We'd Like a Word

Movie star Michael Douglas, authors Georgina Moore & Becky Hunter tell We’d Like A Word hosts Paul Waters & Stevyn Colgan about writing romance, authors supporting other authors, and reading to counter depression, in this 3-part episode. Listen here.

Hollywood star & double-Oscar-winning Michael Douglas has had a string of hit films including Basic Instinct, Fatal Attraction, Wall Street, Romancing the Stone, Behind the Candelabra, & Falling Down – plus producing One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest. His latest is the Marvel superhero movie, Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania. He gives us his book recommendations.

Georgina Moore & Becky Hunter have worked together in book publicity & also wrote their romance books together – on Georgina’s house boat off the Isle of Wight. So they both know about publicising books and supporting each other.

Georgina is the author of The Garnett Girls, published by HQ, Harper Collins. It’s set on the Isle of Wight & in Venice. & is on loads of Best Books of 2023 lists.

Becky’s new book is One Moment, published by Corvus – Atlantic Books. It’s described as a moving novel about the life-affirming power of friendship.

We also talk about how to get the most out of publicists; mistakes authors make; the dreaded second book syndrome; the blissful ignorance of debut authors; the risks of chasing trends; the struggle to justify devoting time to writing; writing to the market for a deadline; choosing a book title; how to bounce back from rejection; why you should big up other writers & people with whom you work; authors Shari Lapena, Marian Keyes, Sophie Kinsella & Eva Rice; writing what you love; how to stay resilient & upbeat; the contemplative Japanese activity known as boketto: plus the newly invented booketto – with may be accompanied by a cornetto; the novel Less by the Pulitzer Prize-winning Andrew Sean Greer; American revolutionary hero, inventor, scientist & US declaration of independence signatory, Benjamin Franklin; and the history books, Benjamin Franklin: An American Life by Walter Isaacson, & A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France and the Birth of America, by Stacy Schiff.

 Peter May & Paul Hardisty tell We’d Like A Word hosts Paul Waters & Stevyn Colgan about bringing our climate emergency into mainstream popular fiction, in this 3-part episode. Peter May’s new crime thriller A Winter Grave (published by riverrun), & is set in Scotland in 2051. Paul Hardisty’s adventure thriller The Forcing (published by Orenda Books), & is set in a future when younger voters turn on the older generation they blame for destroying our world. Listen here.

Do we need the authors of popular genre fiction to include climate emergency themes in their fiction? Lots of us ignore the science of climate change, so are stories which appeal to our imagination the way to get the message across? Do authors have a duty to reflect climate change, or does the creative heart rebel against being told what to do? Why don’t more authors do it already? Is our looming climate catastrophe just too bleak? Too difficult? Do readers need happier endings? Do agents & publishers? How should authors get the balance right between waking readers up and scaring them into despairing inaction? And how do you wrap it all up in exciting, enjoyable stories?

Peter May is the bestselling author of thrillers series set in Scotland, France & China – as well as prescient standalone thrillers, like Lockdown, which predicted the pandemic lockdown. We’ve delved into his past already on We’d Like A Word, but had to have him back (the first time we’ve done this with a guest) when he came out of retirement to lead the literary vanguard trying to communicate with big audiences about climate change in a new way. He’s also released an anthem by the Peter May Band to accompany A Winter Grave. You’ll hear it on the show – Don’t Burn The World.  (Co-written by Dennis McCoy.) You can stream it on the usual music platforms & watch the YouTube video here: ⁠Don’t Burn the World – The Peter May Band – YouTube⁠  You can also hear Peter’s previous surreal episode involving being hired as a private detective by giant geckos here: ⁠https://spotifyanchor-web.app.link/e/9UHL9sCCPwb⁠

Paul Hardisty lives by Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. He got there from Canada via a bewildering series of steps through the world’s trouble zones, including, in November, Ukraine. As a leading environmental scientist, engineer & lobbyist of politicians, he knows how urgent it is for people to wake up on climate change.

We also talk about Amitav Ghosh; resurrecting the book in your drawer that you thought would never get published; The Rig on Amazon Prime; Kate Raworth & Doughnut Economics; & Negeley Farson & The Way of a Transgressor.

Writing dynasties: In this 4-part episode Felix Francis, Andrew Child/Grant & Rajmohan Gandhi tell We’d Like A Word hosts Paul Waters & Stevyn Colgan about taking on a big book brand or carrying on a family writing tradition. It’s different from continuation novels, they say, like when Anthony Horowitz took on Ian Fleming’s James Bond character (see episode 4, series 1 of We’d Like A Word with Anthony Horowitz ). These are books, stories and characters with whom they have grown up. But do they try to be exactly like their predecessor or collaborator? Distinctively different? How open are they about it? Is it better to keep it a secret until you’re sure that readers will like it? And what if the originator decides he maybe does not want to retire after all? How do they write? And what books are they writing next? Listen here.

Felix Francis is the son of Richard and Mary Francis, who together created the internationally bestselling Dick Francis thrillers, set in the world of horse racing. Felix began contributing to, then co-writing, then solely authoring the Dick Francis books long before his name was on the covers. He’s written 16 of them now. Where does Dick end and Felix begin? Listen to find out.

Andrew Grant – now also known as Andrew Child – is the younger brother of Lee Child (real name Jim Grant), the creator of the bestselling Jack Reacher series – which you may also know from the Tom Cruise movies or the Amazon series starring Alan Ritchson. When decided he had only 4 more books left in him, he asked his brother Andrew to collaborate with him with a view to ultimately taking over. (Though that particular plot thickens…) But Andrew was already a successful thriller author in his own right. And he has a personal past cloaked in mystery.

Rajmohan Gandhi was a teenager when he was inspired to investigate how the world works and to write about it when his grandfather, the Mahatma, Mohandas Gandhi was assassinated in 1948. He spoke to We’d Like A Word at the Khushwant Singh Literary Festival in Kasauli in India. It’s hard to think of a more famous forebear than Gandhi. So how does Rajmohan fit into the tradition?

Lots of other authors, people & topics get discussed too – Tasha Alexander (the Lady Emily Ashton mysteries), Ben McIntyre, Desmond Bagley, Alistair Maclean, Alan Davies (Just Ignore Him), Arthur Ransome (Swallows and Amazons), Paul Gallico (The Snow Goose), Airey Neave and PD James.

In this three part episode, Shashi Tharoor and William Dalrymple talk about how they write history, how they got started, why history is important, how history is used as a weapon in today’s culture wars, and who has the right to write a country’s history. Shashi tells us about his least favourite historian. And William dodges some extreme criticism of the bullet-from-a-gun variety and has a happy reunion with a lost manuscript. We also investigate the rumours that the character of Indiana Jones was based on William. Listen here.

Shashi Tharoor is former Under-Secretary General of the United Nations, former Indian Government minister, Member of the Indian Parliament, prolific author and historian. His many books include Riot, India: From Midnight to the Millennium, Nehru: The Invention of India, and An Era of Darkness: The British Empire in India also published under the title Inglorious Empire: What the British Did to India.

William Dalrymple is one of the co-founders and co-directors of the Jaipur Literary Festival, a broadcaster, curator and the author of many books, including In Xanadu, City of Djinns: A Year in Delhi, White Mughals, The Last Mughal: The Fall of a Dynasty Delhi 1857, Return of a King: The Battle for Afghanistan, Koh-i-Noor: The History of the World’s Most Infamous Diamond (with Anita Anand) and The Anarchy: The Relentless Rise of the East India Company.

Lots of other authors, people and topics get a mention too – JP Martin’s Uncle books, Barbara Tuchmann’s The March of Folly: Troy to Vietnam, Anita Anand, Stephen Fry, Gabriel Byrne, Samson Kambalu and the 4th Plinth, Americanisms, Captain WE Johns & Biggles, Operations Bellows, Enid Blyton, The Six Solvers, contested histories, the evolution of language, bloodthirsty St Agnes, Cornish & Irish giants, The Goodies, Sachin Tendulkar, Shah Rukh Khan, Narendra Modi, Neil Jordan’s Lord Edward and Citizen Small, Victoria and Abdul, & Miki Berenyi (formerly of Lush, and who has an excellent memoir published recently fingers crossed: how music saved me from success).

Plus a certain pug joins in…

Hello there! It’s time for a brand new episode of We’d Like a Word with Paul Waters and Stevyn Colgan. And, on this episode, they’re taking about short story anthologies and collections with Ivy Ngeow and Vaseem Khan.

Ivy Ngeow is the multi award-winning author of Cry of the Flying Rhino (2017), Heart of Glass (2018), Overboard (2020) and, this year, White Crane Strikes. Most recently she has edited Asian Anthology: New Writing Vol 1.

Vaseem Khan is also a multiple award-winner and is the author of two crime series set in India, the Baby Ganesh Agency series, and the Malabar House historical crime novels. His first book, The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra, was a Times bestseller and has been optioned for film by Cinestaan. He has also recently co-edited (with Maxim Jakubowski) a collection of crime short stories called The Perfect Crime: 22 crime stories from diverse cultures around the world.

In this fascinating discussion, they talk about the need to hear voices form other cultures, the power of short stories, why it’s so difficult to sell anthologies to publishers, and the difference between a collection, an anthology, and an omnibus. (If you don’t know, click here.)

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We’d Like A Word is a podcast & radio show from authors Paul Waters & Stevyn Colgan. We talk with writers, readers, editors, agents, celebrities, talkers, poets, publishers, booksellers, audiobook creators about books – fiction & non-fiction. We go out on iTunes, Spotify and many other radio & podcast platforms but you can click here to hear the podcast on our hosting site, Anchor.

We’re on Twitter @wedlikeaword & Facebook @wedlikeaword & our email is [email protected] (Yes, we are embarrassed by the missing apostrophes). We like to hear from you – questions, thoughts, ideas, guest or book suggestions. Perhaps you’d like to come on We’d Like A Word to chat, review or read out passages from books? And if you’re still stuck for something to read, may we recommend Blackwatertown by Paul Waters or Cockerings by Stevyn Colgan.

For reasons of a technical nature best left unexplained (as we’d only get cross again) there hasn’t been much activity on this webpage recently.

But now we’re back! and here’s a quick rundown of what’s happened in the interim.

Steve and Paul recorded two live episodes of WE’D LIKE A WORD in the beautiful cottage in Chalfont St Giles, Buckinghamshire, in which John Milton created Paradise Lost during his self-imposed exile from London to escape the Black Death.

In the first show (click here to listen) their guest was Rachael Blok, author of thrillers Under the Ice, The Scorched Earth, Into the Fire and The Fall. That last title heavily referenced John Milton and the angel Lucifer’s fall from Heaven. It was a fascinating discussion about good and evil, redemption and punishment and the live audience very much appreciated it.

The second live show (click here) was a frank, interesting and sometimes very amusing discussion about the nature of evil with cult horror writer Will Carver, author of such books as Nothing Important Happened Today, Hinton Hollow Death Trip, Psychopaths Anonymous and The Beresford. Once again, the audience thoroughly enjoyed the chat.

Then, as if if this were not enough, the chaps celebrated National Independent Bookshop Week with a visit to the wonderful Chorleywood Books and had a chat with the owner, Sheryl Surville, and with multi-bestselling author Conn Iggulden – the only person (to date) to simultaneously have a #1 book in both the fiction and non-fiction charts. You can listen to the minisode here.

Also featured on this third show are authors Ivy Ngeow and Vaseem Khan, both prizewinners and talented writers. They talk about their favourite indie bookshops too … but if you want to know more about them you’ll have to wait until the next full podcast episode when they will be in the studio to discuss short story anthologies and collections.

Coming soon!

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We’d Like A Word is a podcast & radio show from authors Paul Waters & Stevyn Colgan. We talk with writers, readers, editors, agents, celebrities, talkers, poets, publishers, booksellers, audiobook creators about books – fiction & non-fiction. We go out on iTunes, Spotify and many other radio & podcast platforms but you can click here to hear the podcast on our hosting site, Anchor.

We’re on Twitter @wedlikeaword & Facebook @wedlikeaword & our email is [email protected] (Yes, we are embarrassed by the missing apostrophes). We like to hear from you – questions, thoughts, ideas, guest or book suggestions. Perhaps you’d like to come on We’d Like A Word to chat, review or read out passages from books. And if you’re still stuck for something to read, may we recommend Blackwatertown by Paul Waters or Cockerings by Stevyn Colgan.

Hello! And welcome to episode 50 of WE’D LIKE A WORD!

In this jubilee episode Stevyn and Paul are discussing writers from Pakistan and India and the problems they face getting their work out to the public. In the studio is Awais Khan from Lahore in Pakistan, the author of two novels – In The Company of Strangers (published by Simon & Schuster India, & soon to be published in the UK by Hera) & No Honour (published by Orenda Books – we had the publisher Karen Sullivan on a previous hilarious and revealing episode of We’d Like A Word). In The Company of Strangers is being made into a feature for Pikchur TV online streaming service. Awais is also the founder of The Writing Institute in Lahore.

