For this final episode of the sixth season of In Writing, I sat down with Jesse Armstrong, creator of Succession, and writer/co-writer of numerous other brilliant shows and movies including Peep Show, Fresh Meat, The Thick of It, In The Loop and Four Lions. At his London office he told me about some of his projects that didn't work out (and why); the importance of tone, and how you know when you've got it right; the Succession rewrites that drove Brian Cox mad; the experiences of working with Armando Iannucci, Sam Bain and Chris Morris, and lots more.

Discover more from my conversations with Jesse in my book, In Writing: Conversations on Inspiration, Perspiration and Creative Desperation.

Jesse's 2016 novel is called Love, Sex and Other Foreign Policy Goals, and you can find that plus the complete scripts of Succession in the In Writing bookshop: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/in-writing

Jesse on IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1104036

A couple of episodes featuring other members of the Succession writers' room:

Lucy Prebble: https://audioboom.com/posts/7784642-lucy-prebble-playwright-and-screenwriter

Georgia Pritchett: https://audioboom.com/posts/7989980-georgia-pritchett-comedy-and-drama-writer

This season of In Writing is sponsored by Curtis Brown Creative – the renowned writing school run by the literary and talent agency. Use code INWRITING20 for £20 off your first online writing course – eligible courses can be found here. Visit https://curtisbrowncreative.co.uk to find out more.

Fresh from judging the Booker Prize, novelist Sara Collins joins us this week. Her debut The Confessions of Frannie Langton won the First Novel prize in the 2019 Costa Book Awards, and having adapted it into a TV series, she's now working on her second book. In this episode, she talks about the careful rhythms of her writing routine; the value of plotting (even in literary fiction); and her perspective on the publishing industry, having spent the first 17 years of her career as a corporate lawyer.

Buy The Confessions of Frannie Langton: https://uk.bookshop.org/a/5954/9780241984017

Watch The Confessions of Frannie Langton, as adapted by Sara: https://www.itv.com/watch/the-confessions-of-frannie-langton/10a1811/10a1811a0001

Listen to Sara and I discussing the writing process with Samira Ahmed on BBC Radio 4's Front Row (from the 28-minute mark): https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0024l44

How to Write a Book, presented by Sara, her agent Nelle Andrew, and publisher Sharmaine Lovegrove: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/how-to-write-a-book/id1756969285

Buy In Writing: Conversations on Inspiration, Perspiration and Creative Desperation: https://uk.bookshop.org/a/5954/9781803510637

This season of In Writing is sponsored by Curtis Brown Creative – the renowned writing school run by the literary and talent agency. Use code INWRITING20 for £20 off your first online writing course – eligible courses can be found here. Visit https://curtisbrowncreative.co.uk to find out more.

This week I'm talking to Tom Crewe, author of 2023's The New Life, contributing editor of the London Review of Books and winner of the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award. I visited Tom in September at his London office, which is really more of a nest of books, and we talked about the strange emotional journey of publication; the wrangling of structure; the role of sex scenes and much more.

Buy The New Life here: https://uk.bookshop.org/a/5954/9781529919714

Listen to Tom reading his LRB essay on his childhood obsession with wrestling: https://www.lrb.co.uk/podcasts-and-videos/podcasts/the-lrb-podcast/wrestling-days

Buy my book In Writing: Conversations on Inspiration, Perspiration and Creative Desperation: https://uk.bookshop.org/a/5954/9781803510637

Come and see me and author Anna Metcalfe in Birmingham on Saturday 30 November: https://the-heath-bookshop.eventcube.io/events/68404/hattie-crisell-in-writing-conversations-on-inspiration-perspiration-and-creative-desperation

This season of In Writing is sponsored by Curtis Brown Creative – the renowned writing school run by the literary and talent agency. Use code INWRITING20 for £20 off your first online writing course – eligible courses can be found here. Visit https://curtisbrowncreative.co.uk to find out more.

This week I'm in the London home of artist and writer Posy Simmonds. From the 1970s onwards, Posy had a regular comic strip in The Guardian, where she wrote Mrs Weber's Diary and later serialised the graphic novel Tamara Drewe. She went on to publish two more graphic novels, Gemma Bovery and Cassandra Darke. Earlier this year, she had a major exhibition at the Pompidou Centre in Paris, and became the first British artist to win the Grand Prix at France’s Angoulême International Comics Festival.

