Always Take Notes

Simon and Rachel speak to the novelist Harlan Coben. Harlan's suspense novels are published in 46 languages and have been number-one bestsellers in more than a dozen countries, with 80 million books in print worldwide. His Myron Bolitar series, centred on a basketball player turned agent, has earned the Edgar, Shamus and Anthony Awards. Several of his books have been developed into Netflix origina...

Rachel and Simon speak to the non-fiction author and novelist Anna Funder. After training as an international human-rights lawyer in Australia, Anna moved to Germany and published "Stasiland: Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall" in 2003; the book won the Samuel Johnson Prize (now known as the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction). Her debut novel, "All That I Am", followed in 2011. It fictionalis...

In this episode Simon and Rachel speak with Toby Mundy, the CEO of the UK office of the international literary agency Aevitas Creative Management, and executive director of the Baillie Gifford Prize for non-fiction. Toby has worked in the publishing industry for more than three decades. After starting his career at HarperCollins he founded Atlantic Books in 2000. During his tenure, Atlantic Books...

Rachel and Simon speak with the non-fiction author Naomi Klein. Her debut book, "No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies", sold more than 1m copies after its publication in 1999; her follow-up, "The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism" (2007), also reached the top of the New York Times bestseller charts. She has written extensively about the climate, including in books such as "This C...

Simon and Rachel speak with Hugo Rifkind, a journalist who has just published his second novel, "Rabbits". Born and raised in Edinburgh, Hugo studied philosophy at university. He has formerly been a columnist for the Spectator, GQ and the Herald, and is now a columnist, critic and leader writer for the Times and a presenter on Times Radio, as well as a regular panellist on BBC Radio 4’s comedy sho...

Rachel and Simon speak with Pari Thomson, editorial director for picture books at Bloomsbury and also a children's author. After an international childhood, Paris studied English at university; she began her career with stints at a literary agency, as a bookseller at Waterstones and as a manuscript reader. She joined Bloomsbury in 2016 and now commissions children's picture books. In 2023 Macmilla...

Simon and Rachel speak with the novelist and non-fiction writer Hisham Matar. Born in New York to Libyan parents, Hisham spent his childhood in Tripoli and Cairo and has lived most of his life in London. He is the author of the novels "In the Country of Men", which was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, and "Anatomy of a Disappearance", as well as two memoirs: "The Return", which was the recipi...

Rachel and Simon speak with the historian Bettany Hughes. A specialist in ancient and medieval history, Bettany is the author of five books: “Helen of Troy: Goddess, Princess, Whore”, “The Hemlock Cup, Socrates, Athens and the Search for the Good Life”, “Istanbul: A Tale of Three Cities”, “Venus & Aphrodite” and “The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World”. Alongside writing, Bettany is an experienced...

Rachel and Simon speak with the novelist and travel writer Paul Theroux. Born in Massachusetts, as a young man he worked as a Peace Corps volunteer in Malawi and taught at universities in Uganda and Singapore. He published his first novel, "Waldo", in 1967, and since then has written numerous works of fiction and non-fiction, including "The Great Railway Bazaar" (1975), "The Mosquito Coast" (1981)...

Simon and Rachel speak with the journalist and author Madhumita Murgia. She is currently the Financial Times' first Artificial Intelligence Editor, where she covers developments in AI globally and broader issues including surveillance, data privacy and tech regulation. Before she joined the FT, she was head of technology at the Daily Telegraph, and associate editor at Wired magazine. Her first boo...

Simon and Rachel speak with the novelist and biographer Nicholas Shakespeare. He began his career as a journalist, working for the Times and the Telegraph, before turning to book-writing in the 1980s. His debut novel, "The Vision of Elena Silves" (1989), won the Somerset Maugham Award; "The Dancer Upstairs" was named the best novel of 1995 by the American Libraries Association and a film adaptatio...

Rachel and Simon speak to Juliet Mabey, co-founder and publisher of Oneworld Publications. She established the company in 1986 with her husband, Novin Doostdar, as an independent publishing house focusing on non-fiction. Its books have covered a broad range of subjects, including biography, history, politics and science, and have won prizes including the FT and McKinsey Business Book of the Year. ...

Simon and Rachel speak with Jo Nesbø, one of the world's bestselling crime writers. Jo's writing career began when he was commissioned to produce a memoir about life on the road with his band, Di Derre, and he instead came up with the plot for his first Harry Hole crime novel, "The Bat". His books - including "The Leopard", "Phantom", "Police", "The Son", "The Thirst", "Macbeth" and "Knife" - are...

