This is one of a special series of short episodes speaking to some of the best comedians appearing at this year's Edinburgh Fringe! These episodes will be released daily during the week of 8 August 2022. Schalk Bezuidenhout was born in Kempton Park or as he calls it - 'The New York of the East Rand'. His family and friends stood back as they watched Schalk evolve from an Afrikaans conservative caterpillar into a beautiful dramaqueen butterfly, complete with a moustache and furry afro. It was obv...
Aug 10, 2022•30 min•Season 12Ep. 4
This is one of a special series of short episodes speaking to some of the best comedians appearing at this year's Edinburgh Fringe! These episodes will be released daily during the week of 8 August 2022. Tessa Coates is a writer, performer, journalist, comedian and one third of critically acclaimed sketch group Massive Dad. Her debut solo show Primates sold out the entire run at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and ran at the Soho Theatre to more sell out audiences. She also performed her show in L...
Aug 10, 2022•39 min•Season 12Ep. 3
This is one of a special series of short episodes speaking to some of the best comedians appearing at this year's Edinburgh Fringe! These episodes will be released daily during the week of 8 August 2022. Jessica Fostekew is a comedian, actor and writer. Star of Motherland BBC and Cuckoo BBC/ Netflix, host of The Hoovering Podcast and regular co-host of the behemoth The Guilty Feminist. The Guardian say she “wears her smarts on her sleeve, great stuff” and Fest called her “consistently hilarious....
Aug 09, 2022•22 min•Season 12Ep. 2
This is the first of a special series of short episodes speaking to some of the best comedians appearing at this year's Edinburgh Fringe! These episodes will be released daily during the week of 8 August 2022. Jacob Hawley is a stand-up comedian, podcaster and the presenter and creator of BBC Sounds’s Jacob Hawley: On Drugs and Jacob Hawley On Love . Jacob has rapidly generated interest as one of the boldest new voices on the circuit with his astute observations and political passion. His live s...
Aug 09, 2022•29 min•Season 12Ep. 1
Adrian Tchaikovsky is the multi-award winning bestselling author of sci-fi and fantasy books such as the Children of Time series, Shadows of the Apt series and much more. He primarily explores deep themes, such as artificial intelligence and alien awareness within epic galactic and fantastical settings. He has a deep interest in the animal world specifically insects from his studies in Zoology and has a particular penchant for spiders. We loved chatting with Adrian for our first ever live episod...
Aug 05, 2022•1 hr•Season 11Ep. 12
Lorraine Wilson is the author of the BFS and Kavya-nominated speculative fantasy novel, This is Our Undoing . She has also written short fiction (also award-shortlisted!) and her latest novel, The Way The Light Bends is just out. We had a fascinating chat with Lorraine, hearing about her previous life as a field scientist (including catching the bubonic plague!) and why she turned to writing when she had to give that previous career up. We talked about the importance of setting, and had a good m...
Jul 28, 2022•53 min•Season 11Ep. 11
Victoria Selman is the bestselling author of four crime novels and co-host of the crime writers’ podcast, CrimeTime.fm. Her latest book, Truly Darkly Deeply , has only been out for a couple of weeks and is already a bestseller and has had the film rights optioned. We had a great time chatting with Victoria, hearing about how she rediscovered writing after a near 30-year hiatus, chatting about changing agents (and why that can sometimes be what an author needs) and hearing all about her planning ...
Jul 21, 2022•53 min•Season 11Ep. 10
A former magazine editor and award-winning journalist, Janice Hallett has written screenplays and novels. Janice's first feature film Retreat was released by Sony Pictures (co-written and directed by Carl Tibbetts) which starred Cillian Murphy, Thandiwe Newton and Jamie Bell, and was selected for the Triforce Creative Network year-long mentoring scheme and featured on the BBC New Talent Hotlist. She won Best New Screenplay in the 2014 British Independent Film Festival. Her debut novel, The Appea...
Jul 15, 2022•52 min•Season 11Ep. 9
Chris Whitaker is a bestselling crime writer whose debut, Tall Oaks , won the CWA debut dagger award. His latest crime novel, We Begin At The End , has been an international bestseller and has been optioned to Disney. Most recently, he wrote the brilliant YA novel, The Forevers . We had great fun chatting with Chris, hearing about how he found writing after a very traumatic period in his life and how it helped him deal with that trauma. We also talked about planning, why he starts in the middle ...
Jul 08, 2022•1 hr 1 min•Season 11Ep. 8
Martha Wells has been an SF/F writer since her first fantasy novel was published in 1993, and her work includes The Books of the Raksura series, The Death of the Necromancer , the Fall of Ile-Rien trilogy, The Murderbot Diaries series, media tie-in fiction for Star Wars , Stargate: Atlantis , and Magic: the Gathering , as well as short fiction, YA novels, and non-fiction. She has won Nebula Awards, Hugo Awards, and Locus Awards, and her work has appeared on the Philip K. Dick Award ballot, the B...