Here are some of Posy's books: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/in-writing

...and here are some more: https://www.waterstones.com/author/posy-simmonds/520640

I'm teaching an online writing masterclass with Arvon on Tuesday 19 November: https://www.arvon.org/writing-courses/courses-retreats/masterclass-how-to-improve-the-authenticity-of-your-writing/

I'm doing an event at Oxford's Caper Bookshop on Thursday 21 November: https://checkout.square.site/merchant/ML2NMXXMTK08F/checkout/QDFD4C2ZV7EK2S4TD25M3MUB

I'm interviewing David Nicholls on the writing process in Cambridge on Saturday 23 November: https://www.cambridgeliteraryfestival.com/events/david-nicholls-you-are-here-in-writing-live-with-hattie-crisell/

Buy a signed copy of In Writing: Conversations on Inspiration, Perspiration and Creative Desperation here: https://dauntbooks.co.uk/shop/books/in-writing-owl-bookshop-signed-copy/

This season of In Writing is sponsored by Curtis Brown Creative – the renowned writing school run by the literary and talent agency. Use code INWRITING20 for £20 off your first online writing course – eligible courses can be found here. Visit https://curtisbrowncreative.co.uk to find out more.

Nathan Silver, director and co-writer of Between the Temples (and many other movies) joins me from New York today to talk about his 'scriptment' approach to screenwriting, in which scripts read more like novellas. Nathan and I have a great chat about how he collaborates with cast and uses improvisation to tell a story; how comedy helps him to 'Trojan horse' experimental work to audiences; and his thoughts on letting an audience feel a little bit lost. 

Watch the trailer for Between the Temples, starring Jason Schwartzman and Carol Kane: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UNPfUU0UZI

If you liked this episode, try my interview with filmmaker Ruben Ostlund: https://audioboom.com/posts/8259325-ruben-ostlund-filmmaker

'Great rewards come from being brave' – read my Q&A in Curtis Brown Creative's newsletter: https://www.curtisbrowncreative.co.uk/blog/hattie-crisell-author-interview

Order a signed or dedicated copy of my book for someone you love (possibly yourself): https://dauntbooks.co.uk/shop/books/in-writing-owl-bookshop-signed-copy/

To celebrate the publication of In Writing, Granta Books is giving away twenty 'Creative Desperation' T-shirts. To be in with a chance of winning one, all you have to do is pre-order or purchase a copy of the book from any retailer. Email your receipt/proof of purchase to [email protected] before Tuesday 12th November, putting ‘In Writing Giveaway’ in the email subject. Terms and conditions:
Entrants must be UK-based. The winners will be chosen at random. Any entries received after the closing date will not be counted. Entries must include proof of purchase. Both online and in-store purchases are accepted as entries.

This season of In Writing is sponsored by Curtis Brown Creative – the renowned writing school run by the literary and talent agency. Use code INWRITING20 for £20 off your first online writing course – eligible courses can be found here. Visit https://curtisbrowncreative.co.uk to find out more.

This slightly silly bonus episode marks the launch today of In Writing: Conversations on Inspiration, Perspiration and Creative Desperation, published in the UK by Granta Books. Friend of the podcast and former guest Sathnam Sanghera came to visit the room where I write, for a conversation about the writing life – touching on elaborate procrastination, the fetishisation of fountain pens, and whether writers are good at a party (or not).

Listen back to Sathnam's first appearance on In Writing, from 2019: https://audioboom.com/posts/7782209-sathnam-sanghera-journalist-memoirist-and-novelist

Buy my book, if you feel like it: https://uk.bookshop.org/a/5954/9781803510637

This season of In Writing is sponsored by Curtis Brown Creative – the renowned writing school run by the literary and talent agency. Use code INWRITING20 for £20 off your first online writing course. Eligible courses can be found here. Visit https://curtisbrowncreative.co.uk to find out more.

Yomi Adegoke, bestselling author of The List and co-author of Slay In Your Lane: The Black Girl Bible, spoke to me in August for this episode. We discussed the stellar career she's established in her twenties and early thirties – from launching a self-made magazine, to producing an acclaimed book on the experience of black British women, to writing a novel that has sold more than 150,000 copies in little over a year. Yomi spilled the beans on the steep learning curve of moving from non-fiction to fiction; her love of a good edit; and why she thinks literary critics are underappreciated. 

