Babble

Poet, writer and lecturer Seán Hewitt was shortlisted for the Sunday Times University of Warwick Young Writer of the Year Award 2020 for his debut poetry anthology ‘Tongues of Fire’, published by Jonathan Cape. ‘Tongues of Fire’ is a sensitive, compelling and beautiful ode to life and to nature, and Seán presents a reading of one of his earliest poems in his Babble interview - as well as a hilarious story about camping in the moors when writing it.

His memoir, ‘All Down Darkness Wide’, is forthcoming from Jonathan Cape in the UK and Penguin Press in the USA in 2022. He is also the winner of the Northern Writers Award, the Resurgence Prize and an Eric Gregory Award, and was chosen by The Sunday Times as one of their "30 under 30" most promising artists in Ireland.

‘Tongues of Fire’ was a Spectator, Guardian, Attitude, Irish Times and Irish Independent book of the year - as well as interviewer Megan’s, who is very excited to be able to pick Seán’s brains about his work, his anthology and his creative process. The two discuss prizes and Seán’s views on them, as well as how honoured he is to have been shortlisted amongst so many young, talented writers.

Christina Thatcher is an award-winning poet, a creative writing lecturer at Cardiff Metropolitan University, poetry editor of The Cardiff Review, tutor for The Poetry School, and runs Wales’ largest writing group, Roath Writers.

Christina’s debut poetry anthology, ‘More Than You Were’, grapples with the loss of her father from addiction and was written as the creative component of her PHD in Creative Writing from Cardiff University. The critical component deals with writing about death and using writing as liberation from disenfranchised grief. Her most recent anthology, ‘How To Carry Fire’, is in part a follow on from ‘More Than You Were’, but it is clear that Christina felt a cathartic sense of freedom and expansion when writing it. Both were published by Parthian Books.

Christina talks in her interview about moving to Wales from America and about how she started writing poetry from a young age as a form of escapism; she offers sound advice to aspiring poets about finding one’s voice and talks us through how the title of ‘How To Carry Fire’ came into being through retrospection of her family’s trauma; and she explains how poetry helps her make meaning of the world and her place within it. Her words are as inspiring on the page as they are when she babbles with Megan Thomas and if you aren’t rushing out to buy her collections after listening, you’ll be rushing to your notepad to write yourself.

Serena Kaur’s debut novel ‘All The Words Unspoken’ was published by RedDoor Press in 2020, so Babble kicks off 2021 with an interview with her. The interview might start with a bit of a horror story of Serena’s first experience with finding an agent, but the happy ending is imminent based on the existence of her delightful novel. 

Serena tells us why it was important for her to write a story that spoke to her own British-Asian community, and how often books are written for the white gaze. Serena manages to pack vitally important societal and interpersonal issues into a readable and enjoyable novel, including mental health, arranged marriage, prejudice, abortion, grief, loss, love, homophobia, self-love and self-hate, friendship, fulfilment, and all the secrets we keep and words we choose not to speak as a means of preservation.

You might know of James Hendry as a conservationist and wildlife presenter who has been the host and presenter of 50 odd TV shows, including Nat Geo Wild, SABC (South Africa) and CGTN (China). You may instead have read one of his three "and a half" books, Whatever You Do, Don't Run, A Year In The Wild, Back To The Bush, and Reggie & Me, which transport you between the South African wild under the bright African sun and into the zenith of Apartheid in suburban Johannesburg. You might not know him as a rockstar just yet, but he's working on that.  

James reveals to Megan Thomas his plans for future creative ventures, which include movie scripts and an addition to his wildlife book series, and he shares his thoughts on the process behind everything he writes and writers he admires. He talks about everything from his original plan to be a musician after university to the commentary he is always hungry to hear: that he’s made people laugh. His books will certainly do the trick on that front, but so will this interview.

Northern Irish author Claire McGowan joins us on Babble this week, where she not only talks about her very successful career writing crime fiction novels, but also her career writing women's fiction, which she does under the pseudonym Eva Woods. If you’re after a juicy crime thriller that has you playing detective throughout, you've got the recently published novel The Push and many more to choose from, including the fantastic Paula Maguire Series, which has been optioned for TV. If you'd rather nestle yourself into the world of love, loss, and the heartwarming humour of everyday life, then you should be eyeing up one of the books Claire writes under the pseudonym Eva Woods, such as The Man I Can't Forget, How To Be Happy, The Ex Factor and more. 

