Freya Berry’s recent debut The Dictator’s Wife features a chilling portrait of a late eastern European tyrant’s partner, as she prepares to go on trial for her life. Here the author describes her five rules for creating such an intimidating and compromised anti-heroine.

The Dictator's Wife: https://www.hachette.co.uk/titles/freya-berry/the-dictators-wife/9781472276339/

@FreyaBBooks

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Zoë Somerville's recent novel The Marsh House concerns a single mother's Christmas visit to the creepy Norfolk coast, and her reading a life of a previous resident of her dilapidated cottage while nature does its best to frighten her. Here she shares her Five Rules of Writing on how to create pure rural fear.

The Marsh House: https://headofzeus.com/books/9781838934675

https://zoesomerville.com/

@zessomerville

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Writer Christina Patterson, whose most recent book is Outside, the Sky is Blue, a crystal-clear account of the havoc visited on her family by illness, on her Five Rules of Writing memoir.

https://christinapatterson.co.uk/

Outside, the Sky is Blue: https://www.hachette.co.uk/titles/christina-patterson/outside-the-sky-is-blue/9781472282651/

@queenchristina_

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Jan Carson, whose most recent novel The Raptures concerns a spate of deaths at a rural Protestant Northern Ireland primary school, on her five rules for writing about the province.

@JanCarson7280

The Raptures: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/111/1115884/the-raptures/9780857525758.html

https://www.jancarson.co.uk/

Presented by Ed Needham and Strong Words Magazine.

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Richard Balls, author of the superb Shane MacGowan biography, A Furious Devotion, on his five rules for interviewing someone who has little desire to cooperate.

@RichardBalls

A Furious Devotion: The Life of Shane MacGowan: https://omnibuspress.com/products/a-furious-devotion-the-life-of-shane-macgowan-published-on-7th-october-2021

Presented by Ed Needham and Strong Words Magazine: https://strong-words.co.uk/

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Tom Hodgkinson, whose magazine is devoted to the quest for maximum satisfaction from minimum effort, on where writing fits with this equation.

@idler

The Idler: https://www.idler.co.uk/

An Idler's Manual: https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/IDLERS-MANUAL-by-TOM-HODKINSON/9781901170344

Presented by Ed Needham and Strong Words Magazine: https://strong-words.co.uk/

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First-time author of the sublime Mrs March, Virginia Feito shares her five rules on writing "a gloriously grotesque antiheroine."

Presented by Ed Needham and Strong Words Magazine.

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Lesley-Ann Jones, Fleet Street survivor and writer of the recent Love of my Life about the relationships of Freddie Mercury, on how to write a rock biography.

Presented by Ed Needham and Strong Words Magazine: https://strong-words.co.uk/

Buy Love Of My Life here: https://www.hachette.co.uk/titles/lesley-ann-jones/love-of-my-life/9781529362343/

@LAJWriter

https://www.lesleyannjones.com/

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Rob Davis, guitarist with glam nobility Mud and co-composer of Kylie's Can't Get You Out of My Head, on how to write hit records.

Presented by Ed Needham and Strong Words Magazine: http://strong-words.co.uk

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Author and editor of the Londnr culture website Nina-Sophia Miralles, on her five rules of writing about the ultra-haughty fashion bible, Vogue magazine.

@Londnr

https://www.ninamiralles.com/

Presented by Ed Needham and Strong Words Magazine: http://strong-words.co.uk

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