You can buy Yomi's books here in the In Writing bookshop: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/in-writing

Order my book In Writing: Conversations on Inspiration, Perspiration and Creative Desperation: https://uk.bookshop.org/a/5954/9781803510637

London: I'm in conversation with BBC Radio 4's Sheila Dillon at Ink@84 on 7 November: https://www.ink84bookshop.co.uk/product-page/in-writing-hattie-crisell-in-conversation-with-sheila-dillon

Edinburgh: I'm in conversation with novelist Maggie O'Farrell organised by Rare Birds Books on 10 November: https://rarebirdsbooks.com/products/hattie-crisell-in-conversation-with-maggie-ofarrell

Glasgow: I'm reading from my book and being interviewed at Glasgow University on 11 November: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/hattie-crisell-reading-and-in-conversation-tickets-1058328712669

Durham: I'm being interviewed by writer Kathryn Tann at Collected Books on 12 November: https://collectedbooks.co.uk/products/hattie-crisell-in-writing-conservations-on-inspiration-perspiration-and-creative-desperation-tuesday-12-november-6-30pm

This season of In Writing is sponsored by Curtis Brown Creative – the renowned writing school run by the literary and talent agency. Use code INWRITING20 for £20 off your first online writing course, eligible courses can be found here. Visit https://curtisbrowncreative.co.uk to find out more.

I had a great chat this week with Craig Brown, parody writer and columnist for Private Eye and the Daily Mail, and author of offbeat biographies including A Voyage Around the Queen; One Two Three Four: The Beatles in Time; and Ma'am Darling (about Princess Margaret). Craig takes iconic cultural figures and writes around them, exploring how they were seen by their friends, fans and critics, and the strange, humorous and poignant ways that they affected other lives. It's an art form that Craig has made his own, mixing imagination with fact, and it was so interesting to visit him at his flat in Bloomsbury, London, and hear about how he puts these portraits together.

Read Craig's very funny Daily Mail column here: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/profile-2082/criag-brown.html

Buy A Voyage Around the Queen or browse more of Craig's books: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/in-writing

Order my book In Writing: Conversations on Inspiration, Perspiration and Creative Desperation: https://uk.bookshop.org/a/5954/9781803510637

This season of In Writing is sponsored by Curtis Brown Creative – the renowned writing school run by the literary and talent agency. Use code INWRITING20 for £20 off your first online writing course – eligible courses can be found here. Visit https://curtisbrowncreative.co.uk to find out more.

The very funny and frank Bella Mackie is with me today. We met in August to talk about the writing of her three bestselling books: the nonfiction hit Jog On: How Running Saved My Life, and the witty murder novels How to Kill Your Family and What a Way to Go – a new genre that we dub 'sarcastic crime'. Bella opens up about accepting defeat on a failed manuscript, learning her craft on the job, and battling with structure. And we discuss all of that while her dog Barney wanders around us at her kitchen table.

Browse and buy Bella's books here: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/in-writing

Read Bella's newsletter on privilege and honesty, 'Do influencers owe you transparency?': https://bellamackie.substack.com/p/manifesting-luck

Pre-order my book In Writing: Conversations on Inspiration, Perspiration and Creative Desperation: https://uk.bookshop.org/a/5954/9781803510637

This season of In Writing is sponsored by Curtis Brown Creative – the renowned writing school run by the literary and talent agency. Use code INWRITING20 for £20 off your first online writing course. Eligible courses can be found here: https://www.curtisbrowncreative.co.uk

See me and Anna Metcalfe at Stratford Literary Festival on 26 October: https://www.stratfordliteraryfestival.co.uk/events/hattie-crisell-and-anna-metcalfe

This week, meet Donal Ryan, who has since 2012 published seven bestselling novels and a collection of short stories. Based in County Limerick, Ireland – where he teaches creative writing at the University of Limerick – he writes heartfelt stories inspired by the kinds of people he's lived among all his life. His latest novel, Heart, Be At Peace, is a sequel to his debut, The Spinning Heart, which won the Guardian First Book Award and Irish Book of the Decade, among other plaudits. We sat down in London in August and talked about the self-doubt that delayed the start of his writing career; the characters he loves so much that he can't stop writing them into new stories; and his wife Anne-Marie's important role in his work.

Browse and buy Donal's books here: https://uk.bookshop.org/lists/donal-ryan-novelist

Pre-order my book, In Writing (thank you!): https://www.amazon.co.uk/Writing-Conversations-Inspiration-Perspiration-Desperation/dp/1803510633

This season of In Writing is sponsored by Curtis Brown Creative – the renowned writing school run by the literary and talent agency. Use code INWRITING20 for £20 off your first online writing course – eligible courses can be found here: https://www.curtisbrowncreative.co.uk

Here are the details of my book tour: https://www.instagram.com/p/DA5bYGqIqYN/

Buy tickets for my online masterclass in writing with emotional honesty (discounts are available for various groups including those on low income): https://www.arvon.org/writing-courses/courses-retreats/masterclass-how-to-improve-the-authenticity-of-your-writing/