The Goldster Conversations Podcast

John R. Seeger is a retired Senior Intelligence Service officer who was with the CIA for more than twenty years, leading small teams on many dangerous operations. In 2001, he went in Afghanistan after the Nine Eleven attacks on the United States in an operation captured in the Netflix documentary Spy Ops. On his final 3-year assignment at CIA headquarters, he worked as a chief of operations for a...

Join the Goldster conversation with Lucinda Hawksley as she chats to the author Francesca Wade about her fascinating debut book, Square Haunting: Five Women, Freedom and London between the Wars. It looks at the lives of five extraordinary women, including Virginia Woolf and Dorothy L Sayers, all of whom lived in the same square in London. Square Haunting was shortlisted for the RSL Ondaatje Prize...

Would you like to know how to take greater control of your brain, to become more efficient, effective and successful?  The brain often overcomplicates matters, leading us to feel overwhelmed and lacking in confidence. Yet we can take control. Are you interested? Then, come meet neuroscientist Dr Lynda Shaw who knows which bits of our brains do what and how to control them – at least as best we can...

Why is Italy called Italy? How old is curry? Which people from history would best pull off a casino heist? Who was the richest person of all time? When was the first Monday? What were history's weirdest medical procedures that actually worked? How much horse manure was splattered on the streets of Tudor London? How fast was the medieval Chinese postal system? What did the Flintstones get right abo...

Thriller writer Kenneth Dekleva is a psychiatrist in Dallas, Texas and, for many years, worked for the American State Department as a physician-diplomat. His postings included Russia, India, Mexico and the United Kingdom. He went on to become director of the State Department’s worldwide diplomatic mental health program and is currently a senior fellow at the George HW Bush Foundation for US-China...

Adrian Magson is the author of hundreds of short stories and 29 books and an acclaimed expert in creating fictional characters. In his crime-thriller series we meet private detectives partners Ruth Gonzales and Andy Vaslik; deep cover specialist, Marc Portman; spy Harry Tate; French 1960s crime fighter Lucas Rocco, and others. He is so prolific that he has not one, but two most recently published...

Hannibal Jones is a trouble shooter, fighter of evil and a dogged investigator who finds himself up against organised crime and city corruption helping victims who are mostly the sick and most vulnerable. Hannibal’s creator is Austin S Camacho who returns to Goldster Inside Story on the publication week of his latest in the series, Subtle Felonies, a captivating mystery that takes us deep into Ame...

On 22 September, join Lucinda Hawksley as she speaks to a man who isn’t there….. JD Kirk is the author of the multi-million bestselling DCI Jack Logan crime fiction series, set in the Highlands of Scotland. He also does not exist. Instead, JD is the pen name of former children’s author and screenwriter, Barry Hutchison, who was born and raised in Fort William.  His latest title, A Dead Man Walking...

The Vicar is a debut thriller written under the pseudonym of A. J Chambers, a British army veteran deployed to Northern Ireland for much of his military career. Chambers introduces Terry Nolan, a British intelligence officer, who discovers that his cover is blown, and millions of lives are at stake. Officially, Terry Nolan has been dead for the past thirty years. But when Nolan is attacked in Bost...

Rory Cellan-Jones became a much-loved household name as the BBC Technology Correspondent. Since being diagnosed with Parkinson in 2019, he has pioneered a greater understanding of the disease among all of us with his articles and the illuminating and moving podcast Movers and Shakers. Fellow Parkinson colleagues such as Jeremy Paxman, Mark Mardell and Sir Nicholas Mostyn show how different persona...

Paul de Savary has a mission to transform social care. He is not a politician. Nor is he a social worker. Nor did he ever envisage himself being a pioneer for an issue which is constantly described as being in crisis.  Paul’s story is very personal and uplifting. When his daughter, Laura, was six months old, doctors told the family, ‘Your daughter is mentally handicapped, she might live, or might...

In early 2017, Sarah Bax Horton made the chance discovery through family history research that her great-great grandfather was a Metropolitan Police sergeant who worked on the Jack the Ripper case. This discovery inspired her to write a book in his honour, based on a theory dating from the time of the murders.  In the early 20th century, CID Chief Robert Anderson went public with a declaration tha...

