Meet the Writers

The Australian politician who popularised koalas in the 1980s and created the “throw another shrimp on the barbie” tourism ad joins Georgina Godwin in Sydney to talk about his new book, ‘Brownie: The Minister for Good Times’. John Brown, the first in his family to achieve school qualifications, went on to serve as an MP in the Federal House of Representatives for 13 years, and held several ministerial posts in the Hawke government where he transformed the face of tourism and sport in Australia. 

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For years, author and satirist Gabby Hutchinson Crouch has scoured the week’s news for material to use on the programmes in BBC Radio 4’s Friday-night topical slot, ‘Dead Ringers’ and ‘Newzoids’. She has also written for ‘Horrible Histories’, the Bafta-winning children’s series inspired by ‘Blackadder’ and ‘Monty Python’. Today she discusses her latest book, the first in a new ‘historical romantasy’ series, and is quizzed by a ‘Horrible Histories’ enthusiast.

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In Microsoft’s pioneering AI For Good Lab, data scientists and researchers’ use of artificial intelligence (AI) is helping to tackle disinformation, predict wildfires, track whales and even detect leprosy in vulnerable populations. But what are the dangers in AI being used for bad? Chief Scientist and Lab Director Juan M Lavista Ferres has co-authored the book ‘AI for Good’, which explores the measurable effect, potential and limitations of AI’s application in addressing global challenges in health, climate change and human rights, explored in this in-depth conversation.

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Ever wondered what David Bowie liked to eat for dinner, or how the members of Queen wrote and rehearsed their famous “Galileos”? Tiffany Murray’s new memoir invites us into the lives of 1970s rock nobility. Set at two recording studios, including the legendary Rockfield Studios where she was raised, her mother Joan was a chef for the likes of Black Sabbath and Motörhead. Georgina Godwin speaks to the author about Freddie Mercury’s love for the family’s great dane, her first encounter with drugs and vengeful neighbouring farmers in this enchanting account of the rural recording studio. 

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The twentieth-century author Christopher Isherwood, made famous by his 1930s work in Berlin, approached his writing about queerness, politics and religion with frankness and wit. The writer repeatedly fictionalised himself and his friends in his novels. Katherine Bucknell, the editor of four volumes of Isherwood’s diaries and letters, explains that it was his mother’s own diaries that first introduce us to the character of Isherwood. Using a wealth of unpublished material, Bucknell reveals the drama and complexity of the author’s inner world in an epic new biography.

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The 2024 UK general election is just days away. Speaking to Georgina Godwin is an expert on many aspects of UK government and politics, in particular, the support systems to ministers and prime ministers. Alun Evans CBE, a civil servant for more than three decades, lifts the lid on what’s happening behind the door of 10 Downing Street during important transitions in politics through his new book, ‘The Intimacy of Power: An insight into private office, Whitehall’s most sensitive network’.

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Today’s guest is perhaps the only playwright and novelist to have been an international athlete, teacher of those on death row at San Quentin prison in California and a tree surgeon – and he only began writing in his thirties. He won the inaugural Harold Pinter Playwright’s Award for ‘If You Don’t Let Us Dream, We Won’t Let You Sleep’ at the Royal Court and his play ‘Lampedusa’ has been performed in 40 countries. His debut novel is ‘Three Burials’, a satire on the refugee crisis.

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Taking home this year’s prize is US writer and journalist V V Ganeshananthan for her second novel, ‘Brotherless Night’, which took her almost two decades to complete. Her debut novel, ‘Love Marriage’, was longlisted for the Women’s Prize in 2009. ‘Brotherless Night’ is the story of Sashi, a 16-year-old aspiring doctor, growing up in Jaffna, Sri Lanka, in the 1980s. The novel vividly and compassionately centres erased and marginalised stories – Tamil women, students, teachers, ordinary civilians – exploring the moral nuances of violence and terrorism against a backdrop of oppression and exile. 

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The Berlin-based author and playwright was born in the then-USSR and emigrated to Germany in 1995. ‘Glorious People’, their second novel, now translated into English, was longlisted for the German Book Prize and won several others. Salzmann has since been awarded the prestigious Kleist Prize for 2024, the biggest prize for literature in Germany. 

