Lit with Charles

It was such a pleasure today to be joined by Olivia Kate Menzies - aka Liv - for this Season 3 finale, as we looked back on what has been a rich and varied run of conversations on Lit With Charles . Liv has played a key role behind the scenes this year – researching, preparing, and occasionally conducting interviews – so it felt only right to bring her in for a proper recap. In this episode, we re...

It was such a pleasure today to speak with the novelist Andrew Miller, one of Britain’s most accomplished contemporary writers, whose career now spans more than three decades and ten novels. Andrew joined me from South Somerset in the west of England to discuss his latest book, The Land in Winter, recently shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Set during the brutal winter of 1962–63, the novel explore...

This week on Lit With Charles , Liv — who has worked on the podcast for quite a while now — steps in to interview novelist and dramaturg Sarvat Hasin , author of the new novel Strange Girls . Sarvat is a British-Pakistani writer based in London. She studied Politics at Royal Holloway before completing a Master’s in Creative Writing at the University of Oxford. Prior to Strange Girls , she publishe...

It was such a pleasure today to interview a novelist I have known for many years, though not at the time as a novelist at all. Philippa Malicka and I first met about fifteen years ago in Delhi, when we were both living in India, long before writing became part of her public life. She has since published her debut novel, In Her Defense , a gripping and psychologically astute story that interrogates...

Leïla Slimani, author of "The Country of Others" & "Watch Us Dance" Leila Slimani is a highly acclaimed French-Moroccan author who has written some absolutely fantastic novels over the last few years. She burst into the mainstream consciousness when she won the prestigious Prix Goncourt in France in 2016 for her second novel Chanson Douce, which was translated into English...

In this relaxed Q&A episode, Charles answers listeners’ questions about his reading life, from how he structures his days around books to the different rhythms that shape how he approaches “easy” versus “demanding” reads. He shares his flexible methods, whether that means devouring a page turner in one long sitting or slowly metabolising a dense classic in small, manageable bursts. The convers...

Invention and re-invention are themes that are set deep in the American psyche and the American novel. My guest today is the American novelist JR Thornton, author of the upcoming novel “Lucien” to be published next month. It’s a tale of intrigue, set at Harvard, in the modern day, where a freshman artist is dazzled by his Euro-glamorous room-mate, and led down a tempting path of forgery and deceit...

In this episode, I’m joined by Lucy Caldwell , ahead of the publication of her new short story collection Devotions , due out in April 2026. We may be early to the party, but this conversation offers a rich introduction to a book that explores love, loss, longing, and the everyday objects and rituals we turn into acts of devotion. From a Belfast theatre troupe taking an experimental Hamlet to New...

Content warning: this episode discusses sexual assault and feminicide in detail and may be distressing for some listeners. Please take care while listening and step away if needed. In this episode, I’m joined by Swiss novelist Michelle Steinbeck to discuss her haunting second novel Favorita , newly translated into English, and the urgent subject of feminicide, the murder of women, often by men. Th...

In today’s episode, I look at the 5 best books that I’ve read in 2025. I’m pleased to say that this is an eclectic list of books which covers a lot of different genres so there’s something for everybody! What are some of the best books that you’ve read this year?  Thank you so much for listening this year and see you in 2026! Lit with Charles loves reviews. If you enjoyed this episode, I’d be so g...

In this episode of Lit with Charles , Charles welcomes British writer Manish Chauhan to celebrate the lead-up to his debut novel Belgrave Road (out with Faber in January). Set in Leicester, the book traces the intersecting lives of Mira , newly arrived from India in an arranged marriage that offers little refuge, and Talia , a Somali refugee navigating the UK asylum system. Manish speaks candidly...

I’m joined today by Cosima Carnegie, better known on social media as Cosi’s Odyssey: a classicist, writer, and creative producer whose work brings Greek myth and ritual into the present through essays, videos, and immersive events. We’re talking not only about her journey into Classics, but about the four books that have most influenced her on her path to scholarship. It’s a great blend that opens...

I’m joined this week by writer and journalist Ilya Gridneff, whose career has taken him from Sydney to South Sudan and now to the Financial Times bureau in Canada. We talk about his first work of fiction, Your Name Here, co-authored with the brilliant Helen DeWitt — a wild, experimental novel with a long, unusual history. We also dive into the ideas and books that shaped him. If you enjoy the epis...

