Not Too Busy To Write

Summer Replay Series Chloe Ashby is an arts journalist and author based in London. Her debut novel Wet Paint is about a young woman struggling to move forward after the traumatic death of her best friend, who finds solace in a painting and a life of routine, until a sudden change of circumstances has her undressing for strangers as a life model. We talk about ways of finding your way in to a story...

It's Carers Week in the UK so I have recorded a bonus episode of teh podcast with two fellow writer carers. Marina Benjamin is the author of many books, the latest of which is A little Give: the unsung, unseen, undone work of women. She also cares for her elderly mother. Caro Giles is the author of Twelve Moons; A year under a share sky and is a single parent to four daughters, two of whom have co...

Daisy Buchanan is an award winning journalist, author and broadcaster who has had a varied writing career beginning in teen magazines, and now as a novelist. She's also the host of the chart topping podcast You're Booked - one of my favourite podcasts of all time. We talk about Daisy's move from journalist and non-fiction author to fiction, and how terrifying that was, the joys and challenges of w...

Are you tearing your hair out about social media? Do you want to use it to grow your profile as a writer or shout about your book but it makes you uncomfortable? Nicola Washington is a social media marketer and she is passionate about helping writers get their work out into the world. As she says in this episode, after the immense hard work of writing a book, what a huge waste if nobody hears abou...

Suzy Reading is a chartered psychologist, yoga teacher and coach whose work all centres around giving people the skills to nourish themselves. Her latest book is Rest to Reset: The busy persons guide to pausing with purpose. As well as talking about Suzy's journey from expert to author of 8 books, we talk about what rest actually looks like, the problem with the current conversations around burnou...

Joanna Wolfarth is a cultural historian with a PhD in Southeast Asian art history. Her first book Milk: An intimate history of breastfeeding is a fascinating look at the social, historical and cultural contexts for this very personal of experiences, through art, philosophy, folk wisdom and interviews. Joanna talks about how needing to make sense of the experience of new motherhood, led to a furiou...

Lucy Werner is a PR expert and founder of The Wern, an agency specialising in PR and branding for creative small businesses. Lucy is not only an expert at book PR but also a published author herself and in this episode Lucy shares what she has learned about book PR and marketing from both sides. From building your authority and your brand before you publish, to promoting a book that already exists...

Catherine Newman is a writer with a varied career including two parenting memoirs and a middle grade novel. She had written for the New York Times, O Magazine, The Boston Globe and was a columnist for Real Simple Magazine. Her debut novel We All Want Impossible Things is the story of Ash, whose best friend Edi is dying of cancer. Set over a few weeks in a hospice, this book is filled with laughter...

Caro Giles is a writer based in the north east of England, whose first book Twelve Moons tells the story, across a year, of raising her 4 daughters alone in a wild and isolated part of the country. It's an incredible memoir about caring, isolation, and joy found in tiny pockets of time. We talk about how the pandemic totally changed how she the structure of the book, the challenges of writing and...

After a varied writing career including speech writing, journalism and screen writing, Janice Hallett turned to crime fiction and became a best-selling author that completely turned the genre on its head. Using transcripts, messages, emails, letters and articles, Janice's novels weave intricate, humourous and clever tales of murder and mystery. It was such a delight to take a deep dive with her in...

Not Too Busy To Write will be back for a new series on January 18th. Guests for series 6 include memoirists, debut novelists, non-fiction authors and much more. The series kicks off with best selling crime author Janice Hallett and oh my goodness is it a great episode about writing outside of the box. See you in two weeks for series 6! Want to write a non-fiction book proposal this year? Penn...

Lindsey Kelk is a Sunday Times bestselling author of over 20 novels. Her latest The Christmas Wish is a hilarious and delightful time loop story set during a family Christmas. Lindsey and I chat about subverting Hallmark movie tropes, being a full time novelist in a much maligned genre and the realities of being working class in the publishing industry. The Christmas Wish is a joy and is out now i...