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The British-Cambodian writer and editor initially wrote ‘The Ministry of Time’ – her gripping sci-fi rom-com debut – as a joke for a handful of friends. The genre-bending thriller, which explores themes including immigration and environmentalism, became an instant bestseller. Even before the novel landed on bookshelves last month, the BBC beat Netflix in a bidding war to turn the book into a TV drama. Kaliane Bradley tells Georgina Godwin about the obligation she felt to write a “serious” book about Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge, her work at Penguin Classics as an editor, and how her funny and fantastical debut came about.

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Announced this week is the winner of the International Booker Prize 2024. The recipient of this year’s award is ‘Kairos’ by German writer Jenny Erpenbeck and translated by Michael Hoffman, who each take home half of the £50,000 prize money. Host Georgina Godwin speaks to the winning duo and the administrator of the prize, Fiammetta Rocco, who lifts the lid on the selection process. We also talk to Granta’s Sigrid Rausing, who reveals who is buying translated literature and what sells best.

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Award-winning Scottish author and editor at large at the ‘London Review of Books’, Andrew O’Hagan has spent the past decade working on his state-of-the-nation novel, ‘Caledonian Road’. Employing the traditions of Victorian writing, his research took him to the homes of Russian oligarchs, the Old Bailey and even a ship from Venice to Trieste. Here, O’Hagan talks about how libraries “saved” him, ghostwriting Julian Assange’s autobiography and his brief brushes with royalty.

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‘For me, beauty and disgust don’t really exist in binary.’ AK Blakemore’s discovery of tales of The Great Tarare, a French showman with an insatiable appetite, was the perfect setting for her to explore her love of the grotesque and abject. Shortlisted for this year’s Dylan Thomas Prize, her novel ‘The Glutton’ explores the almost folkloric life of the soldier-turned-street performer, as he tours around France eating everything from nails and stones to snakes and puppies. Blakemore also talks about her childhood living on the 24th floor of a tower block in southeast London, experiencing visual and auditory hallucinations, and the symbolic power of food in literature.

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“We left Iraq as Jews, and we arrived in Israel as Iraqis.” Acclaimed historian Avi Shlaim is a man with a complicated backstory as an Arab Jew. He has a very clear-eyed view of events leading up to the current crisis in the Middle East. He traces the origins of the conflict to antisemitism in the UK after the First World War and even to the Jews of Babylon 2,500 years ago. Shlaim tells us why he believes that accusations of antisemitism and anti-Zionism are being used to silence the critique of Israel’s practices, and why he considers Marilyn Monroe a “profound thinker”.

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In 1868 writer John William DeForest introduced the idea of the ‘great American novel’ – a work that succeeded in ‘the task of painting the American soul’. Now, the editors of ‘The Atlantic’ have published a list that offers a wider, deeper and weirder take on the idea. Author and senior editor Gal Beckerman talks us through the 136 books chosen by the magazine. He tells us about the fascinating selection process and how ‘The Atlantic’ is returning to its founding principles and defending democratic values.

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“Education for girls is the family business”, says Sudanese-British broadcast journalist Zeinab Badawi. She tells us about her family, career and what it’s like to interview the world’s most notable politicians on ‘BBC Hard Talk’. Badawi explains how her groundbreaking TV series, ‘The History of Africa’, for which she visited 34 African countries over seven years, led her to write her debut book ‘An African History of Africa’.

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The Melbourne-based author talks about how his life has changed since his multi-award-winning 2008 novel ‘The Slap’ made him one of Australia’s most celebrated writers. Born to immigrant Greek parents, his writing confronts themes ranging from social and cultural tensions in modern Australia to faith, sexuality, class, race and the blights of communism in practice. His latest novel, ‘The In-Between’ is a tender exploration of love between two middle-aged gay men. 

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Is the near-universal game of “cowboys and Indians” just positive propaganda for genocide? When a Vietnamese-American watches ‘Apocalypse Now’, does he identify with the victim or perpetrator? As the Pulitzer Prize-winning author’s book ‘The Sympathizer’ comes to HBO, we explore these themes and discuss his triumphant new memoir, ‘A Man of Two Faces: A Memoir, A History, A Memorial’.

