Afleveringen
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Charlie and Natasha Solomons (Fair Rosaline) discuss Natasha's interpretation of Romeo and Juliet, told from the perspective of Rosaline, wherein Romeo is a groomer and Juliet must be saved from him. We discuss as well Natasha's stylistic choices for her prose and the changes she made to the original ending.
Please note that there is a lot of discussion of sexually predatory behaviour and some explicit language in this episode.
Mark Scott's rephrasing of Charles Dibdin's argument can be found in his 1987 publication, Shakespearean Criticism, page 419
Natasha's I, Mona Lisa
Natasha's Mr Rosenblum's List
Ros Barber, The Marlowe Papers
Pamela Butchart's To Wee Or Not To Wee
Susan Calman's audiobook version of Pamela Butchart's To Wee Or Not To WeeWhere to find Natasha online
Twitter || Instagram
Where to find Charlie online
Website || Twitter || Instagram
Discussions
01:39 The inspiration for Fair Rosaline - Natasha's interpretation of Romeo and Juliet as being darker than it's portrayed
06:18 How we never see Rosaline in the original, and how Natasha changes this
07:01 Shakespeare's own thoughts on his characters, and Natasha's interpretations here
10:29 How Natasha borrowed from other Shakespearean Rosalines and Rosalinds
16:32 The importance of Juliet and her relative relevance in the book, and how Natasha considered different types of readers when she wrote
19:39 We start talking about the changes Natasha makes to the ending
20:44 Romeo's copying Tybalt - the balcony and roses not being Romeo's original idea in Fair Rosaline
21:57 The theme of roses and thorns
24:54 How Natasha wrote her prose - similar but not the same as Shakespeare's
28:12 How Natasha changes (or, as she says, 'made it more explicit') Friar Lawrence
32:45 The men being in on it
34:17 The importance of the convent and the theme of women's freedom
40:25 Tybalt's death and why Natasha made the choices she did
42:29 How Natasha wrote with her young daughter beside her on Zoom in lockdown
44:34 What Natasha's writing now: Cleopatra, with the Shakespearean influence again
47:18 There will be a play of Fair Rosaline! -
Charlie and Lucy Barker (The Other Side Of Mrs Wood) discuss Victorian mediums both factual and fictionalised - their work, the spiritualism that led to their popularity, the social circles, the rivalry, the rumours of fraud, and the women's roles as early grief counselors. We also talk about the early days of the Suffrage movement and various aspects of the book's ending.
Please note there is a very mild swear word in this episode.
The Courtauld's exhibition of Georgiana Houghton's spirit paintings
A preview of Tracy Ann Oberman's audio version of The Other Side Of Mrs Wood
Lucy's blog post on the postal service in Victorian times
One Night At McCool's
Lucy's blog post on using Notting HillWhere to find Lucy online
Blog || Twitter || Instagram
Where to find Charlie online
Website || Twitter || Instagram
Discussions
01:50 The real mediums who inspired the book: Agnes Guppy and Florence Cook
05:17 Lucy talks about how mediums in general were able to escape accusations of falsehood despite many being outed as frauds
08:53 The fickleness and loyalty of medium patrons
10:35 Why the Victorians were in to Spiritualism
14:00 The importance of the references to America throughout the book - America's own spiritualism
15:27 Mrs Wood, Miss Newman, and Miss Finch
19:07 The very early days of the women's suffrage movement
22:30 About Mrs Wood's circle of people
26:35 How Mrs Wood seeing herself as providing a service for grieving people, and the role of mediums in early grief counseling
29:34 The comedy in the book, and Lucy speaks briefly about her next book in the context of humour
30:58 Lucy's use of letters in the book, and Mr Clore's columns
33:23 The ending: why Lucy chose the ending she did for Mrs Wood and Mr Larson
35:32 Charlie thought it was going to be revealed that Miss Finch could really talk to spirits - Lucy discusses this point. Listen in!
37:24 The ending: Mrs Wood and Miss Finch and their terms
39:20 Lucy tells us about the locations in the book: Victorian-era Notting Hill, Portobello Road, Ladbroke Grove
42:32 Lucy gives us more information about her next book -
Zijn er afleveringen die ontbreken?
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Charlie and Jennifer Saint (Atalanta) discuss the forgotten story of the female member of the Argonauts - Jennifer's use of and changes to the various versions of the mythological story, including her usage of motherhood as a theme, Homer's thoughts on his women characters, the assault of Callisto, and the fact that Jason isn't much of a hero.
