You're Booked

This week on You're Booked we're talking to the hugely acclaimed, bestselling author Lauren Groff! Lauren is our favourite type of guest - a massive, voracious and indiscriminate reader. Lauren is the three-time National Book Award finalist and The New York Times–bestselling author of the novels The Monsters of Templeton,  Arcadia ,  Fates and Furies and Matrix plus the short s...

This week we are delighted to welcome the broadcaster, academic and bestselling author Emma Dabiri to You're Booked. Emma is the author of Don't Touch My Hair ,  What White People Can Do Next: From Allyship to Coalition  and her latest book Disobedient Bodies: Reclaim Your Unruly Beauty , that accompanies  The Cult of Beauty , a major exhibition at Wellcome Collection. We talked to...

Our spectacular series of literary legends continues with the bestselling crime master Peter James ! Peter has written 19 Sunday Times number 1's, selling over 21 million books worldwide, with his Roy Grace series of books, including Want You Dead and Picture You Dead , turned into a hit ITV drama starring John Simm. His latest novel is Stop Them Dead . We talked to him about cleaning for Orson We...

Our series of LEGENDS continues with the absolute legend that is Lou Sanders ! Lou is a brilliant stand-up comedian, star of Taskmaster, co-host of Unforgivable alongside former YB guest Mel Giedroyc, podcaster and now the author of the unforgettable memoir What's That Lady Doing?: False Starts and Happy Endings . We talked to Lou about the genius of Deborah Levy, early spiritual dabblings, potent...

Our season of the stars continues with a genuine literary legend. It's Ken Follett ! Ken is one of the world’s most successful authors, selling over 188 million copies of his books. He's the creator of Pillars of the Earth , World Without End , Never and his latest The Armour of Light . He recently launched an online course on Writing Bestselling Fiction with BBC Maestro . We talked to him ab...

What a way to start a new series! It's the author, classicist, broadcaster and bone fide National Treasure Dame Mary Beard . We were lucky enough to speak to Mary during the Jaiphur Literary Festival at Soneva Fushi in the Maldives. Mary is the author of many books about the ancient world including the global bestsellers Women & Power , SPQR and her latest Emperor of Rome: Ruling the Ancient R...

Hurrah! We are very excited to bring you a guest we've being trying to get on the podcast for flipping ages. It's the wonderful Yomi Adegoke ! Yomi is a podcaster, broadcaster, multi-award winning journalist and the author of Slay in Your Lane (with former YB guest Elizabeth Uviebinené ) and The Offline Diaries (also with Elizabeth). Yomi's debut novel is the hotly anticipated The List , described...

We are delighted to invite one of our all-time favourite authors to the podcast this week. It's the sensational Lisa Jewell ! Lisa is the Sunday Times and New York Times bestselling author of twenty novels, which have sold over 10 million copies internationally and translated into 29 languages. Her debut (and YB fave) was Ralph's Party and subsequent releases include The Family Upstairs, Then She...

Comedian. Podcaster. Actor. Author. Is there anything that this woman can't do? Yes, we're welcoming the amazing Andi Osho to YB Towers this week. Andi is a talented stand-up, has starred or been involved with such TV and movie favourties as Line of Duty, Death In Paradise, Holby, I May Destroy You, Breeders, Good Omens and her own sketch show The Andi O Show. She hosts the Creative Sauce podcast...

We are back at the Jaipur Literature Festival at Soneva Fushi in the Maldives for this freewheeling conversation with the legend that is DBC Pierre ! Pierre's debut novel Vernon God Little was the winner of the Man Booker Prize for Fiction and the Whitbread First Novel Award. He followed this with a series of acclaimed works in fiction and non-fiction including Ludmila's Broken English, Break...

We are beyond honoured and excited to bring you this conversation with the legendary Christina Lamb OBE . Christina is the chief foreign correspondent of The Sunday Times and during her illustrious career she's reported from hot spots and war zones including Afghanistan, Nigeria, Zimbabwe and currently Ukraine. She's been named Foreign Correspondent of the Year on five occasions and winn...

Our love of Jane Austen should be painfully aware. But this week's guest might put our devotion to shame. The brilliant Andrew Hunter Murray hosts two hit podcasts: No Such Thing as a Fish (Andrew is also a QI Elf) and Page 94: A Private Eye Podcast (Andrew also writes for the magazine). He was also part of the UK's premier (and possibly only) Jane Austen based comedy improv group Austentatious -...

