BA Paris has sold over 1 million books, they've been translated into 39 languages, and her new novel, 'The Dilemma' was released in early 2020 to huge acclaim. The idea is simple: what if you had to tell someone something which would destroy their lives. Bernadette tells the story hour by hour, across one day. She's a pantser by nature, so we talk about how she had to slightly change the way she planned her plot to make such a tight structure of storytelling work. We also talk about why this is ...
Feb 07, 2020•41 min•Season 1Ep. 87
Caroline Scott's new novel is a 'Radio 2 Book Club Pick', high praise in British books, and is set in the murky time straight after the First World War. 'The Photographer of the Lost' sees Edie go in search of her "missing in action" husband Francis, after she receives a strange photograph in the post. It's a twisting, turning, slightly romantic mystery, which is a fantastic read. We talk about why Caroline is fascinated by history, how she projects her ideas with the few facts surrounding the '...
Jan 31, 2020•41 min•Season 1Ep. 86
Paul French has just released a 12 part audio series, 'Murders of Old China', through Audible. As the name suggests, it tells the stories of unsolved crimes from the early 20th century of China. We talk about how Paul discovered these crimes, and then set about researching them and possibly even solving them. As this has been specifically made for Audible, we talk about whether that changed his writing style: is there something different about telling stories for ears rather than eyes? For Paul,...
Jan 24, 2020•54 min•Season 1Ep. 85
Hugh Montgomery is a someone who, if he wasn't so darned lovely, you'd probably have to envy quite a lot. He's a practicing clinician, a UK lead on climate change, he's written screen-plays, runs ultramarathons, learns a new skill a year, holds a world-record, and is now releasing his first full-novel. It's called 'Control' - a thriller set in the medical-world (write what you know) all about a bullying, over-bearing Doctor, and the way he treats colleagues, which comes back to haunt him. We tal...
Jan 17, 2020•46 min•Season 1Ep. 84
BONUS EPISODE! In the late noughties, Mason Currey started blogging about the most interesting, unique and quirky routines from history. 'Daily Rituals' ran for year, and spawned its own book in 2013. Upon reflecting all the rituals in there, he realised an overwhelming amount where men's. So he's written a new book to correct that. 'Daily Rituals: Women at Work' details some of the most aspiring, gruelling and novel routines from history. We talk about what he's learned from these, whether they...
Jan 14, 2020•21 min•Season 1Ep. 83
Amy Heydenrych has been brooding on the idea for her latest novel, 'The Pact', for some time now. After experiencing office bullying in an old job, she thought about how the feelings it caused, and how they could lead to the plot of a crime novel. The story is all about Freya, Nicole and Jay, and the harmless prank that leads to murder. It's her second novel, after her debut 'Shame on You' achieved critical and commercial success in 2017. We talk about what she learned from writing that that aff...
Jan 10, 2020•44 min•Season 1Ep. 82
Ann Cleeves is a hugely prolific author - she once wrote a book a year for 30 years, and still publishes more or less every 12 months. We talk about that writing year - when she comes up with ideas, starts working on them and finally hands in the first draft. She has written 8 'Vera Stanhope' books, a character that went on to be played by Brenda Blethyn in a TV series. Also, she's published many 'Shetland' stories, a series which came to an end recently - and we discuss why. Her new book is 'Th...
Dec 13, 2019•45 min•Season 1Ep. 81
Before publishing his first novel, Chris Hammer worked as a journalist. Travelling all over the world reporting stories gave him the ability to write anywhere, and taught him how to tell stories. He used all that knowledge to write 'Scrublands', his debut about Martin Scarsden, a journalist who becomes embroiled in a tangle of crimes after a vicar does something extremely unreligious. We talk to Chris about keeping track of plots, working to deadlines and making sure his characters are more than...
Dec 06, 2019•44 min•Season 1Ep. 80
For over 40 years, Jeffrey Archer has sold many, many books. The current count is over 275 million. He's written 37, including a volume of diaries from his time in prison - 26 of those have been Sunday Times Bestsellers. His new book is 'Nothing Ventured', and it's the start of a brand new series. Although, the start of his writing career wasn't as successful as many would have you believe. It was his third book, 'Kane and Abel' that really took off - within the first week it had sold around a m...
Nov 29, 2019•38 min•Season 1Ep. 79
Harriet Evans' 11 novel could be her biggest yet. Even with the huge success of 'The Wildflowers', 'The Garden of Lost and Found' is everywhere at the moment, and tells the story of Juilet. She's sent the key to a house that holds a forgotten world within. We talk about the first idea for the story, and how it developed from many ideas Harriet had for another story that never quite made it. We also chat about how she knows what her role is as a commercial novelist, how that affects her writing a...