Jul 01, 2022•56 min•Season 11Ep. 7
Ed McDonald’s debut novel BLACKWING began the The Raven’s Mark trilogy, which continues with RAVENCRY and concludes with CROWFALL . Ed has been writing stories since he was a child, and studied history for his BA and MA degrees. He is a practitioner of Historical European Martial Arts (HEMA), and his love of history has helped to inspire the books that he writes. His latest book, Daughter of Redwinter , is out next week (30 June 2022). We had a great chat with Ed about how he broke into writing ...
Jun 24, 2022•1 hr 10 min•Season 11Ep. 6
Jane Shemilt is an internationally-acclaimed, best-selling author of psychological suspense novels. Her debut novel Daughter was a Richard and Judy pick , shortlisted for the Lucy Cavendish award and nominated for an Edgar award . It became the fastest selling debut of 2014. Her third novel, How Far We Fall, has been optioned for production as a TV drama by Twelve Town. Jane’s stories are inspired by her background in psychology and medicine. She studied Psychology at London University before qu...
Jun 17, 2022•54 min•Season 11Ep. 5
Nicholas Meyer is an American writer and director, known for his best-selling Sherlock Holmes novel The Seven-Per-Cent Solution , and for directing the films Time After Time , two of the Star Trek feature films, including Wrath of Khan, and the 1983 television film The Day After. Meyer was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for the film The Seven-Per-Cent Solution (1976), where he adapted his own novel into a screenplay. He has also been nominated for a Satellite Award, t...
Jun 10, 2022•1 hr 31 min•Season 11Ep. 4
Rob Hart is the author of six novels, including The Paradox Hotel and The Warehouse , as well as the short story collection Take-Out , Scott Free with James Patterson, and a Star Wars short story. The Warehouse sold in more than 20 countries and was optioned for film by Ron Howard. We really enjoyed talking to Rob about his move from journalism to writing novels, finding out why he shifted from crime to sci fi, and hearing why he wanted to write an "issues" novel with The Warehouse . We also cha...
Jun 03, 2022•53 min•Season 11Ep. 3
A self-confessed serial killer nerd, Sam Holland studied psychology at university then spent the next few years working in HR, before quitting for a full-time career in writing. Her debut novel, The Echo Man , is out now. We had great fun chatting with Sam, hearing about how she crafted her debut novel while working in HR, and talking about coming up with one of those ideas that seems so brilliant, you're sure someone must have done it before. We talk about her research into serial killers, how ...
May 27, 2022•1 hr•Season 11Ep. 2
Mary Kenney is a brilliant writer of video games and comic books from The Walking Dead to the recent smash hit PS5 game, Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales . She is currently working on a new Wolverine game for Marvel and Sony. She also has Gamer Girls , a YA non-fiction novel about the women who built the video games industry, coming out in July 2022. We loved chatting with Mary, hearing how she broke into writing for video games, talking about the unique opportunities and challenges that writi...
May 20, 2022•1 hr 1 min•Season 11Ep. 1
Leroy Kincaide is a former professional wrestler who moved from the world of the squared circle to creating stories from behind the camera as a writer/director. His first feature, The Last Rite , is available to stream now. We had a really interesting chat with Leroy, learning how he largely taught himself how to create his own feature film, from writing to directing and editing. We talk about how he visualises stories in his mind's eye first before committing them to paper, and find out what in...
Apr 15, 2022•57 min•Season 10Ep. 10
Ben Aaronovitch is the bestselling author of the Rivers of London series, the latest of which, Amongst Our Weapons , is just out! Before becoming a successful author, Ben worked in screenwriting, writing episodes of Doctor Who , Casualty and more - but it was only when he was working as a bookseller in Waterstones that the idea of writing novels struck him. It was great fun chatting with Ben about his career, hearing about the highs and lows, where the idea for Rivers of London came from and why...
Apr 08, 2022•57 min•Season 10Ep. 9
Fonda Lee is the author of the epic fantasy Green Bone Saga, beginning with Jade City, continuing in Jade War, and concluding in Jade Legacy. She is also the author of the science fiction novels Zeroboxer , Exo and Cross Fire . Fonda is a winner of the World Fantasy Award, as well as a three-time winner of the Aurora Award (Canada’s national science fiction and fantasy award), and a multiple finalist for the Nebula Award, the Locus Award, and the Oregon Book Award. A new novella set in the Green...
Apr 01, 2022•1 hr 18 min•Season 10Ep. 8
James Oswald is the author of the bestselling Inspector Maclean series of novels, as well as the fantasy series, The Ballad of Sir Benfro, and more. His latest book, All That Lives , is the twelfth in the Inspector Maclean series. It was really interesting hearing how James made his breakthrough via self-publishing and how his success there led to traditional publishers bidding to try and get the rights to his novels. We also talked about how he juggles being a farmer with his writing, why publi...
