Tag: we’d like a word

History and lies with Subhadra Das, author of Uncivilised: Ten Lies That Made The West

We’d Like A Word hosts Paul Waters and Stevyn Colgan have a chat and a laugh with Subhadra Das, writer, historian, broadcaster, comedian and curator, about her book, Uncivilised: Ten Lies That Made The West. Listen here or wherever you get your podcasts.

Subhadra looks at the relationship between science and society. She specialises in the history and philosophy of science, particularly the history of scientific racism and eugenics, and what those histories mean for our lives today. (She’s funny. Honest.) For nine years, she was Curator of the Science Collections at University College London where she was also Researcher in Critical Eugenics at the Sarah Parker Remond Centre for the Study of Racism and Racialisation. (No really, we do have a laugh. We had to delay recording part 3 because Paul got a fit of the giggles.) Subhadra has written and presented podcasts, curated museum exhibitions, done stand-up comedy & been on radio and telly.

In this 3-part episode we talk about racist Gandhi, mispronouncing Bangla names, white supremacy baked into our idea of western civilisation, science not being neutral, comforting lies, Francis Galton, eugenics, the inventor of the questionnaire, spoiling things for white people, why female comics like Victoria Wood Dawn French & Jennifer Saunders avoided the QI TV show, the Defiance TV show on Channel 4, Hamza Yousef, Paul McCartney’s song Blackbird & reply guy, “empty places” v “emptied” places, the presence of writing as a measure of civilisation, rich eejit Erich von Däniken, fake Tibetan monk Lobsang Rampa aka Cyril Henry Hoskin, cuddly Columbo, Golden Age detective fiction as “the mental equivalent of pottering”, Magna Carta & Forest Charter, swan upping, US federal government & the Iroquois nation’s Haudenosaunee, Abraham Maslow & his hierarchy of needs, which he learned from the Blackfoot Nation, Ryan Heavyhead, the UK citizenship test, & editor Harriet Poland.

Announcing the India Global Forum Archer-Amish Award for Literature

We’d Like A Word hosts Paul Waters and Stevyn Colgan hear from bestselling authors and prize judges Jeffrey Archer and Amish Tripathi about the new IGF (India Global Forum) Archer-Amish Award for Literature. The prize is $25,000 and it’s not just for Indians – but listen carefully to hear the rules & entry criteria! This prize is for books excelling in storytelling rather than writing. Want to know what that means? Listen to Jeffrey and Amish explain here – or wherever you get your podcasts.

This episode also welcomes new listeners on the Jiosaavn podcast platform and congratulates India on winning the T20 Cricket World Cup. What a final innings! And we’ll also tell you about some of the fabulous guests from around the world who we’ve had on past episodes. We hope you’ll be tempted to try some earlier episodes after you hear this one – some of them are 3-parters. Both Amish & Jeffrey have their own episodes – highly recommended listening.

And we update you a little on what co-hosts and authors Paul and Stevyn are up to. Some of Steve’s stuff is really strange.

Thank you to the India Global Forum 2024 for welcoming We’d Like A Word to their very enlightening, eclectic and cutting edge gathering in London & Windsor. You too, dear listener, might also enjoy their future events.

Also – you’ll notice that Stevyn is back. Thank you to Jonathan Kennedy for co-hosting in Steve’s absence. (Jonathan was Director of Arts in India for 5 years for the British Council and has been everywhere in India & knows everyone there involved in culture.) Jonathan will be back-ack-ack. We hope. Apologies for the dip in sophistication until then.

Jaipur Literature Festival 2024

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.

Khushwant Singh Lit Fest 2024: Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi authors

In this special We’d Like A Word India episode at the Khushwant Singh Literary Festival, co-hosts Paul Waters & Jonathan Kennedy (standing in for Stevyn Colgan) hear ideas from top authors of fiction, non-fiction, memoir and poetry, and other experts. WARNING – one of our interviewees (Farrukh Dhondy) gets a bit sweary. Listen here or wherever you get your podcasts. (Details on illustrious guest presenter and guests below.)

