In Haste

When author and journalist Charlie Porter told someone in publishing he was thinking about writing a queer novel, he was told that there wasn’t a market for it. That was, admittedly, several years ago, but as the accolades for Nova Scotia House , the debut novel he released earlier this spring attest, times have changed - or perhaps its authors such as Charlie who have changed them. His beautiful...

What is the worst thing that could ever happen to a journalist? So begins the twisty, compelling and deliciously seductive Bring The House Down , Charlotte Runcie ’s debut novel and, officially, the most fun book Alice Vincent has read in years. Which is why she insisted that Char sit down and put up with her enthusiastic grilling of her about her sensational novel. This week marks the long-awaite...

Publishing, like every other aspect of life, is not immune from the trends cycle. In fact, it’s probably far more susceptible to what’s in vogue or not than it would like to admit. Remember when Gone Girl took the reading world by storm, and ushered in domestic noir in the process? Or that moment a few years ago with contemporary, female-focussed fiction was suddenly all being printed with covers...

How can you create more space for reading in your life, and rediscover the joy of it? It’s the run-up to publication for Charlotte’s debut novel, Bring the House Down, and the post-publication glow for Alice’s latest book, Hark: How Women Listen, so today we’re talking about some of the weirdness that goes on the brain during the weeks before publishing a book, how we’re dealing (or not) with all...

What does it meant to be a creative animal? Writing a book and having a baby can be oddly similar experiences: both take a long time and are not exactly pain-free. Alice and Charlotte have even done both at once, and in today’s episode we talk about what it’s like to bring a book and a baby into the world simultaneously, and to write about it along the way. We’re joined today by Helen Jukes, the a...

Have we got over a cultural reluctance to read literature in translation? Alice and Charlotte have both been reading Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico, and it’s got us thinking about the unique experience of reading literature from another culture. In today’s episode, we speak to the novelist and translator Lauren Elkin about what it’s like to render a book in a different language, the scourge of b...

What could it mean to listen more deeply? Alice’s extraordinary new book, Hark: How Women Listen , is published this week, and in today’s episode of In Haste, Charlotte couldn’t resist the opportunity to ask her all about how it came into being. Alice turns interviewee as Charlotte finds out more about her evolution from passionate music journalist to author enveloped in the unfamiliar soundworlds...

Introducing the second season of In Haste! We are beyond delighted to be back on your airwaves. Today, Charlotte and Alice catch up on how their books, Bring the House Down and Hark: How Women Listen are getting on, now they are mere weeks away from publication. And, with two books about to be released into the wild, that means confronting what's next. Namely, the novel-in-progress that Alice has...

For our third bonus episode of the summer, we all piled round to Alice’s house in South London for everything bagels and blueberry pancakes, joined by the wonderful Amy Key, author of Arrangements in Blue. Arrangements in Blue is a beautiful, complex and richly textured memoir about exploring a life without the presence of romantic love, woven through with Amy Key’s personal relationship to Joni M...

It's our second bonus episode of the summer! Today, Alice and Charlotte share how their writing is going as the days lengthen and the temptation to spend time having iced coffees in the sun threatens to lure them away from their writing desks. They also talk about hot summer books and what to read on holiday - from depressing Victorian classics to bonkbusters to transformative international fictio...

It's a bonus episode! Authors Alice Vincent and Charlotte Runcie reflect on the first season of In Haste literary conversations, and, as always, discuss how their own writing is going. So far in 2024 we've been thinking about what stops authors from writing and what keeps them coming back to the page. In this special extra episode, Alice and Charlotte talk about how their own writing is fitting in...

How can a musical soundscape shape a novel? For the final episode in this first season of In Haste literary conversations, authors Alice Vincent and Charlotte Runcie meet novelist Caleb Azumah Nelson, author of Open Water (which won the Costa Book Award) and Small Worlds, to discuss his writing process, as well as faith, love stories, and the importance of place. Plus, Alice and Charlotte talk abo...