Please note there are mentions of sexual assault in this episode.
Episode 60 of this podcast is my interview with Jennifer about Elektra
Jennifer's Elektra
Jennifer's Ariadne
The Argonautica
Sarah Clegg's Women's Lore
Cicero said, in the Tusculan Disputations, Book I, On The Contempt Of Death, section XXXIX: "If a child dies young, one should console himself easily. If he dies in the cradle, one doesn't even pay attention."
Emily Wilson's translation of The IliadWhere to find Jennifer online
Website || Twitter || Instagram
Where to find Charlie online
Website || Twitter || Instagram
Discussions
01:42 Why Atalanta, what drew you to her?
03:19 Why the first person in particular and how did you create Atalanta's voice?
06:31 The relevance of Atalanta's story to our present day, especially compared to Elektra
08:49 The unimportance of Jason (of the Argonauts)
10:07 Atalanta's growth as a person and her relative genderlessness
12:49 How and why Jennifer included motherhood in the way that she does (and how there are bad parents in Greek mythology)
17:54 Depending on the version of the story, Atalanta doesn't always meet Artemis - Jennifer talks about this and her choices for her story. We then move on to Callisto's story and the different versions of it
24:25 Jennifer talks about how Homer seems to have empathy for the women in his stories as part of a wider discussion as to the reception of the female characters in Ancient Greek society
27:49 How Jennifer approached writing the male characters, who revolve around Atalanta rather than the other way around
34:57 The ending - becoming lions would've been seen as a punishment in Ancient Greece, so how did Jennifer change this for her story?
38:02 Artemis' and Aphrodite's relationship
41:16 What's next - Jennifer's book on Hera
42:23 Might Jennifer ever write a 'regular' high fantasy novel? -
Charlie and Elizabeth Fremantle (Disobedient) discuss the formative life, and Elizabeth's fictionalisation, of Artemisia Gentileschi, a woman painter from the 17th century.
Please note that there are many mentions of rape in this episode, and there is also a mention of animal death.
The previous episodes with Elizabeth are episode 7 and episode 70
The exhibition at The National Gallery
Judith Slaying Holofernes
Caravaggio's Judith Beheading Holofernes
Mary D Garrard's Artemisia Gentileschi
Elizabeth's Queen's Gambit
FirebrandWhere to find Elizabeth online
Website || Twitter || Facebook || Instagram
Where to find Charlie online
Website || Twitter || Instagram
Discussions
01:18 Why Artemisia, and the general inspiration for the book
04:40 Elizabeth talks about Artemisia's work in general, as well as her success in her lifetime
10:58 How much does your fictionalisation of Orazio Gentileschi align with what's known?
15:14 Where Artemisia worked on her father's paintings
16:47 The Stiatessi family and what we know about Artemisia's husband
20:12 About Zita, real name Tuzia
22:49 The fragments of translations in the book - listen in for some interesting facts!
25:56 The use of laundry and light coming through the laundry lines
28:21 The Nightingale (Ovid's Metamorphoses' Philomel and Procne)
31:19 About Beatrice Cenci and Elizabeth's next book
35:28 Asking Elizabeth about what Charlie feels is her defining element - her honing in to one or two specific elements - and how she may continue in this vein in future
40:42 Lola the dog, who is mentioned at the start of the novel
41:29 Release dates for Firebrand, the film of Queen's GambitPhoto credit: JP Masclet.
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Charlie and Kristy Woodson Harvey (The Summer Of Songbirds) discuss whether we should like her character, Lanier (who stops her best friend and brother being together); the various plot threads she left out of the book (including alternative endings); and US summer camps (both Kristy's experiences, and the effect of the pandemic lockdowns). We also spend a good amount of time discussing the pre-actor's-strike announcement of an adaptation of Kristy's Peachtree Bluff series and her next two books.
Kristy's The Wedding Veil
Kristy's Christmas In Peachtree Bluff
Friends & Fiction
Kristy's interview with Susan M Boyer
The announcement about the Peachtree Bluff adaptation on Kristy's websiteWhere to find Kristy online
Website || Twitter || Facebook || Instagram
Where to find Charlie online
Website || Twitter || Instagram
Discussions
02:14 The inspiration: a sailing trip at a summer camp Kristy went to with her family during the pandemic
06:49 So Lanier and Rich came first?...
