•1 hr 12 min
It's our second ever returning guest as Jojo Moyes talks us through a year of big life changes, and a wonderful new book, Someone Else's Shoes. Always surprising in her writing, this latest novel takes on female friendship, divorce, and incredible sandwiches. And we love a good sandwich. Like what we do? Support is always welcomed! https://ko-fi.com/bestsellerspodcast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Mar 29, 2023•57 min
After a longer than planned absence due to Phillness, Natalie and Phil are back with more blockbuster books and award winning authors. This episode features the magnificent Cariad Lloyd whose own Podcast, Griefcast, is excellent on tackling Death and Bereavement. Her book follows on from the pod. It's called You Are Not Alone and in this episode we discuss death, dying, losing loved ones, what to say when someone tells you they're bereaved and why we don't seem very good still about talking abou...
Mar 23, 2023•1 hr 9 min
Ever wondered what *really* happens to allow those Hollywood parties we've heard about, to actually happen? And who's potentially to blame for the unforgivable behaviour that's allowed to carry on regardless? In her book Complicit, Winnie M Li zooms out on the swirl of people surrounding a fictional person about to be felled by the #MeToo movement, and makes us question the actions, however small, that enable some appalling behaviour. You can buy Winnie M Li - Complicit here. We earn a commissio...
Dec 22, 2022•1 hr 7 min
BestSellers is back, baby! In this brand new season opener, Natalie and Phil talk to ace American thriller writer Scott Turow. Scott shot to fame in the 90s with Presumed Innocent which was turned into a Hollywood Blockbuster starring Harrison Ford. It's just about to be re-worked into an Apple TV show, with David E Kelley writing the episodes. We talk about that and we talk about Scott's incredible longevity, alongside his brand new thriller: SUSPECT, which gives a vehicle to lawyer Sandy Stern...
Dec 16, 2022•56 min
Episode 2 of Season 4 sees Phil & Natalie delve into one of Nat's favourite subjects: Cook Books. But BreadSong is way more than just a cook book. It tells the truly extraordinary story of teenager Kitty Tait's complete mental health breakdown and why baking offered not just a route out of the bleakness, but it created a brand new career path for both Kitty and her father Al. It's a gloriously uplifting story accompanied by some amazing bread recipes which have transformed the lives of this ...
Dec 16, 2022•1 hr 2 min
In the last of our festive mini series, Phil & Natalie give you their three books of the year each. With some rules subversion from Natalie Jamieson! We hope you enjoyed listening to all these amazing writers and we will be back with more in 2022. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Dec 23, 2021•32 min
Natalie and Phil both adore Gi Fletcher. Here, she tells Bestsellers about her latest novel, how she writes, and the perils of having members of the Royal Family on your podcast. Hers, not ours, obviously. We know our place! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Dec 20, 2021•1 hr 2 min
We're BACK! It's a Christmas mini-series for you. First up: The incredible Jodi Picoult talking exclusively to Natalie, as Phil was on solo childcare duty. See if you can spot the fan-girling from Natalie as she gets to interview one of her all time favourite authors. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Dec 16, 2021•1 hr 5 min
Anthony Horowitz is the first returning author to Bestsellers. Both Phil & Natalie are huge fans of Anthony's and his latest Hawthorne thriller, A Line to Kill, is loads of fun and quite excellent. In this episode Anthony talks about how he constructs his whodunnits with notebooks alongside the manuscript; he talks about his latest and third James Bond original story due out next year and he admits to being caught turning his books cover out in Waterstones, Bath...! Hosted on Acast. See acas...
Aug 18, 2021•1 hr 1 min
This is a very special Episode of Bestsellers. Firstly - It was recorded very late at night because our guest Robinne Lee is in California. Secondly - A drink may have been taken. Thirdly - It contains what is, to date, the best reading from a book we've ever had on the show. This is in part due to the fact that Robinne is an actor, you may've seen in Hitch or the Fifty Shades franchise. The Idea of You is her debut novel all about a soon to be forty mum of one, who takes her teen daughter to a ...
Aug 11, 2021•1 hr 1 min
In Episode 7, we meet the brilliant Steve Cavanagh: Former civil rights lawyer turned million selling crime writer. The Devil's Advocate is the latest in his Eddie Flynn Series, in which Eddie has the seemingly impossible task of acquitting a young black boy of murder, in a deeply racist town where the district attorney delights in sending people to the death chamber, regardless of their innocence. We also find out about Natalie's broken nose. You've been warned. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/p...
Aug 04, 2021•56 min
The art of the crime thriller is something Clare Mackintosh knows well, having written a bunch of brilliant page-turners. As well as sharing what she learned from her time in the police force, where unexpectedly Clare and Natalie crossed paths in Oxford - all above aboard, honest - she also details how to keep readers guessing and why it can be so good to ask for help when researching. When it comes to taking a research trip vs a holiday though, Clare tells it like it is. We'd expect nothing les...
Jul 28, 2021•54 min
What's not to love about the writing of Taylor Jenkins Reid? She had us long before Daisy Jones & The Six with her dreamy depictions of the drama of life and we both happily settled in for the 80s surfer celebrity vibe she created for her latest, Malibu Rising. So much to unpick with Taylor, from how much real life gets blended into her stories, the TV adaptations that are imminent, how confident she feels now in her writing and the unexpected complications of the recurring character of Mick...