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Author Tom Baragwanath hails from New Zealand and lives in France. He grew up in the remote farming community of Wainuioru, separated from Wellington by the Rimutaka mountain range. While working for the government on Māori land policy in his mid-twenties, he began reading extensively and writing short stories. After relocating to Paris with his wife, he embarked upon an MA in creative writing. His literary crime debut, ‘Paper Cage’, won the 2021 Michael Gifkins Prize. Set in his hometown, the book blends mystery and social critique as local children start to go missing.

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Nairobi-based nonprofit Book Bunk, the brainchild of Wanjiru Koinange and Angela Wachuka, restores existing public libraries and installs new libraries in public spaces. Its flagship project in the Kenyan capital is the McMillan Memorial Library, which opened in 1931 but it was segregated only for the use of white people until 1962. Book Bunk’s founders imagine that the almost 50,000 public libraries in Kenya can be steered to become more than just repositories, acting as sites of knowledge production, shared experiences, cultural leadership and information exchange; they see them as sites of heritage, public art and memory.

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UK author and journalist Helen Russell left her job in London as editor of Marie Clare and relocated to Jutland, Denmark, with her husband in 2013. What initially set out to be a year-long trip quickly turned into a decade. Her freelance career had seen her work as Scandinavia correspondent for ‘The Guardian’, write for publications such as ‘The Observer’, ‘Stylist’ and ‘Grazia’, and publish six books including ‘The Year of Living Danishly: Uncovering the Secrets of the World’s Happiest Country’, which became an international bestseller and was translated into 21 languages. Her latest book, ‘How to Raise a Viking’ uncovers the secrets to parenting the world’s happiest children.

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US cartoonist and illustrator, Denise Dorrance’s sharp, satirical work appears regularly in magazines and newspapers such as the ‘The Spectator’ and ‘The Sunday Times’. Her debut graphic novel, ‘Polar Vortex’, has been celebrated by the likes of Oprah Winfrey. She is best known for her character Mimi, a self-involved fashionista in dark sunglasses, typically drawn with a glass of wine in one hand and an unnamed infant in the other, which ran as a weekly cartoon in ‘The Mail on Sunday’. In this interview she opens up about what led her to write her autobiographical illustrated story, how she engages with genre and how she adapted her artistic process to develop her poignant story of grief and mortality in her hometown of Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

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Jane Cholmeley co-founded and opened the feminist Silver Moon Bookshop in London during the Thatcher era to promote the work of female authors. It quickly came to play a vital role in the second-wave feminist movement. Operating in a male-dominated space, the stop was often subject to threats of arson but maintained a safe space for customers, with community activism at its core. The bookshop frequently hosted writers such as Toni Morrison, Maya Angelou and Margaret Attwood. Cholmeley has recorded the cop’s 17-year history in her new book ‘A Bookshop of One’s Own.’

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It was the end of a relationship in London that led Tabitha Lasley to pack her bags, leave her journalism job and move to Aberdeen, Scotland, to pursue a story that she’d been sitting on for years. She grew up on the Wirral in northwest England, a place frequented by the men who worked on oil rigs in the Irish Sea. She initially set out to write an objective view of life on the rig but an encounter with one oil-rig worker in the North Sea set her on a different path. ‘Sea State’ is a captivating memoir that chronicles both her own breakdown and the breakdown of a way of life for the men working in the industry.

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American novelist and screenwriter Michael Cunningham is best known for his 1998 novel ‘The Hours’, which became a ‘New York Times’ bestseller and won both the PEN/Faulkner Award and the Pulitzer Prize. His work has appeared in ‘The New Yorker’ and ‘The Best American Short Stories’, and he has worked as a creative writing lecturer at Yale University for the past 16 years. At the heart of his novels and short stories is a preoccupation with the human condition, whether through the intense experiences of love, loss or heartbreak. ‘Day’, his first novel in almost a decade, explores such themes through the lens of the coronavirus pandemic.

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In 2020, Alice Haddon and Ruth Field came together to develop an alternative offering to the traditional 50-minute therapy session, which became a wellness retreat designed for women known as The Heartbreak Hotel. Alice is a licensed counselling psychologist with more than 25 years of experience in private and public practice. Her writing has been featured in ‘The Times’, ‘Harper’s Bazaar’ and HuffPost. Ruth is a former criminal barrister who began life-coaching and has written multiple self-help books. Now, in 2024, they have used their expertise from decades of writing and helping others to co-author a non-fiction work inspired by their real life retreat. ‘Finding Your Self at the Heartbreak Hotel’ provides readers with therapeutic tools to help find confidence and overcome rumination.