08:02 How Kristy doesn't write in chronological order and how it ends up working well
12:01 How Kristy feels about Lanier
15:35 Why was important to write about Daphne's family and the problems there are there?
19:21 Why no narrator for Mary Stuart?
25:39 This book was originally longer (what got cut)
29:24 Kristy's childhood experiences of US summer camps
33:52 Why Kristy ends her book with a scene about Daphne, Lanier, and Mary Stuart's children going to camp
34:51 Real camps that had to close due to the lockdowns
36:24 The concept of 'hard things'
40:27 Other endings Kristy had in mind for The Summer Of Songbirds
44:43 A sequel?
48:18 The on-hold Peachtree Bluff adaptation
52:16 What's next (A Happier Life, and and very, very brief peak at Kristy's 2025 book) -
Charlie and Maggie Brookes (Acts Of Love And War) discuss the small group of British Quakers who went to aid refugees during the Spanish Civil War, the way the war tore families apart as people chose different sides, and why she ended her romantic thread differently than might be expected.
All referenced media in this episode:
Francesca Wilson's In The Margins Of Chaos
Maggie Brookes' Acts Of Love And War
Maggie Brookes' The Prisoner's WifeBuy Acts of Love and War and other books mentioned
Where to find Maggie online
Website || Twitter || Instagram
Where to find Charlie online
Website || Twitter || Instagram
Discussions
01:53 The initial inspiration: Professor Farah Mendlesohn's PhD on the Spanish Civil War
03:39 The very small group of Quakers, including Alfred Jacob, who went out to Spain from Britain to help refugees
07:02 The real life women in Maggie's book: Francesca Wilson, Kanty Cooper
09:30 How the Quakers got their supplies to Spain, and the refugee children's colonies
15:03 What happened to the refugees after the war
18:26 Maggie's fictional characters - Lucy, Tom, and Jamie and having two brothers on different sides of the war
22:20 People in Britain who thought Franco was right, and why they thought that, and we mention the non-intervention pact many countries agreed to
27:27 On why Maggie had one of the brothers die, and who was better for Lucy
29:59 The ending, Maggie leaving Lucy single
32:00 Maggie tells us about the inspiration of her first book, The Prisoner's Wife, and Maggie briefs us on what she's writing nowPhoto credit: Lyn Gregory
Disclosure: If you buy books linked to our site, we may earn a commission from Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookshops -
Charlie and Stacey Thomas (The Revels) discuss English Civil War era witch hunting which includes the methods, the propaganda, and the awful theatre of it all. We also discuss Stacey's inclusion of actual witches in her narrative, and Stacey's recommendations of Wolf Hall and A Little Life.
Witchfinder General
James VI/I's Daemonologie
Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall
Hanya Yanagihara's A Little Life
Bridget Collins' The Binding
Stacey's episode on Witches Of Scotland
I spoke to Amita Parikh in episode 72Where to find Stacey online
Twitter || Instagram || TikTok
Where to find Charlie online
Website || Twitter || Instagram
Discussions
01:20 What made you want to tell this story of a man who is a witch, and his role in the judgement of witches?
02:23 Stacey's interest in James I and his favouritism of different male courtiers
04:22 The theatrical elements of the book
05:58 The torture of the accused 'witches' that led to fantasy stories being created
08:51 The influence of the printing press and propaganda pamphlets on the public's thoughts about accused women
10:02 About knot magic
12:09 The importance of having actual witches in the book and the impact of religion
14:32 Stacey's interest in taxidermy and Althamia's experience
16:41 Althamia's impact on the novel
17:54 The themes of grief and guilt in the book
20:51 Castor and Pollux
22:20 The writing style and narrative voice, and Stacey recommends Wolf Hall and A Little Life
25:24 All about Will and how he fits into the story
30:44 Is John Rush a witch?... And the fact he's left at large at the end
34:40 The initial execution scene did not originally happen...
35:57 Althamia says "Happy endings are beyond most people" and talks of proper endings - how does Stacey see The Revels in that sense?
39:15 Modern day apologies for witch hunters by the church
42:02 What Stacey's working on now (this turns into a lengthy discussion on debutantes and their publicity machinesWith thanks to Jawnson.
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Charlie and Celina Baljeet Basra (Happy) discuss the experiences undocumented migrants to Western Europe face, French film director Jean Luc Goddard's seminal film Bande À Part, Indian talkshow Koffee With Karan, and Celina's particular usage of Umbrella, ella, ella, eh, eh, eh.