Mar 25, 2022•56 min•Season 10Ep. 7
Georgia Pritchett is an award-winning screenwriter who has worked on some of the best shows on television including Spitting Image , Smack The Pony , The Thick of It , Veep , Succession and, most recently, The Shrink Next Door , the hit Apple TV show starring Will Ferrell and Paul Rudd. On top of all that, she has also recently released a hilarious memoir entitled My Mess is a Bit of a Life . We had great fun talking with Georgia and hearing how she got her start on radio before moving into TV a...
Mar 18, 2022•1 hr 5 min•Season 10Ep. 6
Ian Rankin is an international superstar of crime writing, with bestsellers across the globe and is the creator of one of the best-known fictional policeman, John Rebus. We are so delighted that Ian was able to come down to our studio to talk about his stellar writing career. We hear how that began, where Rebus came from and talk about the impact of Scottish crime writing on the genre. We also talk about what it was like to co-write a posthumous William McIlvanney novel, The Dark Remains, and le...
Mar 11, 2022•1 hr 3 min•Season 10Ep. 5
Anna Mazzola is the a writer of historical thrillers and Gothic fiction. Her novels explore the impact of crime and injustice. Her debut novel, The Unseeing , is based on the life of a real woman called Sarah Gale who was convicted of aiding a murder in London in 1837. It won an Edgar Allan Poe Award in the US and was nominated for the Historical Writers’ Association’s Debut Crown in the UK. Her second novel, The Story Keeper , is out now. It follows a folklorist’s assistant as she searches out ...
Mar 04, 2022•1 hr 5 min•Season 10Ep. 4
Will Carver is the acclaimed author of unique, dark crime novels such as Good Samaritans , The Beresford and, most recently, Psychopaths Anonymous . We had great fun chatting with Will, hearing about how he broke into the industry and also how he found himself having to start his writing career again when publishing contracts dried up. We also discuss why his books are either loved or hated (with no in-between) and also learn about the year he saved not one but two lives! Links: Buy Will's books...
Feb 25, 2022•57 min•Season 10Ep. 3
Lilja Sigurðardóttir is an Icelandic crime-writer born in 1972. She is the author of novels, stage plays and screenplays. Her latest latest book, White as Snow (Náhvít jörð) is the third in a series of thrillers featuring financial investigator Áróra and police detective Daníel. We had great fun chatting with Lilja about her interesting route into writing (thank you, Dan Brown!), talked about the importance of good translations and discussed the growing appeal of foreign stories in English-speak...
Feb 18, 2022•1 hr 4 min•Season 10Ep. 2
Tasmina Perry is the internationally bestselling author of fourteen novels including Kiss Heaven Goodbye, Private Lives and Guilty Pleasures. Her books have been translated into twenty languages and sold over two million copies worldwide. She is a former lawyer turned award-winning journalist and was editing the UK edition of In Style magazine when her debut novel Daddy's Girls went into the top ten and became one of the biggest selling debuts of the years. She also writes thrillers under the ps...
Feb 11, 2022•1 hr 26 min•Season 10Ep. 1
Chris Hammer is a leading Australian crime fiction novelist, author of international bestsellers Scrublands , Silver and Trust . Scrublands was shortlisted for major writing awards in Australia, the UK and the United States. In the UK it was named the Sunday Times Crime Novel of the Year 2019 and won the prestigious UK Crime Writers’ Association John Creasey New Blood Dagger Award. His latest, published as Treasure and Dirt in Australia and New Zealand and Opal Country internationally, is out so...
Dec 31, 2021•1 hr•Season 9Ep. 10
Hugh Howey is the author of the bestselling sci fi series, Wool, which is now being turned into a show for Apple TV. In addition, he wrote the Molly Fyde and Beacon 23 series, and is currently working on the next installment of the Wool universe. We had a great chat with Hugh about his career, and heard about the brave and ultimately life-changing decision he made to self-publish his own works (which in turn led to him turning down $1m dollars to keep the rights to Wool). He offers a unique and ...
Dec 17, 2021•1 hr 19 min•Season 9Ep. 9
Jon Ingold is the founder and narrative director of Inkle Studios who have made hugely popular narrative games such as 80 Days , Overboard! and Heaven's Vault . He is also a published author and has just released a two-volume novel set in the Heaven's Vault world. We had a fascinating chat with Jon about the differences between fiction and interactive fiction - and found out that in many ways, they are not all that different after all. We talked about his inspirations for interactive fiction, an...
Dec 10, 2021•1 hr 14 min•Season 9Ep. 8
Simon Beckett taught English as a foreign language in Spain, installed cavity wall installation and played in various unsuccessful bands before becoming a freelance journalist and author. Since then, he has become an international bestselling author thanks to his David Hunter crime thrillers. The series has been translated into 29 languages. Simon’s novels have appeared in The Sunday Times Top 10 bestseller list and become No.1 international bestsellers, selling 12 million copies worldwide. As w...
Dec 03, 2021•48 min•Season 9Ep. 7
