38. Patricia Cornwell talks to We'd Like A Word co-hosts Paul Waters & Stevyn Colgan about her new thriller Sharp Force, plus how she writes, advice for new writers, the extreme lengths she goes to for research, & what she's working on next. She compares police hats with Steve & makes Paul an offer he does not refuse.

We also discuss AI, DNA. identity theft, authors Ernest Hemmingway, Chris Whitaker and Agatha Christie - & why writing is a relationship.

We'd Like A Word is a podcast & radio show from authors Paul Waters & Stevyn Colgan. (And sometimes Jonathan Kennedy.) We talk with writers, readers, editors, agents, celebrities, talkers, poets, publishers, booksellers, & audiobook creators about books - fiction & non-fiction. We go out on various radio & podcast platforms. Our website is http://www.wedlikeaword.com for information on Paul, Steve & our guests. We're on Twitter @wedlikeaword & Facebook @wedlikeaword & our email is [email protected] Yes, we're embarrassed by the missing apostrophes. We like to hear from you - questions, thoughts, ideas, guest or book suggestions. Perhaps you'd like to come on We'd Like A Word to chat, review or read out passages from books.

Paul's new book is Murder In Moonlit Square, the first in his Irish-Indian cosy crime series set in Chandni Chowk in contemporary Delhi. It's out now and published by the No Exit Press / Bedford Square Publishers & Penguin India.

We can also recommend Cockerings, the comic classic by Stevyn Colgan, and his hugely popular YouTube channel @Colganology

37. Paul Waters talks to and hears about the winner and runners-up of the 2025 India Global Forum Archer Amish Award for Storytellers - including Jeffrey Archer, Amish Tripathi, Shalini Mullick, Nitya Neelakantan, Yogesh Pandey, & Amit Roy - the editor of the Eastern Eye newspaper.

Dr Shalini Mullick is the author of The Way Home. Nitya Neelakantan is the author of Navapashanam - The Quest for the Nine Magical Poisons. And Yogesh Pandey is the author of The Kill Switch.

The winner tells us about his/her writing process - the miracle of how it is fitted in to the rest of a very busy life.

Jeffrey Archer talks about what makes a page turner & his new book, the latest & likely final instalment in his William Warwick series, End Game, set at the London Olympics. He also gives an insight - courtesy of Commander Robert Broadhurst who was the Met Police Gold Commander for the 2012 Olympics - into what could have gone catastrophically wrong at the real Olympics - & why Sebastian Coe was never told. Jeffrey also explains why Stoner by John Williams is the book that has been gripping him recently. He also has another story up his sleeve which he says is better than Kane and Abel.

Amish Tripathi talks about his new book, The Chola Tigers, about a historical assassination squad, & the challenges of researching a setting so long ago. He's been reading something very up to date though - two books by Ray Kurzweil, The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology, &, The Singularity is Nearer: When We Merge with AI.

They both also explain why they've chosen who they've chosen as the winner of the inaugural IGF Archer Amish Award for Storytellers - which is incidentally sponsored by the House of Abhinandan Lodha. The IGF itself has Manoj Ladwa as Founder & Chairman.

Plus, Amit Roy of the Eastern Eye gives his insight into the divergence of south Asian and British south Asian culture & writing - & why Indian writers & filmmakers come to London, 'the capital of Greater India', for validation. AA Dhand & Satyajit Ray get a mention.

We'd Like A Word is a podcast & radio show from authors Paul Waters & Stevyn Colgan. (And sometimes Jonathan Kennedy.) We talk with writers, readers, editors, agents, celebrities, talkers, poets, publishers, booksellers, & audiobook creators about books - fiction & non-fiction. We go out on various radio & podcast platforms. Our website is http://www.wedlikeaword.com for information on Paul, Steve & our guests. We're on Twitter @wedlikeaword & Facebook @wedlikeaword & our email is [email protected] Yes, we're embarrassed by the missing apostrophes. We like to hear from you - questions, thoughts, ideas, guest or book suggestions. Perhaps you'd like to come on We'd Like A Word to chat, review or read out passages from books.

Paul is the author of a new Irish-Indian cosy crime series set in contemporary Delhi. The first in the series is Murder in Moonlit Square, which published by No Exit Press / Bedford Square Publishers & Penguin India in October 2025. Paul previously wrote the 1950s Irish border thriller Blackwatertown.

We can also recommend Cockerings, the comic classic by Stevyn Colgan, and his hugely popular YouTube channel @Colganology

36. International Booker prize winners, author Banu Mushtaq & translator Deepa Bhashti talk to co-hosts Paul Waters & Jonathan Kennedy on the We'd Like A Word books & authors podcast at the 2025 Jaipur Literature Festival at the British Library in London.