Claire and Megan Thomas babble about the benefits of writing under pseudonyms, on writing different genres, as well as how Claire gets her ideas. For all the aspiring authors out there, Claire has also given really helpful tips from both her teaching and personal experience. We can't wait to hear what you think!

When Megan Thomas interviewed Pamela Power for Babble, Megan was in Summery London and Pamela in a chilly Johannesburg. At the time of publishing, the weather roles have reversed, but the babble between them will either warm you up like a cosy fire or cool you down like a breath of fresh air no matter where in the world you're joining us from.

Pamela has written three books, ‘Ms Conception’ and ‘Delilah Now Trending’, published by Penguin South Africa, and ‘Things Unseen’, published by Clockwork Books. She is the resident blogger at Go See Do media, a scriptwriter for one of South Africa's most famous soap operas, and one of the city of Joburg’s biggest fans, which shines through her writing.

The interview covers all manner of topics, from writing scripts which are translated into multiple languages (there are 11 official languages in South Africa), to the writer’s loss of autonomy that takes place when agents, publishers and fictional characters with a life of their own get involved.

Some people write books for adults, some write books for children, others narrate audiobooks, illustrate them, write plays, are lecturers... Edward Carey does all of it.

His books are illustrated by hand, or feature photographs of the sculptures made by him. These include Observatory Mansions, Alma & Irva, The Iremonger Trilogy, Little, and his most recent novella, The Swallowed Man, and we chat about each of them.

We babble about how his career has gone from being an employee of Madam Tussauds to writing a book about its founder, about our inner child and whether there’s any need to distinguish children’s books from adult books, his lockdown experience of narrating all his stories for audiobooks and the odd experience of being reintroduced to characters he’d written 10 years ago, as well as how he finds writing to be one of the most freeing, limitless art forms.

Our interview is as varied as Edward's experience, and we can't wait to hear what you think.

Gary Raymond is interviewed by Megan Thomas, and babbles about his career as a novelist, a film critic, the editor of the Wales Arts Review, broadcaster, presenter of The Review Show on BBC Radio Wales, and, if his latest book “How Love Actually Ruined Christmas (Or Colourful Narcotics) is to be used to create a title: Professional Party Pooper. Although even Megan, who considered herself a Love Actually admirer, admits he’s not wrong...

The book was released on 2 November by Parthian Books and is available for purchase at all good bookshops. It’s Christmas-stocking sized… Just saying.

Author and journalist Lauren Goldstein Crowe has written three books and had a fascinating career in business and fashion, all of which she talks about in our Babble interview with Megan.

She talks about her business book, "The Towering World of Jimmy Choo: A Glamorous Story of Power, Profits, and the Pursuit of the Perfect Shoe", as well as the process of co-writing it with Sagra Maceira de Rosen. She talks about her fashion biography of the late Isabella Blow, "A Life In Fashion", and comments on the life of this tragic but fascinating fashionista and socialite. She also discusses her coffee table book, "50 Shades", which includes pictures of the 50 most influential people in sunglasses from the last century.

When Tim Ewins hasn’t been babbling with Megan Thomas in the Babble virtual studios, he’s been on the stand-up comedy circuit, working a career in finance, maintaining a "fake" bookish Instagram, and of course writing hilarious debut novels in the space between. 

His debut, 'We Are Animals', was published in e-book first format by Eye Lightning Books’ new digital imprint, Lightning ‘Bolts’, and so Babble’s aim to reach as international and varied an audience as possible just got easier through the book’s digital nature. 

Tim’s book was published just before lockdown, and instead of letting it get him down, he made a plan, which seems a pattern throughout Tim’s career. Tim started to read extracts of his book “in the style of” on social media after a Twitter post, and the stories and videos followed. Megan asked Tim if he’d consider doing one in the style of Whitney Houston, and the rest is podcast/video history.