Bookshelfie: Women’s Prize Podcast

Award-winning executive producer and broadcaster Kavita Puri on the importance of collecting untold stories, being an Elizabeth Strout groupie and why women always have been and continue to be complex characters.

Kavita Puri is the creator, writer and presenter of the Three Million podcast on BBC Sounds, which won the Gold for Best New Podcast at the British Podcast Awards 2024, and the accompanying book - a "groundbreaking" investigation of the 1943 Bengal famine - is set to publish in 2026. Her Radio 4 docu-series Three Pounds in My Pocket is currently on its fifth season and has been described as “captivating and epic” by The Guardian. Kavita is also the author of the critically acclaimed book “Partition Voices: Untold British Stories”, which has been adapted for stage at the Donmar Warehouse. 

Kavita is the chair of the 2025 Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction Judging panel.

Vick Hope, multi-award winning TV and BBC Radio 1 presenter, author and journalist, is the host of season seven of the Women’s Prize for Fiction Podcast. Every week, Vick will be joined by another inspirational woman to discuss the work of incredible female authors. The Women’s Prize is one of the most prestigious literary awards in the world, and they continue to champion the very best books written by women.

Don’t want to miss the rest of season seven? Listen and subscribe now!

This podcast is sponsored by Baileys and produced by Bird Lime Media.

Serious Readers are offering Bookshelfie listeners £100 off any HD light and free UK delivery. To take advantage of our Serious Readers discount code, please visit seriousreaders.com/bookshelfie and use the code SHELFIE. 

There’s a 30 day risk-free trial to return the lamp for free if you’re unhappy with it for whatever reason. 

Cariad is an award-winning comedian, actor and writer. She is the creator and host of the award-winning podcast Griefcast and the smash-hit improv show Austentatious. She has starred in TV shows such as Alan Partridge, Peep Show, Inside No. 9 and featured on Have I Got News For You, Would I Lie to You and QI. Cariad’s first book You Are Not Alone was a New Statesman, The Times and Express book of the year in 2023. And her new children’s book, The Christmas Wish-Tastrophe, is out now. Cariad is no stranger to book chat, co-hosting a podcast with fellow comedian Sara Pascoe called Sara & Cariad’s Weirdos Book Club, where they discuss weird books with their famous friends.

Vick Hope, multi-award winning TV and BBC Radio 1 presenter, author and journalist, is the host of season seven of the Women’s Prize for Fiction Podcast. Every week, Vick will be joined by another inspirational woman to discuss the work of incredible female authors. The Women’s Prize is one of the most prestigious literary awards in the world, and they continue to champion the very best books written by women.

Don’t want to miss the rest of season seven? Listen and subscribe now!

This podcast is sponsored by Baileys and produced by Bird Lime Media.

Serious Readers are offering Bookshelfie listeners £100 off any HD light and free UK delivery. To take advantage of our Serious Readers discount code, please visit seriousreaders.com/bookshelfie and use the code SHELFIE. 

There’s a 30 day risk-free trial to return the lamp for free if you’re unhappy with it for whatever reason. 

Space scientist Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock joins Vick to delve into her favourite science fiction books, tells us why dyslexic kids shouldn’t be pigeon-holed and explains why she encourages all children to reach for the stars. 

Maggie is a space scientist and pioneering figure in communicating science, having spoken directly to over half a million people globally, 350,000 of whom are children.  She is committed to inspiring new generations of astronauts, engineers and scientists, and in 2009, was appointed an MBE for her services to science and education. She presents the new series of BBC’s The Sky at Night and Mini Stargazing for CBeebies. In 2016, she was nominated for a Children’s Presenter BAFTA and she recently won the Institute of Physics gold medal for ‘exceptional services to science education and physics communication’. She was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in March 2024, for her services to ‘science education and diversity’. She is the current President of the British Science Association.

Maggie’s new book, Webb’s Universe: The Space Telescope Images that Reveal Our Cosmic History, is the definitive book on the James Webb Space Telescope, with a full array of stunning images. 

Vick Hope, multi-award winning TV and BBC Radio 1 presenter, author and journalist, is the host of season seven of the Women’s Prize for Fiction Podcast. Every week, Vick will be joined by another inspirational woman to discuss the work of incredible female authors. The Women’s Prize is one of the most prestigious literary awards in the world, and they continue to champion the very best books written by women.

Don’t want to miss the rest of season seven? Listen and subscribe now!

This podcast is sponsored by Baileys and produced by Bird Lime Media.

Serious Readers are offering Bookshelfie listeners £100 off any HD light and free UK delivery. To take advantage of our Serious Readers discount code, please visit seriousreaders.com/bookshelfie and use the code SHELFIE. 