Jul 21, 2021•1 hr 6 min
The Other Black Girl is a searing account of the publishing world, as told by, well, there's a clue in the title... Actually there are a number of Black women telling their stories in this thriller of a read, which happens to be Zakiya's debut as a fiction author. She joins Phil and Natalie from her home in Brooklyn, NYC to explain how her novel has comparable themes to movies such as Get Out, The Devil Wears Prada and The Stepford Wives. Competitiveness in the workplace is another theme, as is ...
Jul 14, 2021•1 hr 2 min
What a complete balm it is to spend an hour in the company of thriller writer Erin Kelly. Recorded in April 2021, Erin drew us in with her tales of why book titles matter so much, the joy she gets from reading and writing, and how she identified and then worked her way through depression that hit at the height of the 2020 global pandemic. And of course we chat about the captivating world of top-level competitive ballet that forms the backdrop for her latest page-turner, Watch Her Fall. Oh, and w...
Jul 07, 2021•59 min
Episode 2 is all about the very funny and humble Andy Weir. Why do you know that name..? Because he wrote and brought you The Martian, which was turned into a Hollywood blockbuster starring Matt Damon, directed by Ridley Scott and he's now back with a new story called Project Hail Mary, where one astronaut has to save planet earth. Find out how Andy makes the science fit the fiction and how he got his Ryans mixed up, whilst on the phone to Gosling, but calling him Reynolds...! Hosted on Acast. S...
Jun 30, 2021•56 min
Episode 1 of Season 2 is the magnificent Dawnie Walton. The final revival of Opal & Nev is a brilliant novel about two superstar musicians who combine on and off stage. It's written like an oral history you might encounter in Rolling Stone or Q magazine. It's SO good, Phil had to google Opal Jewel because he thought she must've been a real singer he hadn't heard of. High Quality fiction at it's best, championed on this podcast by Natalie. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more infor...
Jun 23, 2021•1 hr 8 min
Phil Williams & Natalie Jamieson are back. With more top writers. More great reads. Most importantly, these are big commercial fiction books that we're proud to say we've loved. Join Nat and Phil as they break through snobbery in reading and champion books that will be bestsellers. In this trailer you'll hear some sneak preview clips of the authors we'll be featuring in season two. Then tell your friends to subscribe. Ep 1 coming v soon. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more inform...
Jun 16, 2021•5 min
Iiiiiiiiiiits Christmas. 2020. One of the shittest years on record. But throughout this difficult year there have been some amazing books.In this seasonal special, Phil & Natalie offer you their five books of the year each. With enough time to still go and buy one of them for you or for a loved one, we hope this will inspire you in some way to find solace and peace in a book. Thank you for listening to season one of BestSellers. We'll be back in 2021 with Season 2. Hosted on Acast. See acast...
Dec 17, 2020•59 min
SEASON FINALE: Robert Harris In the last episode of Season 1, Phil & Natalie talk to international bestseller Robert Harris. V2 tells the story of the rockets the Nazis built at the very end of the second world war, through the eyes of one of the rocket scientists who really only wanted to send rockets to space and a woman photo analyst for the WAAF. Hear Robert talk about writing this in lockdown; his family of writers, including Nick Hornby and how they all read each other's books and how ...
Oct 14, 2020•1 hr 11 min
Lee Lawrence was an eleven year old boy in 1985, when armed police burst into the family home looking for his brother. He wasn't there. They shot his mum, Cherry Groce, and that shooting sparked the Brixton riots, or as Lee prefers to call them, the Brixton Uprising. She survived the shooting but died from her injuries many years later. In this episode of Bestsellers, Lee tells Phil & Natalie of his thirty year struggle for justice; the constant negotiating with the Met Police to read an int...
Oct 01, 2020•1 hr 9 min
This. Is. Special. Lee Child and his official biographer Heather Martin join Phil & Natalie to discuss Heather's new book of Lee's life: The Reacher Guy. It's an extraordinarily candid interview, so much so, we felt compelled to split it into two parts. Listen out for Lee's view of the Booker Prize and how he's set his bullshit detector on it; the truth about Tom Cruise and those Reacher films, and the time Lee became Reacher and beat up a Frat boy racially abusing a taxi driver. You can buy...
Sep 23, 2020•50 min
This. Is. Special. Lee Child and his official biographer Heather Martin join Phil & Natalie to discuss Heather's new book of Lee's life: The Reacher Guy. It's an extraordinarily candid interview, so much so, we felt compelled to split it into two parts. Listen out for Lee's view of the Booker Prize and how he's set his bullshit detector on it; the truth about Tom Cruise and those Reacher films, and the time Lee became Reacher and beat up a Frat boy racially abusing a taxi driver. You can buy...
Sep 16, 2020•53 min
For Episode 18, Phil & Natalie speak with former Anti-Social Behaviour Officer, Stand Up Comic turned writer, Nick Pettigrew. His new memoir tells the story of a calendar year in his old job with the council, whilst his stress levels and medication rise per chapter. He encounters a naked Nazi Paedophile, human excrement and someone who consistently smells dope in their block of flats, when none can be found. Frankie Boyle loves this book. And so do we. You can buy Anti-Social here: https://a...
Sep 09, 2020•1 hr 8 min
Episode 17 is a BestSellers CookBook special in which Natalie finally proves to Phil that she's not the only person in the world who reads cook books cover to cover, in the same way she reads fiction/non-fiction. The brilliant Rukmini Iyer has perfected one roasting tin recipes: Minimal input for maximum taste return and much less washing up! Rukmini tells Phil & Natalie how she plots her recipe books out, like thriller writers do; how she also reads cook books cover to cover and she explain...
Sep 02, 2020•1 hr 10 min