Now this is a treat! Get ready for a fun, frank and fascinating conversation with the great Balli Kaur Jaswal ! Balli is the author of five award-wining, bestselling novels, translated into fifteen languages. Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows  was picked by Reese Witherspoon for her book club, Sugarbread  was a finalist for the Epigram Books Fiction Prize and the 2018 Singapore Lite...

We are so excited to welcome one of our absolute heroes to the podcast. It's Josie Long ! Josie is an internationally renowned, beloved and multi-award-winning stand-up, podcaster, actor, playwright and radio presence. Her first short story collection, Because I Don't Know What You Mean and What You Don't has just been released. We talked to Josie about favourite short story collections, books to...

This week we are welcoming legendary TV royalty to You're Booked Towers. It's Steve Jones ! Steve is an instantly recognisable face to anyone with a telly, presenting T4 for many years, plus The X Factor USA, Hair, Drop Zone and F1 coverage on Channel 4. Steve has recently released his first novel the very funny Call Time to rave reviews (and as you'll hear, already has books 2 and 3 in the bag)....

Dream guest alert! We are very, very excited to welcome the wonderful Jenny Jackson to You're Booked! As well as being the author of smash hit novel Pineapple Street , Jenny has been a book editor for many years working with such YB faves as Katherine Heiny and Helen Fielding. So we had much to talk about. On the agenda is the genius of Laurie Colwin, the joy (and stress) of discovering new author...

This week we are delighted to welcome superstar author Caleb Azumah Nelson to the YB airwaves. As I'm sure you're well aware, Caleb's first book Open Water was a massive, bestselling success and won the prestigious Costa First Book award. His follow-up is the highly-anticipated Small Worlds which Candice Carty-Williams calls 'Beautiful, unforgettable and all-consuming'. We talked to Caleb about th...

We can't think of a better way to kick off a new series than a fabulously fun and illuminating chat with one of our favourite authors: Mhairi McFarlane ! Mhairi has been mentioned frequently on the podcast since we began and she is the beloved author of Mad About You , You Had Me At Hello , Here’s Looking At You , It’s Not Me It’s You , Last Night , Who’s That Girl and her latest Between Us . We t...

Book lovers everywhere, you are in for a treat! It's the brilliant, global sensation Emily Henry ! Emily is the New York Times bestselling author of Book Lovers , People We Meet on Vacation and Beach Read , as well as her latest, soon-to-be blockbuster: Happy Place . We talked to her about libraries as her Narnia, books as a curse (in a good way), reading crushes, and a deep dive into literary ast...

This week we are incredibly excited to bring you a writing legend and, dare we say, international treasure to the podcast. It's Cecelia Ahern ! Cecelia is the author of 19 books, that have sold 25 million copies in 30 languages, including PS I Love You, Where Rainbows End, The Time of My Life, How To Fall in Love, The Year I Met You, Flawed, Perfect, Lyrebird, ROAR, Postscript and Freckles. Her la...

This week, we are delighted to present a very funny, thoughtful and free-flowing conversation with a very old friend of the podcast, Nell Frizzell ! We've been dreaming of having Nell appear on the show since it began, so we're delighted to finally get the chance to chat. Nell is an author, journalist and podcaster. Her first novel was the hilarious Square One, while her first book, The Panic Year...

This was so much fun! Get ready for a funny, frank and fulfilling conversation with the brilliant Nikki May ! Nikki's debut novel Wahala was a former Steal of the Week and one of our favourite books in recent times. It's currently being adapted for TV and was recently shortlisted for the CWIP prize. We talked to Nikki about the problems associated with reading as a kid in Lagos, favourite food boo...

She's the writer of one of our favourite novels in recent times and one of the funniest people on the planet, so we are delighted to welcome Sunny author Sukh Ojla to the podcast! As well as being a fabulous novelist, Sukh is a comedian, actor and playwright. Her debut novel Sunny is a joyously funny story of love, loss and heartbreak. We talked to her about 90s cosplay, failing to impress Richard...

We've got Zott! Or the closest we're going to get until we can convince fictional characters to come onto the podcast. Yes, it's Lessons in Chemistry author Bonnie Garmus ! Bonnie's book, about chemist turned TV cook Elizabeth Zott (and her dog Six-Thirty) has been a huge and already beloved international bestseller, translated into 39 languages and with a TV adaptation in the works. We talked to...

Hurrah! This week we're featuring an author we've trying to tempt onto the show for ages. It's the brilliant Katherine May ! Katherine is the New York Times-bestselling author of Wintering which has been translated into twenty-five languages around the world, the acclaimed The Electricity of Every Living Thing and her new book Enchantment: Reawakening Wonder in an Exhausted Age . She also hosts th...