We’d Like A Word hosts Paul Waters and Jonathan Kennedy interview stars of Indian and Irish literature and film making at the 2024 Jaipur Literature Festival at the British Library in London. (It’s possible that Paul repeatedly refers to it as the Jaipur Literary Festival, but let’s not quibble.) Listen here or wherever you get your podcasts.
We hear from:
The man who is at every Indian gathering worth attending, JLF organiser Sanjoy Roy.
Nazia Erum, author of Mothering A Muslim.
Dr Sunny Singh and Yasser Usman on the captivating appeal of Bollywood and Hindi films.
Diplomat Vikas Swarup, author of Q & A – which became the movie Slumdog Millionaire – and other novels.
Irish author Liz Nugent, whose novel Strange Sally Diamond has been topping book charts.
I
ndian film director Shekhar Kapoor, whose movies include Elizabeth, Bandit Queen and the iconic Mr India. Brace yourself for startling revelations.
WHO IS JONATHAN KENNEDY? WHY IS HE STILL HERE? AND WHERE IS STEVYN COLGAN? Jonathan was Director of Arts in India for 5 years for the British Council. He’s been everywhere in India and knows everyone there involved in culture. He was also for 12 years the Executive Director of Tara Arts, looking at the world through a South Asian lens. Jonathan does some India and South Asian episodes of We’d Like A Word with us. We’ll drop them in every now and then. Steve will be back soon.
On the latest episode of We’d Like A Word, Paul and Stevyn chat to children’s author Serena Patel about her new book Anisha: Accidental Detective (excellently illustrated by Emma McCann). Books for children and young adults are as popular as ever so we talk about how to write for a younger audience and Serena’s dramatic life story and how it shaped her character (and the character of her book’s hero, Anisha). She also reads from her book and talks about her childhood experiences of racism, homelessness and being bullied. We also hear about the detective books she read as a child and the inspirational British Asians she looked up to.
We also go behind the scenes of children’s book promotion with freelancer Fritha Lindqvist (who helped Cressida Cowell train her dragon). Fritha also tells us about the various campaigns that exist to get children reading and learning from stories (see links below).
And in the second of an occasional series of bookshop visits, Paul goes to the beautiful Daunt Books in Marylebone High Street to chat to bookseller Rose Cole & book lovers from the USA.
Go listen now! Click here or find us on iTunes, Spotify, Google podcasts or wherever good podcasts lurk.
Links
National
Literacy Trust
The NLT are an independent charity dedicated to giving disadvantaged children the literacy skills they need to succeed. They work to improve the reading, writing, speaking and listening skills in the UK’s poorest communities, where one in three people have literacy problems. Because low literacy is inter-generational, they focus their work on families, young people and children. They help to transform lives through literacy and have stacks of research that shows that reading for pleasure has a significant impact on a child’s future socio-economic chances. Encouraging and nurturing reading for pleasure benefits the whole economy and country.
The current Waterstones Children’s Laureate is Cressida Cowell author of the How to Train your Dragon books. Her laureate charter is a powerful ten point action plan that champions the creativity, intelligence and empathy skills reading books nurtures. It’s a call to action for all of us to realise the magic of reading for everyone. You can download the charter here
EmpathyLab
EmpathyLab
is the first organisation to build children’s empathy, literacy and social
activism through a systematic use of high quality literature. Their strategy
builds on new scientific evidence showing the power of reading to build
real-life empathy skills. They believe that empathy is a beacon of hope in
a divided world. They produce an annual Read for Empathy book collection and
run an annual Empathy Day to shine a light on the power of reding to build
empathy – it’s in 9 June this year.
‘A small Odditorium’ featuring Dr David Bramwell. In this episode author, musician, truth-seeker, Utopian and all round oddfellow Dr David Bramwell discusses bum readers, the world’s largest underground temple, a haunted moustache, Jacob Rees Mogg and singalonga Wicker Man. And we’ll be asking … is Milton Keynes the new Stonehenge?
