You Wrote The Book!

Hello and welcome back to You Wrote The Book, a book based podcast hosted by Simon Savidge. Each fortnight over the coming months he will be joined by a special guest author to discuss their life as a writer and as a reader, from the current novel they have published to the first book they read and everything in between. The guest for this episode is author Xiaolu Guo who has just been named one of the Granta Young Best British Novelists, a list which only happens once a decade. Xiaolu has been a favourite author of Simon's ever since he read, the now cult novel, A Concise Chinese English Dictionary for Lovers, I have since read 20 Fragments of a Ravenous Youth, UFO in Her Eyes, which is one of the many movies she has written and also her short story collection Lovers in the age of indifference, so as you might have guessed he is a bit of a fan. In this episode they discuss the Granta listing, her works so far, her writing rituals and what might be coming next... Over the next few weeks Simon will be joined by Sophie Hannah, Keith Ridgway and John Boyne. If you have any questions you would like to ask the author, or any feedback then you can email youwrotethebook@gmail.com or comment on twitter @youwrotethebook If you want to hear Simon talking more books do join him every week with Gavin Pugh on The Readers Podcast, you can also find him chatting and reviewing book on his blog Savidge Reads. Until next time thank you for listening… And don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes where you can find previous episodes with Alan Bradley, Taiye Selasi, Joanne Harris, Patrick Ness, Damian Barr and Maggie O’Farrell.

Hello and welcome back to You Wrote The Book, a book based podcast hosted by Simon Savidge. Each fortnight over the coming months he will be joined by a special guest author to discuss their life as a writer and as a reader, from the current novel they have published to the first book they read and everything in between. The guest for this episode is journalist and book salonista Damian Barr who has just released his memoir Maggie and Me. Damian has been a journalist for many years working for the likes of The Ties, The Guardian, Harpers Bizarre, GQ, Country Life and Granta.  He has also written plays for Radio 4 where he often appears as a guest on topical shows. Damian is also a blatant book lover and book pusher both hosting The Literary Salon in London and  weekend reading retreats throughout the UK... However it is ‘Maggie and Me’ that is discussed on this episode of You Wrote The Book and the subjects it brings up, such as politics, child abuse, sexuality, books and (of course) Margaret Thatcher... Over the next few weeks Simon will be joined by Xiaolu Guo, Sophie Hannah, Tan Twan Eng and Keith Ridgway. If you have any questions you would like to ask the author, or any feedback then you can email youwrotethebook@gmail.com or comment on twitter @youwrotethebook If you want to hear Simon talking more books do join him every week with Gavin Pugh on The Readers Podcast, you can also find him chatting and reviewing book on his blog Savidge Reads. Until next time thank you for listening… And don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes where you can find previous episodes with Alan Bradley, Taiye Selasi, Joanne Harris, Patrick Ness and Maggie O’Farrell.

Hello and welcome back to You Wrote The Book, a book based podcast hosted by Simon Savidge. Each fortnight over the coming months he will be joined by a special guest author to discuss their life as a writer and as a reader, from the current novel they have published to the first book they read and everything in between. In the latest episode of the show Simon is joined by Alan Bradley. Since Alan's debut novel 'The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie' the world has come to know and love his 11 year old protagonist, and amateur detective, Flavia de Luce. Set in the 1950's english countryside with wonderful characters, family drama, long running secrets and much more once you have read one book you want to read them all. 'Speaking from Among the Bones', the latest - and fifth - Flavia mystery, finally gave Simon the chance to catch up with one of his favourite writers of one of his favourite series of books. In this episode of ‘You Wrote The Book!’ Alan discusses this latest novel, no spoilers, where the wonderful Flavia came from, if we have to fear of her stories ever running out, what she might be like as an old lady, the plans for her to appear on screen and whether he might try some stories outside Flavia's world, plus much more... Over the next few weeks Simon will be being joined by Damian Barr, Xiaolu Guo, Sophie Hannah, Tan Twan Eng and Keith Ridgway. If you have any questions you would like to ask the author, or any feedback then you can email youwrotethebook@gmail.com or comment on twitter @youwrotethebook If you want to hear Simon talking more books do join him every week with Gavin Pugh on The Readers Podcast, you can also find him chatting and reviewing book on his blog Savidge Reads. Until next time thank you for listening… And don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes where you can find previous episodes with Taiye Selasi, Joanne Harris, Patrick Ness and Maggie O’Farrell.

