My guest today is one of my favourite authors, the incredibly inspiring force of nature that is Naomi Alderman! She is the multi-award-winning novelist of Disobedience and The Power. The film adaptation of Disobedience had just come out starring both Rachael McAdams and Rachel Weisz. The Power is one of Obama's favourite books! It's an incredible sci-fi/dystopian novel about gendered violence and the fetishisation of power. The premise of the book is that women are more powerful than men. G...
Dec 01, 2022•31 min
This is a replay of my episode with Sophie Walker from April 2020. Sophie is a feminist activist, author and founding leader of the Women’s Equality Party. In this episode we are chatting about Sophie’s new book 'Five Rules for Rebellion' which is an inspiring, five-step journey to incorporating activism into our daily lives. It features stories of new and seasoned activists – from Amika George to Jack Monroe. It's all about feeling less full of despair, and more able to channel your anger, arm ...
Nov 24, 2022•31 min
Today's guest is one of my favourites Emma Forrest – it is a replay episode that we recorded back in December 2019. She is the author of three novels, an essay collection and the memoir Your Voice In My Head, one of my favourite memoirs on mental health. In this episode we discuss her new novel ROYALS and we chat about her career, creativity, meditation, her writing process and even a little story about Adam Driver. Emma has a brand new brilliant memoir out called Busy Being Free “A Lifelong Rom...
Nov 17, 2022•33 min
Hello and welcome back to Ctrl Alt Delete podcast! Over a series of three episodes I've been chatting to someone whose work I really admire and enjoy, Natalie Lue, author, podcaster and host of The Baggage Reclaim Sessions. She helps people-pleasers, perfectionists and relationship strugglers become more of who they really are and achieve what they want to achieve. In this episode we are discussing how we can find more time to focus and do our 'deep work', inspired by Cal Newport's brillian...
Nov 10, 2022•38 min
*This is a SPONSORED episode with Vitality UK* If you're interested in a discussion around health, future of work and hybrid working this is one for you. Today I’m in conversation with Dr Katie Tryon, Behaviour Change Expert and Director of Health Strategy at the health insurer, Vitality UK. Prior to moving into various health roles and moving to Kenya, she trained as a medical doctor at Oxford University and Imperial College London. Katie is passionate about sustainability and longevity in heal...
Nov 03, 2022•41 min
This is a replay of an episode from 2020 with brilliant Laura Dockrill, an award-winning author and illustrator. What Have I Done? an incredibly moving and honest memoir on motherhood, mental health and postpartum psychosis. In this episode, we discuss Laura's mental health journey, recovery, what it's like when a raw blog article goes viral, and why this memoir is a love letter to family and friends. This is Laura's story and I hope you grab a copy of this important book. My Substack! https://t...
Nov 01, 2022•36 min
This episode is with Christine Armstrong, author, researcher and speaker on the future of work. She is known to 'blow up the bullshit about working parenting and dig into the truth about what works and what really doesn’t.' You might have read her piece in the Times that went viral called 'why working mums are being sold an impossible dream about work/life balance — and how to set the record straight' a piece promoting the publication of her brilliant book The Mother of All Jobs: How to Have Chi...
Oct 27, 2022•36 min
*This is a sponsored episode* Hello and welcome back to Ctrl Alt Delete. Today I have a special episode for you, in partnership with Dell Technologies & Microsoft, who can help you find the right technology and offer advice to help your business grow and succeed – and this conversation is part of their 2022 small business Podference which is a UK podcast-based conference, a place to share advice and inspiration to support all small businesses. :) SO onto the guest! I’ve been wanting to inter...
Oct 20, 2022•34 min
Africa Brooke is a consultant, coach, writer and speaker who specialises in helping many people including public figures. entrepreneurs, teams, and individuals with challenges related to self-censorship and self-sabotage. I really enjoy following Africa’s work, her straightforward (yet compassionate) no BS route to helping people examine what is going on with them, establish boundaries and define their values. There is such a genuine curiosity to Africa’s approach which I love. In January 2021. ...
Oct 13, 2022•47 min
This is a replay of my episode with the brilliant writer Anna Codrea-Rado from April 2021. She writes about freelancing, business, culture and technology, with a particular focus on work life. I really enjoy her podcast Is This Working on these themes, I especially loved her episode on burnout. In this episode, we discuss her first book, You’re the Business: How To Build a Successful Career When You Strike Out Alone - a handbook for anyone who works for themselves or is curious to know more...
