The Hobcast Book Show

We'd like to introduce you to two words, if you haven't already discovered them, that will change your life. One is stramash, a Scottish noun for "uproar, brawl or tumult." The other, which also feat…

Finding time to write can be one of the biggest challenges for any author. That's certainly the experience of our guest this week, Jenny O'Brien, who for years had to find pockets of time in her busy…

We're always on the lookout for ways to unlock the creative juices, and our guest this week, author Cauvery Madhavan recommends an early morning round of golf to set the mood. Born in India, but base…

Over the course of four years of creating this podcast we've noticed certain themes emerge, not least the challenging path many writers take to final publication. Our guest this week, author Roxie Ke…

Regular listeners to The Hobcast Book Show will know how obsessed Adrian is about Sir Michael Caine. So imagine his excitement when he found out our guest this week has acted as the great man's P.R. …

We often get a little giddy when we anticipate speaking to our guests on the show. That was certainly the case when we perused Colin Bostock-Smith's extraordinary list of comedy writing credits: The …

As you may be aware, we run a short-story competition alongside presenting The Hobcast Book Show and our publishing firm, Hobeck Books. The Henshaw Short Story competition has uncovered many new tale…

As we start 2025's run of shows, we thought we'd catch up with one of UK crime fiction's biggest champions, Donna Morfett, who returns to the show for the third time. Donna is a prolific blogger, the…

As we return for 2025, the new year has already proved one thing - nothing in publishing ever stands still. It's an industry that is constantly evolving and adapting and facing new challenges. Our gu…

We're delighted to be joined this week by crime author Claire Sheldon, author of the Jen Garner series. Published by Choc Lit, an imprint of Joffe Books, Claire has laced her main character's life wi…

We've delved into poetry on a few rare occasions on The Hobcast Book Show, so it feels right we explore it again with our guest, Maria Cohut. Maria's most recent published collection is Spatter Patte…

We're delighted to be joined this week by multi-award winning author and screenwriter Georgia Jeffries from her home in Pasadena, California. Georgia's career in Hollywood began in the early 80s when…

The great American novelist, Sinclair Lewis, was once asked by another writer how to approach flashbacks in fiction. The answer was simple and blunt. "Don't." So what do you do if your story demands …

We've done it! 200 episodes of The Hobcast Book Show! To celebrate this landmark, we're joined by bestselling crime author Michael Wood, creator of the DCI Matilda Darke series. His twelfth novel in …

Never has "truth" been under greater scrutiny than in the past months leading up to Donald Trump's re-election to the Presidency last week. It seems that every side of every debate claims to be speak…

Every so often an interview will take a truly unexpected direction. That's the case this week as we speak to prolific author Gillian Jackson in her first ever podcast appearance. Gillian principally …

We're delighted to be speaking to Hobeck Books author Tony Gartland, writing as AJ Aberford, in this episode, to mark the release of The Car Horn Revolution - the sixth and potentially final novel in…

Regular listeners to The Hobcast Book Show might be forgiven for thinking that we're obsessed with AI. There's barely a week when we don't discuss the latest encroachment of AI into the publishing wo…

It's been an odd week here at The Hobcast Book Show. Rebecca and I have been watching the BBC's new smash-hit cosy crime series, Ludwig, starring David Mitchell. Nothing unusual in that you might say…

We'd be the first to admit that when we hear the word "trope", we give it negative connotations. It might be a British thing, but a trope is often equated to a cliche - something to be shunned and av…