15-03-2018
Lorna Thorpe speaks with Geoff Hattersley about wild youth and being a 'late starter in everything', becoming a poet by accident, being dead for six minutes, and her American and musical influences.
15-02-2018
Mavis Cheek, John Siddique, Sanjida O'Connell, Ray French, Gwyneth Lewis and Jonathan Tulloch share their all-time favourite books, and explain why they matter.
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The suburbs have often been dismissed as dull, but for Charles Jennings, they are a source of inspiration, offering a calm and neutral space in which his imagination can run wild.
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After an accident left him with a broken arm, Roy Bainton had to learn to manage without the use of one hand, discovering how difficult ordinary tasks, such as driving – and typing – had become. His experience left him chastened, and with a new insight into the lives of other writers whose disabilities were more permanent.
18-05-2017
Cynthia Rogerson contemplates the literary spurs of exile and outsiderhood, wonders whether she would have written any novels if she’d simply stayed at home in the USA, and explains why being a writer is easier in Scotland than in California.
Brian McAvera considers what we’ve lost in favouring naturalistic, TV-esque theatre over the wider and deeper possibilities offered by non-naturalism.
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Every writer has a file, a drawer or a cupboard of unfinished or unpublished books. After going through his own dusty box file, Rupert Christiansen considers the classic novels that once lived as ‘zombies’ — and finds new hope that his own may yet come to life.