In a fun and informative three part show we discuss rude agents, Annette Crossland, overcoming discouragement, how to schedule your writing, Jackie Collins, how to be socially relevant, the problem of counterfeit books in Pakistan, how to be a writer while holding down a day job, The Faber Academy, Liberty Books, the Indian/Pakistan trade embargo and whetehr you could smuggle your own books across the border, arranged and forced marriages, so-called ‘honour’ killings, and the brilliant work of the Edhi Foundation.

Also in this episode we hear from Indian writers Amitav Ghosh and Vikram Chandra who give their insights into how they write, advice for new authors and the books they love.

Amitav Ghosh is the renowned Indian author of the Sea of Poppies trilogy & more recently, Jungle Nama. His writing advice is to write the book you would love to read yourself, or that would make you laugh or cry. He recommends Barkskins by Annie Proulx.

Vikram Chandra is most famous for writing Sacred Games, which was made into the extremely popular Netflix series of the same name. He advises new authors to follow their obsessions & ignore the received wisdom that you should write what you know. On the contrary, he says you should write what you do not know, what obsesses you. He recommends Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff.

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We’d Like A Word is a podcast & radio show from authors Paul Waters & Stevyn Colgan. We talk with writers, readers, editors, agents, celebrities, talkers, poets, publishers, booksellers, audiobook creators about books – fiction & non-fiction. We go out on iTunes, Spotify and many other radio & podcast platforms but you can click here to hear the podcast on our hosting site, Anchor.

We’re on Twitter @wedlikeaword & Facebook @wedlikeaword & our email is [email protected] (Yes, we are embarrassed by the missing apostrophes). We like to hear from you – questions, thoughts, ideas, guest or book suggestions. Perhaps you’d like to come on We’d Like A Word to chat, review or read out passages from books. And if you’re still stuck for something to read, may we recommend Blackwatertown by Paul Waters or Cockerings by Stevyn Colgan.

Hello and welcome to another of our occasional episodes of the WE’D LIKE A WORD podcast!

On this episode Paul and Stevyn are chatting with Nina de Gramont, author of The Christie Affair.

The book is a fictionalised version of what might have happened when the famous murder mystery writer disappeared for 11 days in 1926. Nina talks about the original real life disappearance, the various theories and her own version – which works in a very cunning murder mystery (spoiler alert – poison is involved in classic Christie style) and Ireland’s notorious mother and baby homes.

We also hear about how Nina succeeded in writing The Christie Affair by changing her approach to writing, and after a failed attempt to write a book based on Emily Dickinson. We discuss why women are better at writing crime fiction than men (let us know if you disagree), the Cottingley Fairies, Agatha Christie’s secret surfing past, how to get a movie made of your book, and Stevyn’s starring role in the quintuple award-winning film Scootch!

We also refer to some other authors/scholars and their books, including The Line Up by Matthew Thompson, Ireland’s Magdalene Laundries and the Nation’s Architecture of Containment by Dr James Smith, The Adoption Machine by Paul Jude Redman, Death Comes to Pemberley by PD James and the documentary Sex In A Cold Climate directed by Steve Humphries.

You could also check out Nina’s other books – The Last September, Gossip of the Starlings and Of Cats And Men. Plus Nina particularly recommends you read Mary Jane by Jessica Anya Blau.

We’d Like A Word can be found on iTunes, Spotify and most podcast streaming services. Or you can Click Here to listen to the podcast on our hosting site, Anchor FM.

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We’d Like A Word is a podcast & radio show from authors Paul Waters & Stevyn Colgan. We talk with writers, readers, editors, agents, celebrities, talkers, poets, publishers, booksellers, audiobook creators about books – fiction & non-fiction. We go out on various radio & podcast platforms. Our website is http://www.wedlikeaword.com for information on Paul & Steve & our guests. We’re also on Twitter @wedlikeaword & Facebook @wedlikeaword & our email is [email protected]

Yes, we are embarrassed by the missing apostrophes.

We like to hear from you – questions, thoughts, ideas, guest or book suggestions. Perhaps you’d like to come on We’d Like A Word to chat, review or read out passages from books. And if you’re still stuck for something to read, may we recommend Blackwatertown by Paul Waters or Cockerings (the new comic classic, just out) by Stevyn Colgan.

Hello there! And welcome to a special Christmas (but not Christmas-themed) bumper episode of We’d Like a Word.

By way of a change, Paul and Stevyn recently hosted a version of the podcast in front of a live audience at High Wycombe Arts Centre with their special guest, Robert Thorogood.

Robert is the creator of one of TV’s most popular murder-mystery series – Death in Paradise – and is also the author of The Marlow Murder Club as well as several Death in Paradise novels.

