Always Take Notes

Simon and Rachel speak with the novelist and screenwriter Tom Rob Smith. Tom wrote his first novel, "Child 44", about a serial killer in Soviet Russia, at the age of 26. After publication in 2008, the novel went on to sell over two million copies, with translations in 35 languages. It won the International Thriller Writer Award for Best First Novel, the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award, and beca...

Rachel and Simon speak with the novelist and essayist Siri Hustvedt. Born in Minnesota in 1955 to a Norwegian mother and American father, Siri grew up bilingual. On a family trip one summer, she read voraciously and decided she wanted to become a writer. In 1981 Siri published her first poem in the Paris Review and a small collection emerged two years later. In 1992 she published her debut novel,...

Simon and Rachel speak with the novelist and journalist John Lanchester. John has written six works of fiction including "The Debt to Pleasure", "Capital" and "Fragrant Harbour" and four of non-fiction including "Whoops! Why Everyone Owes Everyone and No One Can Pay". His books have won the Hawthornden Prize, the Whitbread First Novel Award, the E. M. Forster Award and the Premi Llibreter, been lo...

Rachel and Simon speak with the novelist Kathryn Stockett. Born and raised in Jackson, Mississippi, Kathryn moved to New York after university and spent almost a decade working in magazine publishing and marketing. In 2001, reeling from the 9/11 attacks and missing home, Kathryn started writing "The Help". The story of black maids and their white employers in Jackson in the 1960s became a sleeper...

In an episode recorded live in Bristol, Simon and Rachel speak with the children's author Michael Morpurgo. A former primary-school teacher, Michael has written over 150 books, including "Private Peaceful", "Kensuke’s Kingdom" and "The Butterfly Lion". "War Horse", first published in 1982, later became a hugely successful production from the National Theatre and then, in 2011, a film directed by S...

Rachel and Simon speak with the novelist and short-story writer Lauren Groff. Lauren is the bestselling author of the novels "The Monsters of Templeton", "Arcadia", "Fates and Furies", "Matrix" and "The Vaster Wilds", and the short-story collections "Delicate Edible Birds" and "Florida". "Fates and Furies", "Florida" and "Matrix" were all finalists for the National Book Award in the United States....

Simon and Rachel speak to Jason Burke, the international security correspondent for the Guardian. Jason has been a foreign correspondent for almost 30 years, reporting from the Middle East, South Asia, Europe and Africa. He writes regularly on terrorism and is the author of five books: "The New Threat from Islamic Militancy" (which was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize in 2016); "The 9/11 Wars" (de...

Rachel and Simon speak to the art historian and author Katy Hessel. While working at a London art gallery, Katy set up @thegreatwomenartists, an Instagram account dedicated to celebrating female artists, as well as "The Great Women Artists Podcast". In 2022 she published "The Story of Art without Men", which became a Sunday Times and New York Times bestseller and won Waterstones Book of the Year....

Simon and Rachel speak with Doug Naylor, who co-created the hit 1990s science-fiction comedy "Red Dwarf". After abandoning his university studies in psychology in Manchester, Doug spent the better part of a year visiting Manchester Central Library, reading film and TV scripts and teaching himself the mechanics of comedy writing; unbeknownst to his parents, who thought he was still pursuing his deg...

Rachel and Simon speak with the author and academic Mary Beard. Mary is a professor emerita of classics at Cambridge University and the Classics editor of the Times Literary Supplement. She has written more than 20 books, including "Pompeii" (the winner of the Wolfson History Prize in 2008), "Confronting the Classics", "SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome" and "Women & Power: A Manifesto". Several of...

Simon and Rachel speak to Jacques Testard, the founder and publisher of Fitzcarraldo Editions, an independent house based in London that, since its establishment in 2014, has won four Nobel Prizes for literature. Jacques's Nobel winners are Svetlana Alexievich (2015), Olga Tokarczuk (2018), Annie Ernaux (2022) and Jon Fosse (2023). Prior to setting up Fitzcarraldo, Jacques co-founded The White Rev...

In this episode Rachel and Simon speak to Nicole Vanderbilt, managing director of Bookshop.org in the UK. She joined Bookshop - an online bookseller set up to financially support independent bookshops - at its launch in November 2020; since then it has raised almost £5 million for over 600 local retailers. As well as selling physical books, Bookshop.org sells e-books and plans to launch audiobooks...

In an episode recorded live at EA Festival, Simon and Rachel speak with the science writer Frank Close. Frank is emeritus professor of theoretical physics at the University of Oxford and is the only professional scientist to have won the Association of British Science Writers Prize on three occasions. His 22 books include "The Cosmic Onion", "Trinity" and "Elusive". Frank is also a fellow of the R...

