Forthwrite

In this episode Anna and Sam talk to Holly Race. Holly reads from the first of her trilogy, Midnight's Twins. 

Holly is an author and script editor, and has worked for companies including Working Title Films, Aardman Animations and Red Planet Pictures. She is a Faber Academy graduate, and her Young Adult trilogy, Midnight’s Twins, A Gathering Midnight and A Midnight Dark and Golden, is published by Hot Key Books. Having studied English at Oxford University, she now lives in her hometown of Cambridge, where she enjoys baking, trying not to kill plants, and travelling at short notice to far off places.

in this episode Anna and Sam talk to Rosie Walker about her process, writing with a young baby and what's on her bookshelf, as well as hear her read from her novel, The House Fire. 

In this episode Anna and Sam talk to Kiley Dunbar. Kiley reads from her novel, The Borrow a Bookshop Holiday and we discuss her writing and the power of romantic fiction. 

Kiley Dunbar had published 6 contemporary romantic comedies with her publisher Hera Canelo. She is Scottish and lives in the North of England with her partner and two children. Her debut, One Summer’s Night, was nominated for the Joan Hessayon Award for New Writing, and its sequel, One Winter’s Night, was shortlisted for the RNA’s Romantic Comedy Novel Award 2021. Kiley is a senior lecturer at the Manchester Writing School where she uses her real name Dr Kirsty Bunting and teachers courses on genre fiction and writing about relationships.

This week Anna and Sam are chatting all things writing with Jo Clegg. Listen to hear Jo read an extract from her brand new book, as well as how writing is like decorating the kitchen and for a wonderful tip for getting yourself unstuck.

Jo’s brief stint as a stand-up comic ended when a promoter told her she was really funny until she got on stage. After ten years as a producer in TV and radio comedy, Jo became a scriptwriter. She writes for children’s TV shows including BAFTA and Emmy-award winning Hey Duggee.

Her first novel The Summer Holiday features difficult-to-remove wetsuits, a weaponised macaroni cheese, adequacy issues, comparison, over-packing and regrettable impulsive acts. Her brand new novel Here Comes the Sun is out beginning of August. She lives in London with her family.

This week Anna and Sam chat to Rebecca Ley and she reads from her new novel The Trip, which is out now as an Ebook. 

Rebecca has been a journalist for twenty years after starting her career at The Times Magazine and then moving to staff roles at other newspapers. Since going freelance in 2009 she’s written for a wide variety of outlets, including a column in The Guardian’s now-defunct Family section about her father’s vascular dementia, obituaries for The Times and regular scripts for the animation company Scriberia. She also recently ghosted Hope Not Fear, a memoir by the Syrian activist and filmmaker Hassan Akkad which was just published by Pan Macmillan. Her first novel For When I’m Gone  was published by Orion in September 2020. She’s got three kids and lives in Hackney, east London with them and her partner, also a journalist.

In this episode Beth Miller reads an extract from 'The Woman Who Came Back to Life' and chats to Anna and Sam about the nuts and bolts of her writing process. 

Beth  has published eight books with four different publishers: one of the Big Five, an indie, a digital first publisher, and a commercial non-fiction pile ’em high press. She has bumped across genres, from women’s commercial and reading group to psychological thriller to comedy. She had an agent, then managed to lose the agent. But she has brokered three book deals on her own since then. Beth has taught creative writing for many years, including for Arvon and for the universities of Brighton and Surrey, and for New Writing South. She also works as a book coach for writers at all stages – 135 of them since 2015. She specialises in helping writers with their query letters and pitches. 

In this episode Anna and Sam chat to Eve Ainsworth. Eve reads chapter 1 of her latest book Duckling and we talk all things writing. 

Eve Ainsworth is an award-winning and Carnegie nominated children’s author, for both middle grade and teen readers. She has vast experience working as a public speaker and creative workshop coordinator for schools, libraries and other events both nationally and internationally. Eve was born and raised in Crawley, West Sussex and is one of seven children. After her degree, she had a varied background working within HR and Recruitment roles, before landing a job she loved – mentoring and supporting challenging and vulnerable students in a large secondary school. This inspired her first teen book 7 DAYS. Eve is fiercely proud of her working class roots and her large, loud family. She still lives in Crawley with her husband, two young children and crazy dog. Her first novel for adults, Duckling, was published by Penguin Random House in Spring 2022

Welcome to the very first episode of our podcast. In this episode we chat to Women's Prize for Fiction 2022 shortlisted author the very fabulous Lisa Allen Agostini.  

Lisa Allen-Agostini is a writer, editor and stand-up comedian. Her books include The Bread the Devil Knead (Myriad Editions UK), Home Home (Delacorte Press), Swallowing the Sky (Cane Arrow Press) and Trinidad Noir (Akashic Books). She is the mother of two daughters and two dogs. She lives in Trinidad and Tobago. Her most recent novel The Bread the Devil Knead was shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction, and Lisa narrated the audiobook.