Podcasts

Lesley Glaister speaks with Caroline Sanderson about the mystery of why some of her characters roar into life while others don’t; pays tribute to Hilary Mantel as a friend and mentor of her work; and argues that the heart of her fiction doesn’t only lie in darkness, but also in the triumph of the human spirit.

In this installment of 'How I Write', we hear from Royal Literary Fund fellows about their favourite places to write, taking in everything from garden sheds to trains and foreign hotel rooms.

Jamie Lee Searle speaks with Ann Morgan about unpicking books layer by layer, overcoming the fear of writing and the practicalities of the creative life.

Alan Jenkins speaks with John Greening about winning the Forward Prize, the moment he knew he would spend his life writing poetry, and the role of loss and death in his work.

Michaela Morgan speaks with Ann Morgan about becoming a reader by accident, writing for reluctant readers, using stories to unlock people and the importance of not writing down to children.

In this installment of 'How I Write', Royal Literary Fund writers discuss the mysterious mechanism by which stories, plays and poems are born, taking in everything from the arrival of the idea and the slog of the drafting process to the joys of editing.

Jeremy Treglown speaks with Ann Morgan about choosing biographical subjects, the fallibility of memory, trying to tell real-life stories fairly and the experience of being a critic as well as an author.

Emily Berry and our host Julia Copus discuss the often overlooked poetry of Wuthering Heights author Emily Brontë, focusing on ‘I’ll Come When Thou Art Saddest’, in 'Poetry Break'.

Lottie Moggach speaks with Catherine O’Flynn about following in the footsteps of a novelist parent, the joys of plot and research, the experience of diving into writing historical fiction, and how to answer when someone asks you what you do.