Mostly Books Meets...

This week Jack is joined by Elly Griffiths. In 2009 she released The Crossing Places and introduced the world to the wonderful Dr Ruth Galloway who over several books has garnered a loyal cohort of fans from across the world. Now many mysteries later Ruth's story is coming to an end with the release of The Last Remains in January of this year.

Elly has also penned the Brighton Mysteries series as well as the Children's A Girl Called Justice series. One thing we can be sure of is there is always another great Griffith story on the horizon.

Purchase The Last Remains

(1:03) Closing the book on Ruth Galloway
(3:32) Elly's childhood reading
(17:28) Recent reading habits
(37:00) Elly's writing space
(45:15) An all-time favourite
(50:03) The Last Remains

The podcast is produced and presented by Jack Wrighton and the team at Mostly Books. It is edited by Story Ninety-Four. Find us on Twitter @mostlyreading & Instagram @mostlybooks_shop.

Meet the host:
Jack Wrighton is a bookseller and social media manager at Mostly Books. His hobbies include photography and buying books at a quicker rate than he can read them.
Connect with Jack on Instagram

The Last Remains is published in the UK by Quercus

Books mentioned in this episode include:
The Starlight Barking by Dodie Smith - ISBN:9781405204125
The Only Suspect by Louise Candlish - ISBN: 9781398509726
Everyone in My Family has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson - ISBN: 9781405953283
The Italian Quarter by Domenica De Rosa - ISBN: 9781843958130
The Swish of the Curtain by Pamela Brown - ISBN: 9781782691853
Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons - ISBN: 9780241418895

To find more titles, visit our website

This week Jack is joined by Cecile Pin. Her debut novel, Wandering Souls, tells the story of three siblings who flee Vietnam after the terrors of war, and find themselves orphaned and seeking a new home in Thatcher's Britain.

Purchase Wandering Souls

(0:27) Introduction and Childhood reads
(9:14) Fact and Fiction
(19:01) Being a debut author and moving forward
(23:19) Working in publishing as a writer
(32:28) Cecile's favourite reads
(37:04) Wandering Souls

The podcast is produced and presented by Jack Wrighton and the team at Mostly Books. It is edited by Story Ninety-Four. Find us on Twitter @mostlyreading & Instagram @mostlybooks_shop.

Meet the host:
Jack Wrighton is a bookseller and social media manager at Mostly Books. His hobbies include photography and buying books at a quicker rate than he can read them.
Connect with Jack on Instagram

Wandering Souls is published in the UK by Harper Collins

Books mentioned in this episode include:
Matilda by Roald Dahl - ISBN: 9780241558317
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi - ISBN: 9780099523994
Fire Rush by Jaqueline Crooks - ISBN: 9781787333635
The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker - ISBN: 9780241983201
Human Acts by Han Kang - ISBN: 9781846275975

To find more titles, visit our website

This week Jack is joined by Kevin Jared Hossein. His latest book, Hungry Ghosts is set in rural 1940s Trinidad and follows two households, the wealthy Changoors and the impoverished Sharups. It is a novel about family, caste, religion and violence.

Purchase Hungry Ghosts

(1:06) Publishing the novel
(4:07) Childhood reads
(12:47) Kevin's approach to writing
(18:41) Modern reading habits
(32:43) A book which changed his life
(39:49) Hungry Ghosts

The podcast is produced and presented by Jack Wrighton and the team at Mostly Books. It is edited by Story Ninety-Four. Find us on Twitter @mostlyreading & Instagram @mostlybooks_shop.

Meet the host:
Jack Wrighton is a bookseller and social media manager at Mostly Books. His hobbies include photography and buying books at a quicker rate than he can read them.
Connect with Jack on Instagram

Hungry Ghosts is published in the UK by Bloomsbury

Books mentioned in this episode include:
The Hobbit by J.R.R Tolkien - ISBN: 9780261103344
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D Salinger - ISBN: 9780241950432
Chernobyl Prayer: Voices from Chernobyl by Svetlana Alexievich - ISBN: 9780241270530
The Sound of the Mountain by Yasunari Kawabata - ISBN: 9780141192628
Our Souls at Night by Kent Haruf - ISBN: 9781447299370
The Road by Cormac McCarthy - ISBN: 2928377128418

To find more titles, visit our website

This week Jack is joined by debut author Santanu Bhattacharya. Santanu was included in the Guardians list of the 10 best new novelists of 2023 and in 2021 he won the Mo Siewcharran prize.

His novel One Small Voice is a beautiful novel brimming with humanity and populated by a cast of characters that feel so real you could reach out and touch them.

