Not Too Busy To Write

Evie Wyld is an award winning author of three novels, the latest of which, The Bass Rock, won the Stella Prize 2021. We discuss writing a novel about male violence against a backdrop of #MeToo, and s…

Ali and Penny discuss the pros and cons (yes there are sometimes cons!) of being in a writers group. What are they best for? How do you find one? Or better yet, how do you put one together. A packed …

Penny Batchelor is a thriller writer whose first novel My Perfect Sister was nominated for the Guardian "Not The Booker Prize" 2020. We discuss her latest novel Her New Best Friend, about an isolated…

Ali and Penny are back together for a final episode before their summer break. This week they discuss why there are many positives of professional writing being a second or third career for most peop…

Claire Fuller is the author of four novels, the latest of which Unsettled Ground is shortlisted for the Women's Prize. Claire started her career as a sculptor with a day job in marketing and we talk …

Clemmie Telford is a former creative director, a content creator and podcast host of "But Why?" and her first book also called But Why? is about the big tricky questions and having honest conversatio…

Kate Mosse is the international bestselling historical fiction author and the co-founder and chair of the Women's Prize for Fiction. Kate's latest book, An Extra Pair of Hands, is about her experienc…

Ali talks to Tanya Shadrick about her forthcoming book, The Cure for Sleep: A Late Waking Life. Described as an electrifying voice, The Cure for Sleep details Tanya's transformative near death encou…

Rebecca Schiller is the author of four non-fiction books, a freelance journalist and the co-founder of the human rights charity Birth Rights. We take a dive into Rebecca's latest book Earthed - a mem…

Jessica Hatcher-Moore is an award winning foreign correspondent specialising in women's health in conflict zones. After moving back from East Africa to North Wales with her husband to have their firs…

Olivia Sudjic is the author or two novels and a non-fiction long form essay. Her latest novel, Asylum Road, is a darkly unsettling story of a newly engaged couple unraveling.

In this episode Olivia ta…

We usually talk about getting the work done and being productive. Today is a counter episode - rest.

Ali thinks she's bad at it, Penny feels she's pretty good at it. We talk about how it's easy to al…

On the podcast today, Christina Sweeney-Baird, talks about her debut, The End of Men; a prescient debut about the effects of a virus that only kills males.

Not only did Sweeney-Baird write her debut …

Annie Ridout writes in multiple genres including non-fiction, poetry, journalism and now fiction. Her latest non-fiction book Shy: How being quiet can lead to success explores the positive aspects of…

Reading and writing go hand in hand. In their most conversational episode yet, Ali and Penny talk about what they read to inform their writing practice; and Ali discovers she owes Agatha Christie an …

In Episode 9 Ali and Penny talk to Jodie Chapman about her debut novel, Another Life, out now on Penguin Michael Joseph.

Another Life tells the story of Nick and Anna, and the one seminal summer the …

When life is busy, we don't always get the long stretches of time we would ideally like to have to write. So how do you train yourself to write in tiny spaces of time?

Ali and Penny discuss the techn…

In Episode 7 Penny is absent due to self-isolation, so Ali takes the helm. She introduces their slightly ambitious plan to read the Women's Prize longlist before the announcement of a winner in July.

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The blank page can be terrifying, paralysing even. How do you overcome the fear of starting something new?

In Episode 6 Ali and Penny - both at the start of new projects - talk about the different too…

How does perfectionism hold our writing back?

From not sharing our work, to not getting started at all, Ali and Penny dig into how to manage our perfectionism as writers. Asking can perfectionism eve…