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After his mother was killed by a car bomb in 2017, Paul Caruana Galizia became a journalist and has since won several honours and awards for his reporting, including the Orwell Prize special award. The assassination of his mother Daphne Caruana Galizia – a Maltese journalist and anti-corruption activist best known for her investigation of the Panama Papers – and subsequent investigation, is the subject of his book ‘A Death in Malta: An assassination and family’s quest for justice.’

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UK screenwriter, TV producer and novelist, Daisy Goodwin has written the bestsellers ‘My Last Duchess’, ‘The Fortune Hunter’ and ‘Victoria’, as well as eight poetry anthologies, including ‘101 Poems That Could Save Your Life: An Anthology of Emotional First Aid’. During her 25 years working as a TV producer, she created and produced shows such as ‘Grand Designs’ and ‘Escape to the Country’. Her latest book, ‘Diva’, is based on the life of legendary opera singer Maria Callas.

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US journalist, novelist, translator and professor Maureen Freely joins Georgina Godwin in the studio. She is best known as the translator of Nobel Laureate Orhan Pamuk’s work. Freely has also written ‘The Life of the Party’, set in Turkey, and ‘The Other Rebecca’, a contemporary take on Daphne du Maurier’s classic 1930s novel. Her latest book, ‘My Blue Peninsula’, is set in Istanbul, where she spent her childhood.

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American researcher, scholar, writer and poet Cat Bohannon speaks to Georgina Godwin about her debut book, ‘Eve’, a whistle-stop tour of mammalian development that begins in the Jurassic Era and recasts the traditional story of evolutionary biology by placing women at its centre. She completed her PhD in 2022 at Columbia University, where she studied the evolution of narrative and cognition and once worked as an unofficial poet in residence for Gunther von Hagens, the inventor of plastination, in Dalian, China.

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To welcome in the new year, we look back at one of our favourite conversations from 2023, with Lydia Sandgren. The Swedish psychologist and author spent 10 years writing her debut novel, which won the prestigious August Prize in 2020 and sold more than 100,000 copies. She joins Georgina Godwin to mark the publication in English of ‘Collected Works’, an epic family drama about a man dealing with the tragic aftermath of his wife’s disappearance a decade ago.

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We listen back to one of our favourite conversations from 2023. Calder Walton, a historian of global security, speaks to Georgina Godwin about what secret archives and interviews with former agents can tell us about the century-long secret intelligence war between Russia and the West.

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English novelist and screenwriter Louise Doughty joins Georgina Godwin in the studio. Doughty is the author of 10 novels, including ‘Platform Seven’, recently filmed for ITV, and the bestseller ‘Apple Tree Yard’, adapted for BBC One. She also wrote and created the hit 2022 BBC drama ‘Crossfire’. Her latest novel, ‘A Bird in Winter’, was published earlier this year.

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Georgina Godwin is joined by two authors who are both on a quest to find new ways to listen – and they invite you to do the same. Dutch-born writer Michel Faber has written several works of fiction including ‘The Crimson Petal and the White’. His first non-fiction book, ‘Listen: On Music, Sound and Us’ explores how psychological pressure influences musical taste. Author and science journalist Caspar Henderson’s ‘A Book of Noises: Notes on the Auraculous’, shows us how we can become re-enchanted by the sounds around us, from the everyday to the celestial.

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One of India’s best-known writers, Amish Tripathi, speaks to Georgina Godwin at Midori House. The author spent 14 years in the financial sector as a marketing and product manager but changed his direction to realign with his passion for writing, winning multiple awards for his books, largely based on Indian spirituality. He is also the director of Nehru Centre, an Indian cultural institution in London.

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Georgina Godwin speaks to Paul Lynch, the author of ‘Prophet Song’, winner of this year’s Booker Prize. Limerick-born Lynch is the fifth Irish writer to win the award, given to the best English-language novel of the year published in either the UK or Ireland. His fifth novel, written over four years, is set in an imagined dystopian Ireland. It depicts a country sliding further into authoritarian rule and follows one woman’s attempts to save her family. The author talks about his career as a journalist and film critic, writing through a period of immense personal upheaval and asking “who is Paul Lynch?”