He was a contemporary of David Mitchell, Robert Webb, Olivia Colman and Sacha Baron Cohen in the Cambridge Footlights and, for a time, ran a small theatre company that utilised their great talents. But his career wasn’t all plain sailing … the life of a writer is tough and, as you’ll hear in the episode, it took a long time to achieve the level of success that he has. There’s hardship, disappointment and surprise along the way but Robert is a wonderful raconteur and tells his story with charm and humour. And he has some great advice for new writers.

In this episode you’ll learn how Death in Paradise came about, how they handled the tricky changeover of lead actors and why filming on Guadeloupe isn’t quite as much fun as it might seem.

You’ll also learn why Robert eschewed the Caribbean for a pretty Buckinghamshire town in his new novel The Marlow Murder Club.

You’ll also hear Mark Page talking briefly about Wycombe Food Hub, a fantastic community-created resource that not only helps people on lower incomes but also prevents 50 tons of ‘food waste’ going to landfill every month. This is all perfectly good edible food that supermarkets would otherwise ditch due to damaged packaging or over-ordering etc. Volunteers collect it at the end of every working day. It is then checked and put on sale at a fraction of the supermarket price. The hub also supplies crates of food to local charities and anything left over is donated to farms as animal feed.

All proceeds from the night were split between the Food Hub and the Arts Centre.

Listen on iTunes, Spotify or pretty much anywhere that hosts good podcasts. Or just click here.

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We’d Like A Word is a podcast & radio show from authors Paul Waters & Stevyn Colgan. We talk with writers, readers, editors, agents, celebrities, talkers, poets, publishers, booksellers, audiobook creators about books – fiction & non-fiction. We go out on various radio & podcast platforms. Our Twitter is @wedlikeaword & Facebook @wedlikeaword & our email is [email protected] (and yes, we are embarrassed by the missing apostrophes). We like to hear from you – questions, thoughts, ideas, guest or book suggestions. Perhaps you’d like to come on We’d Like A Word to chat, review or read out passages from books. 

And if you’re still stuck for something to read, may we recommend Blackwatertown by Paul Waters or Cockerings by Stevyn Colgan.

Hello! And welcome to a brand new (and somewhat delayed) episode of WE’D LIKE A WORD in which Paul Waters and Stevyn Colgan talk to a virtual horde of authors about some of the ways that they’ve chosen to market their books.

It’s never been easier to publish a book thanks to initiatives like Amazon KDP (Kindle direct publishing) and others. But it’s also never been harder to get your book noticed and there’s a lot more pressure on authors these days to get involved in the marketing.

We talk to TV celebrity interviewer and keep fit guru Tina Baker, author of Call Me Mummy, who has dressed as bee, dressed in a wedding dress and undressed tastefully to promote her novel.

We also talk to Fiona Sherlock, author Preserved and Twelve Motives for Murder who has created murder mystery games that tie in to her books so that they become immersive. We asked listener Mark Vent and his family to try one of the games and you can hear how they got on during the episode.

But there’s more …

We also talk to artist Lulu Allison, author of Salt Lick and Twice the Speed of Dark about her marketing ploys that make use of her artistic ability and discuss ways to get over the awkwardness of promoting your work (may involve unusual hats).

And we talk to Emma Grae whose novel Be Guid Tae Yer Mammy – written in the Scots language – has accidentally become embroiled in the whole question of Scottish independence. Is the phrase ‘There’s no such thing as bad publicity’ really true?

WE’D LIKE A WORD is available on iTunes, Spotify, Podcast Radio and everywhere else that hosts good podcasts. Or visit our hosting site at Anchor FM.

For more information on the authors featured, visit:

Tina Baker

Fiona Sherlock

Lulu Allison

Emma Grae

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We’d Like A Word is a podcast & radio show from authors Paul Waters & Stevyn Colgan. We talk with writers, readers, editors, agents, celebrities, talkers, poets, publishers, booksellers, audiobook creators about books – fiction & non-fiction. We go out on various radio & podcast platforms. Our Twitter is @wedlikeaword & Facebook @wedlikeaword & our email is [email protected] (and yes, we are embarrassed by the missing apostrophes). We like to hear from you – questions, thoughts, ideas, guest or book suggestions. Perhaps you’d like to come on We’d Like A Word to chat, review or read out passages from books. 

And if you’re still stuck for something to read, may we recommend Blackwatertown by Paul Waters or Cockerings by Stevyn Colgan.