Author's Afterword

Charlie and Claire North (Notes From The Burning Age) discuss climate change today and into the future, sexism back of house in theatre, and how she views her books in terms of colours and shapes rather than words. Some podcast apps do not show description links properly unless the listener subscribes to the podcast. If you can't click the links below and don't wish to subscribe, copy and paste th...

Charlie and Tyler Keevil (Your Still Beating Heart) discuss using the violence of Snow White in an adult thriller to shocking and literary effect, writing in the second person to tell a story within a story where either - or both, or none - may be 'true', and the many hearts at the heart of his novel. Some podcast apps do not show description links properly unless the listener subscribes to the po...

Charlie and Rachel Hore (A Beautiful Spy) discuss the life and work of a female spy in the years between the First and Second World Wars, the man who inspired James Bond's M, and how Rachel took care to do right in her representation of a real person. Some podcast apps do not show description links properly unless the listener subscribes to the podcast. If you can't click the links below and don't...

Charlie and Gill Paul (The Second Marriage) discuss the lives and loves of Jackie Kennedy and Maria Callas from their early married years until later life, the womanising ways of the men in their lives, and the opera and celebrity that in Gill's book links them all. Some podcast apps do not show description links properly unless the listener subscribes to the podcast. If you can't click the links...

Charlie and Rosanna Ley (The Orange Grove) discuss whether one of her main characters, Ella, made the right decision with the situational contexts at hand, the viability of a shop focused on orange-related products and set up in Dorset, the Seville producers of those products, and the secrets of the flour-free cake that starts the whole thing off. Some podcast apps do not show description links pr...

Charlie and Zen Cho (Black Water Sister) discuss traditional Chinese beliefs, smashing up shrines, and Jane Austen. Some podcast apps do not show description links properly unless the listener subscribes to the podcast. If you can't click the links below and don't wish to subscribe, copy and paste the following address into your browser to access the episode's page on my blog: http://wormhole.carn...

Charlie and Christina Courtenay (Echoes Of The Runes; The Runes Of Destiny) discuss what the Vikings were really like, time travellers' historical partners travelling back with them, and predictability and coincidence as plot devices. Some podcast apps do not show description links properly unless the listener subscribes to the podcast. If you can't click the links below and don't wish to subscrib...

She's back! Nicola Cornick (The Forgotten Sister; The Last Daughter) returns to discuss Amy Robsart and the mystery of her death, the relationship between Robert Dudley and Elizabeth I, and the Princes in the Tower. Some podcast apps do not show description links properly unless the listener subscribes to the podcast. If you can't click the links below and don't wish to subscribe, copy and paste t...

Charlie and Kimberly Derting (The Body Finder) discuss publishing a dark YA series in the wake of Twilight, avoiding romance and family tropes, and the further lives of her characters beyond the final page. Some podcast apps do not show description links properly unless the listener subscribes to the podcast. If you can't click the links below and don't wish to subscribe, copy and paste the follow...

Charlie and Kate Forsyth (Bitter Greens; The Wild Girl) discuss the story and history of Rapunzel - which was part of Kate's doctoral thesis - as well as the woman who told the Brothers Grimm many of their tales, and the progression of change those tales went through as the brothers pursued success. Some podcast apps do not show description links properly unless the listener subscribes to the podc...

Charlie and Liz Fenwick (The Path To The Sea) discuss the success of spies in the Cold War who were - on the face of it - 'just' housewives, bringing new characters to more prominence and bringing past characters back from other books, and the age-old question of cream or jam first. Some podcast apps do not show description links properly unless the listener subscribes to the podcast. If you can't...

Charlie and Lillian Li (Number One Chinese Restaurant) discuss racial prejudice in Chinese restaurants, looking at the narrative of immigrant parents and sacrifice, and how her editor pushed her to increase the impact of themes and ideas. Please note that I have not censored the swear words in this episode because the over all effect would be different without them. Some podcast apps do not show d...

