Shelf Healing

I chat with author Orna Ross about writing, poetry, and starting the Alliance of Independent Authors.
We get drawn into the power of Buddhist poetry and the joy of reading about murders. Orna shares her thoughts on why guilt has no place in reading, no matter what the genre is.

Orna's website
Orna's Twitter

Things mentioned in the podcast:
Poldark series by Winston Graham
Thích Nhất Hạnh
WB Yeats
Middlemarch by George Eliot
George Eliot
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

I chat with fabulous Canadian author Susin Nielsen about her new book, writing for TV and how it differs to writing for children, and why she returns again and again to middle grade fiction. We also discuss the difference in showing internal thoughts in novels and on TV and how powerful and influencing children's books can be on our lives.

Susin's website
Susin's Twitter

Things mentioned in the episode:
Tremendous Things by Susin Nielsen
Family Law - tv series
Word Nerd by Susin Nielsen
David Sedaris
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh
The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole by Sue Townsend
Elmer the Patchwork Elephant by David McKee
Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo
Margaret Atwood

I chat with children's author Rashmi Sirdeshpande about her favourite books, her discovery of narrative poetry, beautiful books, and what gives her inspiration for her own writing.
Rashmi writes non-fiction books for children to inspire them and also be fun.
We chat about Rashmi's giant fact checking tables and how she found writing her first fiction book. Rashmi's non-fiction often covers important and heavy issues and we discuss how difficult this can be to write as well as to keep hopeful for the children reading it.

Rashmi's website
Rashmi's Twitter

Things mentioned in the episode:
Lucy Cuthew
Manjeet Mann
Elizabeth Acevedo
Blood Moon by Lucy Cuthew
Beowulf
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Michelle Harrison
Cloud Busting by Malorie Blackman
Dom Conlon
This Rock That Rock by Dom Conlon & Viviane Schwarz
Rikin Parekh
This Book Has Alpacas and Bears by Emma Perry, illustrated by Rikin Parekh
Cash by Rashmi Sirdeshpande
Never Show a T-Rex a Book by Rashmi Sirdeshpande
Never Teach a Stegasaurus to do Sums by Rashmi Sirdeshpande
Diane Ewen 
Stronger: Changing Everything I Knew About Women's Strength by Poorna Bell

I got the chance to chat with debut author Carly Heath all about her new book The Reckless Kind and the importance of representation in YA literature. There are lots of horses alongside the disability and LGBTQ+ storyline so of course we went on a magical journey discussing writing horses in literature and the joys and perils of carriage driving!

Carly's Twitter
Carly's website

Things mentioned in the episode:
The Reckless Kind by Carly Heath
Becky Albertalli
The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
Cerce by Madeline Miller
House on the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune
Daughters of a Dead Empire by Carolyn Tara O’Neil
Happy Times in Norway by Sigrid Undset

I catch up with Cat & Dan and we discuss Cat's research on disability in publishing, as well as all things friction, especially related to accessibility and disability. We talk about CV gaps, how accommodating accommodations are, the way reasonable adjustments can make a huge difference to people, and how reducing friction can make things more accessible.

Cat's Twitter
Dan's Twitter
Cat's report Access Denied
Cat's piece in The Bookseller about the research findings
Cat's piece on the disability network
Dan's website Rogue Interrobang
Money and Mental Health Policy Institute's work on the disability income gap
FIDO Alliance

Content warning: we talk about mental illness, chronic illness, and suicide.

I chat to prolific and award winning author Marcus Sedgwick all about his writing process, the therapuetic effects of writing, and how important reading can be for mental wellbeing.
We also discuss Marcus' research into illness and writers and how illness has affected his writing practice, alongside his as yet unpublished book on chronic illness.