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British director, animator and author Kevin Jon Davies speaks to Georgina Godwin. With a career that has included writing and directing the documentary ‘Doctor Who: Thirty Years in the Tardis’ and working on animation for the TV adaptation of ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’ and the classic film ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit’, Davies has now edited a book. The Sunday Times number one bestseller ‘42: The Wildly Improbable Ideas of Douglas Adams’ collates the genius of his late friend and collaborator through previously unseen archival material.

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Joining Georgina Godwin in today’s episode is American author Sandra Newman, whose sixth novel, ‘Julia’, offers a bold feminist reinterpretation of George Orwell’s ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four’. The book expands upon the protagonist Winston Smith’s narrative to unveil and explore the experiences of women in Oceania. Born in Boston, Newman has lived in many countries, including Germany, Russia, Malaysia and England, and her professions have ranged from academia to professional gambling. She speaks about her experiences prior to her debut novel, which was published in 2002 to critical acclaim, and how it changed the trajectory of her life. 

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Georgina Godwin sits down with the six authors shortlisted for The Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction 2023: Hannah Barnes, Tania Branigan, Christopher Clark, Jeremy Eichler, Jennifer Homans and John Vaillant. From Branigan’s new look into China’s Cultural Revolution, told through the personal stories of those who lived through it, to Vaillant’s deep dive into the relationship between oil history and climate science, this year’s shortlist presents a variety of bold, original and thought-provoking works. 

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Georgina Godwin speaks to one of the most successful crime-fiction novelists in the UK, Ian Rankin. He is the internationally best-selling author of more than 40 books, including the Inspector Rebus novels, which have been translated into more than 20 languages. He is the recipient of the Edgar Award, four CWA Dagger Awards and last year won the British Book Award for best crime and thriller book. He discusses his new Amazon Originals project, a standalone short thriller set in London’s most exclusive high-rise – a pacy story perfect for your morning commute.

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Award-winning British journalist Ros Atkins joins Georgina Godwin in today’s episode. He is analysis editor and presenter of Outside Source at the BBC but started out at as a news producer on BBC Radio Five Live more than twenty years ago. Ros talks about his book ‘The Art of Explanation: How to Communicate with Clarity and Confidence’. He also takes us back to his Cornish roots, as well as his stint at ‘The Sunday Independent’ in South Africa, and reveals how learning a musical instrument and DJing influenced his ideas on what makes for successful communication.

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Georgina Godwin interviews former editor in chief of Bloomsbury Publishing, Alexandra Pringle, who held the post for twenty years. Her list of authors includes William Boyd, Margaret Atwood, Richard Ford, Khaled Hosseini and Kamila Shamsie. She joined Virago Press in 1978 and helped to launch their Modern Classics series, which championed out-of-print books by forgotten female authors. She speaks to Georgina about her early failures, trusting your editorial gut and her latest venture, Silk Road Slippers. 

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In today’s episode, award-winning American author of fiction, memoir and poetry Henry Hoke speaks to Georgina Godwin about his fifth book, ‘Open Throat’. It follows a queer mountain lion, desperate for food and struggling to survive in drought-stricken Los Angeles, who takes us on a tour of the city’s cruel inequalities. Hoke is also the co-creator of Enter>text, a series of large-scale immersive literary events, and an editor at literary magazine ‘The Offing’. In this conversation, the writer talks about writing and responding to 9/11, his unusual encounter with Bill Murray, and why his work continues to defy genre. 

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Journalist, author and broadcaster Polly Toynbee, joins Georgina Godwin on the show this week. She is a Guardian columnist and previously worked as social affairs editor for the BBC, as well as ‘The Independent’. Early on in her career, she spent eight months experiencing manual work ‘undercover’ with stints as a nurse and Army recruit, which she details in her first book ‘A Working Life’, published in 1970. She has won numerous awards, including the Orwell Prize, for her impressive body of work on social affairs, continuing a family tradition of attempting to eradicate class divides in Britain. Her new book, ‘An Uneasy Inheritance: My Family and Other Radicals’ charts how her ancestors grappled with this and looks further into how the issue is being dealt with today. 

