Episodes
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Sam and Anna chat to Mira Shah about writing her debut novel during the pandemic and working around a full time job.
Mira V Shah is a #1 bestselling author and legal writer who lives in North London with her husband, three good dogs and a mediocre cat. She studied History at the University of Warwick before practising as a City lawyer. During the pandemic, Mira wrote her first ever novel, HER, a psychological drama, which explores themes of flawed perception, trauma, race and class.
HER is a #1 ebook bestseller and was published by Hodder & Stoughton in March 2023, with the paperback to follow on 23 November. Her second novel, THE HOUSESITTER will be published in 2024. -
This week Anna and Sam dive into a brilliant chat with graphic novelist Hannah Eaton. We find out her process of drawing and writing stories, including making time to write and the importance of reality TV! Plus an exclusive reading from Hannah’s short story Senior Boys.
Hannah Eaton has written and illustrated two acclaimed graphic novels: Naming Monsters (MyriadEditions, 2013) was shortlisted for the First Graphic Novel Prize and the Ninth Art Award, andBlackwood (Myriad 2020), a folk horror murder mystery of middle England, was featured in theGuardian’s Books of the Year 2020. She is currently working on a graphic memoir and an anthology of contemporary ghost stories.Her work has been published in Studies in Gender and Sexuality, Asylum, Doll Hospital and The InkingWoman, and she has worked with children and adults - including street sex workers, neurodivergent parents and children experiencing difficulties in the school system - for more than 20 years as an(autistic) autism specialist support worker, teacher, learning mentor and creative workshop facilitator.
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Anna and Sam talk to Luce Brett about writing from personal experience and becoming an advocate for women's health.
Luce is the author of PMSL the first incontinence memoir. It was published by Green Tree an imprint of Bloomsbury in 2020. PMSL was her first book and has been influential with healthcare professionals as well as patients and many women and men have contacted her to say it made them feel seen and heard for the first time. As well as being an author and journalist Luce international advocate for women's health. She has a strong history of saying the unsayable and challenging stigma around common but taboo conditions with kindness, insight and (sometimes bold) humour.
This episode comes with a trigger warning of depictions of birth and birth injury. -
In this episode Sam and Anna speak with the wonderful Uju Asika, about her love of 'wild' writing, how much of yourself to put into your work and the joy of bringing a picture book into the world, plus Uju reads from her brilliant book Raising Boys Who Do Better.
Uju is a multi-award nominated blogger, writer, speaker and creative consultant. She is the creator of the popular family blog Babes About Town and the author of three books including her acclaimed debut Bringing Up Race: How To Raise a Kind Child in a Prejudiced World. Hailed as 'timely and important' and one of the Best Books of September 2020 in the Evening Standard, Bringing Up Race earned a Starred Review in Publishers Weekly and was featured widely including Good Housekeeping, Woman's Hour, Marie Claire, Good Morning Sunday and The Observer. Uju's picture book A World For Me And You (Where Everyone Is Welcome) was published in 2022 and her latest book Raising Boys Who Do Better: A Hopeful Guide for A New Generation came out in June 2023.
A former journalist, Uju has also been a screenwriter and script editor for some of Nigeria's spiciest TV dramas including the long-running soap Tinsel. Born in Nigeria, Uju grew up in the UK and has lived in London, New York and Lagos. She's based in north London with her husband Abiye and two teenage sons. In her down time, she enjoys bingeing Netflix, piling up more books than she can read and dancing in her kitchen.
You can keep up with Uju via her website ujuasika.com or her parenting blog babesabouttown.com and @babesabouttown across social media. -
Anna and Sam speak to Cathy Hayward about her writing process, getting up early and running an independent
bookshop. Plus enjoy a reading from her novel The Girl in the Maze.
Cathy trained as a journalist and edited a variety of trade publications, several of which were so niche they were featured on Have I Got News for You. She then moved into the world of PR and set up an award-winning communications agency before ten years later, giving up the world of PR to become a bookseller. She took over Kemptown Bookshop in May 2022 with the aim of developing the shop into a community hub with events to engage new and established readers, celebrate local authors and support underrepresented writers. Devastated and inspired in equal measure by the death of her parents in quick succession, Cathy completed The Creative Writing Programme out of which emerged her debut novel The Girl in the Maze about the experience of mothering and being mothered. It won Agora Books' Lost the Plot Work in Progress Prize 2020 and was longlisted for the Grindstone Literary Prize 2020 and Flash500 2020. It was published by Agora Books in November 2021. She has since written two further novels and is working on a fourth. Cathy lives in Brighton – sandwiched between the Downs and the sea – with her husband, three children, two rescue cats and one very lively Hungarian Vizsla puppy. -
This week Anna and Sam chat with Nicola Gill about her writing process, her road to getting published and how it felt to get published during the pandemic. Plus a reading from her latest novel Swimming For Beginners.
