We chat with author Amita Murray about her process for writing Regency novels, getting to know your characters and the importance of filling her creative cup.

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Amita Murray's Unladylike series of Regency novels are published with Harper Collins. She has won the Exeter Novel Prize and the SI Leeds Literary Prize, been a writer-in-residence with Leverhulme, Literature Works, Spread the Word, University College London, Plymouth University and others. She has taught creative writing in the world-renowned University of East Anglia programme and her writing appears in magazines such as Red, New Scientist, Big Issue, Bookseller, Writers Digest, Diva, Ellery Queen, Wasafiri and more.

In this episode we speak with novelist Roisin Maguire about being kind to yourself, filling your well as a source of creativity and the inspiration for her wonderful book Night Swimmers. Also includes a reading from the novel.

You can connect with Roisin through her publisher Serpent's Tail

Roisin is an award-winning short story writer who lives by the sea in rural County Down. A former bouncer, diver and primary-school teacher, Roisin has been writing for many years but over the pandemic took the opportunity to actually finish something. Her novel Night Swimmers was published by Serpent’s Tail in 2024 and was nominated for the Kate O'Brien Debut Authors Award in 2025.

We chat to Orlaine Mcdonald about protecting herself as a writer, her process and what it's like to be shortlisted for an award as a debut novelist. Plus a reading from her book No Small Thing.

Please note this episode comes with a trigger warning for discussion of suicide.

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Orlaine is a writer of mixed Jamaican & Irish heritage. She lives in London. No Small Thing won the 2024 Kate O'Brien Award, and was shortlisted for The 2024 Nero Book Awards for Debut Fiction, and the RSL Ondaatje Prize.