Marcus' Twitter
Marcus' website
Marcus' books

Things mentioned in the episode:
Midwinter Blood by Marcus Sedgwick
Floodland  by Marcus Sedgwick
My Swordhand is Swinging  by Marcus Sedgwick
The Foreshadowing  by Marcus Sedgwick
The Dark Flight Down  by Marcus Sedgwick
The Book of Dead Days  by Marcus Sedgwick
David Almond
The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann
Death in Venice by Thomas Mann
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Saint Death  by Marcus Sedgwick
All in Your Head  by Marcus Sedgwick
This is Going to Hurt by Adam Kay
Sylvia Plath
Virginia Woolf
On Being Ill by Virginia Woolf
Sigmund Freud
Carl Jung
Black Beauty by Anna Sewell
Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
The Sense of an Ending: Studies in the Theory of Fiction by Frank Kermode

This week I chat with cartoonist, illustrator and writer Tom Gauld all about drawing, writing, and creating witty comics. We also chat about his new book The Little Wooden Robot and the Log Princess which he wrote and illustrated. An interesting insight into the mind of a very busy creator!

Tom's Twitter
Tom's website
Tom's new book

Things mentioned in the episode:
Amphigorey by  Edward Gorey
PG Wodehouse
Jeeves and Wooster  TV show
The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann
The Gashlycrumb Tinies by Edward Gorey
 Grimm's Fairy-Tales
The Mouse, the Bird, and the Sausage by the Brothers Grimm

This week UCL's Vice Dean of Wellbeing, Professor Samantha Rayner, chats with Henry Eliot, Creative Editor of Penguin Classics, about his new book. They meander through literary landscapes, how the time of year affects how we perceive stories, why we reach for classics, the wellbeing effects of walking and reading, and how one goes about creating compendium and companion books.

Henry's Twitter
Prof Rayner's Twitter
Henry's new book The Penguin Modern Classics Book
Henry's previous book The Penguin Classics Book
Hint from Samantha that these make fabulous gifts for book lovers!

Things mentioned in the episode:
The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
William Morris
Le Morte d'Arthur by Sir Thomas Mallory
PG Wodehouse
Finnegans Wake by James Joyce
Tess of the d'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
Iain Sinclair
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne
Charles Dickens
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
The Small Hand by Susan Hill
The Penguin Modern Classics Book by Henry Eliot
Crossing the Mangrove by Maryse Condé
Second Class Citizen by Buchi Emecheta
The Salt Eaters by Toni Cade Bambara
The Penguin Classics Book by Henry Eliot
Season of Migration to the North by Tayeb Salih
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf
The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir
The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan
Women, Race and Class by Angela Y. Davis
The Book of Disquiet by Bernardo Soares
Água Viva (The Stream of Life) by Clarice Lispector
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift
Selected Poems of TS Eliot
The Travels of Sir John Mandeville by John Mandeville
Ernest Hemingway
Graham Green
Ivy Compton-Burnett
Colette
JD Salinger
The Tartar Steppe by Dino Buzzati
Franz Kafka
Samuel Beckett
Locos by Felipe Alfau

I chat with writer and academic Professor Sunny Singh all about translations, why representation is needed and how important it is to see other people's stories. We also chat about the Jhalak Prize, whether teaching creative pursuits is therapeutic, and how powerful the stories and relationships attached to books can be.

Prof Singh's Twitter account
Prof Singh's books
The Jhalak Prize
Fabindia

Things mentioned in the episode:
Salman Rushdie
Amitabh Bachchan by Prof Sunny Singh
Georgette Heyer
Hindi and Urdu poetry
The Grand Sophie by Georgette Heyer
Inferno by Dante
Hotel Arcadia by Prof Sunny Singh
Alice Walker
Critical Fictions: The Politics of Imaginative Writing
bell hooks
Three Fat Men (Три толстяка) by Yury Olesha
Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie

Illustrator and bookseller Tamsin Rosewell joins me today to talk about her experiences of reading and how she made the move into bookselling and illustration. She shares her deep love of non-fiction and how the speed at which you read has no bearing on how good a book is. We chat about parcel hogs, window displays, and whether Blake's Tyger was in fact an epic cat.

Tamsin's Twitter account
Kenilworth Books Twitter account
The Parcelhogs instagram account

Things mentioned in the episode:
Northern Lights by Philip Pullman
Catherine Johnson
Cecily by Annie Garthwaite
Shadowghast by Thomas Taylor
M. R. James
Georgette Heyer
Thornhill by Pam Smy
The Reacher Guy by Lee Child
Songs of Innocence and of Experience by William Blake
The Tyger by William Blake
Tiger Heart by Penny Chrimes