Prepublished

As well as her journalism, memoirs and a novel inspired by Daphne du Maurier, Justine has written an acclaimed biography of Coco Chanel. She tells me how she has to be 'haunted' by a story before she…

I was interested to know the part that RSI played in Thomas's shift from illustrating and writing picture books to writing middle grade novels. You might think that his cover art – for Harry Potter a…

In my first conversation with Sophie , we discussed her successful career as a poet and thriller writer and the support she gives to other writers through the Dream Author programme. Many listeners h…

After a false start in standup and comic strip writing, Jenny's career took off with her first novel, Amanda’s Wedding. She is one of those rare authors who has been successful from the word go. 

She…

I first encountered Amanda when she was children’s book critic for The Times, and was a judge on the Times/Chicken House competition that won me my first book contract, for Threads. As a journalist a…

I wanted to talk to Sophie about many things – her career as an international bestselling thriller writer of books such as Little Face, The Carrier and the Monogram Murders­, her work with the Agatha…

Way back in the mists of time, when I was too scared to simply sit down and write, I did a PhD in Italian Literature. The focus was reading other people’s work, not creating my own. So I was fascinat…

Jo is the author of the Penny Dreadful series and the Rachel Riley books, and we discuss the importance of funny books for children, and her tips on how to write them. I think her partnership with Ch…

Michelle's titles include Carnevale, The Water’s Daughter, and The Book of Human Skin. She also helped Gemma Dowler write about her late sister Milly. Michelle's novels are usually set in Venice, whi…

Natasha has been a children’s writer for a long time, and awards such as the Costa weren’t always on the cards. You might be interested in her answer to my question about when she felt ‘safe’ as a wr…

Anthony McGowan is the author of various children’s books but the one that won the Carnegie Medal was Lark, which he wrote for one of my favourite publishers, Barrington Stoke.

As well as Anthony's c…

Phil was born in Hull, where he grew up wanting to play football for Hull City. His first job was as a care worker in a children’s home. Nowadays, when he’s not writing, he works as head of sales and…

How many of us dream of meeting a glamorous Frenchman, finding a tumbledown house by the sea and restoring it together, whiling away our afternoons in the sparkling pool between writing sessions and …

As we’ll hear, Julia's writing and teaching careers developed side by side. I wanted to talk to her because over 60 students on her courses at Bath Spa have gone on to be published writers, some, lik…

This episode is about changing direction as a writer, and writing a high concept novel. 

Writing as Cass Green, Caroline Green is the author of bestselling crime novels such as In a Cottage in a Wood…

This is an episode I’ve wanted to record for a long time. Publishers are making changes, which have speeded up since the Black Lives Matter campaign, but I still don’t see the rich variety of experie…

Holly wants both aspiring editors and new writers to understand the process as clearly as possible. I love it when she says ‘writing is not something you can either do or not do’. It doesn’t come ins…

Sheena is a teacher as well as a writer of feminist, historical YA fiction. She and I did a training course together with the Royal Literary Fund, to teach academic writing skills – and I saw in prac…

It’s a difficult time for anyone in the performing arts, as we all know. But talking to Fraser, I found it inspiring to hear how the spirit of creation survives somehow, whatever life throws at it. A…