Oct 06, 2022•46 min
Today's replay episode is with Ann Friedman, one half of the popular podcast Call Your Girlfriend and now author of the New York Times Bestselling book Big Friendship, a friendship bible on how to keep each other close. This book is authored by both Ann Friedman and Aminatou Sow, (Aminatou has also been a guest on Ctrl Alt Delete, episode number #183 if you fancy going back and listening) and Big Friendship is the story of their own ten-year, complex, loving friendship. They share their highs, l...
Sep 29, 2022•25 min
This episode is a replay from 2018 with Trinny Woodall, author, fashion advisor and beauty entrepreneur. You may know her from the hugely popular Trinny and Susannah makeover days. Her and Susannah met in 1994 and wrote a weekly fashion column for The Daily Telegraph. This led to the launch of their own fashion-advice business and first book. They were then commissioned by the BBC to host What Not to Wear in 2001. In total they co-wrote eleven style advice books, many of which became hugely succ...
Sep 22, 2022•26 min
This is a replay of my episode with the brilliant Bridgerton author Julia Quinn, recorded in 2021. She is a No.1 New York Times bestselling author of eighteen consecutive NYT bestsellers including Bridgerton. The Duke and I is back in Sunday Times bestseller list in the U.K twenty years after publication and this was of course partly due to the fact that on December 25, 2020, Netflix premiered Bridgerton, based on her novels adapted by Shonda Rhimes. We spoke about writing, believing in you...
Sep 15, 2022•28 min
This episode is a replay with the brilliant Alain de Botton. He is a writer of multiple books described as a ‘philosophy of everyday life.’ His first book, Essays in Love, was published when he was twenty-three and went on to sell millions of copies. He is also the co-founder of The School of Life, one of my favourite platforms, which is an education space dedicated to a new vision of education, emotional intelligence and self-knowledge. The School of Life's latest book, is called A Simple...
Sep 08, 2022•37 min
This is a replay with the amazing Glennon Doyle. We recorded this in the depths of the 2020 lockdown. She is the author of Love Warrior (which was an Oprah Book Club selection), as well as her New York Times bestseller Carry On, Warrior. In this episode, we are discussing her new book "Untamed. Stop pleasing, start living" which then went on to becoming a #1 New York Times bestseller and (a Reese's Book Club selection), and Adele herself endorsed the book on her Instagram, saying “this book will...
Sep 01, 2022•40 min
Welcome back to this replay episode of Ctrl Alt Delete. Recorded three(?) years ago, writer Dolly Alderton and I discuss her memoir Everything I Know About Love, writing truthfully, turning thirty and how her life changed when her memoir sky-rocketed her to suddenly being in the public domain. Dolly Alderton is an award-winning journalist, broadcaster and author. I've known Dolly since our freelancing days at places like The Debrief magazine where I worked in 2014 and it's been so fun watch...
Aug 25, 2022•38 min
Welcome back to Ctrl Alt Delete, this is a replay episode with the brilliant Cathy Heller. Cathy is the host of the popular podcast Don’t Keep Your Day Job , now rebranded as The Cathy Heller show which is one of my favourites, it has had over 20 million downloads and she is a great conversation. In this conversation we talk about her book of the same name Don’t Keep Your Day Job which was released in 2019. It’s a great practical careers book and goes into detail about how to find the work you’r...
Aug 18, 2022•41 min
This is a replay episode from 2021 with the brilliant Cate Sevilla! She is currently editor in chief of Huffington Post UK and author of How to Work Without Losing Your Mind. The book is a relatable and reassuring guide to the messy, stressful and sometimes bizarre side of work that everyone experiences but no one talks about. I loved this book because it’s for people who don’t necessarily want work to take over their lives, people who don’t necessarily want to keep climbing a ladder or taking o...
Aug 11, 2022•34 min
My guest today is Hashi Mohamed, one of the UK’s leading barristers, a BBC broadcaster and author on social mobility in Britain. His book is out now, called People Like Us. He is one of 12 children, Hashi came to the UK as an unaccompanied child refugee from Kenya in the summer of 1993 when he was just 9 years old. When he arrived he spoke basic English, attended failing school, raised on state benefits in a deprived area of North West London. Today, he is also a published author who attended Ox...
Aug 04, 2022•38 min
My guest today is Tetyana Denford, a Ukrainian-American author, translator, and freelance writer. Her debut novel, Motherland, based on an incredible family secret that was revealed by her maternal grandmother, was longlisted for the Readers Digest Self-Published Book Awards, and has been met with critical global acclaim. She is also the author of a beautiful poetry book series on the topics of hope, magic, empowerment, and love. This episode is about self-publishing, something Tetyana know so m...