Playwright, critic and literary novelist, Michael Arditti, tackles deep moral issues in his latest book The Choice which revolves around the rector of an ancient country church in Chesire. She chances upon the chief bell-ringer and husband of her closest friend, fondling a fifteen-year-old boy. Will she choose friendship or conscience, sympathy or her official duty of care? What will drive her dec...

Julie Summers is a bestselling writer, researcher and historian. Her books include Fearless on Everest: The Quest for Sandy Irvine ; a biography of her grandfather, the man who built the 'real' bridge over the River Kwai, The Colonel of Tamarkan , Stranger in the House and When the Children Came Home , a social history of servicemen returning to their families from the Second World War. On 3 Febru...

Harry Bucknall’s love of travel blossomed in early childhood exploring the creeks, islands and inlets of Poole harbour in a mirror dinghy. He served in the army and is now a writer in the tradition of great adventurers chronicling his long walks in stories laced with humour, inspiration and sheer grit. In The Dolphin’s Wake, Harry’s first book, told the story of his 5,500 mile journey from Venice...

Dr Emma Byrne is an honest-to-goodness robot scientist who, when she’s not developing intelligent systems, writes popular science books and has contributed to the Financial Times , the Guardian , Elle , and Therapy Today . She frequently appears on Sky News and the BBC talking about the future of artificial intelligence and robotics – and about swearing. Emma’s interest in neuroscience led to her...

Acclaimed historian Roger Moorhouse brings us a gripping Second World War story of forgers whose documents saved the lives of thousands of Jews facing extermination in the Holocaust. Under the leadership of the Aleksander Lados, the Polish Ambassador to Switzerland, they undertook a systematic programme of forging identity documents for Latin American countries, which were then smuggled into Germa...

Jarod Chapman is a breath work and meditation teacher, a fitness coach, sports masseur, and co author of The power of Yoga For Men. He was Tina Turner’s Personal Wellness Coach on her final world tour in 2008-09. His passion passion for writing about all things health, wellness, and living a positive life began after working as the Media Ambassador for Slendertone. The Power of Yoga For Men came a...

For over thirty years, Dr Ben Cave has been working in prisons and secure hospitals diagnosing and treating some of the most troubled men and women in society. A lifetime of care takes us from delusional disorders to schizophrenia, steroid abuse to drug dependency, personality disorders to paedophilia, and depression so severe a mother can kill her own baby. In his first book, What We Fear Most ,...

Dr Nicholas Cambridge is an honorary research fellow in humanities and medical history at the University of Buckingham. Previously he worked as a GP for 25 years. He is a member of the Dickens Fellowship and has published several papers and given many lectures on Charles Dickens in relation to medicine. His new book, Bleak Health: The medical history of Charles Dickens and his family, is an in-dep...

Maggy Pigott is the vice-chair of Open Age, Life’s Just Begun and has published the critically-acclaimed How to Age Joyfully, Eight Steps to a Happier, Fuller Life. Dame Judi Dench commends the book to everyone of all ages and Giles Brandreth describes it as ‘full of wit, wisdom – and hope’. Here is Maggy’s nub thoughts. We’re living longer – let’s live better! Getting older should be something to...

Our lives are intrinsically linked to those of animals – whether that’s the animals we farm for food, those living in the wild, those we use for sport or the ones we choose to keep as pets. We all have a responsibility to consider our impact, and even small changes in our own lives could significantly improve the quality of theirs. Dr Sean Wensley is an award-winning vet, lifelong naturalist and a...

The Gift of Aging blends frontline science with inspirational stories and insights from wise elders for aging with health, joy, and purpose. Here is a compelling explanation of how our bodies and brains age, defining what can be expected with aging and what is unusual. The authors Elizabeth Eckstrom and Marcy Houle demonstrate ways we can significantly increase our chances for a positive aging exp...

How can any writer today follow in the footsteps of Agatha Christie? Join Lucinda Hawksley, as she chats to Sophie Hannah, and find out just what it was like to resurrect the world-famous detective Hercule Poirot. Sophie Hannah’s psychological thriller The Carrier won the Specsavers National Book Award in 2013 and, since that time, her career has never looked back – except when she was commissione...

Ellen Cheshire spent her childhood reading books, visiting art galleries, watching films and going to the theatre. She began her career as a  box office assistant. It was only natural that she would go on to work in the creative arts and is now a specialist in the cinema, and specifically great directors. She has written books on Ang Lee, the Taiwanese director who broke into Hollywood with films...