Why does it make us so uncomfortable when fiction feels like real life? Authors Alice Vincent and Charlotte Runcie meet Eliza Clark, author of the gloriously dark and unforgettable novels Penance and Boy Parts, and a member of Granta's most recent selection of best young British novelists. Eliza takes us through a sharp and candid discussion about the publishing industry, authorial voice and verac...

How does the natural world around us shape who we are? Authors Alice Vincent and Charlotte Runcie have both found themselves drawn to writing about landscapes. Today they’re joined by the debut novelist Fiona Williams, author of The House of Broken Bricks , for a warm and inspiring discussion about Fiona's own relationship with books, gardens, food, and finding a sense of home in nature. The House...

How does fiction explore deep-rooted sources of pain through history? Today in the In Haste writing hut, Alice Vincent and Charlotte Runcie are joined by the international bestselling novelist Emilia Hart, author of Weyward . Weyward is an unforgettable supernatural story about witches, but it’s also about something all too real: the suffering and violence inflicted on women across history. It's a...

How does reading and writing change you? Joining Alice Vincent and Charlotte Runcie this week is the author Cathy Rentzenbrink, who doesn’t like being described as an “acclaimed memoirist”, and would rather we described her as an “honest puzzler” - or something even less kind. But she has, in fact, written many excellent memoirs and novels, and there’s no getting around it. Her clear-eyed, truth-f...

Can books make us more patient? In Haste is back! This week, writers Alice Vincent and Charlotte Runcie speak to Rowan Hisayo Buchanan , author of three beautiful novels (The Sleep Watcher, Starling Days, and Harmless Like You) about teaching writing, learning about writing, whether writers tend to be dog people or cat people, and patience. “There are some writers I see who write something, and it...

What’s the relationship between fantasy literature and real life? Writers Alice Vincent and Charlotte Runcie speak to Sunyi Dean, author of the bestselling novel The Book Eaters, and co-host of the excellent Publishing Rodeo podcast. Sunyi discusses how she came to write the book and what was going on in her life at the time, as well as her somewhat stormy publication journey, in an episode that a...

How do you expose emotion through writing? Writers Alice Vincent and Charlotte Runcie speak to Thomas Morris, whose short story suite, Open Up , was among the most widely admired literary publications of 2023. Thomas Morris is a Welsh writer who is the former editor of Stinging Fly and has been named as one of Granta’s Best Young British Novelists. In this episode, he talks about writing masculini...

Writers Alice Vincent and Charlotte Runcie meet Jennie Godfrey, debut novelist and author of The List of Suspicious things. Jennie discusses how she wrote her novel, which has garnered a huge amount of buzz in the British publishing industry and beyond, and which has themes that draw on Jennie’s own childhood experiences growing up in Yorkshire during the strange and troubling time when the Yorksh...

Can a writer ever meaningfully take a break? And what’s it like to get the call saying you’ve been longlisted for the Booker Prize? Today on In Haste , writers Alice Vincent and Charlotte Runcie are joined by the novelist Sophie Mackintosh. Sophie is the Booker-longlisted author of The Water Cure, Blue Ticket, and Cursed Bread, and was named one of Granta's Best Young British Novelists of 2023. So...

You’d write a great book if only you had the time. Well, there are all sort of things we’d do if we had enough time. But what if you never have enough time? Would you try, anyway? What if, in fact, right now is the most time you’ll ever have? In this episode of In Haste , authors Alice Vincent and Charlotte Runcie speak to Oliver Burkeman, the journalist and internationally bestselling author of F...

It sounds like a dream: you write a diary, and one day it suddenly becomes a prize-winning Sunday Times Bestseller. It worked for Amy Liptrot. Could it work for us, too? This is episode one of In Haste , with authors Alice Vincent and Charlotte Runcie in conversation with Amy Liptrot. Amy is the author of two exquisite and prize-winning memoirs that have resonated with readers across the world: Th...

In Haste is a new podcast about how great books really get written, from writers Alice Vincent and Charlotte Runcie. We’ll be asking award-winning and bestselling authors how they write, what gets in their way, how they overcome that, and what keeps them going. The first episode is released Tuesday January 30th, 2024. Subscribe to catch the first episode when it launches. Our first guest is the wo...