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Georgina Godwin sits down with bestselling author, journalist and documentary-maker Thomas Harding. They discuss his new book, ‘The Maverick: George Weidenfeld and the Golden Age of Publishing’, which tells the story of the legendary publisher after moving to London just before the Second World War as a penniless Austrian-Jewish refugee, Weidenfeld went on to become a world-famous literary figure, publishings works such as ‘Lolita’ and ‘Double Helix’ and championing writers like Joan Didion, Henry Miller and JD Salinger. 

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British author Neil Blackmore’s third novel, ‘The Intoxicating Mr Lavelle’, was shortlisted for the Polari Prize for LGBT+ fiction, while his 2021 novel, ‘The Dangerous Kingdom of Love’, was included in ‘The Times’ list of the best historical fiction. He speaks to Georgina Godwin about ‘Radical Love’, published earlier this year, and attitudes to sexual identity and morality in Regency England. He also talks about his unexpected popularity among German readers, his 20-year hiatus from writing and what it truly means to be radical.

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The award-winning Canadian author, activist and filmmaker Naomi Klein speaks to Georgina Godwin about her latest book, ‘Doppelganger: A Trip Into the Mirror World’. Since publishing her debut book, ‘No Logo’, in 1999, she has become one of the world’s foremost public intellectuals, regularly featuring on lists of the most influential people around the globe. In ‘Doppelganger’, she confronts her own double – a woman who shares her name but has radically different views – while considering the instability of identity and what it’s like to be freed from her own paranoia about brand and public image. For Klein, the doppelganger is a “narrow aperture” through which everything, from conspiracy theories and anti-vaxxers to projected doubling and the double-consciousness of minority communities, can be examined.

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This week, Georgina Godwin meets bestselling British novelist Lisa Jewell. The Londoner started out working in the pattern room at fashion chain Warehouse but, after taking creative-writing classes, she realised that she wanted to be an author. It was a bet with a friend while on holiday in Malta that pushed her to write the first three chapters of her novel ‘Ralph’s Party’. A quarter of a century later, her books have sold 10 million copies and have been translated into 29 languages. She tells us about how ending a coercive marriage in her twenties gave her new clarity, why she loves writing about teenagers and what it’s like to be one of the key names at a publishing company. She also introduces us to her latest psychological thriller, ‘None of This Is True’, in which a podcaster becomes the subject of her own true-crime show. 

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Belgian-American pilot, author and writer, Mark Vanhoenacker, joins Georgina Godwin at Monocle’s studio in London to discuss his third book ‘Imagine a City: a Pilot’s Love Letter to the World’s Greatest Cities’. The book chronicles his journey from dreaming of glittering metropolises as a child in Massachusetts to exploring the world as a pilot. Vanhoenacker discusses everything from his love for language learning, his affinity for Japanese culture and his lengthy aviation career.

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The French novelist, screenwriter, journalist and director Antoine Laurain joins Georgina Godwin at Monocle’s London studios to discuss his tenth novel, ‘An Astronomer in Love’. He takes inspiration from the true story of Louis XV’s astronomer and combines it with a beautiful, modern Parisian love story. Laurain also talks about how his work in the antiques business inspired his first book, ‘The Portrait’, as well as the distinctive character of the French publishing industry and what it’s like to meet bookish British royalty. 

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Sitting down with Georgina Godwin this week is the hugely acclaimed novelist, short-story writer and critic Amanda Craig. She returns to the show with her latest novel, ‘The Three Graces’. Set in contemporary Tuscany, the book examines the current state of Europe and explores difficult themes such as migration, racial discrimination and ageing. Craig opens up about her first experience of being published, navigating the “chick lit” genre and how Victorian literature inspired the array of more than 100 characters who appear – and often reappear – in her books. 

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Georgina is joined by Calder Walton, a historian of intelligence and global security at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. He is a world-leading expert in intelligence history, great-power conflict, espionage and grand strategy. He also regularly contributes to the ‘BBC’, ‘Foreign Policy’ and ‘The Washington Post’. His new book ‘Spies: The Epic Intelligence War Between East and West’, builds on secret archives and exclusive interviews with former agents to tell the story of the century-long secret war between Russia and the West.

