A Story Radio Salon on the theme of Love, with readings from works in progress by some of our regular writer guests.

Kristin Burniston is a graduate of the MA Screenwriting program at the University of Arts London. In 2023, her short film scripts TREE and HAIRY MARY were selected by the City of Angels Film Festival, WOFFF (where HAIRY MARY placed 2nd), and Best-Script, London.

Recently, Kristin‘s script EGGS was made into a short film and will soon be released on to the festival circuit. Currently, Kristin is working on a London-based children’s animation, a crime fiction TV series, and a feature film script based on her menopausal rite-of-passage novel.

Lindsay Gillespie was born in South Wales, and lives in the South Downs. In between she has been a graphic designer and illustrator, lived in New Delhi, Washington DC, France and taught English in Tokyo. In 2018-2019, she was enrolled in the Creative Writing Programme of New Writing South. She writes short and not-so-short stories and was a Costa 2021 Short Story Award finalist. A year later, she was a finalist for the Bridport Short Story Prize. Other short stories have been shortlisted in nine competitions in recent years including Fiction Factory, Exeter, Oxford Flash Fiction, Fiction Factory Flash, Rhys Davies, Frome, ChipLit, Edinburgh and Fish.

Miki Lentin completed an MA in Creative Writing at Birkbeck and was a finalist for the 2020 Irish Novel Fair with Winter Sun. His short stories have been published in Litro and Story Radio. He released his short story collection Inner Core in 2022, and his debut novel Winter Sun was published by Afsana Press.

Lana Citron is a prize-winning author and scriptwriter with twenty years’ professional writing experience. She has published five novels, two non-fiction books and numerous short stories, plays, poems, film scripts, articles and book. Extracts read today are from her book Edible Pleasures, a Textbook of Aphrodisiacs.

Martin Nathan‘s short fiction and poetry have appeared in various journals. His novel A Place of Safety is published by Salt Publishing. His dramatic writing has been shortlisted for the Nick Darke Award and the Woodward International Prize. Martin will be reading from a new short story.

Founder and co-host of the Story Radio Podcast, Tabitha Potts is a short story writer and novelist. She received an Honourable Mention in the Alpine Fellowship Writing Prize for her story ‘Poppet’ and is publishing her debut novel The House of Dust and Shadows in 2026 with Rowan Prose Publishing.

The podcast is recorded live in the Colony Room Green bar.

Not Yet is the story of Gabrielle, a woman traveling to the absurdly picturesque coastline of Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula with her son, their first family trip since her separation from his father. It is a place that holds many memories, and when she suddenly finds herself bleeding uncontrollably all over Tulum, the past catches up with her.

It’s a startling, powerful story about womanhood, family, youth and mid-life, that is undeniably topical.

Joanna Hershon is the author of five novels. Her writing and short stories have appeared in The New York Times, Granta, One Story, The Virginia Quarterly Review, among others, and her work was shortlisted for the O. Henry Prize Stories. Joanna has received fellowships from Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference and the Edward Albee Foundation. She is currently an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Columbia University. Joanna grew up in New York and lives in Brooklyn with her husband, and their twin sons and daughter.

This show was produced by Tabitha Potts.

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Sound effects

beach-wave-cliff-tulum-ruins.wav by Geoff-Bremner-Audio -- https://freesound.org/s/667331/ -- License: Creative Commons 0

Airy wind chimes quintet at Hunter's Tor, Teign Gorge by Philip_Goddard -- https://freesound.org/s/700528/ -- License: Attribution NonCommercial 4.0

Podcast Cover Image

Source Tulum Archaeological Site - Quintana Roo - Mexico - 01

Author Adam Jones from Kelowna, BC, Canada Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.

Let The Good Times Roll.

Larry has been a circus clown for over thirty years. Now, with the threat of closure, he stands to lose everything.

About Duncan Robert Illing

Duncan is a writer living in Brighton, his first short story Let The Good Times Roll was published in June 2022 in Brighton & Beyond, A West Hill Writers Anthology.

A writer of fiction, memoir, non-fiction and script, a radio presenter, producer, musician, composer and former A&R manager. Duncan’s writing can be found on Substack, he’s focussing on his next writing projects which include a novel.

CREDITS

Let The Good Times Roll

A story by Duncan Robert Illing

Adapted by Duncan Robert Illing and Kristin Burniston

Larry was played by Andrew Lancel.

Mr Brotherton by Andy M Milligan.

The Administrator by Laura Finnemore

Grace by Shona Graham

Billy by John Kennard

Stewart by James Merganser

Pete by Rob Vincent

Directed by Kristin Burniston and Duncan Robert Illing.

Produced by Duncan Robert Illing

Additional credits:

Entrance of the Gladiators by Julius Fučík performed by the U.S Marine Band, music and performance are both public domain.

Jazz music listed as copyright free and Creative Commons for use.

Clown act music listed as copyright free for use.

Any additional sourced sound effects listed as copyright free and/or public domain at source.

Clown image source listed as copyright free, and its specific adaptation is under copyright.

All remaining aspects of this drama production are under copyright.