Episodes
Monday Apr 13, 2020
These Our Monsters LIVE: Sarah Moss reads from ’Breakynecky’
Monday Apr 13, 2020
Monday Apr 13, 2020
On 11th March, Hatchards hosted a live event bringing together four of the authors who contributed stories to These Our Monsters : Sarah, Moss, Fiona Mozley, Edward Carey and Graeme Mcrae Burnet. I chaired the event, and recorded it for posterity.
Saturday Mar 28, 2020
Graeme Macrae Burnet reads from ’The Dark Thread’ (These Our Monsters)
Saturday Mar 28, 2020
Saturday Mar 28, 2020
Last year I was asked to write an introduction for a collection of modern folktales to be published by English Heritage.
Wednesday Mar 18, 2020
Fiona Mozley reads from ’The Loathly Lady’ (These Our Monsters)
Wednesday Mar 18, 2020
Wednesday Mar 18, 2020
Last year I was asked to write an introduction for a collection of modern folktales to be published by English Heritage.
Thursday Mar 12, 2020
Edward Carey reads from ’These Our Monsters’
Thursday Mar 12, 2020
Thursday Mar 12, 2020
Last year I was asked to write an introduction for a collection of modern folktales, myths and legends to be published by English Heritage.
Saturday Dec 21, 2019
Simon Barnes Reading: on closely-observed gannets
Saturday Dec 21, 2019
Saturday Dec 21, 2019
Reading from the blog on his own website, Simon Barnes describes the close attention required and inspired by bird-watching, and the almost poetic empathy that can result.
Saturday Dec 21, 2019
A Conversation with Simon Barnes - Part 2
Saturday Dec 21, 2019
Saturday Dec 21, 2019
Part two of our conversation with Simon Barnes, the award-winning sportswriter, revered birdlover and Chair of 2020's Keats-Shelley Prizes.
Saturday Dec 14, 2019
A Conversation with Simon Barnes - Part 1
Saturday Dec 14, 2019
Saturday Dec 14, 2019
In this first of two episodes, I talk to Simon Barnes, the award-winning sportswriter, revered birdlover and Chair of 2020's Keats-Shelley Prizes.
Our annual theme is 'Songbirds', to mark the composition 200 years ago of PB Shelley’s To a Skylark and the publication in book form of John Keats’ Ode to a Nightingale, which made Simon the perfect choice as Chair.
We talked, among other things, about his own changing relationship with nature, how he fell in love with birds and birding, what birding means in the 21st century and its relationship with writing in general, and Romantic poetry in particular. We even address the question of John Keats' wonky nightingale.
Saturday Dec 14, 2019
Simon Barnes reads from The Meaning of Birds
Saturday Dec 14, 2019
Saturday Dec 14, 2019
Simon Barnes is unique in the world of literature. How many revered sports writers are also revered nature writers too? Off the top of my head I can think of one: Simon Barnes himself.
Friday Jun 08, 2018
Episode 142 - Amanda Coe: Part 1
Friday Jun 08, 2018
Friday Jun 08, 2018
Amanda Coe is an English novelist and screenwriter, whose credits include the BAFTA-winning adaptation of John Braine's Room at the Top, and her highly-praised thrillers What They Do in the Dark and Getting Colder. This Writing Life met her at Waterstones Piccadilly to talk about everything from her excellent new novel Everything You Do is Wrong to her childhood in Canada and Doncaster, her student days at Oxford, her formative love of George Eliot and PG Wodehouse and the challenge of being busy.
Part 2 to follow.
Sunday Mar 18, 2018
Episode 141 - Leila Slimani - Lullaby: Part 4
Sunday Mar 18, 2018
Sunday Mar 18, 2018
The final part of This Writing Life podcast's chat with Leila Slimani begins with a question about racisial abuse of Muslims in France. From here we discuss her relationship with Morrocco, with sexual politics in that country, between her fiction and her activism, and finally about the future: movie adaptations of her global smash-hit Lullaby and that next novel.
Tuesday Mar 13, 2018
Episode 140 - Leila Slimani - Lullaby: Part 3
Tuesday Mar 13, 2018
Tuesday Mar 13, 2018
Part three of This Writing Life's podcast with Leila Slimani, author of global smash-hit Lullaby, moves towards more personal territory. We talk about her family, her background and her views on everything from the French language to women wearing the veil.
Along the way, Leila discusses her role for President Macron promoting the French language and ponders whether whether it is courageous to speak out on issues like Islamic fundamentalism that might put her in danger. During this, I accidentally stumble into terrain explored by her current work-in-progress.
The final part to follow.
Friday Feb 23, 2018
Episode 139 - Leila Slimani - Lullaby: Part 2
Friday Feb 23, 2018
Friday Feb 23, 2018
Part two of Leila Slimani's conversation with This Writing Life podcast about her new novel Lullaby begins with a discussion of objectification: in this case, of the nanny who cares for the children of the Masse family. Slimani talks about her own vexed relationship with the woman who cares for her own children, about the power struggles in that interaction and finally about the idea of tragedy in the novel. We talk Mary Poppins, Mrs Doubtfire, and why Lullaby refuses both visions of modern childcare.
Part three to follow.
Thursday Feb 15, 2018
Episode 138 - Leila Slimani - Lullaby: Part 1
Thursday Feb 15, 2018
Thursday Feb 15, 2018
Leila Slimani's second novel Lullaby is a phenomenon. Having sold over 600,000 copies and won the Prix Goncourt in her adopted homeland of France, the book is now spreading around the world in various translations. A movie has begun filming in France and there are rumours of a Hollywood adaptation as well. The reason for the fuss is a plot that grips like a thriller and prose that dissects contemporary life like the most acute literary novel. The nanny of the well-to-do Masse family murders the two children in her care. From this terse, shocking opening, Slimani rewinds to examine the pressures that led up to the tragedy.
In Part One of our conversation at her London publishers, Slimani talks about titles, tragedy, modern parenting, the challenges of being a nanny and how families rely on women from across the world to facilitate their lives.
Part two to follow.
Wednesday Feb 07, 2018
Episode 137 - Lynn Shepherd: Part 4
Wednesday Feb 07, 2018
Wednesday Feb 07, 2018
Lynn Shepherd was the first ever This Writing Life recorded. The final part of our conversation begins with a discussion of social media and publicity, and the part both play in her writing life. From here we zoom through the joys and trials of writing novels: bad days, bad reviews, and how her close friends and confidents help her through. We end by looking to the future, and by asking: what has Lynn learned from her writing life so far.
Lynn's website can be found: here.
Saturday Feb 03, 2018
Episode 136 - Lynn Shepherd's Advice to Budding Writers
Saturday Feb 03, 2018
Saturday Feb 03, 2018
As a trailer ahead of part four of This Writing Life podcast's conversation with novelist Lynn Shepherd, she offers some advice to budding writers...
This Writing Life
Conversations with writers about writing.
About James Kidd
James Kidd is a freelance writer based in Oxford. His journalism has appeared in The Independent and Independent on Sunday, Literary Review, The Observer, The Daily Telegraph, Esquire Weekly, Time Out, South China Morning Post, and The Jerusalem Post among others. As well as hosting This Writing Life, he co-hosts Lit Bits with Adam Smyth and runs The Keats-Shelley Podcast.