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Joining Georgina Godwin in the studio this week is author and playwright Damian Lanigan. In his latest book, ‘The Ghost Variations’, protagonist Declan Byrnie’s career as a sought-after concert pianist is brought to a halt when tragedy strikes. Despite Lanigan having never played an instrument, he beautifully translates music to the page and the complexities of the piano as both a barrier and conduit to exploring feelings of love and grief.

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Andrew Boyd, the American writer, activist and CEO – or “Chief Existential Officer” of the Climate Clock – joins Georgina Godwin to discuss his new book ‘I Want a Better Catastrophe: Navigating the Climate Crisis with Grief, Hope and Gallows Humor’. Described by Brian Eno as “a new and genuinely exciting kind of realism”, it acts as a manual for processing existential questions posed by climate change. Though it might be too late to the planet to stay under 1.5C global warming, Boyd argues that it’s never too late to care. 

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Shashi Tharoor is a bestselling author, politician, public intellectual and former diplomat. This week he joins Georgina Godwin to discuss his new book ‘BR Ambedkar: The Man Who Gave Hope to India’s Dispossessed’ and his long career in public service.

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Catherine Joy White, an actress, author and gender advisor for the UN, sits down with Georgina Godwin to discuss her new book, ‘This Thread of Gold: a Celebration of Black Womanhood’. 

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Paul Burston is an acclaimed Welsh writer, journalist, documentarian and activist. He has dedicated his career to creating and promoting LGBTQ+ stories, both in his own work and by lifting up other artists. He joins Georgina Godwin to discuss his new memoir, ‘We Can Be Heroes: A Survivor’s Story’.

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Tom Rachman is a bestselling English-Canadian novelist. After a successful career as a journalist and a foreign correspondent, he published his debut novel in 2010 to wide acclaim. This week Rachman joins Georgina Godwin to discuss his new book, ‘The Imposters’ – a darkly funny story about a failed writer trying to finish her final book during the pandemic. 

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Farah Karim-Cooper is Globe professor of Shakespeare studies at King’s College London. She is also the co-director of education at Shakespeare’s Globe as well as an executive board member of RaceB4Race, a collective of scholars and institutions that seek racial justice in the field of pre-modern literary studies. Georgina Godwin sits down with Farah to discuss her third and most recent book, ‘The Great White Bard: Shakespeare, Race and the Future’.

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Award-winning British-Sri Lankan novelist, filmmaker and journalist Guy Gunaratne joins Georgina Godwin to discuss their second book, ‘Mister, Mister’, a devastating story about a young British man who finds himself in a British detention centre after fleeing the war in Syria.

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Acclaimed British author and creative-writing teacher Tim Lott has published 10 novels and a memoir, ‘The Scent of Dried Roses’, which won the Pen Ackerley Prize for autobiography and is a Penguin Modern Classic. His latest book is ‘Yes! No! But Wait…!: The One Thing You Need to Know to Write a Novel’. He joins Georgina Godwin to discuss his new work and the state of the creative-writing industry today.

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Born in Cornwall in the southwest corner of England, award-winning author, travel writer and academic Tim Hannigan joins Georgina Godwin to discuss his latest book, ‘The Granite Kingdom’, a probing and lyrical account of an east-west walk across the region where he was raised.

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London-based critic and writer Amber Husain speaks to Georgina Godwin about her latest book, ‘Meat Love’, which explores the relationship between capitalist desire and our hunger for meat.

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An associate professor of English and comparative literature at Kuwait University, Mai Al-Nakib’s work has explored gender, cosmopolitanism and postcolonial issues and inspired her writing. Her intimate debut novel, ‘An Unlasting Home’, traces Kuwait’s transformation from a pearl-diving backwater to a thriving cosmopolitan state in the aftermath of the Iraqi invasion.

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Georgina Godwin speaks to the editor and art director of independent literary magazine ‘Friends on the Shelf’. Inspired by the art of conversation and a belief that we all take pleasure in hearing about each other’s lives, the magazine aims to showcase true stories from ordinary voices.

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This week, Georgina Godwin is joined by Chicago-based author Toya Wolfe to discuss her debut novel, ‘Last Summer on State Street’, an intimate portrait of family relationships and female friendship.

