Booktails Podcast

Prize Winners 2: Women's Prize for Fiction Winner

Let's go girls! The Women's Prize was set up in response to the lack of female writers being shortlisted for the Booker Prize despite being more numerous than males, and they have been paving the way for representation and equality ever since! Yasss Queens!

This week we dive into the Safekeep and discuss literary wartime lesbians, hare obsessions, twist endings and what pears have to do with any of it! Get yourself a Pears and Hares cocktail and let's get into it!

Prize Winners 1: Pulitzer Prize Winner

First up in this prize winning books of 2025 category is a retelling of the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which will turn that tale on its head with an unforgettable narrator and a completely new spin on the hi-jinks of a couple of children in the American South!

Travel down the Mississippi with Serena and Rachel as they discuss past mojito trauma, the language of slavery, absurd travelling royalty, the power of writing  and the ultimate reveal. YOU'RE NOT MY FATHER! OH YES I AM!

Spooky Stephen King 4.

Misery is the undisputed perfect name for this 1987 Stephen King classic, but we are here to ease your misery today!

Listen along as we discuss the bodice ripping novel-within-a-novel, Annie's unhinged psyche and iconic quotes and an unexpected ending, all paired with a delicious Suffering Bastard cocktail courtesy of Hauntingly Good Spirits.

Is it a horror or a thriller or just plain cockadoody? You decide.

Spooky Stephen King 3: Serena's Recommendation 

This is the book King himself rates as his scariest and it's clear why! A normal young family moves to rural Maine and is ripped apart by the forces at work in the ancient burial ground in their backyard. This week Serena and Rachel find hidden Stephen King universe Easter eggs, learn what kind of pet would haunt them, find unexpected spicy scenes and realise that Stephen King is absolutely not a cat person.

The perfectly paired cocktail this week courtesy of Hauntingly Good Spirits is the Corpse Reviver and this might have been our favourite of the collaboration. Just try it and thank us later.

In the iconic words of Jud Crandall "Sometimes dead is better" but since it's spooky season let's revive some corpses and dig up Pet Semetary! 

Spooky Stephen King 2: Rachel's Recommendation 

Whoa it's a biggie this week! Over one thousand pages to be exact! We are diving headfirst into the sewers and into one of the spookiest Stephen King stories around!

Journey with us to Derry, Maine where danger lurks just below the surface. Rachel and Serena become honorary members of the Losers Club this week as they sip on Drunk Ghost cocktails courtesy of Hauntingly Good Spirits, and discuss fear, success, trauma and friendship and the ongoing mystery of Bob Gray aka. Pennywise aka an alien?!

We all float here at Booktails Podcast and we have a sneaking suspicion you'll float too...

Spooky Stephen King 1

HEEEEEEERE'S BOOKTAILS!

It's finally spooky season and we are celebrating with the master of horror this month, Stephen King! Join us roaming the iconic hallways of the Overlook Hotel as the nights draw in.

Join Rachel and Serena as they discuss unreliable narrators, the Kubrick film adaptation, justice for Wendy and try to get to grips with who or what Tony is, whilst getting more than a little tipsy! 

But all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy so if you feel like visiting the Overlook's ghostly bar the Undead Gentleman himself would be only too happy to serve you up a delicious cocktail courtesy of the marvellous Hauntingly Good Spirits book! Seriously these cocktails are the real deal and not to be missed! This one is a Red Rum drink but hopefully murder won't be on the cards for you tonight... 

Notes: Serena's frozen Jack photo is available on Instagram. 

Cosy Murders 3.

Are you hungry? Grab a seat at the table because Rosemary Shrager is about to serve you up quite the meal and we are here to pour the tea! 

Take a sip of your perfectly paired aperitif Death by Rhubarb and meet the cast of very posh potential murderers in this classic country manor setting where murder is definitely on the menu. But can our wholesome granny/ granddaughter sleuth duo solve the case before it's too late? Rachel and Serena get very hungry this episode exploring red herrings, celebrity writers, quirky sidekicks and mushrooms you definitely shouldn't eat in the woods. 

Notes: 1) Rosemary Shrager was in such shows as Kitchen Showdown, Soapstar Superchef and the gem that was Ladette to Lady. 

2) There was a 'Millicent Bulstrode' character in Harry Potter, not Matilda!

3) The Toxic Bachelors character is called Gray Hawk, Serena should never have doubted you Rachel. Tut tut.

Cosy Murder 2: The Trial by Rob Rinder (Rachel's Recommendation) 

WE OBJECT, YOUR HONOUR - to the use of advocaat in a SECOND pod cocktail! But we do not object to the second book in our cosy murder series - The Trial by (Judge) Rob Rinder.

The cocktail this week is the Cliveden's Gotcha, or if you fancy a mocktail, the Solicitor. Gather your evidence and get ready to present your case to the eternal judges Rachel and Serena as we cut through the legal jargon to examine this cosy courtroom drama. Will Adam Green ever get his tenancy? Will Jimmy Knight be sent to the slammer? Court is now in session.

You are hereby ordered (politely) to serve as juror and justice WILL be served. What, like it's hard?

Cosy Murders 1: Serena's Recommendation 

Get the gang together on your zimmers because the time has come for...

Join our very own Booktails Murder Club by listening to the episode and CHASING it down with a Coopers Chase tea cocktail, sleuth your way through the book and find out which of the iconic granny gang is your spirit animal! 

Notes: We recorded this episode before the movie was released. We do have opinions on it, but they are not shared here! Except perhaps #justiceforbogdan ;)

Deadly Competitions 3

That's right, it's the one you were all thinking of! There's no way we could do a Deadly Competitions series without including this beloved franchise.

Get ready to be plucked from District 12 and dropped  into a fight for survival, with politics, intrigue and maybe even love along the way. Get your bow and arrows ready for business, and may the odds be ever in your favour...