Rachel and Simon speak with the novelist and short-story writer Jhumpa Lahiri. Her bestselling debut story collection, “Interpreter of Maladies”, won the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction in 2000 and was translated into more than 30 languages. Her debut novel, “The Namesake”, was published to acclaim in 2003 and adapted into a film in 2006; “The Lowland” (2013) was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and was...

Simon and Rachel and Simon speak with the novelist Adam Thirlwell. The author of four novels - the first of which, "Politics", was published in 2003 when he was 24, and the latest of which is "The Future Future" - Adam's work has been translated into 30 languages. His essays appear in the New York Review of Books and the London Review of Books, and he is an advisory editor of the Paris Review. His...

Rachel and Simon speak with the novelist and historian Philippa Gregory. She began her career in journalism and worked at BBC Radio before publishing her first historical novel, "Wideacre", in 1987 while she was completing a PhD in 18th-century literature. Other bestselling novels followed, including "The Other Boleyn Girl" - which was adapted into a film starring Scarlett Johansson and Natalie Po...

Simon and Rachel speak to the drinks writer Henry Jeffreys, who won Fortnum & Mason Drink Writer of the Year for 2022/23. Henry is the author of four books on alcohol: "Empire of Booze", a history of Britain and its empire told through the origin stories of various drinks; "The Home Bar"; "The Cocktail Dictionary"; and, most recently, "Vines in a Cold Climate", about the nascent English wine indus...

Rachel and Simon speak to the journalist, author and former co-host of Always Take Notes, Kassia St. Clair. She has written for Architectural Digest, The Economist, the Times Literary Supplement and Wired, and had a column in Elle Decoration for many years. Her first book, “The Secret Lives of Colour”, recounted the “unusual stories of the 75 most fascinating shades, dyes and hues”; the book was a...

Simon and Rachel speak with the biographer Adam Sisman. After an initial career in publishing, Adam's first book, a biography of historian A.J.P. Taylor, appeared in 1994. His second, "Boswell's Presumptuous Task" (2000), won the US National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography, and he has subsequently written biographies of another historian, Hugh Trevor-Roper, and the espionage novelist John...

Rachel and Simon speak with the novelist Victoria Hislop. After studying English at university, Victoria worked in book publishing, PR and journalism. She turned to fiction in 2005 with “The Island”, a love story set on Spinalonga, Greece’s former leprosy colony. The novel was translated into 40 languages and sold more than six million copies worldwide; it was adapted into a 26-part Greek televisi...

Simon and Rachel speak with Anjan Sundaram, an award-winning author, journalist and television presenter, whose war correspondence has won a Frontline Club Award and a Reuters prize. Anjan's previous books are "Bad News: Last Journalists in a Dictatorship" (an Amazon Book of the Year) and "Stringer: A Reporter’s Journey in the Congo" (a Royal African Society Book of the Year). He has reported from...

Rachel and Simon speak with Sarah Braybrooke, publishing director at Ithaka Press, an imprint of Bonnier Books UK. Sarah started her career in publicity, first at Profile, then at Scribe, an independent publishing house based in Australia. She stayed with Scribe for 12 years, becoming managing director of Scribe UK in 2017, and publisher in 2020. During her time there, Sarah worked on titles inclu...

Simon and Rachel speak with the author and screenwriter Frank Cottrell-Boyce. "Millions", his debut children's novel, published in 2004, won the CILIP Carnegie Medal. He is also the author of "Noah's Gold", "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Flies Again", "Cosmic", "Framed", "The Astounding Broccoli Boy" and "Runaway Robot". His books have been shortlisted for numerous other prizes, including the Guardian C...

Rachel and Simon speak with the nature writer and novelist Helen Macdonald. "H is for Hawk", a memoir of grief and falconry published in 2014, won several prizes including the Costa Book of the Year and the Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction. "Vesper Flights", a collection of essays, was a Sunday Times bestseller in 2020. "Prophet", her latest book, is a sci-fi novel co-written with Sin Blaché....

Simon and Rachel speak with the novelist Lee Child, one of the world’s leading thriller writers. Lee - real name James Grant - was born in Coventry in 1954, raised in Birmingham, and now lives in the United States. He began his writing career after he was made redundant from Granada Television in the 1990s. Today the novels featuring his hero, former military policeman Jack Reacher, consistently a...