WHO IS JONATHAN KENNEDY? WHY IS HE 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 & then. Normal service will be resumed with Steve and Paul shortly.

Our guests on this WLAW KSLF episode include:

Harinder Singh, who with The Singh Twins & Gopinder Kaur has created the book Jewels of Sikh Wisdom.

Pinky Lilani, cook, networker extraordinaire, founder of Asian Women of Achievement, and author of Some Kind of Wonderful. (This is the worst angle for a photo, but as you can see, Pinky looks good from any angle.)

Nadia Kabir Barb of The Whole Kahani south Asian women’s writers’ collective and author of the short story collection, Truth or Dare.

Farrukh Dhondy, author, playwright, media executive and activist – who writes about his bookish relationship with the notorious serial killer Charles Sobraj.

Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi and her debut novel, The Centre. (She was kept busy signing copies of her book.)

Sisters Shirin and Marina Wheeler, who write separately about their parents – Shirin on her father, the iconic journalist Charles Wheeler – Witness to the Twentieth Century. And Marina on her mother, Dip – The Lost Homestead – My Mother, Partition and the Punjab.

Poet Imtiaz Dharker on her latest collection, Shadow Reader.

Aneysha Minocha, founder and CEO of Quantaco.AI, the green tech, clean tech carbon-reducing start-up that’s grabbing attention. And Akshat Rathi, author of Climate Capitalism, also senior reporter for Bloomberg news and host of the Zero podcast on climate change.

So what is the Khushwant Singh Literary Festival? The Indian version happens in breathtakingly spectacular surroundings inside the military cantonment in Kasauli, Himachal Pradesh, in the foothills of the Himalayas. Paul did a session with Amitav Ghosh at it.

This recording is at the London spin-off at the Brunei Gallery at SOAS – the School of Oriental and African Studies. Khushwant Singh was one of India’s most prolific authors, a scholar, journalist, iconoclast & dubbed “the most honest man in India.” The festival is keen to promote closer ties between India & Pakistan; equal opportunities for women worldwide; and disseminate the values of democracy, tolerance, compassion in a world that is increasingly more polarised.

And the festival shop even sold at least one copy of Paul’s book, Blackwatertown. Look at his happy little face…

Poet John Hegley at Milton’s Cottage

The BBC radio and Edinburgh Fringe favourite, British national treasure, poet, musician and comedian, John Hegley joins We’d Like A Word hosts Paul Waters and Stevyn Colgan to perform and chat in front of an intimate live audience inside Milton’s Cottage in Chalfont St Giles, where John Milton wrote his epic poem Paradise Lost, published in 1667. Listen here or wherever you get your podcasts.

John Hegley is supported by the poet, musician and children’s TV producer/editor Clare Elstow.

Brace yourself for an eclectic mix of London and Luton literary and football memories, John Keats and John Milton, William and Henry Lawes, French language and music (Rameau), goldfish, a quick striptease, profound audience questions, and some rude and funny poetry.

Writing advice from Anthony Horowitz

We try to ask our We’d Like A Word guests to share a writing tip for other authors and aspiring authors.

This one comes from Anthony Horowitz, who you can also hear at fascinating length on our podcast which is about Life After Death: Giving new life to classic characters after their original authors have died. Like Anthony Horowitz does with James Bond and Sherlock Holmes.

David Bramwell’s Odditorium, weird bum reading and Jacob Rees Mogg

Dr David Bramwell

‘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?

Our competition question is: What is the official term for a bum reader? Listen to the podcast and email your answer to [email protected]


Anthony Horowitz on James Bond & giving life after death

Anthony Horowitz looking like he’s up in front of a firing squad. Picture taken at the wonderful Noireland international crime fiction festival in Belfast.

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.

On the radio (with Will Dean) …

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 Waters and Will Dean at Goldsboro Books