Nov 15, 2019•49 min•Season 1Ep. 78
In his phenomenally successful debut, 'Stuffocation', James Wallman told everyone to stop valuing things, and instead value experiences and the time we have on this planet. He's back to tell everyone how to spend that time, how to make sure we're getting the most out of our experiences, and how to make sure we're picking them wisely. We talk about making non-fiction read like fiction, and how James thoroughly analysed the best journalists, and stole their tricks, to make sure readers kept wantin...
Nov 01, 2019•46 min•Season 1Ep. 77
Ruth Hogan's debut novel 'The Keeper of Lost Things' generated huge commercial success and critical acclaim across the world. Telling the story of Anthony Peardew, a short-story writer who collects treasures and trinkets. The whole story became clear to Ruth after she got a stunning first line, that simply appeared in her head. We talk about what she did next, how she developed one sentence to the rest of the story. We talk about the huge success of her first story influenced her next two, 'The ...
Oct 17, 2019•45 min•Season 1Ep. 77
Owen Nicholls is a pop-culture obsessive, having written for Empire and NME , the mission for his first novel was ' High Fidelty for movies'. Originally thinking it may be a screenplay, instead he enjoyed the space and time writing a novel gave him. For Owen, a screenplay needs to be tight, purposeful and focused, he thinks that with novels you can take time to discover your characters and plots. 'Love, Unscripted' is the tale of a failed romance, and trying to figure out where it all went wrong...
Sep 26, 2019•44 min•Season 1Ep. 76
Along with Dan Gillespie Sells, Tom MacRae wrote the hit West End musical, 'Everybody's Talking About Jamie'. It opened in Sheffield, before transferring to London, selling-out constantly and receiving rave 5 star reviews. After writing for comedy on TV and for Dr Who, Tom had always planned to write a musical with his mate Dan, from the band 'The Feeling'. Then, watching a BBC documentary about a boy who wanted to go to high-school prom in a dress, he finally had an idea. Drawing on modern pop ...
Sep 13, 2019•47 min•Season 1Ep. 75
Tim Smedley is a journalist who has worked for the FT, Guardian, New Scientist and many more. A few years ago, he was so disgusted at the levels of pollutants in the air around London where he lived - he moved. He also resolved to find out more about what was causing it, and to read a book on what could be done. He found out such a book didn't exist - it was up to him to write one. With just a year to get everything done, he chatted to some of the world's foremost experts on air pollution, trave...
Sep 06, 2019•50 min•Season 1Ep. 74
Bestselling author Sheila O'Flanagan is prolific, published around 30 novels and has won the 'Irish Independent Popular Fiction Book of the Year. Her new book is 'Her Husband's Mistake', and sees Roxy finding her husband in bed with the next door neighbour. You know this immediately, it's the very first sentence. We talk about how long she worked on making that first sentence perfect, and how it set the tone for the rest of the novel. To get ideas, Sheila's main strategy is to put women in situa...
Aug 31, 2019•44 min•Season 1Ep. 73
Rob Hart's new book 'The Warehouse' is in the mold of 'Farenheit 451' and '1984', and focuses on one big business that suffocates all others, and the stories of 3 people who work there. Because of this, his characterisation needs to be truly believable and authentic, we talk about this struggle and how he became his characters in writing. It's also his first proper foray into standalone novels, having made his way with the 'Ash McKenna' series, and we talk about his relief at writing independent...
Aug 19, 2019•47 min•Season 1Ep. 72
Shari Lapena's first book, 'The Couple Next Door', was the number 1 adult fiction title for the UK back in 2017, and with 3 books published since we talk about how such success has affected the way she now tells stories. Her new one is 'Someone We Know', a twisting tale of a teenager so desperate for wi-fi he breaks into homes, and then strange things start happening all over the neighbourhood. She doesn't plan, in fact she finds the whole idea of planning baffling - how do you know your story b...
Aug 09, 2019•42 min•Season 1Ep. 71
Laura Jane Williams is a prolific journalist, and successful memoir writer - her books, 'Becoming' and 'Ice Cream for Breakfast', talk about her twenties and quest for love. We chat about the arrogance of memoir-writing - what makes her think her story is worth reading? Also, you can hear the strange methods she uses to get into character, and the exact moment she knows them inside-out. 'Our Stop' has been called 'the feminist rom-com of the summer', and we talk about what that means, and how sh...
Aug 02, 2019•47 min•Season 1Ep. 70
After achieving great success with her debut novel, 'The Tall Man', Phoebe Locke is back with a new summer-hit, 'The July Girls'. It tells the story of murders that happen every year on exactly the same day, and the quest to track down who is doing it, and why. Originally it was a short story that never saw escaped the top drawer, and Phoebe explains why she's happy about that, and why the characters stuck with her enough to revisit their story. Phoebe has a very strict method of writing - the P...
