Sentimental Garbage

Ready to pair your Yves Saint Laurent smoking jacket with your $3 batik shorts? We're joined by publisher and writer Wei Ming Kam to talk Crazy Rich Asians, the blockbuster book series that launched a thousand think pieces. We discuss the pure heaven that is Astrid Leong, foodie culture in Singapore, identifying with British colonialism when it doesn't identify with you, the Western gaze on the As...

CW: Suicide. This week we're joined by author, historian and bookseller Emma Southon in the rather fitting setting of my hotel room to talk about Mhairi McFarlane's WHO'S THAT GIRL?, an extremely funny romcom about Edie, a 30-something copywriter who falls in love with Elliott, the movie star she's been sent to ghostwrite a memoir for. We talk about movie stars, Game of Thrones, terrible celebrity...

We're live from Body & Soul Festival in Ireland talking Maeve Binchy's classic CIRCLE OF FRIENDS. This 700 page epic about a single academic school year is probably the most frequently spotted book on Irish shelves, and with good reason. We talk upwardly mobile Catholics in 1950s Ireland, the specific pains of being a Big Strapping Country lass in a Nan Mahon world, the exquisite world-buildin...

Hold onto the precious jewel trapped in your dachshund's stomach and get ready for a whirlwind post-war fairytale that will make you hum the entire Anastasia soundtrack. We talk to YA and children's author Laura Wood about A COUNTESS BELOW STAIRS, a novel so profoundly magical that we both start crying by the end. After the Russian revolution, Countess Anna Grazinsky flees to England with her gove...

Gird your loins! This week wrestling podcaster and author of the I HEART series Lindsey Kelk is here to relive all your worst memories of being an entry level employee. We're talking about Lauren Weisberger's debut THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA, a book that we will readily admit is not as good as the film. We discuss unlikable heroines, memoir vs fiction, the hideousness of first jobs, dragon ladies, the...

If you want to read about the Tudors, you want to read about the SEXY Tudors, and The Other Boleyn Girl is the sexiest of all. Returning guest and author of Midnight Chicken Ella Risbridger comes by to talk about masque balls, women in history, sexual awakenings, sisters and why historical fiction is so much better when the details of that history are left niiiiiiice and loose. Music by Harry Harr...

You know Candice Bergen, even if you don't think you do: you've seen her reject Carrie Bradshaw as Enid, the editor of Vogue, and you've seen her try to blow up a Miss America pageant in Miss Congeniality. But there's more to this actor than you might think: she was born into Hollywood royalty, as the daughter of famous ventriloquist Edgar Bergen, became the "sliding doors" Sharon Tate during the...

Today we're talking to Queenie author Candice Carty-Williams about Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Americanah, a book that stands out on Sentimental Garbage for neither being sentimental nor garbage. In fact, it was very well reviewed from the moment it came out. However, this book has more in common with chick lit than you might expect. We talk about when sweeping romance meets cultural understanding,...

We’re going back to school this week with YA author Holly Bourne for our first ever live show at London Book Fair. We’re talking about Louise Rennison’s teen classic Angus Thongs and Full-frontal Snogging. We chat about preteen desires, trying to trap boys, the private lives of girls, writing for a young audience and the lasting legacy of Rennison’s work. Music by Harry Harris, artwork by Gavin Da...

Today we’re talking to YA hero and sex writing genius Sarra Manning about her 2009 adult debut Unsticky. We talk about everything from life in the magazine world, to orgasms, to the importance of happy endings in chick-lit novels. Don’t forget to listen to our main episode about the book with Jeanne Sutton Music by Harry Harris, artwork by Gavin Day. Recorded at Acast and produced by Hannah Varral...

This week it's indecent proposals, being broke in media, and having grandly un-feminist wanks to deeply inappropriate men with Sarra Manning's Unsticky. Ex-magazine journalist and romance novel aficionado Jeanne Sutton talks us through this deeply underrated 2009 book that was also Manning's debut as an adult novelist. We talk a lot about how the media is a cesspit of corruption. It's a great one....

This week we’re talking to the author of the newly-minted The Sisterhood, Daisy Buchanan, about Sophie Kinsella’s The Undomestic Goddess! Workaholic Samantha Sweeting is a brilliant contract lawyer working for the highly pressurised firm Carter Spink. When she accidentally loses millions of pounds in a stupid admin error, she escapes by boarding a train from London and arriving at a house in the C...