Hello and welcome back to You Wrote The Book, a book based podcast hosted by Simon Savidge. Each fortnight over the coming months he will be joined by a special guest author to discuss their life as a writer and as a reader, from the current novel they have published to the first book they read and everything in between. In the latest episode of the show Simon is joined by debut novelist Taiye Selasi. Taiye is only on her first novel, ‘Ghana Must Go’, and already she has become an author people are incredibly excited about. This year alone she was included in the Waterstones 11 and has just been named one of Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists earlier this week. Prior to that her essay ‘Bye-Bye, Babar’ coined the phrase ‘Afropoliton’ and none other than Toni Morrison gave Taiye a deadline to write a short story which became ‘The Sex Lives of African Girls’ which Granta published and is now  included in the 2012 anthology of Best American Short Stories. In this episode of ‘You Wrote The Book!’ Taiye discusses ‘Ghana Must Go’ in depth - no spoilers though; how the idea arrived to her, how the characters told their tale, her journey to the book, how War affects us even when we think it doesn’t, Francis Bacon, her first (rather macabre) poem and much more... Over the next few weeks Simon will be being joined by Alan Bradley. If you have any questions you would like to ask the author, or any feedback then you can email youwrotethebook@gmail.com or comment on twitter @youwrotethebook If you want to hear Simon talking more books do join him every week with Gavin Pugh on The Readers Podcast, you can also find him chatting and reviewing book on his blog Savidge Reads. Until next time thank you for listening… And don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes where you can find previous episodes with Joanne Harris, Patrick Ness and Maggie O’Farrell.

Hello and welcome back to You Wrote The Book, a book based podcast hosted by Simon Savidge. Each fortnight over the coming months he will be joined by a special guest author to discuss their life as a writer and as a reader, from the current novel they have published to the first book they read and everything in between. For the third episode of You Wrote The Book we are joined by Joanne Harris. Joanne released her debut novel ‘The Evil Seed’ in 1989 followed by ‘Sleep Pale Sister’ 1993 both with supernatural elements, these were followed by 'Chocolat' in 1999 which was made into an Oscar nominated film and saw Joanne getting a worldwide audience. Since then she has written two books for young adults, co written two cook books, published two short story collections and written eight further novels for adults. Her latest ‘Peaches for Monsieur le Cure’ sees Vianne Rocher, heroine of Chocolat returning to the town of Lansquenet once more. When I caught up with her last week we started by discussing this latest novel... A big thank you again to Joanne for joining Simon on the show. Over the next few weeks Simon will be being joined by Alan Bradley and Taiye Selasi. If you have any questions you would like to ask the author, or any feedback then you can email youwrotethebook@gmail.com or comment on twitter @youwrotethebook If you want to hear Simon talking more books do join him every week with Gavin Pugh on The Readers Podcast, you can also find him chatting and reviewing book on his blog Savidge Reads. Until next time thank you for listening… And don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes where you can find previous episodes with Patrick Ness and Maggie O'Farrell.

Hello and welcome back to You Wrote The Book, a book based podcast hosted by Simon Savidge. Each fortnight over the coming months he will be joined by a special guest author to discuss their life as a writer and as a reader, from the current novel they have published to the first book they read and everything in between. Simon’s second guest is the author Patrick Ness. Patrick released his debut novel ‘The Crash of Hennington’ in 2003 followed by a short story collection ‘Topics About Which I Know Nothing’ both to great reviews. However it was his young adult series, known as the Chaos Walking Trilogy that saw him reach wide acclaim and a cult following of all ages. These three novels also won him numerous awards including the Booktrust Teenage Prize, the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize a Tiptree Award a Costa Book Award in the children's book category and saw him win the Carnegie award for the first time.  His second Carnegie win was for 'A Monster Calls' another novel appealing to adults and young adults and winning several additional awards. Next week sees the release of Patrick’s latest novel ‘The Crane Wife’. In this episode of ‘You Wrote The Book!’ Patrick discusses ‘The Crane Wife’ in depth (no spoilers though); he also discusses where his ideas come from, his previous works, why he is fairly sure a book will work before he starts writing proper, his thoughts on the young adult vs. adult fiction divide, his very first story and much, much more... Over the next few weeks Simon will be being joined by Joanne Harris and Alan Bradley. If you have any questions you would like to ask the author, or any feedback then you can email youwrotethebook@gmail.com or comment on twitter @youwrotethebook If you want to hear Simon talking more books do join him every week with Gavin Pugh on The Readers Podcast, you can also find him chatting and reviewing book on his blog Savidge Reads. Until next time thank you for listening… And don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes.

Hello and welcome to the first episode of you wrote the book, a new book podcast hosted by Simon Savidge. Each fortnight over the coming months he will be joined by a special guest author to discuss their life as a writer and as a reader, from the current novel they have published to the first book they read and everything in between. Simon’s first guest is the author Maggie O’Farrell. Since her debut 'After You’d Gone' in 2000, which also won the Betty Trask Award, Maggie has written five more novels including 'The Distance Between Us' which won the 2005 Somerset Maugham award and 'The Hand That First Held Mine' which won the costa in 2010, her latest novel ‘Instructions for a Heatwave’ has just come out in the UK. In this episode of ‘You Wrote The Book!’ Maggie discusses ‘Instructions for a Heatwave’ in depth (no spoilers though), where the idea’s for her novels and characters come from, how winning awards affects her esteem and her writing, her early reading and writing years and much more... Over the next few weeks Simon will be being joined by Patrick Ness, Joanne Harris and Alan Bradley. If you have any questions you would like to ask the author, or any feedback then you can email youwrotethebook@gmail.com or comment on twitter @youwrotethebook If you want to hear Simon talking more books do join him every week with Gavin Pugh on The Readers Podcast, you can also find him chatting and reviewing book on his blog Savidge Reads. Until next time thank you for listening... And don't forget to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes.