Biteback Chats Books

Pete Carvill is a reporter, writer, and editor for the UK’s trade press. He first put on boxing gloves twenty years ago and has only recently taken them off. His book Death of a Boxer explores the psychology of those who choose to fight and what draws them towards this most dangerous of pursuits. It also delves into the lives of fighters, from amateurs to professionals. Death of a Boxer is a deep...

Alex Grant is a writer, researcher and lecturer specialising in politics, biography and modern history. Having been a journalist in Parliament and a Labour councillor in Greenwich for sixteen years, he writes with great insight into the British establishment.   He is the author of the new John Vassall biography, Sex, Spies and Scandal . Vassall’s story is one of intrigue: in the 1960s while workin...

Linda McDougall is a journalist, television producer and author of Cherie: The Perfect Life of Mrs Blair and Westminster Women . She is also known as the wife of the late Austin Mitchell, who was a journalist and the Labour Member of Parliament for Great Grimsby from 1977 until 2015. Linda’s latest book, Marcia Williams: The Life and Times of Baroness Falkender , seeks to realign Marcia’s reputati...

Dr Nigel Fletcher is a political historian and has taught at King’s College London since 2017. He is the co-founder of the Centre for Opposition Studies and has previously worked as a political adviser and a councillor in the Royal Borough of Greenwich. His book, The Not Quite Prime Ministers: Leaders of the Opposition 1783–2020 brings together profiles of the opposition leaders who didn’t quite m...

Lord Ashcroft is an international businessman, philanthropist, author and pollster. He is also the former treasurer and deputy chairman of the Conservative Party. To date, Lord Ashcroft has written celebrated biographies of David Cameron, Jacob Rees-Mogg and Sir Keir Starmer. Last year he also published a biography of Boris Johnson's wife, Carrie, which provided a vivid account of how she infl...

Kathleen Wyatt is a speechwriter, journalist and editor. She spent sixteen years as a columnist and reviewer at The Times and speaks six languages! Her book, The Social Superpower: The Big Truth About Little Lies , includes interviews with spies, psychologists and a former al-Qaeda bombmaker in the hope of uncovering why it is that we lie, often innately. In this episode, we discuss why Kathleen f...

Jesse Norman is the MP for Hereford and South Herefordshire and the author of acclaimed biographies of Edmund Burke and Adam Smith. His novel, The Winding Stair , is an epic tale of jealousy and intrigue in Elizabethan and Jacobean England, which holds a darkened mirror to our own contemporary politics. The Winding Stair whirls around two founders of our modern world – the scholar Francis Bacon an...

Andy McSmith is a lobby journalist who worked for many years for national newspapers including the Daily Mirror , Observer , Daily Telegraph and Independent and was political editor of the Independent on Sunday . He is also the author of three volumes of political biographies; a novel set in Parliament; a history of Britain in the 1980s; and a history of the great Russian artists who lived and wor...

Tom Clark is a journalist, a contributing editor at Prospect and a fellow at the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and was previously a leading writer at The Guardian for ten years. His new book, Broke, is a collection of essays from today’s masters of social reportage on Britain’s accelerating poverty crisis. Broke ventures deep into the communities so often ignored by politicians and introduces us to t...

Dr Sarah-Louise Miller is an experienced historian, researcher, author, educator and media consultant, specialising in Second World War history. Her book, The Women Behind the Few , explores the Second World War from the perspective of the WAAFs working behind the scenes to collect and disseminate vital intelligence – intelligence that resulted in Allied victory. In this episode, Sarah shares the...

Dave Rich, one of the UK’s leading experts on antisemitism, joins us for a thorough discussion of the blatant, yet also implicit, antisemitism that is omnipresent in British society. His book, Everyday Hate , is about how antisemitism is built into our world – and how you can change it. Sacha Baron Cohen has stressed that ‘everyone should read this book. And if you don’t think you need to, then yo...

Returning to the Biteback podcast is Alex Deane, author of Lessons from History and the newly released MORE Lessons from History. Alex shares quirky tales of history to his 40,000 followers on Twitter and hosts the regular podcast Hidden History Happy Hour. On this episode, he shares some of the EXCLUSIVE new tales in this second volume, delving into the more serious lessons that we and our politi...