Nicola lives in London with her husband and two sons. At the age of five, when all the other little girls wanted to be ballet dancers, she decided she wanted to be an author. Her ballet teacher was very relieved. Nicola is the author of The Neighbours, We Are Family and Swimming for Beginners. -
Anna and Sam chat to Women's Prize 2022 short-listed author Jacqueline Crooks about her creative process, keeping her writing free and we hear a reading from her novel Fire Rush.
Jacqueline was born in Jamaica and grew up in 70s and 80s Southall, part of London's migrant community, carving out a space through music, where she raved at dub reggae dances. She has carved out a career for herself in the community sector working with Black and minoritised charities. Her stories have been longlisted for the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction, the Wasafiri New Writing Prize and the BBC National Short Story Award. Named as a 2023 top ten debut author by the Guardian/The Observer. Her book, Fire Rush, is set in 1970s and 1980's London, Bristol, and Jamaica and is about the role of women in the underground world of dub reggae.
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This week we chat to fabulous Philippa East, about balancing her writing and psychology practices, creating great characters and we hear a reading from I'll Never Tell.
Philippa grew up in Scotland and originally studied Psychology and Philosophy at the University of Oxford. After graduating, she moved to London to train as a Clinical Psychologist and worked in NHS mental health services for over ten years.
Philippa now lives in the Lincolnshire countryside with her spouse and cat, and alongside her writing she continues to work as a psychologist and therapist.
Her debut novel Little White Lies was longlisted for the Guardian's "Not-The-Booker" prize and shortlisted for the CWA John Creasey New Blood Dagger. She has since published two further psychological suspense novels, Safe and Sound and I'll Never Tell, and her fourth, A Guilty Secret, will be out in January 2024. -
On our episode this week we chat with wonderful Elizabeth Haynes. Our chat takes in NaNoWriMo, writing across genres and the freedom that can be found writing without a plan. Plus a reading from her latest novel You Me And The Sea.
Elizabeth is a former police intelligence analyst who lives in Norfolk with her husband and son. Her first novel, Into the Darkest Corner, was Amazon’s Best Book of the Year 2011 and a New York Times bestseller. Now published in 37 countries, it was originally written as part of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), an online challenge to write a 50,000 word novel in the month of November.
She has written a further three psychological thrillers—Revenge of the Tide, Human Remains and Never Alone—and two novels in the DCI Louisa Smith series, Under a Silent Moon and Behind Closed Doors.
Next came her highly praised historical novel The Murder of Harriet Monckton (a Sunday Times Summer Read) which is based on the 1843 unsolved murder of a young school teacher in Bromley, Kent.
Elizabeth’s latest novel, You, Me and the Sea is a contemporary story of love and redemption set on a remote, windswept Scottish island.
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In this episode Anna and Sam chat to the brilliant Nicola Williams about writing in a busy schedule and serendipity, plus a reading from her novel Until Proven Innocent.
Nicola is a part-time Crown Court Judge, author, and sits on numerous boards as a non executive director.
She has been listed as one of the 100 most influential Black people in the UK.
After a successful career at the Bar (including as a legal commentator on the OJ Simpson verdict) she served as an Ombudsman both in the UK and internationally, including as a Commissioner at the Independent Police Complaints Commission and as the Complaints Commissioner of the Cayman Islands. She was the first Service Complaints Ombudsman for the UK Armed Forces, one of the most senior women and the most senior Black person in UK Defence.
She is the author of the legal thriller, Without Prejudice, describing the experiences of being a black female lawyer in Britain and is also an indictment of the legal system and privilege; screen rights have been optioned. Her second thriller, Until Proven Innocent, was published by Penguin on 16 March 2023. -
This week Anna and Sam chat to wonderful Annie Garthwaite, about her long journey to writing, her process and whether she thinks its ok to make things up in historical fiction. Episode also includes reading from her book Cecily.