Joanne Harris has been talking about Chocolat for literally 20 years, which is why we're so flattered she came and talked to us even MORE about it. We talk about motherhood, magic, giving advice to writers, how to use research in your writing and the experience of being an "overnight success". Music by Harry Harris, artwork by Gavin Day. Recorded at Acast and produced by Hannah Varrall. Hosted on...

Pancake Tuesday has just gone and we’re kicking it off with the most Lent-en book in all of chicklit: Joanne Harris’s megahit Chocolat! Food writer and novelist Amy Jones joins us to talk about the first book that helped her resolve her relationship with God, and we discuss food, sex, magic, womanhood, having a mother and the ever lengthening shadow of the patriarchy!  Music by Harry Harris,...

Warning: fans of Frances Mayes' 1996 travel memoir Under The Tuscan Sun won't find a lot of meaningful discussion of the book here, because neither Caroline nor our guest Rose McGowan liked it very much. Instead, we talk about Italy, Rose's childhood in a religious cult, her experience writing her book BRAVE, the relationship between women and gay men, her experiences speaking out against sexual a...

*CONTENT WARNING*: FIRST UP, there's discussions of rape and child abuse throughout that some people might find off-putting. SECOND: this is a book where half the enjoyment comes from the many nutty twists and turns, so definitely read it before listening if you can. *END OF CONTENT WARNING* This week we're talking to author of Louis and Louise Julie Cohen about the 1979 gothic classic Flowers in...

To launch season 2, we embark on an ambitious journey to work out just what makes Elizabeth Gilbert's 2006 memoir so brilliantly enthralling. We discuss what she learns about soul mates, how religion is snuck into the memoir and why women seek success early in life. Music by Harry Harris, artwork by Gavin Day. Recorded at Acast and produced by Hannah Varrall. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy...

This episode of Sentimental Garbage is pretty blue so maybe don’t listen with kids in the car. This week we’re talking sex, lies, class and Oxford University with Louise Mensch’s 1995 debut Career Girls. Film critic and Oxford graduate Helen O’Hara defends this x-rated read about the all-powerful Rowena Gordon and Topaz Rossi who engage in a lifelong rivalry across the entire media industry. Erect...

Caroline chats to Jill Mansell, author of Millie’s Fling, about snacks, how it feels when people are “ashamed” to read your books in public, and her past as a clinical neuro-physiology technician. Music by Harry Harris, artwork by Gavin Day. Recorded at Acast and produced by Hannah Varrall. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ready for chick-lit Middlemarch? Today we dive into Jill Mansell’s Millie’s Fling with author of the forthcoming Midnight Chicken & Other Recipes Worth Living For, Ella Risbridger. When 25 year old Millie witnesses the famous romance novelist Orla Hart about to throw herself off a cliff, she strikes up a friendship with Orla that changes her life. Orla has decided that she wants to write a rea...

Bridget Jones drinks like a fish, smokes like a chimney and dresses like her mother - and somehow became a global multi-million dollar franchise in the process. This week, we talk to Bridget super-fan and writer of the Sofia Khan series Ayisha Malik. As well as discussing Bridget's indomitable spirit and how the character became feminist Marmite, we chat about how to write satire in a world that w...

After talking all things Watermelon with Lucy Vine, we grabbed Marian Keyes on Skype to tell us more about her debut novel. We discuss feminism in the 1990s, growing up in a big family, and how she became the indisputable queen of chick-lit. Music by Harry Harris, artwork by Gavin Day. Recorded at Acast and produced by Hannah Varrall. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week is full of firsts: we're discussing Marian Keyes' first book, Watermelon, which also happens to be the first chick-lit that our guest Lucy Vine ever read. We get into the Walsh sisters, emotional abuse and why all debut novels are exactly two months long. We also grab Marian herself on the phone to talk about her memories of writing the book and the benefits of not having a clue what you...

After speaking to Lauren Bravo about The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets, we tracked down the author of the book, Eva Rice, to talk Take That, Julian the Loaf and why the 1950s are such an intriguing time period to set a novel in. Music by Harry Harris, artwork by Gavin Day. Recorded at Acast and produced by Hannah Varrall. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Writer and author of "What Would the Spice Girls Do?" Lauren Bravo talks about Eva Rice's 2008 smash-hit The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets, a book that's part Nancy Mitford, part Dodie Smith, and entirely delightful. The book is set in 1950s London, and follows Penelope, a shy 18 year old girl and heir to the crumbling mansion Milton Magna, as she befriends Charlotte and her cousin Harry. Harry...