How To Own The Room

23.4 Maria Semple, novelist


Listen Later

How can you use disappointment to fuel your future success? Viv talks to Maria Semple, who wrote the bestselling novel, Where D'You Go, Bernadette, after bouncing back from the disappointment of her first novel not making it big. Her new book, Go Gentle is the darkly funny story of Adora Hazzard, a woman who thinks she's got it all figured out in later life — she lives in a "coven" with other cool, older women — only to have the past come back to haunt her in the shape of an unresolved MeToo moment in her earlier career. In Maria Semple's own previous life before becoming a novelist, she held her own in TV writer rooms in the 1990s and early 2000s, on shows like Beverly Hills 90210, Saturday Night Live, Arrested Development, Ellen and Mad About You. Maria tells Viv about discovering her true vocation as a novelist; how being raised in a creative Hollywood family made her effortlessly confident around show-business people; and she gives an insider's view of working - often as the only woman on the team - in TV writers rooms in the 1990s. Maria Semple's new novel is Go Gentle @MariaSemple The new edition of How To Own the Room: Women and the Art of Brilliant Speaking is out now, featuring more in-depth analysis of everyone from Michelle Obama to Virginia Woolf — and extra-practical, actionable advice on honing your own speaker style. @vivgroskop
...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

How To Own The RoomBy Viv Groskop

  • 4.8
  • 4.8
  • 4.8
  • 4.8
  • 4.8

4.8

43 ratings


More shows like How To Own The Room

View all
Woman's Hour by BBC Radio 4

Woman's Hour

396 Listeners

Desert Island Discs by BBC Radio 4

Desert Island Discs

1,996 Listeners

Squiggly Careers by The Squiggly Career

Squiggly Careers

62 Listeners

How To Fail With Elizabeth Day by Elizabeth Day and Sony Music Entertainment

How To Fail With Elizabeth Day

1,228 Listeners

Postcards From Midlife by Lorraine Candy & Trish Halpin

Postcards From Midlife

128 Listeners

The Mid•Point with Gabby Logan by Gabby Logan

The Mid•Point with Gabby Logan

232 Listeners

Rachel Johnson's Difficult Women by Global

Rachel Johnson's Difficult Women

28 Listeners

Comfort Eating with Grace Dent by The Guardian

Comfort Eating with Grace Dent

118 Listeners

The News Agents by Global

The News Agents

1,314 Listeners

Therapy Works by Julia Samuel

Therapy Works

55 Listeners

Sara & Cariad's Weirdos Book Club by Plosive

Sara & Cariad's Weirdos Book Club

45 Listeners

Off Air with Jane & Fi by The Times

Off Air with Jane & Fi

188 Listeners

Rosebud with Gyles Brandreth by Gyles Brandreth / Plain Jaine Media

Rosebud with Gyles Brandreth

529 Listeners

Dig It with Jo Whiley and Zoe Ball by Persephonica

Dig It with Jo Whiley and Zoe Ball

192 Listeners

Ready to Talk with Emma Barnett by BBC Sounds

Ready to Talk with Emma Barnett

31 Listeners