Ian Moore is a leading stand-up comedian, known for his sharp, entertaining punditry, who regularly headlines at London’s world-famous Comedy Store. A TV/radio regular, he stars in Dave’s satirical TV show Unspun and Channel 5’s topical comedy Big Mouths . Ian lives in rural France and commutes back to the UK every week. However, he has recently moved into the world of novel writing, with Death and Croissants being released to great reviews as the first in a new cosy crime series. His latest boo...
Oct 06, 2023•47 min•Season 18Ep. 14
Caimh McDonnell is the internationally bestselling author of the Dublin Trilogy which is set in his hometown. His debut novel A Man with One of Those Faces – a darkly comedic crime thriller – was published in 2016. It went on to spawn the increasingly uncountable Dublin Trilogy (seven and a half books and counting) and the McGarry Stateside series. The books have been ranked #1 in their Amazon categories in the UK, Ireland and the USA, have been translated into several languages and optioned for...
Sep 29, 2023•1 hr 13 min•Season 18Ep. 13
RJ Barker is a critically acclaimed and award-winning author of fantasy fiction. He won the 2020 British Fantasy Society (BFS) Robert Holdstock award for Best Novel for his fourth novel, The Bone Ships . His debut trilogy The Wounded Kingdom ( Age of Assassins, Blood of Assassins and King of Assassins) was nominated for the David Gemmel Award, the Kitschie Golden Tentacle, The Compton Crook and the BFS Best Debut and Best Novel awards. He followed this with the award-winning Tide Child Trilogy: ...
Sep 22, 2023•58 min•Season 18Ep. 12
Sunyi Dean is a biracial autistic author who was born in Texas, grew up in Hong Kong, and now resides in North England. She writes speculative fiction with a weird slant, and has both too many books and too many children. In her spare time, she can be found hiking, weight lifting, wild-swimming, and dying in jiu-jitsu. She also founded and co-hosts the Publishing Rodeo Podcast with fellow Tor author, Scott Drakeford. Sunyi’s debut novel, THE BOOK EATERS, launched Aug 2022 and was an instant #2 S...
Sep 15, 2023•51 min•Season 18Ep. 11
Alexander Darwin is an author living near Boston with his wife and three daughters. Outside of writing, he teaches and trains martial arts (Brazilian Jiu Jitsu). He’s inspired by old-school Hong Kong action flicks, jRPGs, underdog stories and bibimbap bowls. Outside of writing fiction, Alexander has written for publications such as Rolling Stone Magazine, Jiu Jitsu Style and SF Signal. His latest piece, The Lost Diary of Anthony Bourdain, was a featured piece in Rolling Stone’s January 2022 Issu...
Sep 08, 2023•1 hr 2 min•Season 18Ep. 10
Mark Edwards writes psychological thrillers about scary things happening to ordinary people. He has sold more than four million copies of his books and topped the bestseller lists numerous times since his first solo novel was published in 2013. His latest book, Keep Her Secret , is out now. We had a great time chatting with Mark and hearing about his long journey to amazing success, including his moves back and forth between self-publishing and traditional publishing, and the pros and cons of bo...
Sep 01, 2023•1 hr 22 min•Season 18Ep. 9
We have a rare returning guest this week as the brilliant Lauren Beukes joins us to tell us what she has been up to since her first appearance on the podcast (check out Episode 44 if you haven't heard that one before!). She tells us all about her latest book, Bridge , which leads us to a discussion about why multiversal stories have become so big in recent years. Plus, we hear what she thought of The Shining Girls TV show, chat about the impact of AI on writers, and talk about the South African ...
Aug 25, 2023•58 min•Season 18Ep. 8
When he was a senior in college, Dean Koontz won an Atlantic Monthly fiction competition and has been writing ever since. His books are published in 38 languages and he has sold over 500 million copies to date. His latest book, After Death , is out now. We had an amazing chat with Dean about his writing career, hearing how he got started back in 1968 writing sci fi, why he pivoted to suspense thrillers and horror, and how he continues to come up with amazing new ideas for his novels. He also tel...
Aug 18, 2023•1 hr•Season 18Ep. 7
Alasdair Beckett-King is a man of many talents - an award-winning comedian, video game writer and now also author of children's books, he has a very funny YouTube channel , has appeared on numerous TV shows and his debut novel, Montgomery BonBon: Murder at the Museum was published in February 2023. We had a great time speaking with Alasdair about his career, hearing how he got into stand-up and why the pandemic helped him break out as a comedy star. We also chat about his love of point and click...
Aug 11, 2023•1 hr 8 min•Season 18Ep. 6
Fflur Dafydd is an award winning novelist, screenwriter and musician, who writes in Welsh and English. She has published five novels, one short story collection and has created around 40 hours of prime time drama for S4C and the BBC iPlayer. She also wrote and co-produced the feature film Y Llyfrgell/The Library Suicides , (BBC Films) based on her own novel, which won numerous awards at the BAFTA Cymru awards and the Edinburgh International Film Festival. She has twice been nominated for a BAFTA...