Jul 25, 2019•46 min•Season 1Ep. 69
Stuart MacBride pretty much hasn't had a day off for 16 years. Every chance he gets he'll find a little space and place to write in. It's made him a very successful crime author. His newest novel is 'All That's Dead', in which Logan McRae returns to work after some time away, and is immediately thrown into the deepest, darkest part of the crime world. We chat about why Stuart switches up his writing style - recently his need to keep things fresh saw him draft novels as TV screenplays. We also he...
Jul 19, 2019•35 min•Season 1Ep. 68
At age 19, unsure about what to do before starting university, Lara Prior-Palmer absent-mindedly applied for the Mongol Derby, a multi-horse race that rides 1,000 km through Mongolian grassland. She won it. Her book 'Rough Magic' is a poetic, twisting, wonderful account of the race, and is written unlike many other memoirs. It's been critically acclaimed, sold hugely well and took Lara 5 years to write. We talk about why she felt the need to get the adventure down on paper, how it initially came...
Jul 12, 2019•43 min•Season 1Ep. 67
Louise Candlish's 'Our House' was one of the biggest books of 2018, it's sold more than 200,000 copies, been read all over the world and won 'Best Crime and Thriller Fiction' at the 'British Book Awards'. It so nearly wasn't the case though. A few years ago, disappointed with her success and publisher, Louise almost gave up - until the kernel of a story came to her, something that had never been done before, a thriller centred around property fraud. We talk about that spark during the episode, a...
Jun 21, 2019•47 min•Season 1Ep. 66
Abi Elphinstone has just started the brand new kids' series 'The Unmapped Chronicles'. The first of which, 'Rumblestar', sees Casper Tock stumbling across a hidden world which magically controls the weather. The idea came from a desire to get kids outside, away from screens and into nature - we talk about having that grand concept, and making it relatable to kids in a few hundred pages. You can hear why it took her a bunch of rejections to finally realise what was wrong about her writing, also h...
Jun 14, 2019•45 min•Season 1Ep. 66
Ahmad Danny Ramadan is a Syrian-Canadian author, storyteller and LGBTQ-refugee activist. He was forced to flee his home of Syria, and his debut novel 'The Clothesline Swing' is a sprawling, twisting tale trying to make sense of it. It focuses on 2 lovers in Syria, telling stories to work through what life in the country is. It sends the imagination all over the place, with no seeming link - and this is deliberate. Danny wanted his readers to feel detached and without ground to tread, and he expl...
Jun 07, 2019•50 min•Season 1Ep. 65
Mel Sherratt has published 12 books, and written many, many more, across a wide range of genres. She loves writing so much that even now, in the middle of a proper book deal, she's writing other books for herself and to self-publish. Her new novel is called 'Tick Tock', it's a procedural crime novel in her 'DS Grace Allendale' series. We talk about the different stages of her writing, when she starts to put in clues as to the killer, how she knows how many time her killer needs to strike, and ho...
May 30, 2019•36 min•Season 1Ep. 64
Not many authors have debut success like Trent Dalton. His book 'Boy Swallows Universe' won the 'Debut Fiction Prize' and 'Book of the Year' at the Australian Indie Awards, and went straight into the top 10, selling over 100,000 copies. It's a semi-autobiographical story about all Eli, in Brisbane in 1983, muddling through family life, trying to not be coaxed into drug-dealing, and having to save his mum from prison. Trent works as a journalist, so we talk about the challenges of writing feature...
May 24, 2019•43 min•Season 1Ep. 63
Jeffery Deaver has published over 40 novels. He's a globally renowned author, writing crime and thrillers. To him, they're not lauded works of art, they're intricate puzzles, fun and games for the reader - and we talk about how he builds these. His new book is 'The Never Game', introducing the enigmatic investigator Colter Shaw, and we hear the first idea for the story, and why it went to Colter, not another of his myriad characters. Jeffery works anywhere he can - any chance he gets to type awa...
May 17, 2019•45 min•Season 1Ep. 62
'Critical Incidents' is Lucie Whitehouse's 5th book, and it marks something of a departure for her. Her previous novels are mainly focused on psychological thriller, whereas the new one is procedural. This means things need to be spot on, the way the police work, the way the crime is committed and how it's solved. We talk about the move, how she found changing styles liberating and where it takes her next. You can also hear how Lucie Whitehouse prefers working in an all-women space, why she need...
May 10, 2019•46 min•Season 1Ep. 61
Mhairi McFarlane has published 5 novels, her new first 'You Had Me At Hello' was a huge bestseller, and her new one 'Don't You Forget About Me' looks set to do the same. It tells the story of Georgina, and her new boss at work who turns out to be an old flame... only he seemingly doesn't remember her at all. We talk about the planning of rom-com novels, how she likes to embrace the contrivances that must happen and focus on ways to build surprises into stories. You can hear how she plans her yea...
May 05, 2019•33 min•Season 1Ep. 60