The Abduction Of Europe
A review of 'Park', the 2017 exhibition curated by Celina
Bande À Part
Bruce Bégout's Le Park
Uski Roti
There are no clips of the discussed Koffee With Karan episode on YouTube, but if you've the right channel, it is from 7th November 2010Where to find Celina online
Website || Twitter || Instagram
Where to find Charlie online
Website || Twitter || Instagram
Discussions
01:48 Why Celina wanted to tell this story: inspiration from a distant relatives' migration from India to Italy
05:24 Celina's highly unique narrative structure (fragmented) and how she used it to further achieve her aims
09:45 Would there have been a way for Happy's life to improve, if what happened to him at the end didn't happen?
12:07 The real riot of exploited migrants that was mentioned in the book
14:36 The character of Europe and the way Celina created a woman from a continent
19:32 The importance of the presence of Happy's family in the novel
21:20 The phrases of Italian vocabulary included that shows us where Happy is in his learning about his new life
24:35 Wonderland - the real one in Jalandhar and Celina's fictionisation of it
28:53 The inclusion of Jean Luc Goddard's Bande À Part
34:35 The inclusion of Indian talkshow Koffee With Karan
40:22 Why Celina included the other narrative voices of Harbir and Zhivago at the end
43:37 What's nextPhoto credit: Lilian Scarlet.
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Charlie and Rachel Abbott (Don't Look Away) discuss young carers and the guilt they can feel, trafficking in Cornwall - both fact and fiction - and having her series' policewoman staying in the background of the story rather than take the spotlight. (We talk about that a couple of times, I loved it!)
Please note that there are mentions of suicide in this episode.
And So It Begins
Stranger Child
Come A Little Closer
Sleep Tight
About the trafficking at Newlyn Harbour in late 2019Where to find Rachel online
Website || Twitter || Facebook || Instagram
Where to find Charlie online
Website || Twitter || Instagram
Discussions
01:40 The inspiration for Nancy and Lola's story
03:15 Nancy's feeling of guilt as a young carer who failed to save her mother
06:23 The way Rachel really fleshes out the non-police characters in her thriller
11:05 How long Lola will be in prison
13:48 Research Rachel does in terms of the police
16:55 How important is policewomen Stephanie (the linking factor of the books) compared to Nancy (one of this book's victims)?
20:18 Stephanie is written in the third person and Nancy is in the first person...
22:20 Why set the book in Cornwall, and why create a fictional village in Cornwall
25:36 The trafficking in the book and real situations
29:34 How Rachel goes from one plot to many - the expansion
33:15 How Rachel uses technology in her books as opposed to finding tech makes things too easy
35:03 What's next for Stephanie King, book 4 in the series?
41:26 Was there anyone that Rachel's editing agent didn't like, or did really like?
43:26 Rachel's current work on her next Tom Douglas bookPhoto credit: Andrew Crowley.
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Charlie and Karen Hamilton (The Contest) discuss the specifics of climbing Mount Kilimanjaro and the vast support crews, her ridiculously privileged holidaying characters and where their requests are based in reality, and why everyone is obsessed with toilets. We then move on to an extensive discussion of the thriller aspect of Karen's book and whether, even though there is one killer in her book, there are in fact more.
Erick Kivelege's Climbing Kilimanjaro With Africa's Top Guide
Kilimanjaro Porters SocietyWhere to find Karen online
Website || Twitter || Facebook || Instagram
Where to find Charlie online
Website || Twitter || Instagram
Discussions
01:14 Mt Kilimanjaro and luxury travel
05:26 How climbing the mountain goes - the specifics of it
15:30 Karen's characters - Florence, Jacob, and Hugo
24:55 The grief in the book and the whole contest of two groups climbing Kilimanjaro
26:54 The violence and discussing who the killer is, and the associated theme of isolation
36:31 Ethical Getaways and BVT merging and the effect on Florence and Jacob
39:34 What's next (brief)Photo credit: Emma Moore.
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Charlie and Radhika Sanghani (I Wish We Weren't Related) discuss having alopecia, healing from being a people pleaser and self-empowerment in general, and her comic novel which includes an ex-fiance turned future brother-in-law, and a father who died, was not dead, but then died - true fictional story. Radhika's book also includes beloved cats, so we talk about cats too.