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Octavia Bright is a writer, broadcaster and co-host of popular podcast and NTS Radio show ‘Literary Friction’. Her writing has been featured in publications such as ‘Elle’, ‘The White Review’, ‘Harper’s Bazaar’ and ‘The Sunday Times’. She joins Georgina Godwin to talk about her new work, ‘This Ragged Grace: A Memoir of Recovery & Renewal’.

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The vice-president and executive editor at the publishing house Knopf has worked with renowned authors such as Emily St John Mandel and Kevin Kwan. Now her debut novel, ‘Pineapple Street’, a warm and witty examination of American high society, is a New York Times bestseller. She tells Georgina Godwin about publishing buzzwords, the role of an editor and the time she was fired from a deli job for reading behind the counter. 

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Georgina Godwin speaks to journalist and former science writer Michael Bond about his latest book, ‘Fans: A Journey into the Psychology of Belonging’. It takes a fascinating look at the history of fandom and how we let ourselves be inspired by our heroes.

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The British journalist and political commentator on his early role at ‘Erotic Review’, how media is funded and why the British political system is broken. Ian’s latest book, ‘How Westminster Works …And Why It Doesn’t’, features a searing look at UK politics as well as a set of solutions.

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Kieran Yates is a London-based journalist, editor and broadcaster who has written for publications including ‘The Guardian’ and Vice, covering culture, technology and politics. She speaks to Georgina Godwin about her new book, ‘All the Houses I’ve Ever Lived In’. It is an engaging coming-of-age story that shines a light on the UK’s housing crisis.

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The violinist-turned-historical novelist sits down with Georgina Godwin. Her newest book, ‘Madwoman’, is a historical reimagination of American journalist Nellie Bly, whose extraordinary undercover work helped to uncover the horrors of one of New York’s most notorious asylums.

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Leon Craig is a Berlin-based, British-born writer whose work has been published in ‘The Times Literary Supplement’, ‘The White Review’ and more. She speaks to Georgina Godwin about her debut short-story collection, ‘Parallel Hells’ – an anthology drawing on gothic horror and folklore that explores love, power and identity.

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The acclaimed Vietnamese author joins Georgina Godwin to discuss growing up in post-war Vietnam, where the country is today and her latest novel, ‘Dust Child’, about four individuals linked forever by decisions made during conflict.

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Albert Read is the managing director of Condé Nast Britain where he oversees titles such as British Vogue, GQ, Tatler, Vanity Fair, Wired and Condé Nast Travellers. He speaks to Georgina Godwin about his new book ‘The Imagination Muscle’ which examines the history of ideas and the ways to tap into your own imagination in your day to day life.

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Emmy- and Bafta-winning playwright and screenwriter Abi Morgan is best known for films such as ‘The Iron Lady’ and ‘Suffragette’. She speaks to Georgina Godwin about her first book, ‘This Is Not a Pity Memoir’, which tells the story of how what began as an ordinary weekday changed her and her family’s lives forever.

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Poet Rishi Dastidar joins Georgina Godwin to discuss his latest collection, ‘Neptune’s Projects’, a comedic reshaping of mythology that looks at the climate crisis from the point of view of the god Neptune.

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Born in Equatorial Guinea, Monica Macias grew up in Pyongyang, North Korea, under the guardianship of the communist country’s then-leader Kim Il Sung. Kim was a close friend of her father, who later became the dictator president of a newly independent Equatorial Guinea. ‘Black Girl from Pyongyang’ is Monica’s remarkable memoir about identity, versions of the truth and finding meaning in the places that we call home. 

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Mark Hollingsworth is an investigative journalist, historian, and author of 10 books, including ‘Londongrad: From Russia With Cash: The Inside Story of the Oligarchs’. He speaks to Georgina Godwin about his new book, ‘Agents of Influence’, a journalistic window into Russia’s political warfare and its long history of espionage and disinformation.

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The Swedish psychologist and author spent 10 years writing her debut novel, which won the prestigious August Prize in 2020 and sold more than 100,000 copies. She joins Georgina Godwin to mark the publication in English of ‘Collected Works’, an epic family drama about a man dealing with the tragic aftermath of his wife’s disappearance a decade ago.

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