The Making Books Podcast

For the finale of Season One, a banger for you - an interview with the wonderful Waterstones Children's Laureate Joseph Coehlo! Joe talks us through balancing writing with the responsibilities of Laureate-ing, his notebook organisation, working with illustrators, all while I ogle his beautiful jumper. Thank you to Joe and to all the interviewees who've made this podcast happen and be a lot of fun...

This is a cracking interview with the funny and fantastic historical fiction children's writer (plus she does a whole tonne of other impressive stuff) Iszi Lawrence. She's the talent behind 'The Time Machine Next Door series' for 7-9 year olds as well as many splendid stand-alone middle grade novels including acclaimed 'The Unstoppable Letty Pegg'. We talk through historical research, beautiful no...

A magical-feeling chat with fantasy children's writer Amy Wilson. We tucked ourselves up by a log fire in Amy's house, even though Amy was getting over a bad cold at the time. It's brilliant to hear from Amy how she manages the life/ writing juggle and how inspiration can strike at any moment - you'll look at school runs and supermarket trips in a new way. //AMY LINKS// https://amywilsonbooks.com/...

Strap in for an absolutely fascinating chat with the awesome M.G. Leonard! M.G. Leonard is a total star in the childen's books world; she has written multiple series, won many awards, changed the way we see beetles but never thought she'd be a writer. Find out how she does it right here! //MG LINKS// https://www.mgleonard.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mglnrd Twitter/ X: https://twitter...

A frank, honest and funny chat with the glorious AF Harrold, who is definitely not a writer of children's book but is a poet who has just happened to write some stunning children's books in his time. We talk about Mr. Noselighter by Roger McGough, book sales, working with illustrator greats, poetry and Susan the Cat (AF's feline) makes an appearance too. //AF LINKS// https://www.afharroldkids.com/...

This is a chuckling-chat-conversation with 'The new master of books for children' ( The Times) Piers Torday! Whilst acclaimed children's writer Piers Torday waits for his next round of edits to come through, we talk about the varying ways we react to editorial notes, how Piers started writing and what he's learnt along the way. //PIERS LINKS// https://www.pierstorday.co.uk/books/ https://www....

The first interview with a publishing industry professional! This week, we hear all about the morning routine, workload and book business of literary agent James Spackman. James has worked in publishing for many years, starting out as a post-room worker at Bloomsbury Publishers before moving into selling and marketing books. He has run a cycling book imprint named 'Pursuit,' is the 'Book Pitch Doc...

Brian Conaghan spills the beans about book writing, writing for television and his baby monkey plant. We had a chat via Zoom from writing shed to writing shed (Brian's was much fancier than mine) with probably the best irreverent chat-starter to date. //BRIAN LINKS// Twitter/ X - https://twitter.com/ConaghanAuthor Books - https://www.amazon.co.uk/stores/Brian-Conaghan/author/B00O0J9NSW?ref=ap_rdr&...

A deep dive into the fascinating book journey of author Jenny McLachlan who has written novels for young adults and middle grade and has recently published her first illustrated project, a book for younger readers entitled 'Stink'. We also fall into a rabbit hole chat about how odd we were as children but how this is probably what made us into the book creators we are today. //JENNY LINKS// https:...

A great chat with my pal and fantastic picture book maker Karen George whose book career began after winning a competition to illustrate a story by Julia Donaldson. We go into extreme detail of Karen's book-life story, how she makes her illustrations and talk about her acclaimed work on 'What Happened to You?', her most recent book 'Mr. Mornington's Favourite Things', a touching and moving tale of...

A deep dive into middle-grade writer Michael Mann's origin (writing) story and his processes. Michael has written two stunning middle-grade books, 'Ghostcloud' and its sequel, 'Nightspark' and is working on a third - of which he gives listeners a sneak peek. //MICHAEL LINKS// https://www.michaelmann.co.uk/ https://twitter.com/mikebmann?lang=en https://www.instagram.com/mikemannwrites/ Ghostcloud (...

A slightly hysterical and pretty sweary chat with the formidable Yasmeen Ismail - picture book maker extraordinaire. Whilst hungry for dinner, Yas shares her career move from animation into children's illustration, how she found her voice and some good advice she received along the way. //YAS LINKS// https://www.yasmeenismail.co.uk/ https://www.instagram.com/yasmeeny/ Would You Like a Banana (book...

A fascinating chat with Korean-born, Bournemouth-based illustrator author Sojung Kim-McCarthy. Not only the self-declared best Korean cook in Bournemouth, Sojung's illustrations are works of beauty that grace two of Polly's younger fiction titles, The Boy Who Grew a Tree and The Girl Who Became a Fish, both published by Knights Of. Recorded in the offices of Darley Anderson Children's Book Agency,...

In this first-ever episode of the Making Books Podcast, Joff Winterhart talks about the writing of his two (and three-quarter) graphic novels, Days of the Bagnold Summer, Driving Short Distances and his new book, title yet to be announced. Having been interrupted, with zero warning, Joff graciously hosted the recording of this episode in his living room where he does a lot of his book work. Be pre...