Purchase One Small Voice

(0:58) The release of One Small Voice
(5:00) Santanu's childhood reading
(13:48) Writing habits
(18:13) Santanu's recent recommendations
(27:29) The books that changed Santanu's life
(44:43) One Small Voice

The podcast is produced and presented by Jack Wrighton and the team at Mostly Books. It is edited by Story Ninety-Four. Find us on Twitter @mostlyreading & Instagram @mostlybooks_shop.

Meet the host:
Jack Wrighton is a bookseller and social media manager at Mostly Books. His hobbies include photography and buying books at a quicker rate than he can read them.
Connect with Jack on Instagram

One Small Voice is published in the UK by Penguin Books

Books mentioned in this episode include:
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens - ISBN: 9780141192499
Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe - ISBN: 9781913519438
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas - ISBN: 9780141392462
A Sabbatical in Liepzig by Adrian Duncan - ISBN: 9781788169707
Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid - ISBN: 9780241981382
My Brilliant Friend  by Elena Ferrante - ISBN: 9781787702226

To find more titles, visit our website

This week Jack is joined by poet and debut novelist Victoria Mackenzie. Victoria's novel For Thy Great Pain Have Mercy On My Little Pain, which follows two medieval mystics, Marjery Kempe and Julian of Norwich. It is an exquisite historical fiction debut which explores themes of faith, trauma, and women's writing.

Purchase For Thy Great Pain Have Mercy On My Little Pain

(1:03) Being a debut author
(10:02) A children's book recommendation
(19:56) Victoria's recent reads
(23:30) Writing historical fiction
(40:36) For Thy Great Pain Have Mercy On My Little Pain

The podcast is produced and presented by Jack Wrighton and the team at Mostly Books. It is edited by Story Ninety-Four. Find us on Twitter @mostlyreading & Instagram @mostlybooks_shop.

Meet the host:
Jack Wrighton is a bookseller and social media manager at Mostly Books. His hobbies include photography and buying books at a quicker rate than he can read them.
Connect with Jack on Instagram

For Thy Great Pain Have Mercy On My Little Pain is published in the UK by Bloomsbury.

Books mentioned in this episode include:
When We Were Very Young by A. A. Milne - ISBN: 9781405281300
Kick the Latch by Kathryn Scanlan - ISBN: 9781914198250
Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott - ISBN: 9781786898555
To find more titles, visit our website

This week, Jack is joined by debut author Eleanor Shearer. Eleanor’s novel River Sing Me Home was published on the 19th of January. The story follows Rachel, who after escaping slavery goes on the search for her missing children. Jeanette Winterson called it "a strong and beautiful novel that stares into the face of brutality and the heart of love".

Purchase River Sing Me Home

(1:16) Becoming a debut author
(3:57) Eleanor's children's book of choice
(9:44) Writing while working
(13:34) Eleanor's recent read
(20:15) The influences behind River Sing Me Home
(35:05) River Sing Me Home

The podcast is produced and presented by Jack Wrighton and the team at Mostly Books. It is edited by Story Ninety-Four. Find us on Twitter @mostlyreading & Instagram @mostlybooks_shop.

Meet the host:
Jack Wrighton is a bookseller and social media manager at Mostly Books. His hobbies include photography and buying books at a quicker rate than he can read them.
Connect with Jack on Instagram

River Sing Me Home is published in the UK by Headline Review

Books mentioned in this episode include:
Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery - ISBN: 9781840227840
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen - ISBN: 9780141199078
Barkskins by Annie Proulx - ISBN: 9780007232017
Beloved by Toni Morrison - ISBN: 9780099511656

To find more titles, visit our website

This week, Jack is joined by Georgina Moore. Georgina has worked in the publishing industry for 20 years and is an award-winning book publicist. It is no wonder that having spent her life immersed in the world of books that she has decided to put pen to paper and write one herself.

That book, the wonderful and absorbing The Garnett Girls follows three sisters Rachel, Imogen and Sasha and their relationship with their charismatic mother Margot. All families have their secrets and the Garnett girls are no exception.

Purchase The Garnett Girls here

(03:13) Georgina's childhood reading
(14:53) BookTok and younger readers
(19:20) Book buying during the cost of living crisis
(22:42) Georgina Moore's recent reads
(30:21) A book that changed Georgina's life
(40:56) The Garnett Girls

The podcast is produced and presented by Jack Wrighton and the team at Mostly Books. It is edited by Story Ninety-Four. Find us on Twitter @mostlyreading & Instagram @mostlybooks_shop.