Asha Bhosle
Pema Chödrön
Marian Williamson talking about choosing between love and fear
Radhika's novel 30 Things I Love About MyselfWhere to find Radhika online
Twitter || Instagram
Where to find Charlie online
Website || Twitter || Instagram
Discussions
01:35 The inspiration, in particular the theme of healing from alopecia
04:39 The characters, in particular Saraswati in Bollywood
08:14 Satya Auntie, and spirituality, in particular Buddhism and what Marian Williamson teaches about all our decisions being due to love and fear
12:37 On character Reeva's people pleasing and our own!
15:27 Reeva's trauma from her accident
17:36 Reeva's speech at her father's funeral
19:21 The choices made in regards to Reeva and Nick's relationship
21:34 The importance of including a second funeral, this time for someone Reeva knew and loved
22:55 Cats! All the cats!
25:52 What Radhika wanted to say about family
27:14 What's nextPhoto credit: SEBC Photography.
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Charlie and Gill Paul (A Beautiful Rival) discuss the working lives of and rivalry between businesswomen Elizabeth Arden and Helena Rubinstein, and the antisemitism in the US during WW2. We also discuss our views of Wallis Simpson.
We spoke about Gill's book The Second Marriage (Jackie And Maria in the US) in episode 42
The Powder And The Glory
Lindy Woodhead's Warpaint
Cosmetics And Skin
Gill's Another Woman's Husband
Wendy Holden's The DuchessWhere to find Gill online
Website || Twitter || Facebook || Instagram || TikTok
Where to find Charlie online
Website || Twitter || Instagram
Discussions
01:03 Why these women?
02:20 Elizabeth Arden and Helena Rubinstein hated each other but they never met...
02:59 Elizabeth's and Helena's backgrounds
07:28 The work Arden and Rubinstein put in to become successful
10:30 How Gill wrote her versions of Elizabeth and Helena
11:29 Elizabeth Arden's snobbery
13:46 The antisemitism in the West despite those countries going to war, particularly that coming from Arden
17:49 Irene Delaney, Elizabeth's forgotten 40-year-long PA
20:34 Moving factual events round to suit the narrative
22:24 Elizabeth employed her rival's ex-husband!
24:14 Advertisements and selling the companies
28:03 Helena Rubinstein's first husband was the publisher of Lady Chatterley's Lover
29:40 Rubinstein created the idea of skin types
32:39 The Suffragettes apparently wore lipstick on their marches, and talking about Gill's next book
34:53 What other people might Gill write about in future
36:33 Discussing our views of Wallis Simpson -
Charlie and Tasneem Abdur-Rashid (Finding Mr Perfectly Fine) discuss writing a story that hadn't yet been told in novels and working with getting the balance and choices right when it came to writing for Bengali Muslims, Muslims from other cultures, and other readers. We also discuss the guys she cut from the first draft, why she decided to finish her rom-com on the somewhat controversial note she did, oh and if you're looking for a great Turkish restaurant in North London, we've got you covered.
Please note that there is swearing and discussion of rape in this episode.
Not Another Mum Pod ('Was My Husband Gay?' is episode 6)
Tasneem's 'he's a 10 but...' TikTok video
Capital Restaurant, Wood Green
Hala, Green Lanes
Gokyuzu
Antepliler
Tasneem's InstagramWhere to find Tasneem online
Twitter || Instagram || TikTok
Where to find Charlie online
Website || Twitter || Instagram
Discussions
01:44 The inspiration for Finding Mr Perfectly Fine
04:33 About Zara, Adam, and Hamza
08:48 How Tasneem wrote and planned the book, and balancing the different audiences she was writing for
13:30 Wherein Tasneem's dad bought her a computer for writing on when she was 10 years old
17:17 Deleted sections of the book - Zara met a lot more people!
20:16 Writing from a specific Muslim perspective (British Bengali) and pushback; also the Sylheti dialect
24:12 On the part where Yasmin wears hijab to cover her beauty when chaperoning Zara on a meet up
27:04 Hamza and Zara's lack of thinking about how controlling he is whereas others can see it
31:47 The Tariq plotline and backstory
33:26 Adam and Zara's mismatched values and working them out, Hamza, and the decisions Tasneem made for the ending
42:02 What happens beyond the ending pages
43:17 The possibility of a book about Amina
44:03 Further info about Tasneem's next book
47:31 On North London Turkish restaurants
49:47 On Tasneem's podcast, Not Another Mum Pod -
Charlie Place and Amanda Geard (The Moon Gate) discuss Tasmania in WW2 and in general, Australia's famed poet Banjo Paterson and his fellow Bush Ballad writers, British Blackshirts and the Mitfords, and the Moorgate Tube Crash in London. On a lighter note, Amanda also tells us much about the writing of her book, including a lot of what she left out in order to reduce her book from the lengthy draft it was to the mere 500 hardback pages it is.