There’s a 30 day risk-free trial to return the lamp for free if you’re unhappy with it for whatever reason. 

Irish novelist Cecelia Ahern joins Vick to chat about how books making us less lonely, what inspires her work and the art of being an introverted extrovert.   

Cecelia's debut novel PS I Love You was published in 2004 and went on to become an international bestseller and was adapted into a film starring Hilary Swank. Her second novel, Where Rainbows End, was adapted into the film Love, Rosie starring Lily Collins. Her books have been published in over thirty-seven languages, and have sold over twenty-five million copies. In addition to her novels, she is also the author of a highly acclaimed collection of stories, Roar, which is now a series starring Nicole Kidman on Apple TV+.

Her new novel Into the Storm follows the journey of GP Enya and her search for freedom after her life splinters in two.

** Under the Hawthorn Tree by Marita Conlon McKenna 

Vick Hope, multi-award winning TV and BBC Radio 1 presenter, author and journalist, is the host of season seven of the Women’s Prize for Fiction Podcast. Every week, Vick will be joined by another inspirational woman to discuss the work of incredible female authors. The Women’s Prize is one of the most prestigious literary awards in the world, and they continue to champion the very best books written by women.

Don’t want to miss the rest of season seven? Listen and subscribe now!

This podcast is sponsored by Baileys and produced by Bird Lime Media.

Serious Readers are offering Bookshelfie listeners £100 off any HD light and free UK delivery. To take advantage of our Serious Readers discount code, please visit seriousreaders.com/bookshelfie and use the code SHELFIE. 

There’s a 30 day risk-free trial to return the lamp for free if you’re unhappy with it for whatever reason. 

Broadcaster Kate Humble explains the joy of living in the moment, the glory of nature and the importance of shunning the algorithms.

Kate is a broadcaster specialising in wildlife and science programmes, including  Countryfile, Springwatch and Blue Planet Live. A champion of the environment, nature conservation and rural affairs, she is president of the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust and founded Humble by Nature, a rural skills centre on her farm in Wales.

As well as starring in over 70 television programmes, Kate is the author of seven books, including A Year of Living Simply, Home Cooked, Where the Hearth Is and Thinking on My Feet, which was shortlisted for the 2019 Wainwright Prize.

Kate’s latest book, Home Made: Recipes from the Countryside is a collection of over 60 simple, sustainable recipes from her very own kitchen table, alongside inspiring stories from 20 individuals who play a role in bringing food to us.

Vick Hope, multi-award winning TV and BBC Radio 1 presenter, author and journalist, is the host of season seven of the Women’s Prize for Fiction Podcast. Every week, Vick will be joined by another inspirational woman to discuss the work of incredible female authors. The Women’s Prize is one of the most prestigious literary awards in the world, and they continue to champion the very best books written by women.

Don’t want to miss the rest of season seven? Listen and subscribe now!

This podcast is sponsored by Baileys and produced by Bird Lime Media.

Jodi Picoult is the number 1 New York Times bestselling author of 28 novels and short stories, and has also written several issues of Wonder Woman. 

Approximately 40 million copies of her books are in print worldwide and have been translated into 34 languages.  Her book My Sister’s Keeper was made into a motion picture starring Cameron Diaz.

Jodi is the recipient of many awards, including the 2003 New England Bookseller Award for Fiction, a lifetime achievement award for mainstream fiction from the Romance Writers of America, and the Sarah Josepha Hale Award. She holds honorary doctor of letters degrees from Dartmouth College and the University of New Haven. She is a patron of the Carol Shields Prize for Fiction, which is awarded to female fiction writers in the States. 

Her new book By Any Other Name tells the story of two women, centuries apart, who are both forced to hide behind another name to make their voices heard.

Vick Hope, multi-award winning TV and BBC Radio 1 presenter, author and journalist, is the host of season seven of the Women’s Prize for Fiction Podcast. Every week, Vick will be joined by another inspirational woman to discuss the work of incredible female authors. The Women’s Prize is one of the most prestigious literary awards in the world, and they continue to champion the very best books written by women.

Don’t want to miss the rest of season seven? Listen and subscribe now!

This podcast is sponsored by Baileys and produced by Bird Lime Media.

British actress Corinna Brown tells us why representation is so important to her and through the poetry of Rupi Kaur, explains why you are more than just pretty. 

Corinna best known for her role as Tara Jones in Heartstopper, the multi-award-winning, BAFTA nominated Neftlix adaptation of Alice Osman’s LGBTQ+ graphic novels which rose to the top ten most-watched English series on Netflix within two days of the first season’s release. The series has assembled a surge of fans mesmerised by the show’s ability to create diverse, authentic storylines for fans around the world to relate to.  