Aug 04, 2023•1 hr 1 min•Season 18Ep. 5
Graeme Macrae Burnet is the author of the Booker shortlisted His Bloody Project , Booker longlisted Case Study , The Disappearance of Adèle Bedeau and The Accident on the A35 . He is currently working on his next novel, which will complete the Gorski trilogy, featuring his French detective, Georges Gorski. We had a really fascinating and fun chat with Graeme, hearing about how it took until he was 46 to publish his first novel and the huge impact being shortlisted for the Booker prize for His Bl...
Jul 28, 2023•1 hr 10 min•Season 18Ep. 4
Veronica Henry started her writing career in radio television, writing for shows such as The Archers , Heartbeat and Holby City , before she decided to try her hand at writing novels. It worked out pretty well - she is now a bestselling author who has written over twenty novels. Her latest novel, Thirty Days in Paris , is out now. We had a fun chat with Veronica, hearing how she made her start in the creative world doing sound effects for TV shows, and becoming a script editor on the legendary B...
Jul 21, 2023•45 min•Season 18Ep. 3
Heidi Swain is a Sunday Times Bestselling Author who writes commercial fiction for Simon and Schuster. She has three series set in fictitious Wynbridge, Nightingale Square and Wynmouth and writes two titles a year – a summer and a Christmas book. She also writes short stories and non-fiction for magazines and is represented by Amanda Preston. We had great fun talking with Heidi and hearing how she was picked up by a publisher before ever having an agent, why she sometimes enjoys writing longhand...
Jul 14, 2023•50 min•Season 18Ep. 2
Jack Jordan is the global bestselling author of Anything for Her, My Girl, A Woman Scorned, Before Her Eyes, and Night by Night and an Amazon No.1 bestseller in the UK, Canada, and Australia. After selling at auction in the UK and numerous foreign territories, Do No Harm was a bestseller in 2022. His latest book, Conviction , is out now. We had a great chat with Jack about why he started writing at 17, and how he made such a success of self-publishing, selling over 100,000 books. That led to a m...
Jul 07, 2023•1 hr 4 min•Season 18Ep. 1
(Originally released on our sister podcast feed, Page One Extra, on 16 June 2023) We talk with Transworld PR Director Alison Barrow (recent winner of Publicity Campaign of the Year at The Bookseller awards) and author Premee Mohamed about the difference a book's publicity campaign can make its success. Links: Buy Lessons in Chemistry Buy Premee Mohamed's books For all episodes of Page One Extra be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel , search for Page One Extra on your favourite podcast app,...
Jul 06, 2023•1 hr
(Originally released on our sister podcast feed, Page One Extra, on 8 May 2023) In this special episode ( available in full video on our YouTube channel ) dedicated to the recently announced Writers Guild of America strike, we take a look at why it's happening, what writers want, and what is likely to happen from here. C Robert Cargill (screenwriter of Dr Strange , Sinister , The Black Phone and more) joins us to give more details from the inside, and tells us what we can do to help. Links: Find...
Jul 05, 2023•40 min
Cole Haddon is an Australian-American novelist, screenwriter, and journalist. Dracula , his first television commission, was produced by NBC and Sky Living starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers, and he has gone on to develop dozens of feature films and TV series around the globe – most recently Genocidal Organ for director Park Chan-wook ( Old Boy ) and the rock musical Zombie Broadway for The Eurythmics’ Dave Stewart and director Jonas Åkerlund ( Lords of Chaos ). His graphic novels have been published...
Jun 09, 2023•1 hr 4 min•Season 17Ep. 10
Nick Harkaway is the bestselling author of hugely imaginative speculative thrillers such as The Gone Away World , Tigerman and Gnomon . He has also released two thrillers under the name Aiden Truhen. His latest book is a hugely enjoyable futuristic detective thriller, Titanium Noir . We really enjoyed speaking with Nick about his career, hearing about his foray into scriptwriting, and how he eventually turned his hand to novel writing after many years. We hear about how he managed to write the a...
Jun 02, 2023•1 hr 14 min•Season 17Ep. 9
Juliet E. McKenna is the author of 15 epic fantasy novels set in the world of Einarinn, as well as several novellas and countless short stories ranging from SF to steampunk and alternate history. Her contemporary fantasy Green Man novels, published by indie Wizard’s Tower Press, have sold over 28,000 copies since 2018. She has been a judge for the World Fantasy Awards, the Arthur C. Clarke Award, the James White Award and the Aeon Award, and has, herself, been shortlisted for the British Fantasy...
May 26, 2023•1 hr 11 min•Season 17Ep. 8
Louise Swanson (aka Louise Beech) has always wanted to be a writer, even if the road to being published was a long one. An award-winning short story writer, her debut novel, How to be Brave, was released in 2015. Since then, she has since written a range of books from romance to crime to her latest book, End of Story, which is a dystopian speculative thriller. We had a really interesting chat with Louise, talking about dealing with rejections when starting out, and how she seized a chance opport...