Amanda was the guest in episode 63 in which we spoke about The Midnight House
Waltzing Matilda
The Man From Snowy River
The Mitfords - Letters Between Six Sisters
The Moorgate Tube Crash
I spoke to Kate Thompson about the Bethnal Green Tube Disaster in episode 76
PenghanaWhere to find Amanda online
Website || Twitter || Facebook || Instagram
Where to find Charlie online
Website || Twitter || Instagram
Discussions
01:50 The inspiration - Banjo Paterson's Bush ballads and mining in Tasmania
03:17 Keeping up with all the characters and planning the timelines
08:43 How there is so much of Amanda in this book
10:51 Mining on the West Coast of Tasmania, and Amanda's dad
13:41 Banjo Paterson and Australian poetry
17:49 Tasmania in WW2, including Prime Minister Robert Menzies
26:01 Women Blackshirts in Britain (including Diana Mitford) and the awfulness of Edeline
30:47 The Moon Gate's lengthy first draft
33:12 Moon Gates and rebirth
35:45 The focus on grief
37:23 Including the Moorgate Tube Crash
40:44 Amanda's Balinn returns!
42:45 The epilogue and what was left out
44:45 Rose and what might have been
47:20 The House of the book, Towerhurst and Australia's Federation houses, and huon pine trees
52:46 What Amanda found when renovating an old Irish house
55:07 More on Amanda's current manuscript, a story looking at occupied Norway -
Charlie and Alex Hay (The Housekeepers) discuss his meticulously planned and fast-paced 1900s heist novel wherein the entire contents of a grand house are to be removed... and the mistress of the place is in on it. Alex tells us about the successful collaboration between himself and his three editors and we discuss the various comedy aspects of the book.
Sadie Jones' The Uninvited Guests
Julia Laite's The Disappearance Of Lydia Harvey
Alex's conversation with Sarah Penner for Always AuthorsWhere to find Alex online
Website || Twitter || Instagram
Where to find Charlie online
Website || Twitter || Instagram
Discussions
01:25 The inspiration for The Housekeepers
06:14 Alex's extensive planning of the book and some of the changes made
10:01 Mrs Bone, Danny/Mr de Vries, and the O'Flynn family
12:54 The many narratives and including Miss de Vries in her own narrative as an 'equal'
17:20 The comedy!
21:33 The trafficking plot line
24:37 On Alice and keeping secrets
27:23 Working with three editors
31:22 Was there ever another ending in mind?
33:37 The 'What-choo' boy
34:59 Jane One and Jane Two
36:59 The reality of the smoking machine
38:11 The possibility of an adaptation
38:50 What's next? -
Charlie and Paula Cocozza (Speak To Me) discuss how phones have taken the place of conversation, a number of literary Susans, and Paula tells us about her love of reading and libraries in childhood.
The Guardian's story on Kirstie Allsopp smashing her daughter's IPad
Susan Cain's Quiet
Suze Rotolo's A Freewheelin' Time
I am (happy?) to say that Susan the dog is no longer the first Susan mentioned on pages about 'Susan' on Wikipedia
Hanif Kureshi's Intimacy (beware NSFW cover)
The Reading Agency
Paula's column, A New Start After 60Where to find Paula online
Twitter
Where to find Charlie online
Website || Twitter || Instagram
Discussions
01:08 The inspiration and our modern phone usage
09:01 The hows of how Paula wrote the book
16:12 On the narrator's reliability
19:43 All the Susans in this book!
22:21 The Victorian terrace house, our main character's former home
24:22 Anthony
27:51 So Paula wrote some of the book with pen and paper...
29:40 The use of Shakespeare's Malvolio
31:30 Our narrator's dealings with Anthony and Kurt later in the book, and miscommunication
36:32 Our narrator's relationship with her sons
38:55 Why our narrator is a librarian - Paula's reading journey
43:40 What's next
45:39 On Paula's current feature series for The Guardian, A New Start After 60 -
Charlie and Nicolai Houm (The Gradual Disappearance Of Jane Ashland) discuss a unique and somewhat extreme form of coping with grief, where his characterisation blends into his own writer self, and the open ending he left his readers with.