Charlie and Pasi Ilmari Jääskeläinen (The Rabbit Back Literature Society; Secret Passages In A Hillside Town) discuss dreams that become literature - vampires; books where words and plot points change in a sort of book plague; secret passages that wipe your memory, and many more - writing a book that's difficult for a reader to work out and not knowing yourself what the answer is, creepy and traum...

Charlie and Susmita Bhattacharya (Table Manners) discuss her world-wide travel and moves abroad - including a visa-less stopover, the experiences of recent immigrants to Britain, and having your work featured and serialised on BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio 4 Extra. Some podcast apps do not show description links properly unless the listener subscribes to the podcast. If you can't click the links below...

Charlie and Elizabeth Baines (Used To Be; Astral Travel) discuss writing for radio, short stories - the relative importance of their first lines and differences to novels - writing a book about trying to tell a story, and the difficulties in labelling someone complicit or a victim in the context of past societal values. Some podcast apps do not show description links properly unless the listener s...

Charlie and Katy Yocom (Three Ways To Disappear) discuss tiger conservation in India and balancing numbers alongside human requirements for life, the importance of being diligent when writing about a culture that is not your own, and what the three ways to disappear are. Some podcast apps do not show description links properly unless the listener subscribes to the podcast. If you can't click the l...

Charlie and Marianne Holmes (A Little Bird Told Me; All Your Little Lies) discuss procedures when children go missing, societal changes in regards to domestic violence in the 1970s, and, on a lighter note, trying not to finish books you're not enjoying. Please note there is some noise in this episode - noise cancelling headphones are recommended (pun not intended) as they will make the vocals cris...

Charlie and Deborah Swift (Past Encounters; The Occupation) discuss Brief Encounter at Carnforth, the experiences of prisoners of war at the time and once back home, the real life story of a Jersey woman who hid her Jewish friend, and reactions to the death of the last woman in Britain to be given capital punishment. Some podcast apps do not show description links properly unless the listener subs...

Charlie and Tammye Huf (A More Perfect Union) discuss her great-great-grandparents' relationship as an 1840s Irishman and a Black American slave, the way owners used Christianity to support their views of a racial hierarchy, and the lengths reached in order to label people by skin colour. Some podcast apps do not show description links properly unless the listener subscribes to the podcast. If you...

Charlie and Eric Beck Rubin (School Of Velocity) discuss the representation of the Holocaust in literature, using classical music as a literary device, having a main character whose person limits the opportunity for dialogue through his obsession with another, and the reader being a writer. Please note that the first reading contains sexual content. Some podcast apps do not show description links...

Charlie and Intisar Khanani (Thorn; The Sunbolt Chronicles) discuss working to better the health of people in Cincinnati, rewriting and exploring the Goose Girl fairy tale to stunning effect, bonkers jail-breaking heroines, and men who take a far more subtle approach than riding in on horses to save the day. Some podcast apps do not show description links properly unless the listener subscribes to...

Charlie and Joanna Hickson (First Of The Tudors; The Tudor Crown; The Lady Of The Ravens) discuss the royal and noble individuals of the War of the Roses, the women who made an impact, the ever-present question of who killed the princes in the tower, and, on another topic entirely, using weasels to prevent conception. Please note that the question about the fear of pregnancy and childbirth include...

Charlie and Nicholas Royle (Quilt; An English Guide To Birdwatching; Mother: A Memoir) discuss killing yourself – your avatar – off in your fiction, using 'it is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife', and sharing a name with another British writer who also writes fiction… that is also about birds… Please note that the first r...

Charlie and Midge Raymond (Forgetting English; My Last Continent) discuss the current situation in Antarctica and the balance of keeping it clean whilst allowing research and tourism, environmental and climate changes in the same location, and being followed to the toilet by a penguin. Some podcast apps do not show description links properly unless the listener subscribes to the podcast. If you ca...

Charlie and Peter Ho Davies (The Welsh Girl; The Fortunes) discuss moving as a writer from Britain to the US, Welsh with English as a second language, the first Chinese Americans, Hollywood star Anna May Wong, and the impact - then and now - of the murder of Vincent Chin. Some podcast apps do not show description links properly unless the listener subscribes to the podcast. If you can't click the...