Today’s a very special day for this podcast. After three years, and a whole lot of work, we’ve arrived at huge milestone – the 100th episode of the Lit With Charles podcast. After 99 conversations where I’m the one asking the questions about what four books have influenced our guests’ lives and work, I thought I’d try a little plot twist. In this conversation, I’m going to be talking about the fou...

In this episode of Lit With Charles , I speak with writer, translator, and Chekhov expert Rosamund Bartlett about her new translation of Anton Chekhov’s Early Stories . We talk about how Anton Chekhov - the Russian doctor who transformed short fiction - first found his voice, and why his quiet, compassionate storytelling still feels so modern. Rosamund also shares insights from her other acclaimed...

On Lit with Charles , we usually dive into novels, short stories, and poetry - but in this episode, we’re doing something a little radical. From the longest literary forms to one of the shortest: the aphorism . An aphorism is a short, striking statement - often just a line or two - that captures a deep universal truth. It’s a form beloved by some of history’s greatest minds: Oscar Wilde, Mark Twai...

This week on the podcast, we’re joined by Bolivian author Liliana Colanzi, one of the most exciting new voices in Latin American horror. Her latest short story collection, You Glow in the Dark (2022), recently translated into English, blends science fiction, myth, and social commentary with a distinctly eerie beauty. We talk about the four books that shaped her imagination, the rise of female Lati...

This week I’m speaking with award-winning British author Tessa Hadley about her newest novella, The Party . Set in postwar Bristol, it follows two sisters over a single weekend as they move through a series of gatherings that reveal the class divisions and shifting gender roles of mid-century Britain — that fascinating era between the war and the Beatles. In our conversation, we discuss Hadley’s a...

As we approach Halloween, I figured it was time to get a little gothic on the Lit With Charles podcast. My guest today is writer and literary champion Mairi Kidd, whose new novel Poor Creatures imagines the world of Mary Shelley before she wrote Frankenstein - the people around her, the ideas she was grappling with, and the forces that shaped one of the most enduring stories in literature. Our con...

We don’t have enough poetry on this show, and it’s time to change that. My guest today is Richard Scott, a contemporary British poet known for his bold, lyrical explorations of queer identity, desire, shame, and the politics of the body. He trained as an opera singer before turning to poetry, and has released two collections, Soho (2018) and That Broke into Shining Crystals (2025). In our conversa...

We’re revisiting one of our most popular episodes: a 2023 conversation with rare bookseller Tom Ayling. Tom shares insights into the world of rare and antiquarian books — from the thrill of uncovering forgotten first editions to the evolving market for collectors. Now running his own business in Oxfordshire, Tom offers a behind-the-scenes look at book collecting, the history of the trade, and the...

Today I’m joined by acclaimed novelist and critic Tom McCarthy to talk about his latest book, The Threshold and the Ledger , a fascinating exploration of Ingeborg Bachmann — one of the most important writers of postwar European literature. We discuss Bachmann’s major works, including Malina and Salt and Bread , and the recurring themes of trauma, memory, history, and hospitality in her writing. To...

In this episode of Lit with Charles , I speak with Alexander Starritt , author of the novels We Germans (2020) and Drayton and Mackenzie (2024). We Germans is a devastatingly humane wartime confession: an elderly German writes a long letter to his British grandson about serving on the Eastern Front, with the grandson’s present-day interjections sharpening the moral contrasts between war and ordina...

In this episode of Lit with Charles , I speak with Ben Pester , author of the novel The Expansion Project . Blending corporate satire with surrealism, The Expansion Project follows Tom, who brings his daughter Hen to Capmeadow Business Park for “Bring Your Daughter to Work Day.” When Hen vanishes without a trace, Tom’s reality begins to unravel. Decades later, an unnamed Archivist pieces together...

This week, we’re doing something a little different. Normally I’m the one asking the questions, but today, in the name of bringing new voices into the conversation, I’m handing the mic over to someone who usually works behind the scenes on the Lit With Charles podcast – Liv. In this episode, she speaks with British author Amy Twigg, whose fantastic debut Spoilt Creatures follows a 30-something wom...