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.

This week we speak with YA author Marisa Linton about writing fiction as a means of refuge, bringing a wealth of academic knowledge to a creative outlet and we hear a reading from her novel The Binding Spell.

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Marisa Linton is an author, historian and professor emerita. She is one of the world's leading experts on the French Revolution, and taught history for many years at Kingston University, specializing in witchcraft and magical beliefs. She also works as a historical adviser, including for the TV series Dangerous Liaisons, where she was part of the writers' room. She now writes fantasy for young adults that draws on her love for ancient Celtic Britain, folklore and fascination with magic, ghost stories and the supernatural. Born in Barnes, in south-west London, into an Italian/English family, she has lived for many years in Brighton where she has raised her three children. Her novel The Binding Spell was published by Chicken House in May 2025.

We chat with prize-winning author Fiona Williams about her creative process, how it felt winning the Bridport first novel prize and giving herself time to play with different writing styles. Plus a reading from her beautiful novel The House of Broken Bricks.

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Fiona Williams is a writer of literary fiction. Her debut novel The House of Broken Bricks was the winner of the 2021 Bridport Prize, Peggy Chapman-Andrews First Novel Award and published by Faber in January 2024. She holds a BSc (Hons) in Biological Sciences from the University of Westminster and had a long career as a medical writer. She has since gained an MA with Distinction in Creative Writing from Bath Spa University and is currently completing a PhD in Creative Writing at the University of Exeter. Born and raised in South-East London, she now lives with her husband and two children in Exeter, where her writing focuses primarily on the relationships between identity, belonging, nature and landscape.

We chat to Kate Lord Brown about what it takes to write a book a year around the challenges of life, her process and honouring historic women through literature.

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Kate Lord Brown was a finalist in ITV's The People's Author contest, and her novel The Perfume Garden, which has been published in nine languages, was shortlisted for the Romantic Novel of the Year 2014. Her books have been top ten bestsellers in the UK, Canada, and several European countries. In 2020 she was highly commended in the RNA Elizabeth Goudge Trophy. Kate has also written editorial, reviews and regular columns for Traveller, Conde Nast, Good Housekeeping, Blueprint, The Bookseller, Bookbag, Writers' News, Arts Business, Gulf Times, Woman, Oryx, the Daily Telegraph, Sunday Express and others. She wrote the first book club column in the Middle East for two years, introducing a host of writers to the region through the pages of Ahlan! After many years living overseas, she has returned to the wild and beautiful southwest of England, where she grew up.

We speak to author Diana Anyakwo about her fascinating route into writing, where her inspiration comes from and how she balances writing with everything in life. Plus we hear a reading from her fab YA novel My Life as a Chameleon.

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Diana Anyakwo grew up in Lagos, Nigeria. She is of mixed Irish and Nigerian heritage. She moved to the UK when she was a teenager and later graduated from the University of Manchester with a degree in Molecular Biology and a Masters in Bioreactor Systems. She spent three years in Athens, Greece where she taught English and worked as an editor at an educational publisher. Her debut young adult novel My Life as a Chameleon has won the Children’s Africana Book Award 2025 in the US for Best Chapter Book, it was a finalist for the 2024 KPMG Children’s Books Ireland Awards and the Diverse Book Awards and longlisted for the 2024 Jhalak Children’s and YA prize. Her writing has appeared in The Telegraph and Black Ballad magazine. She currently lives and works in Manchester as a freelance writer and editor of English Language teaching materials.

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We spend a joyful half hour talking to Frances Quinn about writing historical novels, finding out what a Titanorack is and discovering that Francis hides Abba song titles in her novels!

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Frances Quinn is the author of historical novels The Smallest Man, That Bonesetter Woman and The Lost Passenger. She grew up in Forest Gate, East London and studied English at King’s College, Cambridge, then became a journalist and copywriter. She lives in Hove with her husband and three very spoilt Tonkinese cats.