May 19, 2023•52 min•Season 17Ep. 7
Abigail Burdess has written for TV and film, as well as appearing as an actor in a number of TV shows. A woman of many talents, she has also just released her first novel, Mother's Day , which is a dark thriller - with some very dark humour in it! We had great fun chatting with Abbie about her writing journey, and hearing about the differences in writing for the screen and the page. We hear about the very different notes that you get back as a novel writer, as well as talking about how her exper...
May 12, 2023•1 hr 4 min•Season 17Ep. 6
Elliot Sweeney works as a community psychiatric nurse but has recently released his debut crime novel, The Next To Die , a hard-boiled crime thriller narrated by misanthropic ex-copper turned PI, Dylan Kasper. We had a really interesting chat with Elliot. learning about how he moved from writing shorts to having his full-time debut published, and how the Curtis Brown helped with that. We also talked about opportunities for writers from more diverse and underprivileged backgrounds, and discussed ...
May 05, 2023•55 min•Season 17Ep. 5
Jen Williams lives in London with her partner and their small ridiculous cat. A fan of pirates and dark folklore from an early age, these days she writes horror-tinged crime thrillers with strong female leads as well as character-driven fantasy novels with plenty of banter and magic. In 2015 she was nominated for Best Newcomer in the British Fantasy Awards, and two of her books in her Winnowing Flame trilogy won Best Fantasy Novel at the British Fantasy Awards. We had a great chat with Jen about...
Apr 28, 2023•1 hr 14 min•Season 17Ep. 4
In this debut episode (available to watch as a full video episode on YouTube ), we bring you all the latest writing news as we see encouraging reports about physical book sales, hear why self-published authors are often doing better than their trad published counterparts and look across to America, where a Hollywood writers' strike is looming. Plus, we look at some of the big book deals from the London Book Fair, and are joined by guest author Sam Holland to talk about the ever-shrinking price o...
Apr 27, 2023•53 min
This episode is also available as a full video interview on our YouTube channel Nicholas Binge is an author of speculative thrillers, literary science-fiction, and horror. His novels include Ascension and Professor Everywhere. Binge has lived in Singapore, Switzerland, and Hong Kong, and is based in Edinburgh, UK, where he teaches literature and works on new books. His most recent novel, Ascension , is being published by Harper Voyager (UK) and Riverhead Books (US) in April. It is also being tra...
Apr 21, 2023•1 hr 15 min•Season 17Ep. 3
Stig Abell is an English journalist, newspaper editor and radio presenter. He currently co-presents the Monday to Thursday breakfast show on Times Radio with Aasmah Mir. He has also written a number of non-fiction books and has just had his first fiction novel, Death Under a Little Sky , published with Harper Collins. We had a really fun and interesting chat with Stig, hearing how his literary agent at first didn't want to read his crime novel "in case it is rubbish" - but fortunately she loved ...
Apr 14, 2023•54 min•Season 17Ep. 2
Charles Stross is a full-time science fiction writer and resident of Edinburgh, Scotland. The author of six Hugo-nominated novels and winner of the 2005, 2010, and 2014 Hugo awards for best novella, he has won numerous other awards and been translated into at least 12 other languages. His award-winning series include the long-running Merchant Princes series and The Laundry Files. His latest book, Season of Skulls, is out in May 2023. It was amazing to be able to chat with Charlie, a real legend ...
Apr 07, 2023•1 hr 6 min•Season 17Ep. 1
Sunday Times Bestselling author Anne O’Brien was born in West Yorkshire. After gaining a BA Honours degree in History at Manchester University and a Master’s in Education at Hull, she lived in East Yorkshire for many years as a teacher of history. Today she has sold over a million copies of her books in the UK and internationally. She lives with her husband in an eighteenth-century timber-framed cottage in the depths of the Welsh Marches in Herefordshire. The area provides endless inspiration fo...
Mar 10, 2023•48 min•Season 16Ep. 9
Ayisha Malik is a British writer, whose debut novel Sofia Khan is Not Obliged was released in 2015. She went on to write a sequel - The Other Half of Happiness - in 2017. Both books tackle the topic of dating as a young Muslim woman and were very well received. As well as writing, Ayisha has a wealth of experience on the opposite side of the typewriter, working as a publicist for Penguin Random House and as a literary consultant for Cornerstones. Her latest novel is The Movement , which follows ...
Mar 03, 2023•54 min•Season 16Ep. 8
Sarah Lee has been a journalist and editor for the past twenty-five years, working across news and features and writing for regional and national newspapers, as well as commissioning for women’s true-life magazines. More recently she has focused her attention on the world of travel, creating luxury blog LiveShareTravel , and working with destinations and brands worldwide on storytelling marketing campaigns and conferences through her company, Captivate. Her debut novel, An Ocean Apart , came out...
Feb 24, 2023•45 min•Season 16Ep. 7