Corinna trained at East 15 drama school. She has worked across film, television and theatre, including making her television debut in the BBC Three film My Murder with John Boyega. In 2023, Corinna starred in Essex Girls, a coming-of-age short film directed by Yero-Timi Bie that explores Black-British girlhood and the magic of female friendship, nominated for Best Short Film at the 2023 London Film Festival.  

The much anticipated third season of Heartstopper, released on Netflix this week, sees Tara face the trials of living as a lesbian from a young age and what it means to grow up and develop alongside a romantic partner.

Vick Hope, multi-award winning TV and BBC Radio 1 presenter, author and journalist, is the host of season seven of the Women’s Prize for Fiction Podcast. Every week, Vick will be joined by another inspirational woman to discuss the work of incredible female authors. The Women’s Prize is one of the most prestigious literary awards in the world, and they continue to champion the very best books written by women.

Don’t want to miss the rest of season seven? Listen and subscribe now!

This podcast is sponsored by Baileys and produced by Bird Lime Media.

Food writer and bestselling author Rukmini Iyer shares how her recipes bring families together, the importance of flavours and the joy of finding a delicious, easy solution to dinner.

Rukmini is the bestselling author of The Roasting Tin series, which in five years has sold over 1.75 million copies worldwide. They’ve transformed the cookery space in the UK, leading the one-tin, one-pot, and one-pan revolution, and remain firm favourites among cookbook buyers who love Rukmini’s minimum fuss, maximum flavour recipes. Rukmini makes regular appearances cooking live on morning television and is the newest weekly columnist for The Guardian’s ‘Feast’ magazine. 

Her newest book, The Green Cookbook, a collection of delicious and simple planted-based recipes, is out now. When she’s not cooking for work, she loves gardening, reading, wandering around food markets with her border collie and toddler in tow, renovating the house with her husband and entertaining friends and family.

Vick Hope, multi-award winning TV and BBC Radio 1 presenter, author and journalist, is the host of season seven of the Women’s Prize for Fiction Podcast. Every week, Vick will be joined by another inspirational woman to discuss the work of incredible female authors. The Women’s Prize is one of the most prestigious literary awards in the world, and they continue to champion the very best books written by women.

Don’t want to miss the rest of season seven? Listen and subscribe now!

This podcast is sponsored by Baileys and produced by Bird Lime Media.

Tracy Chevalier is an award-winning American-British novelist of 11 books, including the immensely popular Girl with a Pearl Earring, which has sold over 5 million copies worldwide and was adapted into a film, which was nominated for three Academy Awards. 

Tracy has also edited anthologies such as Why Willows Weep, a collection of tales from the woods to raise money for the Woodland Trust, and Reader, I Married Him, a collection of short stories commissioned to mark the 200th anniversary of Charlotte Brontë.

In addition to her writing, Tracy has been actively involved with various organisations including the Royal Literary Fund, Patron of the Dorchester Literary Festival and the Woodland Trust.

Tracy’s latest novel, The Glassmaker, follows a family of Venetian glassmakers from the Renaissance to present day.

Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder was illustrated by Garth Williams.

Vick Hope, multi-award winning TV and BBC Radio 1 presenter, author and journalist, is the host of season seven of the Women’s Prize for Fiction Podcast. Every week, Vick will be joined by another inspirational woman to discuss the work of incredible female authors. The Women’s Prize is one of the most prestigious literary awards in the world, and they continue to champion the very best books written by women.

Don’t want to miss the rest of season seven? Listen and subscribe now!

This podcast is sponsored by Baileys and produced by Bird Lime Media.

Glamour UK’s Editor-in-Chief Deborah Joseph joins Vick to discuss feminism through the lens of magazines, the importance of representation and the need for perfectly imperfect women. 

Deborah is an award-winning editor and journalist. Over the past seven years, she has directed Glamour’s transition from a print to a digital-first, beauty-first brand. Prior to that, she spent six years working for fashion and celebrity tech start-ups, was a social media consultant for Jenny Packham, and edited the Daily Mail’s life and style section. She was on the launch team of Glamour over 20 years ago and has also edited two other Condé Nast titles, Easy Living and Brides. 

Deborah speaks regularly on the topic of women’s empowerment and the challenges facing working mothers, and after experiencing burnout now chooses to live what she describes as her ‘best 70% life’. 

Vick Hope, multi-award winning TV and BBC Radio 1 presenter, author and journalist, is the host of season seven of the Women’s Prize for Fiction Podcast. Every week, Vick will be joined by another inspirational woman to discuss the work of incredible female authors. The Women’s Prize is one of the most prestigious literary awards in the world, and they continue to champion the very best books written by women.

Don’t want to miss the rest of season seven? Listen and subscribe now!