Please note that there's some swearing and mentions of suicide in this episode.
Wikipedia's article on Andersonville Prison
Where to find Charlie online
Website || Twitter || Instagram
Discussions
01:20 The starting point of loss and trauma
07:32 Jane, family, and replacing family
12:59 Jane as a writer and how she could have written the book herself
15:35 Nicolai's use of language and how his writer self is included in the book
20:51 Everything about Ulf
24:05 The significance of the musk oxen
28:14 Continuing on the musk oxen in regards to the ending of the book
31:48 How Jane's parents affected who she is
33:03 Nicolai's travels for surfing reasons and what's next -
Charlie and Elissa Soave (Ginger And Me) discuss including the working class in fiction, writing about neuro-divergence without labels, and social care and society in context. We also discuss Elissa's Greggs habit, writing about her hometown, and why her editor told her 'this is not Reservoir Dogs...'
Please note that there is a mild swear word in this episode.
The Primadonna Prize
Laura Pearson's episode was number 11
Kazuo Ishiguru's Nobel Prize speech
Gail Honeyman's Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely FineWhere to find Elissa online
Twitter
Where to find Charlie online
Website || Twitter || Instagram
Discussions
01:27 The starting point for the book and discussing 'difference' of personality and labels
09:36 The people on the bus and exploring the lives of the working class
13:49 Ginger
15:21 Diane
17:13 Friendship and loneliness
20:23 The writing group
24:20 Uddingston
27:44 The importance of food in the novel
29:17 Wendy's parents
32:14 Social care in the book and our society
36:24 Ginger's death
40:56 Wendy not changing at the end (and including Ali Smith!)
43:53 What's next -
Charlie and Lisa See (Lady Tan's Circle Of Women) discuss the medieval Chinese woman doctor Tan Yuanxian, whose book is still in use today. We also discuss, in this context, the isolation and disability of being an aristocratic woman in the time period.
Please note that there is swearing in this episode.
Tan Yuan Xian's Miscellaneous Records Of A Female Doctor
Hildegard Von Bingen
The Washing Away Of WrongsWhere to find Lisa online
Website || Twitter || Facebook || Instagram || YouTube
Where to find Charlie online
Website || Twitter || Instagram
Discussions
00:55 About Tan Yuan Xian
06:00 Facts versus fiction, where we don't know all that much about Yuan Xian
11:21 While there were many of them, we don't know much about other women doctors in China at that time...
12:44 The importance of friendship in the novel
17:50 Being born in the year of the (Metal) Snake
22:22 The true story of a midwife who had a miscarriage in front of the empress
26:52 The focus on isolation, and foot binding
34:47 Lady Kuo
41:54 Miss Zhao
44:25 The murder mystery
49:58 The men, and in particular Yuan Xian's grandfather
51:16 What's nextPhoto credit: Patricia Williams.
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Charlie and Eleanor Shearer (River Sing Me Home) discuss how slavery didn't really end when it was abolished, and Eleanor's experiences studying the Caribbean during this time and the knowledge she gained. We also explore different versions of freedom, and the way Eleanor's family influenced her writing.
The Windrush Foundation
Samuel Smith's To Shoot Hard Labour
Toni Morrison's Beloved
Marianne Hirsch
V S Naipaul's The Loss Of El Dorado
Wikipedia's extensive article on Black Nova Scotians
Andrea Levy's Small IslandWhere to find Eleanor online
Website || Twitter || Instagram
Where to find Charlie online
Website || Twitter || Instagram
Discussions
00:47 The 'apprenticeships' that happened after slavery had 'ended'
02:47 About Eleanor's two 'main' inspirations
06:23 On reparations
10:23 Rachel, and Eleanor's family
15:41 The order in which Rachel finds her children
17:53 Nobody
21:21 The children's fathers
23:42 The theme of motherhood
26:36 Eleanor's wanting to use Creole languages but wanting to keep it accessible to non-Creole speakers
28:28 Mary Grace's muteness
31:59 The oral storytelling
34:34 The different versions of freedom
37:30 The theme of water
40:24 The Maroon communities and their movements
42:27 The Rising of Demerara
45:57 Eleanor's use of the search for El Dorado
47:34 What's next?Photo credit: Lucinda Douglas-Menzies.
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