A Room Of Your Own

Today’s guest is author Juliet Nicolson. I had the wonderful opportunity to interview Juliet in her Sussex home shortly after the release of her latest work - The Book of Revelations: Women and Their Secrets From the 1950s to the Present Day. As I’ve found with all of my favourite writers - from Edward St Aubyn to Joelle Taylor - Juliet has an incredible gift for balancing a sense of playfulness a...

Today’s guest is Karun Thakar - one of the world’s leading collectors of and experts on global textiles. Using his extraordinary collection of textiles, Karun tirelessly works to illuminate history through the lives and the hands of remarkable and often overlooked artists. As well as being a prolific writer, he is an active philanthropist, encouraging young people to learn about world history thro...

Today’s guest is interior designer Andrew Torrey. Andrew recently published a book with Rizzoli celebrating his life and journey in design. I joined him in his design studio in Manhattan to talk about what it was like to put the book together, his influences in art and design, before moving on to imagine his dream library space. If you want to learn more about his work, you can find him on Instagr...

Today’s guest is Heide Hendricks - one half of the architecture and design studio Hendricks Churchill. I joined Heide in her beautiful renovated farmhouse which is the subject of a book published by Rizzoli in 2023 called ‘Our Way Home - Reimagining an American Farmhouse’. We talked about what goes into the Hendricks Churchill aesthetic, Rafe’s habit of turning sketches and renderings into works o...

Today’s guest is author Lucy Steeds. Lucy won the 2025 Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize for her novel ’The Artist’. It’s a subtle and really atmospheric book that takes readers into the household of a great reclusive master - Tartuffe. The story unfolds through the eyes of Joseph - a young English journalist who has the unique opportunity to write about Tartuffe so long as he sits for him as a mode...

In this episode, I was joined by Abigail Horace, who runs her own Design Studio - Casa Marcelo. I joined her in her studio in lovely Salisbury, Connecticut, to talk about her early childhood influences - walking round New York City's great buildings with her father, and her young dream of becoming a librarian. If you want to find out more about Abigail’s work in design, you can follow her on Insta...

This week I’m joined by author Stephen Ellcock to talk about his creative process, and the books and works of art that have inspired his work. Stephen has a remarkable gift for finding patterns among images. Anyone who has read his books or who has visited his Instagram page knows that it’s his attention to the subtle details of artistic works that make his observations a joy to follow. I discover...

This week I’m joined by interior designer James Mackie to talk about his journey from the world of fine art and Sotheby’s to taking on a new challenge heading his own design firm. I was lucky enough to join James in his beautiful purpose-built library in Oxfordshire, where he has created his own private reading space filled with the designers, artists and houses that he loves.   After talking...

This week I was joined by creative duo Duncan Campbell & Charlotte Rey. Duncan & Charlotte have been working together for almost their entire careers, and now have the very enviable task of crafting and assembling some of the finest interiors around the world. As a duo, they are fun, warm and approachable - making this episode a joy to record. In this episode, we jump straight into talking...

This week I had the pleasure of talking with interior designer Amy Dalrymple – founder of Dalrymple Studios – where she works globally with clients to create beautiful interiors.   In this episode we jump straight into talking about her own journey into design – the influence of growing up in a household of designers – and the inspiration she takes from the stories and advice of other creativ...

This week I was lucky enough to visit the studio of Adémidé Udoma – who is the creative director of Artisanal One – where he and his team produce wonderful clothing and objects – as well as working collaboratively with others on styling, art and creative direction. He’s creative in the truest sense of the word – thoughtful about his influences and staying true to himself and his vision with whatev...

This week I’m joined by Bibliotherapist and artist Ella Berthoud. What started out as a conversation between Ella and her friend – novelist Susan Elderkin – turned into a career of talking to clients about their lives and prescribing reading solutions. She has written a number of books all about what she does and about the power of reading to change our lives – including The Novel Cure, and The St...

This week I’m joined by interior designer Carina Harford of Harford House. I got the chance to ask Carina a bit about the aspects of her life away from design that inform her process. We delve into the experiences and the books that help her keep in touch with herself, and that have informed how she understands her clients and what they need from their space.   This episode dives straight int...