Chibundu Onuzo is a novelist whose first book was published when she was just 21 years old. Her third and latest novel Sankofa was short listed for the Women's Prize for Fiction Futures Prize, an Amazon book of the year and a Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick in 2021. We talk about the inspiration behind Sankofa, how Chibundu's writing process has changed over the past 10 years and her role as a ju...

Emily Henson is an art director and stylist and the author of five books. Her latest is Create: Inspiring homes that value creativity over consumption . In this episode Emily talks about her journey from stylist and blogger to author and the close collaborative, relationship she has with her publisher. It's a really fun and informative episode for all those who would love to know exactly what goes...

Ali and Penny are back together talking about the experience of publication. It has been three months since Ali's book The Last Days came out and it seemed like a great time to have a debrief and discuss the highs and lows, the hard work and the realities of publishing. We talk about reviews, proofs, blurbs, news events that drown out book publicity and the things outside of our control when publi...

Winnie M Li is a Taiwanese-American author and activist originally from New Jersey. Her second novel Complicit is about a film lecturer in an obscure American college who once was on the cusp of a major film career. When she is approached by an investigative journalist about an alleged incident that occurred 10 years earlier, memories of youthful ambition and guilt arise. Winnie talks in this epis...

Shakaila Forbes-Bell is a fashion psychologist and the author of Big Dress Energy: How fashion psychology can transform your wardrobe and your confidence . It's a book that is a pleasure to read, filled with insights and backed up by rigorous research. In this episode Shakaila talks dressing our different identities, the challenges of switching from academic writing to creative non-fiction, making...

Margaux Vialleron is a French born, London based writer. Her debut novel The Yellow Kitchen centres around the friendship of three very different women over the course of a year, with a kitchen and the food prepared within it at its heart. Margaux speaks about why she is drawn to writing about friendship and food, how she uses her sense to dive into the English language and why she has chosen to w...

Beth Kempton is a Japanologist, a best selling author and a writing mentor whose books have been translated into 24 languages. Her Latest book The Way of the Fearless Writer challenges the assumption that writing must be a struggle and filled with suffering. We talk about why it's important to know why we write, learning to let go in our writing, when to share our work (and when not to) and learni...

Huma Qureshi is a former Guardian and Observer journalist and is the author of the memoir How We Met and her latest book Things We Do Not Tell The People We Love, is a short story collection about the distance between people - between mothers and daughters and between lovers. It includes the "The Jam Maker" which won the Harper's Bazaar Short Story Prize 2020. We talk about what drove Huma to set...

Cathy Rentzenbrink is a Sunday Times best selling author of The Last Act of Love, A Manual for Heartache, Dear Reader and Everyone is Still Alive. Her latest book, Write It All Down, is all about writing from life. Cathy talks about how her first memoir started because she need to write it out of her, how she's learned to trust the process of writing, even though she's still filled with self doubt...

Julia Silk is a an agent with Greyhound Literary. Julia spent many years as an editor before becoming an agent who represents a wide range of fiction and non-fiction authors. We talk about what exactly an agent does, how agents find and nurture authors as well as how agents deal with rejection (yes they get rejected too!). She also talks about the common problems that she sees in manuscripts, incl...

REPLAY: This episode was originally released in April 2022 Sophie Howarth has a varied and unique career spanning art, entrepreneurship, teaching, activism and writing. She has been Curator of Public Programs at Tate Modern, co-founded The School Of Life and Department Store for The Mind, has written several books on photography. Her latest book The Mindful Photographer is about slowing down and p...

Lulah Ellender is an author, creative non-fiction writing teacher and writing coach based in Sussex. Her latest book Grounding: Finding home in a garden is about a single growing year in her garden after her mother died and her family was in danger of losing the home that they had lived in for 10 years. We talk about how Lulah weaves together the stories of many other gardens and the artists who c...

Angela Hui is an award winning food and lifestyle journalist whose first book Takeway: Stories from a childhood behind the counter is about growing up in a Chinese takeaway in rural Wales. We talk about how the memoir began life as an article she wrote for VICE on how Chinese takeaways are disappearing and the dual identities of her childhood - going from yearning to fit in to coming to love and a...