Loves Labours Watched

This episode we speak to debut author Sophie Haydock about The Flames, her historical novel about four women who were painted by Austrian artist Egon Schiele. Sophie chatted to us about recentering women in history, her inspiration for the novel and her popular corresponding Instagram account @egonschieleswomen. Later, we chat about the return of Netflix fave Bridgerton. Find out all our thoughts on Kate and Anthony, our hopes for next season and why we were so excited to see Rupert Young AKA Merlin's Sir Leon pop up (expect some spoilers for Bridgerton Season 2) Get in touch with us with your thoughts @RealLLW on Twitter and @LovesLaboursWatched on Instagram. Shout out to Alex Egge (@aneggeaday on Instagram)for our lovely logo too!

We're back and we're thrilled to be interviewing Meg Mason, author of best-selling hit Sorrow and Bliss, a novel that's taken the world by storm. The bittersweet tale of Martha, a woman whose marriage is on the rocks and who is struggling with an undiagnosed mental illness, is warm, candid and unforgettable. Meg spoke to us about her writing process, comparisons to Jane Austen and how the book balances humor and realism. Our chat isn't too specific, but from 24:46-28:10 and 34:33-34:45 there are some spoilers around the novel's ending, so skip those parts if you haven't got round to reading the book yet.

Later in the episode we discuss Red (Taylor's Version), Taylor Swift's rerecorded and released version of her classic 2012 album. Expect a deep dive into the lyrics, imagery, music and, of course, the All Too Well short film.

Get in touch with us @RealLLW on Twitter and @LovesLaboursWatched on Instagram. Shout out to Alex Egge (@aneggeaday)for our lovely logo too!

This month on Loves Labours Watched we're speaking with author Rosanna Amaka about her beautiful debut novel The Book of Echoes. Switching between London and Nigeria, the novel is about love, hope and time, charting how history is never static, but reverberates through to the present. Rosanna wrote The Book of Echoes to celebrate the African Caribbean community in which she grew up in Brixton, south London, and she worked on the book for 20 years. It was published in 2020, and is out in paperback in the UK now.

Later in the episode, we continue our Marvel chat with a discussion of new Disney+ show Loki, along with our thoughts on Scarlett Johansson-led movie Black Widow, also starring LLW fave Florence Pugh. Expect spoilers for both!

Plus, we're absolutely delighted to have a brilliant new logo designed by Alex Egge, who you can find at @aneggeaday on Instagram. We hope you love it as much as we do, and enjoy the episode!

This month on Loves Labours Watched we're speaking with author Zakiya Dalila Harris about The Other Black Girl, her New York Times bestselling debut novel. We talk to Zakiya about publishing's diversity problem, and how she blended elements of realism, sci-fi and horror to depict the ways in which white supremacy asserts itself in the workplace. Zakiya also discusses the novel's upcoming TV adaptation, which she's working on with Rashida Jones, and why she loves TV show Search Party. Later, Helena and Francesca chat about Bo Burnham's Inside, the comedian-writer-director's Netflix comedy special that takes a humorous but pointed look at the role of the internet in our lives, and which was filmed over the course of the past pandemic year. If you enjoy this episode, please leave us a rating and review, or get in touch on social media. See you next time!

This month we connect with New York Times bestselling author Maggie Shipstead about her new novel Great Circle, an enveloping, lyrical and ambitious novel about a 1940s female aviator and the modern-day actress who is hired to play her in a biopic. We enjoyed a fascinating discussion with Maggie all about how the megastardom of the Twilight stars influenced the story, her globe-spanning research process and how Great Circle plays with ideas of narrative and storytelling. We then continue the bookish chat with a discussion of this year's Women's Prize for Fiction nominees, which include previous LLW guest Brit Bennett. Finally, Francesca updates us on her WandaVision-prompted Marvel journey and so we discuss some (mostly Sebastian-Stan-related) thoughts on the Captain America series. Enjoy!

This month we're chatting to Laura Kay, author of the heartwarming new rom-com The Split. We chat to Laura about how she centered queer narratives, why main characters don't have to be likable and why Louise Rennison's Angus Thongs series remains a masterpiece to this day. Later, we dive deep into WandaVision, the Marvel Cinematic Universe's first Disney+ offering. We discuss how the show recreates sitcoms past, why Elizabeth Olsen's performance is so spectacular, how the show plays with themes of narration and storytelling and why its resonating with former MCU sceptics, including Francesca. Enjoy!

Welcome back to LLW, this month we speak to author Lucy Jago about her new novel A Net For Small Fishes, which examines two real life women who were at the centre of a 16th century English scandal. We speak to Lucy about her wealth of historical research, recentering female narratives and why tearing War and Peace in half is the way to finally get round to reading it.

Then, continuing the historical fiction theme, we deep dive into Bridgerton, which Helena first encountered age 13 on her Palm Pilot and has now become a Netflix TV show that’s broken records and made waves across the world. We discuss the colour conscious casting, the romance novel genre and what we hope to see from the second series, set to star Sex Education actor Simone Ashley.

Recommendation wise, Francesca is seeking post-Bridgerton escapism via Netflix’s Virgin River, while Helena is enjoying more historical discussions via BBC podcast You’re Dead to Me.

Stay safe and well everyone, and we’ll see next month!

For our first episode of 2021, LLW connected with Kiley Reid, author of Such a Fun Age, the smash-hit novel long-listed for the 2020 Man Booker Prize. In our chat, Kiley discusses the novel’s themes of storytelling and social media, plus how she uses the writing process to get inside her character’s heads, why she chose the multi-layered title and the limitations of the anti-racist reading list. Our chat was mostly spoiler-free, but we do discuss the novel’s ending from 23:05 to 26:16 and again from 27:38 to 28:17, so skip those parts if you haven't read the book yet. It was fantastic to connect with Kiley on the eve of the UK paperback release of Such a Fun Age, which is out now in all good bookstores.

Later, we chat about questionable-yet-entertaining Netflix festive films The Princess Switched 2: Switch Again and Christmas on the Square, which we watched together via Netflix Party over the holiday period. We hope everyone’s staying safe and well as we begin the New Year and we’ll be back with a new episode next month.

This week on LLW we speak to Zaina Arafat, author of You Exist Too Much, a coming of age story about a young Palestinian-American woman caught between two worlds. Zaina, an LGBTQ, Arab/Muslim-American writer, speaks to LLW about her protagonist, who struggles with her dual identity, her complicated relationship with her mother and her internalised homophobia. We also discuss how Zaina settled upon You Exist Too Much's vignette-style structure and her choice of a first person narrator. Later, we chat about why we’re so excited for the return of BBC/HBO’s His Dark Materials and have some thoughts on the Netflix adaptation of Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca. Enjoy!

After a month hiatus, LLW is back! We're here to chat about two recent Netflix big hitters: new movie Enola Holmes starring Stranger Things' Millie Bobbie Brown and so-bad-it's-good TV hit Emily in Paris. Find out why we were charmed by one and bemused by the other and get stuck into a discussion about breaking the fourth wall, a saccharine vision of Paris and whether TV shows are always aware when they've created unlikable characters. We're delighted to be back and have more book/cinema/theatre discussion coming up!