AROYO Podcast is back this week, and I'm so delighted to announce my guest Ana Sampson Ana has not only worked with some of my very favourite authors - including Joelle Taylor and Amy Jeffs - but has produced numerous poetry anthologies aimed both at adults and children. Some of her most notable works include 'She Will Soar: Bright, Brave Poems About Freedom' and more recently 'Gods And Monsters'...

This week I’m joined by musician and artist Susan O’Neill. We had a wonderfully in-depth conversation about the creative process, and particularly the environments that have inspired her to compose music. We also dive deep into what it means to collect and gather objects around us, and how those objects – particularly the books that we pick up for ourselves or have gifted to us - come to tell a st...

This week I talked to author, podcaster and comedian Christopher Beanland. His work spans a huge range of subjects, and seems to really reflect a life spent pursuing his own interests. He’s written a number of books exploring and celebrating favourite public spaces in the city including Lidos and City Parks, as well as two novels – Spinning Out of Control and The Wall In The Head.   In this c...

This week I talked to poet, novelist and performance artist Joelle Taylor. Joelle is the author several works of poetry, including C+NTO – for which she won the T.S. Eliot Prize in 2021 – which is both a memorial of and a tribute to the places and people that were part of the butch culture of the 90s in London. She has most recently published a novel – The Night Alphabet – which expands horizons a...

This week I talked to author and journalist Dominic Bradbury, whose writing over his career has focused on showcasing and exploring the world’s most inspiring architecture and design, with his recent writing particularly focusing on the Mid-Century Modern Style. We talk about his upcoming book – The Atlas of Mid-Century Modern Masterpieces , as well as his reading influences from his parents – who...

This week I talked to Bettina Farack who has spent the last few years telling the story of the Higher Institute for Jewish Studies in Berlin. The Higher Institute was a centre for learning and a really important cultural hub for the Jewish community in Berlin before it was looted by the Nazis during the holocaust, and its books confiscated and distributed. Remarkably, in the last few years thousan...

This week I caught up with Meg Rees – who’s known as one of the most creative and expressive tattoo artists in London, and puts an element of the personal into everything that she does. People also may recognise her from her sex and relationships podcast – You’ve Gotta Be Joking – which dives deep into the trials of dating, and will be really relatable to a lot of young Londoners.   I met Meg...

This week I was so lucky to be joined by author, artist and academic Amy Jeffs. Amy’s work centres around the medieval world of the British Isles, and looks to capture and give in her own words the sense of wonder that she finds in the foundations of our own mythologies. Amy's writing takes you deep into the landscape - both physical and psychological - of Medieval Britain. Re-telling myths and le...

This week, I was joined by author and Art Historian Ferren Gipson who’s written some amazing books including ‘Women’s Work – From Feminine Art to Feminist Art’ and The Ultimate Art Museum – where she curates 4,000 years of Art History into a dream museum that tells its story – correcting some of the wrongs of the past and highlighting overlooked pioneers. We start off going into her journey into A...

This week's episode will be an unusually personal one for me, on a topic that has been centralto my life and the lives of so many other young people. I'll be constructing an imagined library for someone suffering from depression. I recently came through one of my worst ever bouts - that took me off work for months and in the end completely changed my life. It was at times crippling, desperatley te...

This week, I was joined by author and comedian Rosie Wilby. Rosie through her podcast and subsequent book ‘The Breakup Monologues’ has been dubbed the ‘Queen of Breakups’. Her work brings together her own journey as a queer woman in London, the testimonies and stories of heartbroken guests, and the science of love and relationships – to create a relatable and funny approach to how we think about l...

In this week’s episode I was joined by tattoo artist, ex-musician, bookshop owner and owner of micro-publisher Moonlight Editions – Liam Sparkes. Liam is best known for his work as a tattoo artist, having set up one of London’s most famous studios – Old Habits. Liam describes himself as a bibliophile, and in this episode we delve deep into the ways that books have influenced his approached to tatt...