No man is an island, wrote John Donne. BBC Home Editor Mark Easton argues the opposite: that we are all islands, and it is upon the contradictory shoreline where isolation meets connectedness, where ‘us’ meets ‘them’, that we find out who we truly are. Mark’s new book Islands: Searching for truth on the shoreline reflects his lyrical but hard-hitting journalistic understanding of modern-day social...

In a conversation that has – unfairly – been all but disregarded by many, including some of the Welsh themselves, Will Hayward reopens rational and thought-provoking debate. His new book, Independent Nation: Should Wales leave the UK?, brings nuance back to the arena for this crucial national conversation. Join us for a chat as we talk about the Welsh sense of worth, England’s flippant relationshi...

For Dr Samir Puri, the warning signs of the bloodshed and slaughter that Russia would one day impose upon Ukraine had been there for years. Samir’s new book, Russia’s Road to War with Ukraine , traces the relationship between the two countries from the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991 to Putin’s invasion in 2022. Join us for a chat in which we ask who he would give the book to (and, crucially,...

From Harry and Meghan all the way to Princess Margaret, the royal family has certainly seen its fair share of scandals- and Tom Quinn's new book Scandals of the Royal Palaces is a deep-dive into some of the most shocking and least known. Join us for a chat that goes everywhere from the Queen's love of her Labradors to Edward VIII's love of cutting Wallis's toenails... Tom's book is available here...

Today on Biteback Chats Books we're chatting to former policeman Iain Donnelly about his experience of a life in blue and the problems that are currently plaguing policing. Get your copy of Tango Juliet Foxtrot here: bitebackpublishing.com/books/tango-juliet-foxtrot Music Funkorama by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3788-funkorama License: http://creativecommons.org/licen...

Today we’re ditching the microphone for the camera and putting BBC documentary maker Michael Cockerell under the spotlight. Cockerell has spent his entire career getting politicians to open up on the small screen, and now his memoirs, Unmasking Our Leaders, reveals exactly how he did it- alongside plenty of anecdotes... Get your copy of Unmasking Our Leaders here .  Music Funkorama by Kevin M...

What made Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon's partnership so successful- and what tore it apart? Discover the true story of a jaw-dropping moment in Scottish politics with Biteback authors and political journalists David Clegg and Kieran Andrews. David and Kieran's book, Break-Up, is available here: bitebackpublishing.com/books/break-up Music Funkorama by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://incompetech.fil...

Taking the mic today on the Biteback podcast is author Alex Deane! Alex's new book Lessons from History started as a Twitter project, collecting and celebrating history's forgotten heroes and villains via tweet threads. Now, he joins us to explain the importance of humour in telling stories, his favourite tales from the book and why you should always be grateful that you're not a Russian trapped i...

Seasoned politician Oliver Letwin takes the mic this week to talk about the rising influence of China, it's relationship with the West and our need for a new way in which to work with this powerful new player on the world stage. Find Oliver's book China vs America on the Biteback website: bitebackpublishing.com/books/china-vs-america Music Funkorama by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://incompetech.filmm...

This week, we’re heading back in time to discover the story of one of the Second World War’s most overlooked commanders: Sholto Douglas. Sholto suffered from PTSD in later life but it is only now with the publication of his daughter Katharine's book Behold the Dark Gray Man that we can appreciate the shadow that war cast on his extraordinary life.  Behold the Dark Gray Man is out now: bitebac...

This week, author and professor Brian Brivati joins the Biteback podcast to talk about Arif Naqvi and the private equity firm he founded, Abraaj. Navqi's reign as one of the financial sector's brightest lights came to a sudden end in 2019 when he was arrested for fraud, but how much of the story is true?  Brian's book, Icarus, is out now and available to order here: bitebackpublishing.com/boo...

In politics, there are no prizes for second place. Luckily, seasoned campaign professionals Mark Pack and Edward Maxfield know how to make elections work for you. Their new book contains 101 bite-sized lessons to help steer you on the course to power- and they're here to tell you what they've learned. Buy 101 Ways to Win An Election at bitebackpublishing.com/books/101-ways-to-win-an-election .&nbs...

An insidious snobbery has taken root in parts of progressive Britain. Working-class voters have flexed their political muscles and helped to change the direction of the country, but in doing so they have been met with disdain and even abuse from elites in politics, culture and business. Why do we think like this, and what harm are these culture wars doing to the working classes? Mostly importantly...