Rachel and Simon speak to the playwright, screenwriter and novelist Moira Buffini. After training as an actor, Moira started writing for the stage; her plays include "Gabriel" (which won the Meyer-Whitworth Award in 1998), "Dinner" (nominated for an Olivier Award for Best Comedy in 2003) and "Handbagged" (winner of an Olivier Award in 2014). In 2003 Moira became a founding member of The Monsterist...

Simon and Rachel speak to the novelist Salman Rushdie, whose 17 works of fiction have been translated into over 40 languages. Salman's novels include include "Midnight’s Children" – for which he won the Booker Prize in 1981, the Booker of Bookers on the 25th anniversary of the prize, and Best of the Booker on the 40th anniversary –  "Shame", "The Satanic Verses" and "The Ground Beneath her Feet"....

In this episode, recorded live at Wimbledon BookFest, Rachel and Simon speak to the novelist Michelle Paver. Born in Nyasaland (now Malawi) to a South African father and Belgian mother, Michelle moved to Britain when she was three. After studying biochemistry at university, Michelle initially pursued a career as a solicitor, but later gave up her job as partner in a law firm to pursue writing. She...

In this episode Simon and Rachel speak to the prolific novelist Anthony Horowitz.  Anthony is the author of the teen spy Alex Rider series, which has sold more than 19 million copies worldwide. The books have been adapted into a film and a show on Amazon Prime Video. Anthony has also written two continuation novels for Sherlock Holmes, "The House of Silk" and "Moriarty"; three for James Bond, "Tri...

In this episode Rachel and Simon speak to the American novelist Susan Choi. Born in Indiana to a Korean father and Jewish mother, Susan is the author of six novels: "The Foreign Student" (1998), "American Woman" (2003), "A Person of Interest" (2008), "My Education" (2013), "Trust Exercise" (2019) and "Flashlight" (2025). In 2004 "American Woman" was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and in 2019 "T...

In this episode Simon and Rachel speak to the novelist Dean Koontz. The author of over 120 books, Dean is published in 38 countries and has sold 500m copies to date. His suspense thrillers blend science fiction, horror, crime and comedy. Fourteen of Dean's novels - including "One Door Away From Heaven", "The Bad Place" and "77 Shadow Street" - have reached #1 on the New York Times bestseller list....

Rachel and Simon speak to the novelist Sarah Perry. Sarah is the internationally bestselling author of four novels - "After Me Comes the Flood" (2014), "The Essex Serpent" (2016), "Melmoth" (2018) and "Enlightenment" (2024) - as well as two works of non-fiction, "Essex Girls" (2020) and "Death of an Ordinary Man" (2025). Waterstone's and the British Book Awards both named "The Essex Serpent" Book...

Rachel and Simon speak with the screenwriter and novelist James Alistair Henry. James first started writing while working as a bookseller. He joined the writing team for Channel 4’s "Smack the Pony" and went on to write the BAFTA-award winning "Green Wing", ITV comedy "Delivery Man" and sitcom "Campus" as well as episodes for the children’s television shows "Bob The Builder" and "Hey Duggee". His...

Rachel and Simon speak with the novelist Eimear McBride. Born in Liverpool to Irish parents, Eimear studied acting before pursuing writing. Her debut novel, "A Girl is a Half-formed Thing", was published in 2013 after almost a decade of rejections; it went on to win the Women’s Prize for Fiction, the Goldsmiths Prize, the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year, the Desmond Elliott Prize and the Geoff...

Simon and Rachel speak with the veteran British publisher Anthony Cheetham. Anthony began his career in 1966 at the New English Library, where his first acquisition was the paperback rights to "Dune", Frank Herbert’s science fiction epic. In 1969, Anthony moved to Sphere Books, where he created the Abacus imprint. He went on to establish many of the UK’s most prominent publishing companies includi...

In this episode, recorded in conjunction with Hay Festival, Rachel and Simon speak with the novelist Jacqueline Wilson. Born in 1945, Jacqueline wrote her first (unpublished) novel, "Meet the Maggots", when she was nine and has since gone on to write more than 100 books; her novels have been translated into 34 languages and have sold more than 40m copies in Britain alone. Jacqueline started her ca...

In this episode, recorded live at the London Library, Simon and Rachel speak with the screenwriter Jesse Armstrong. Born in Shropshire and educated at Manchester University, Jesse co-created the Channel 4 comedy series "Peep Show" (2003–2015) and "Fresh Meat" (2011–2016), was a writer on "The Thick of It" (2005-2012) and "Four Lions" (2010) and is the creator of the HBO series "Succession" (2018–2...