Chef, broadcaster, and food and travel writer, Romy Gill, tells Vick about her experience as a first generation immigrant to the UK, the food that punctuated the 24 hour train journeys of her childhood, and how Nigella Lawson’s cookbooks inspired her own writing.

Born in West Bengal, India, Romy first learned to cook from her mother – famous for her aloo parathas and using every unloved scrap of plants and vegetables long before zero-waste became a trend. Romy moved to the UK in 1993, and began her cooking career hosting dinner parties and running cookery classes before opening her own restaurant, Romy’s Kitchen, in Gloucestershire. Since then, she has released her debut cookbook Zaika - Vegan Recipes from India which was followed by On the Himalayan Trail: Recipes and Stories from Kashmir to Ladakh. This second book wove personal essays, travel photography and explored the history of the region through its food and culinary traditions. Her most recent cookbook Romy Gill’s India - Recipes from Home features family recipes that celebrate her Bengali and Punjabi roots. In addition to her writing, Romy is a much-loved presence on radio and TV, regularly appearing on BBC Radio 4’s Food Programme, Ready Steady Cook and Celebrity Masterchef. 

Romy’s  book choices are:
**The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
**The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
**The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden
**How to Eat by Nigella Lawson
**Managing Expectations by Minnie Driver

You can buy all books mentioned from our dedicated shelf on Bookshop.org – every purchase supports the work of the Women's Prize Trust and independent bookshops. 

Every week on Bookshelfie, Vick Hope is joined by inspirational women to discuss the work of incredible female authors. The Women’s Prize for Fiction, the greatest celebration of female creativity in the world, is run by the Women’s Prize Trust, the charity building a better future by championing women’s writing. 

Don’t want to miss the rest of season nine? Follow or subscribe now!

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

South African broadcaster, author, world-champion dancer and star of Strictly, Oti Mabuse tells Vick about her love of spicy romance novels, her rejection of tokenism and why she loves audiobooks. 

Oti captured the hearts of the British public on Strictly Come Dancing, and is the only dancer to have won the show twice in a row - in 2019 and 2020. She’s presented and judged on a whole host of prime-time TV shows, including entertaining young children during lockdown with her CBeebies show Boogie Beebies, and her children’s book series Dance with Oti which celebrates dance and expressing your feelings by way of the penguin waltz and the turtle tango. She has also toured nationwide with her solo entertainment shows I Am Here and Viva Carnival, and most recently released her debut romantic fiction novel, Slow Burn.

Oti’s book choices are:
**You Are a Badass by Jen Sincero
**Fundamentally by Nussaibah Younis
**Icebreaker by Hannah Grace
**Audre & Bash Are Just Friends by Tia Williams
**It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover

You can buy all books mentioned from our dedicated shelf on Bookshop.org – every purchase supports the work of the Women's Prize Trust and independent bookshops. 

Every week on Bookshelfie, Vick Hope is joined by inspirational women to discuss the work of incredible female authors. The Women’s Prize for Fiction, the greatest celebration of female creativity in the world, is run by the Women’s Prize Trust, the charity building a better future by championing women’s writing. 

Don’t want to miss the rest of season nine? Follow or subscribe now!

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

Award-winning football presenter and broadcaster Kelly Cates talks about finding new opportunities in midlife, her love for the way Marian Keyes captures female conversation and why deep down she is a terrible gossip. 

Kelly has been a familiar and much-loved face in sports broadcasting for over 27 years, covering everything from the Premier League to the World Cup and the Olympics. Known for her warmth, wit and sharp insight, she has become one of the most respected voices in football. A lifelong Liverpool fan, Kelly grew up in Southport as the daughter of football legend Kenny Dalglish, before going on to study Maths at the University of Glasgow. Since 2025, she has co-hosted Match of the Day alongside Gabby Logan and Mark Chapman, and she continues to balance an incredibly busy career with life in London, where she lives with her two daughters.

Kelly’s  book choices are:
** Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery
** Frederica by Georgette Heyer
** Heartburn by Nora Ephron
** The List by Yomi Adegoke
** Rachel’s Holiday by Marian Keyes

You can buy all books mentioned from our dedicated shelf on Bookshop.org – every purchase supports the work of the Women's Prize Trust and independent bookshops. 

Every week on Bookshelfie, Vick Hope is joined by inspirational women to discuss the work of incredible female authors. The Women’s Prize for Fiction, the greatest celebration of female creativity in the world, is run by the Women’s Prize Trust, the charity building a better future by championing women’s writing. 

Don’t want to miss the rest of season nine? Follow or subscribe now!

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

Bestselling crime writer Karin Slaughter reveals the gruesome storytelling culture she grew up in and why she thinks Wuthering Heights’ Cathy is “kind of a whiny bitch”. 

Karin is one of the world’s most well-known and popular crime writers. Since publishing her debut novel, Blindsighted, in 2001, she has gone on to sell more than 40 million copies of her books internationally, including the hugely popular Grant County and Will Trent series. Karin is known for reaching beyond simple formulas of suspense and satisfying resolution. Instead she chooses to explore the darker side of humanity, criminal psychology and the systemic violence against women both in and outside of the home. 

Outside of her writing, Karin is also the founder of the Save the Libraries project - a nonprofit organisation dedicated to supporting local libraries in Atlanta, Georgia - the city where she grew up and continues to draw inspiration from in her writing. 