Meet the host:
Jack Wrighton is a bookseller and social media manager at Mostly Books. His hobbies include photography and buying books at a quicker rate than he can read them.
Connect with Jack on Instagram

The Garnett Girls is published in the UK by Harper Collins

Books mentioned in this episode include:
Carrie Soto is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid - ISBN: 9781529152128
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen - ISBN: 9780785253006
Mrs Wobble the Waitress by Allan Ahlberg - ISBN: 9780723275596
Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery - ISBN: 9780785252993
I Am, I Am, I Am by Maggie O'Farrell - ISBN: 9781472240767
Secret Loves of Church Ladies byDeesha Philyaw - ISBN: 9781911590699
Without Warning and Only Sometimes by Kit De Waal - ISBN: 9781472284839
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte - ISBN: 9780141040387

To find more titles, visit our website

Welcome to Mostly Books Meets, a podcast by the independent bookshop, Mostly Books. Booksellers from an award-winning indie bookshop chatting books and how they have shaped people's lives, with a whole bunch of people from the world of publishing - authors, poets, journalists and many more. Join us for the journey.

Meet the host:
Jack Wrighton is a bookseller and social media manager at Mostly Books. His hobbies include photography and buying books at a quicker rate than he can read them.
Connect with Jack on Instagram

The podcast is produced and presented by Jack Wrighton and the team at Mostly Books. It is edited by Story Ninety-Four. Find us on Twitter @mostlyreading & Instagram @mostlybooks_shop.

This week, Jenny Bayliss and Karen Swan join Jack for this holly, jolly Christmas Mostly Books Meets special.

Jenny Bayliss is the author of the 12 Dates of Christmas and The Winter of Second Chances and her latest book is the wonderful Meet Me Under the Mistletoe.

Karen Swan is the author of this year's The Last Summer, which is the first in the five-book Wild Isle series, and has now treated us to a second book this year, the brilliant The Christmas Postcards.

Purchase Meet Me Under the Mistletoe here

Purchase The Christmas Postcards here

• (01:43) - Jenny Bayliss and Karen Swan's Childhood Reads

The podcast is produced and presented by Jack Wrighton and the team at Mostly Books. It is edited by Story Ninety-Four. Find us on Twitter @mostlyreading & Instagram @mostlybooks_shop.

Meet the host:
Jack Wrighton is a bookseller and social media manager at Mostly Books. His hobbies include photography and buying books at a quicker rate than he can read them.
Connect with Jack on Instagram

Meet Me Under the Mistletoe is published in the UK by Pan Macmillan

The Christmas Postcards is published in the UK by Pan Macmillan

Books mentioned in this episode include:
Watership Down by Richard Adams - ISBN: 9780241953235
The Animals of Farthing Wood by Colin Dann - ISBN: 9783407743954
The Haunting of Aveline Jones by Phil Hickes - ISBN: 9781474972147
Wild by Cheryl Strayed - ISBN: 9780307476074
A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry - ISBN: 9780571230587
It's Too Frightening for Me! by Shirley Hughes - ISBN: 9780140311587
The Road by Cormac McCarthy - ISBN: 9780307387899

To find more titles, visit our website

This week, we welcome author Chloe Timms onto the podcast. Chloe Timms' debut novel The Seawomen was published in June of this year. The book follows Esther, a young woman raised on an island within a deeply religious society, that cut itself off from the mainland. Fellow author Kirsty Logan described it as The Handmaid's Tale meets The Shape of Water. When she's not writing Chloe is a passionate disability rights campaigner and also hosts the podcast Confessions of a Debut Novelist.

Purchase The Seawomen here

(1:42) Chloe Timms' Earliest Reading Memory
(7:46) Chloe's Teenage Reading Slump
(14:43) Chloe's Current Reading Habits
(19:20) Chloe's Recent Reads
(25:48) The Book That Changed Chloe Timms' Life
(33:22) The Seawomen

Listen to Chloe's podcast, Confessions of a Debut Novelist here

The podcast is produced and presented by Jack Wrighton and the team at Mostly Books. It is edited by Story Ninety-Four. Find us on Twitter @mostlyreading & Instagram @mostlybooks_shop.

Meet the host:
Jack Wrighton is a bookseller and social media manager at Mostly Books. His hobbies include photography and buying books at a quicker rate than he can read them.
Connect with Jack on Instagram

The Seawomen is published in the UK by Hachette

Books mentioned in this episode include:
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood - ISBN: 9780099740919
The Bed and Breakfast Star by Jacqueline Wilson - ISBN: 9780440867609
Light a Penny Candle by Maeve Binchy - ISBN: 9781787461536
The Last Days by Ali Millar - ISBN: 9781529109528
Educated by Tara Westover - ISBN: 9780099511021
The Pharmacist by Rochelle Atalla - ISBN: 9781529342147

To find more titles, visit our website