Annie Garthwaite grew up in a working-class community in the north east of England. She studied English at the University of Wales before embarking on a thirty-year international business career working with multi-national companies and eventually establishing her own communications consultancy. In 2017 she studied for an MA in Creative Writing at Warwick University and, during two years of study, wrote her debut novel Cecily which was published by Penguin in 2021. Cecily was named a ‘top pick’ by The Times and Sunday Times and a ‘Best Book of 2021’ by independent bookshops and Waterstones. Her second novel, The King’s Mother, will publish in July 2024. -
Join us for this brand new series of Writing Around The Kids Podcast, to kick us off we chat with the ever so wonderful Kit de Waal. Listen for her reading from My Name Is Leon and a valuable insight into what makes her tick as a writer.
Kit de Waal, born to an Irish mother and Caribbean father, was brought up among the Irish community of Birmingham in the ‘60s and ‘70s.
Her debut novel My Name Is Leon was an international bestseller, shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award, longlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize and won the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year Award for 2017. In 2022 it was adapted for television by the BBC.
Her second novel, The Trick to Time, was longlisted for the Women's Prize and her young adult novel Becoming Dinah was shortlisted for the Carnegie CLIP Award 2020. A collection of short stories, Supporting Cast was published in 2020. An anthology of working-class memoir, Common People was crowdfunded and edited by Kit in 2019.
Kit founded her own TV production company, Portopia Productions and the Big Book Weekend, a free digital literary festival in 2020 and was named the FutureBook Person of the Year 2019. Kit is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and Professor and Writer in Residence at Leicester University.
Her memoir Without Warning and Only Sometimes was published in August 2022. -
This week Anna and Sam chat to Sharon Duggal.
Sharon writes novels and short stories. Her second novel, Should We Fall Behind (2020, Bluemoose Books) was shortlisted for the Royal Society of Literature’s 2021 Encore Award, selected for Between the Covers, BBC television’s flagship book show and chosen as a Prima Magazine Book of the Year. Her debut, The Handsworth Times was The Morning Star’s Fiction Book of the Year 2016 and selected as the Brighton City Reads in 2017. Her short fiction appears in various anthologies including The Book of Birmingham and Love Bites: Fiction Inspired by Pete Shelley and Buzzcocks. -
Anna and Sam talk to Josie Lloyd about writing, sea swimming and landing a huge book deal for her debut novel.
Josie Lloyd is the best selling author of over 20 novels and several parodies which she co-wrote with her husband, Emlyn Rees including 'We're Going On A Bar Hunt' and 'The Very Hungover Caterpillar'. Also with Emlyn she wrote the nineties rom-hit Come Together which was published in 26 languages and made into a Working Title Film. In 2018, after going through breast cancer, she wrote the novel 'The Cancer Ladies' Running Club' which is currently in development as a film with Lionsgate. Hoping to inspire others with her positivity, she's the patron of the charity Lobular Breast Cancer UK During the pandemic she discovered the joys of cold water swimming and wrote 'Lifesaving For Beginners', a novel about community and friendship. She lives in Brighton with Emlyn and their three daughters and sprollie, Ziggy. -
This week Anna and Sam chat to Louise Fein about writing historical fiction and where she finds her inspiration. Find her Tik Tok series on writing tips here https://www.tiktok.com/@louise.fein.author
Louise writes twentieth century historical fiction, based around unheard voices, or from unusual perspectives. Her debut novel, People Like Us (entitled Daughter of the Reich in the US/Canada edition) was first published in 2020 into 13 territories and is set in 1930’s Leipzig. The book was shortlisted for the RSL Christopher Bland Prize 2021 and the RNA Historical Novel of the Year Award, 2021.
Louise's second novel, The Hidden Child, was first published in the UK in September 2021 and the US and Canada in October 2021 as well as other territories. This book is centred around the eugenics movement in 1920’s England and America. It is a Globe & Mail bestseller in Canada.
Louise, previously a lawyer and banker, holds an MA in Creative Writing from St Mary’s University and now writes full time. Equally passionate about historical research and writing, she loves to look for themes which have resonance with today’s world. Louise lives in the Surrey countryside with her family, and is a slave to the daily demands of her pets. Her third novel will be published in early 2024. -
Jacqueline Roy was born and raised in London. Her father was Jamaican and her mother was English and she comes from a family of writers. She hated the pressure to conform at school and left early, so she did her degrees as a mature student and moved to Manchester to take up a full-time teaching post at Manchester Metropolitan University.