Karin has adapted a number of her works for TV and is currently showrunner for The Good Daughter, which will star Meghann Fahy and Rose Byrne. Her latest book, We Are All Guilty Here, was an instant Sunday Times No.1 bestseller, and will be published in paperback on 23 April. Her forthcoming novel, The Secrets We Hide, is published on 18 June and available to preorder now; the second book in her bestselling North Fall series, it sees a quiet town shattered in the wake of a brutal attack. 

TW: this episode contains references to rape and sexual violence.

Karin’s book choices are:
** Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
** Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose by Flannery O’Connor
** Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
** Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
** Mister Sandman by Barbara Gowdy

You can buy all books mentioned from our dedicated shelf on Bookshop.org – every purchase supports the work of the Women's Prize Trust and independent bookshops. 

Every week on Bookshelfie, Vick Hope is joined by inspirational women to discuss the work of incredible female authors. The Women’s Prize for Fiction, the greatest celebration of female creativity in the world, is run by the Women’s Prize Trust, the charity building a better future by championing women’s writing. 

Don’t want to miss the rest of season nine? Follow or subscribe now!

Engineer, author and broadcaster Roma Agrawal talks to Vick about reclaiming her body after childbirth, centring the knowledge of non-western cultures and why engineering is more creative than you think. 

Roma is best known for working on the design of The Shard, Western Europe’s tallest tower, and is a judge for the 2026 Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction, sponsored by Findmypast. She has given talks to tens of thousands at universities, schools and organisations around the world, including TEDx, and presented numerous TV, radio and podcast shows for the BBC, Channel 4 and Discovery. Her first book, Built, won multiple awards, and was published for children as How Was That Built? in 2021. Her third book, Nuts & Bolts was shortlisted for the prestigious Royal Society Trivedi  Science Book Prize, and was also adapted for children, as Seven Small Inventions That Changed the World. Her new book, How to Build a Chocolate Bridge: Extraordinary Builds Using Everyday Things, is a hands-on exploration of science and the world around us, featuring seven fun interactive building projects for kids. 

Roma’s book choices are:
** Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
** Uncivilised: Ten Lies that Made the West by Subhadra Das
** The Girl and The Goddess by Nikita Gill
** The Heart Goes Last by Margaret Atwood
** Yellowface by Rebecca Kuang

You can buy all books mentioned from our dedicated shelf on Bookshop.org – every purchase supports the work of the Women's Prize Trust and independent bookshops. 

Every week on Bookshelfie, Vick Hope is joined by inspirational women to discuss the work of incredible female authors. The Women’s Prize for Fiction, the greatest celebration of female creativity in the world, is run by the Women’s Prize Trust, the charity building a better future by championing women’s writing. 

Don’t want to miss the rest of season nine? Follow or subscribe now!

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

Fresh from her recent Traitors appearance, author and former barrister Harriet Tyce talks to Vick about the brilliance of female crime writers, her biggest literary crush and THAT moment with Rachel in the confessional at the Traitors castle.

Harriet left behind a career in criminal law to complete a Masters in Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia. In 2019, she published her debut novel Blood Orange, which follows attorney Alison as she defends a woman accused of murder and jeopardises her own picture-perfect life in the process. Harriet followed this with three other standalone crime thrillers: The Lies You Told, It Ends At Midnight and A Lesson in Cruelty. Earlier this year, she joined Series 4 of The Traitors, becoming a firm fan favourite for her authenticity and audacious approach to the game. Her fifth novel Witch Trial – a courtroom drama centred on the murder of a teenager in an Edinburgh park and the two friends who stand accused – is out now.

Harriet’s book choices are:
**Apple Tree Yard by Louise Doughty
**The Lymond Chronicles: The Game of Kings by Dorothy Dunnett
**The Last of Earth by Deepa Anappara
**Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert
**Luckenbooth by Jenni Fagan

You can buy all books mentioned from our dedicated shelf on Bookshop.org – every purchase supports the work of the Women's Prize Trust and independent bookshops. 

Every week on Bookshelfie, Vick Hope is joined by inspirational women to discuss the work of incredible female authors. The Women’s Prize for Fiction, the greatest celebration of female creativity in the world, is run by the Women’s Prize Trust, the charity building a better future by championing women’s writing. 

Don’t want to miss the rest of season nine? Follow or subscribe now!

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

To kick off a new season of Bookshelfie, author, model, entrepreneur and women’s rights activist Charli Howard talks to Vick about finding confidence in your 30s, dating disasters and the therapeutic process of writing her latest book.

Charli’s coming-of-age memoir, Misfit, was published in 2019, which followed her rise in the modelling industry, her battle against body shaming and the normalisation of size zero. She’s also the author of children’s novel, Splash, which Jacqueline Wilson called a ‘much needed book that will strike a chord with so many girls – and help them dare to be different.’  Charli is an ambassador for Refuge and has successfully lobbied the UK government to criminalise the creation of non-consensual deepfake pornography. Her new book, Flesh, is an urgent and powerful series of essays on how society has dissected and sexualised the female body throughout time, and what it means to be a woman in the twenty-first century.

Charli’s book choices are:
** Sleepovers by Jacqueline Wilson
** Hunger by Roxane Gay
** The Eyes are the Best Part by Monika Kim
** Women Who Love Too Much by Robin Norwood
** I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jeanette McCurdy

You can buy all books mentioned from our dedicated shelf on Bookshop.org – every purchase supports the work of the Women's Prize Trust and independent bookshops. 

Every week on Bookshelfie, Vick Hope is joined by inspirational women to discuss the work of incredible female authors. The Women’s Prize for Fiction, the greatest celebration of female creativity in the world, is run by the Women’s Prize Trust, the charity building a better future by championing women’s writing. 

Don’t want to miss the rest of season nine? Follow or subscribe now!

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