Anthony Horowitz admits he’s a killer. Dozens of times over. The thing is, we’re not just talking about the dozens and dozens he’s dispatched in the pages of his many books or TV shows like Midsommer Murders and Foyle’s War. But that’s all I’m saying here. You can hear his startling revelations from his own mouth on the latest episode of We’d Like A Word.
Our official topic is life after death – whether it’s right for new authors to give extended life to characters after their original authors have died. Anthony Horowitz does it – and does it well – with Sherlock Holmes and most recently with James Bond in Forever and A Day. (You can win a copy of that in the competition – details on the podcast.)
But we talk about a lot else and a lot of other authors, in particular Sophie Hannah, who has brought Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot back to life.
You’ll also hear Anthony Horowitz read from his James Bond book, let slip his views on Brexit, villains and where he writes.
Graham Norton and Stevyn Colgan on We’d Like A Word
It’s Graham Norton! Yes, that Graham Norton on We’d Like A Word. Talking about his own writing and whether celebrities can ever be good authors? It’s on the radio at 7pm UK time tonight (Wednesday 8th May 2019) Wycombe Sound 106.6 FM. And then via the podcast afterwards.
Graham Norton – comedian, TV star and Father Ted legend – tells us about his other life as an author. He’s written two novels – Holding and now A Keeper. But are they any good? Are they funny? Are they even supposed to be? Do celebrities famous for something entirely different make good writers? Graham Norton may be hilARious (he is), but can he write? You’ll have to listen to this episode of We’d Like A Word to find out. He reads from his second novel A Keeper, talks about how he writes, how he gathers material and about Ireland. There’s also a competition to win one of Graham’s books – but you’ll have to listen to find out.
Some of our We’d Like A Word guests have been kind enough (and sometimes we’ve been organised enough) to provide their writing tips for other authors and aspiring authors.
Our first podcast episode of We’d Like A Word is now live around the world – well, online anyway. Our first guest is Will Dean, the author of Dark Pines and Red Snow – two dark thrillers set in the claustrophobic Swedish forest featuring newspaper reporter Tuva Moodyson. The topic for this episode is: Is Scandi Noir still Scandi Noir if it’s written by a Brit?
On this episode Will reveals his writing secrets, his creep book and the title of his third book (not out yet). And the answer to the competition. (So listen in.)
The picture is a teaser for an exclusive video from Will Dean just for you, dear listener. Coming soon.
The We’d Like A Word podcast is available on seven or so platforms, including Anchor, Google, Spotify, iTunes / Apple Music and others. Just search for it by name in the usual place you find your podcasts. Or click on the link below. And you can contact us via [email protected]
The first episode of We’d Like A Word is broadcast at 7pm tonight (UK time) on Wycombe Sound 106.6 FM. If you’re one of the 50,000 #Wycso listeners in the south Buckinghamshire region of England, I hope you can join us. (If you’re not in that patch, don’t worry, the podcast will be released tomorrow.) We’re kicking off with Will Dean, the author of Dark Pines and Red Snow – two thrillers set in the Swedish forest featuring newspaper reporter Tuva Moodyson. The topic for tonight’s show is – Is Scandi Noir still Scandi Noir if it’s written by a Brit? Will lives in a Swedish forest himself – he built a cabin there – and writes surrounded by moose, trees, snow, more trees and more snow. If you want to know what his third book will be called – listen in. There’ll also be a competition. Again, you’ll have to listen. (That’s Will with Paul (eek! where’s his beard gone?- half of We’d Like A Word – below, at Will’s Red Snow book launch in the excellent Goldsboro Books. Goldsboro is well worth a visit if you’re near Leicester Square or Charing Cross Road in London.)
Paul & Steve in the Cardora studio, with Celine on the clapper board
We’d Like A Word is a podcast and radio show from Paul Waters and Stevyn Colgan about books and words: the words we write, the words we read, the words we say. We hear from writers, readers, editors, agents, poets, lyricists, publishers, speechwriters and everyone interested in words. And yes, we read a lot of books. And give some away in competitions too. Click on the play button to hear our podcast introduction.