She lectured in English for many years, specialising in postcolonial literatures. She also taught creative writing at MMU’s Writing School.
She is particularly interested in exploring racial identities and the ways in which those who are marginalised find strategies for fighting back. She is now a full-time writer of fiction. She has written six books for children, published mainly by Penguin Children’s books, and Walker Books, and two novels for adults, The Fat Lady Sings (republished by Penguin, 2021) and The Gosling Girl (published by Simon & Schuster, 2022). A third novel for adults will be published by Simon & Schuster in January 2024.
Follow Jacqueline on Twitter @jacquel27815478 -
On this week's episode Anna and Sam chat to fabulous Lisa Jewell, about her amazing career, her creepy characters and writing by the seat of her pants. As well as a reading from her novel The Family Remains.
Lisa Jewell is a New York Times and Sunday Times No 1 bestselling author who has been published worldwide in over twenty-five languages. Lisa has written a number of dark psychological thrillers, beginning with Then She Was Gone, The Family Upstairs, The Night She Disappeared and The Family Remains - all of which were No 1 Sunday Times bestsellers. She has been likened to Agatha Christie and Ruth Rendell and has been described as the British Liane Moriarty.
She has sold 10 million copies worldwide. She lives in north London with her husband, two teenage daughters and the best dog in the world.
Lisa has written a total of 21 novels with the latest, None of This is True, due to be published in July 2023. -
Writing chat with this week’s guest Andreina Cordani, about writing for young adults and her dubious browser history.
Before writing her first novel, Andreina Cordani was a senior editor and writer for women’s magazines including Good Housekeeping and Cosmopolitan, where her assignments included interviewing gun-toting moms on the school run, ordering illegal DIY Botox online and learning to do the splits in eight weeks.
She lives on the Dorset coast with her family where she reads voraciously, occasionally makes TikTok videos and swims in the sea. She is the author of two dark thrillers for young adults, The Girl Who… and Dead Lucky and is currently working on an adult crime story. -
We talk to Gillian Harvey about how she writes around her five children.
After graduating from university in 2000 with a degree in English literature, Gillian Harvey trained as a secondary school teacher. She worked in the profession until 2009, when she decided (on the spur of the moment) to move to France with husband Ray.
It was there she began working as a freelance writer and has since built a career writing features, opinion pieces and short stories for national titles including Woman’s Weekly, People’s Friend, the Independent, Guardian and Metro.
Gillian also works as a columnist for popular Writing Magazine, a role she has held since 2020. She was also a columnist for Prima Baby magazine (2015-16) and Living France magazine (2017-2019).
Gillian’s first novel ‘Everything is Fine’ was published in May 2020. Her second, ‘Perfect on Paper’ was published in May 2021 (both with Orion).
Her latest novel ‘A Year at the French Farmhouse’ is due for publication with Boldwood on 29 September 2022.
Gillian lives in Limousin, France, with her husband and their five children.
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Anna and Sam talk to Kate Lee about what it is to write for different age ranges and how she finds inspiration for her novels.
Kate is the author of six books for children including the best-selling Santa's Suit which sold 291,000 copies in 7 languages and the popular Snappy pop-up series. Her short stories and poetry have won awards at Shoreham Litfest, the WRITE Festival and the Bath Flash Award and have been published in anthologies including Restore to Factory Settings. Kate enjoys supporting other writers through her work as a freelance editor and mentor. As a carer, she understands how can writing be therapeutic, but also the thing that may be squeezed out when life gets crazy. Kate, who lives in Horsham, West Sussex, has recently finished writing two picture books, one about expressing emotions entitled Big Bears Don't Cry and one about what home means to a very small ghost, entitled The Haunted Hat. This winter Kate is putting the finishing touches to a Middle Grade novel for ages 8-12. This story is an eco mystery involving a curse, a shady scientist and lots of bees. As well as words, Kate is a lover of images and maps, and you'll always find her drawing ideas (and encouraging others to do so, too). So long as Rupert, her beloved but naughty puppy, doesn't get to the paper first... - Show more