Jul 28, 2022•30 min
My guest today is author and novelist Matt Bell! Today we’re chatting about his latest book Refuse To Be Done , a guide to novel writing, rewriting and revision. He is also the author of multiple novels included Appleseed which was A New York Times Notable Book and he teaches creative writing at Arizona State University. I absolutely loved this latest book on how to write and rewrite a novel in three drafts and have been using tools from it as I work on my own future fiction projects. We chat al...
Jul 21, 2022•38 min
My guest today is Donna Lancaster and you are in for a treat. Donna’s work has been recommended to me by so many people, through work of mouth, she is incredible and has worked as a coach and therapist for more than 25 years. She was formerly the head of teaching at the Hoffman Institute UK and she might be perhaps most well known for co-creating The Bridge Retreat, a six-day personal development experience, if you are intrigued, you can check out her website for more information and also the Am...
Jul 14, 2022•42 min
This is a replay episode with Jamie Bartlett recorded back in 2019, he is the bestselling author of multiple books including The Dark Net and People vs Tech. In this episode we are discussing his podcast The Missing Cryptoqueen, a BBC Sounds podcast described by The Telegraph as ‘the most gripping podcast since Serial’: the podcast uncovers the mysterious story of Dr Ruja Ignatova who persuaded millions to join her financial revolution, a new cryptocurrency called One Coin that turned out to be ...
Jul 07, 2022•35 min
My guest today is the author Louise O’Neill – today we are discussing her brilliant new book IDOL – a riveting darkly delicious story that interrogates our relationship with our internet heroes asking how well we can ever really know the gurus we look up to and their carefully curated profiles. It is written with Louise’s signature style, reminding me of her much applauded book Asking For It, a novel about the life-shattering impact of sexual assault, which published in 2015 to widesp...
Jun 30, 2022•40 min
My guest today is Vicky Spratt, the author of TENANTS: The People on the Frontline of Britain's Housing Emergency and journalist whose work regularly shapes public policy. She is also currently the iPaper's Housing Correspondent. Her 2016 campaign Make Renting Fair got letting fees in England and Wales banned, and she has spoken at political conferences, appeared on BBC News, Newsnight, Woman's Hour, Radio 4 and tons more. Vicky is an incredible voice on this issue and I found this episode...
Jun 23, 2022•46 min
My guest today is Francesca Specter, author of Alonement: How to be alone and absolutely own it , and the creator of the Alonement podcast . You guessed it, today we are discussing how to be alone - something I’m really passionate about as someone who values alone time, takes myself on solo trips and loves Julia Cameron’s suggestion of The Artist Date, where you take yourself on a date. Francesca speaks so brilliant about this and coined the term Alonement, which is different from being lo...
Jun 16, 2022•34 min
My guest today is Clemmie Telford, Creative Director, podcaster and author But Why: How to answer tricky questions from kids and have an honest conversation with yourself and a podcast with the same name. She is also the founder of the blog Mother of All Lists which hit over 1 million reads in 2018 she uses her social channels to enable frank, open and honest conversations, some of her most recent episodes are on domestic abuse to grief to ADHD to debt. She has been praised for showing her vulne...
Jun 09, 2022•39 min
My guest today is the brilliant Sheila Heti, author of Motherhood and How Should a Person Be? In this episode we discuss her latest book Pure Colour, a new novel l about art, love, loss and time. It has been described as a galaxy of a novel: explosive, bright, huge and streaked with beauty. Sheila Heti has also been described as philosopher of modern experience - and I really enjoyed this conversation. Motherhood, her novel which grapples with the question of whether or not to have kids was a hu...
Jun 02, 2022•34 min
Does happiness even exist? Dr Rafa Euba doesn't think so. He is a consultant psychiatrist, based in London, born in the Bask Country, Spain and after qualifying in Medicine, he became a psychiatrist in England. He has worked in many different settings, from exclusive clinics to slums, and his work on depression moved him to write a book on how we are not designed to be happy, called "You are not meant to be happy. So stop trying!" It is such an interesting book, looking at the myths of happiness...
May 26, 2022•23 min
My guest today is Delia Ephron: bestselling author, screenwriter and playwright. Her movies include You've Got Mail (starring Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks) and The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants, she has written novels and non-fiction, and her journalism has appeared in the New York Times, Oprah magazine and Vogue. She collaborated with her sister, Nora Ephron, on a play, Love, Loss, and What I Wore , which ran for two years off-Broadway, and today we are chatting about her brilliant new memoir ca...
May 19, 2022•28 min