We talk about Banu's short story collection Heart Lamp; whether foreign language words should be italicised - Deepa says no; why Heart Lamp stands out as the first notable translation from Kannada (the language of Karnataka in southern India) into English; and the dynamic between author & translator.

We also hear from Lisa Honan of the East India Walking Tour & playwright Dr Anu Kumar, together creators of A London Lark Rising - a moving, walking, street theatre all about the East India Company which ruled large swathes of India from London. Is this tour better than reading The Anarchy by William Dalrymple or listening to the Empire Podcast hosted by William with Anita Anand? (Personally, I'd say it's complementary. You should read both Anita's & William's books.)

By the way, Lisa Honan used to be the Governor of St Helena - yup, the island to which Napoleon was banished for the second and final time. She has some stories - including about plumed hats - yes or no, and why.

And we hear from Sanjoy Roy, author and one the geniuses behind the international web of festivals known as the Jaipur Literature Festival on providing platforms for diverse conversations which are not publisher driven, focusing on the ideas behind the books, rather than the books themselves; and about it's getting more difficult these days to have free flowing varied conversations.

Plus we touch on Singaporean author Ivy Ngeow, Indian-German artistic due Himali Singh Soin & David Soin Tappeser, Anil & Kiran Agarwal & their Riverside Studios arts space in London, Catalan literature, who makes the best tea, whether only British people queue, & should seagulls eat cigarette butts?

WHO IS JONATHAN KENNEDY? Jonathan was Director of Arts in India for 5 years for the British Council. He's been everywhere in India and knows everyone there involved in culture. He was also for 12 years the Executive Director of Tara Arts, looking at the world through a South Asian lens. Jonathan is doing some India & South Asian episodes of We'd Like A Word with us every now & then.

We'd Like A Word is a podcast & radio show from authors Paul Waters & Stevyn Colgan. (And sometimes Jonathan Kennedy.) We talk with writers, readers, editors, agents, celebrities, talkers, poets, publishers, booksellers, & audiobook creators about books - fiction & non-fiction. We go out on various radio & podcast platforms. Our website is http://www.wedlikeaword.com for information on Paul, Steve & our guests. We're on Twitter @wedlikeaword & Facebook @wedlikeaword & our email is [email protected] Yes, we're embarrassed by the missing apostrophes. We like to hear from you - questions, thoughts, ideas, guest or book suggestions. Perhaps you'd like to come on We'd Like A Word to chat, review or read out passages from books.

Paul is the author of a new Irish-Indian cosy crime series set in contemporary Delhi. The first in the series is Murder in Moonlit Square, which published by No Exit Press / Bedford Square Publishers & Penguin India in October 2025. Paul previously wrote the 1950s Irish border thriller Blackwatertown.

We can also recommend Cockerings, the comic classic by Stevyn Colgan, and his hugely popular YouTube channel @Colganology

35. Indian & Pakistani authors & poets talk to co-hosts Paul Waters & Jonathan Kennedy on the We'd Like A Word books & authors podcast at the Khushwant Singh Literary Festival London 2025 (which Paul also co-organises).

We hear from Devike Rege on Indian politics, whether "home is a place where you can be comfortably racist" & her book Quarterlife; from Shueyb Gandapur on his book Coming Back - The Odyssey of a Pakistani Through India, on the unusual challenges of getting his book published in India, and on his Pakistani home Dera Ismail Khan & how Hindus and Sikhs who fled during partition preserve memories of the city in India, & on and the unusual challenges of getting his book published in India; from KSLF organiser Niloufer Bilimoria; from Saba Karim Khan on the Pakistan #itscomplicated essay collection she edited & contributed to, & how to get behind the cliches of potraying Pakistan; from Muhammed Ali Bandial on his contribution to Pakistan #itscomplicated & his complex relationship with his homeland; from Prabhu Guptara of Pippa Rann publishing, Global Resilience publishing & Salt Desert Media; from poet Tanya Rai who is @diversityofme on Instagram; & from poet Devi Chatterjee who has also helped develop the Poetry Archive's new online collection of south Asian poets reading their own work.

And we also hear about the recent India-Pakistan conflict and ceasefire, Saraiki language & Pashtun culture, Lahore authors Awais Khan & Faiqa Mansab, Pakistani Olympic gold medallist javelin thrower, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi Ji, the Marati language, poets Sudeep Sen and R Parthasarathy, the Rann of Kutch salt desert & the Great Indian Salt Hedge, Stephen Huyler's book Transformed by India - A Life, & poets Rabindranath Tagore, Bhanu Kapil & Sampurna Chatterji.

WHO IS JONATHAN KENNEDY? Jonathan was Director of Arts in India for 5 years for the British Council. He's been everywhere in India and knows everyone there involved in culture. He was also for 12 years the Executive Director of Tara Arts, looking at the world through a South Asian lens. Jonathan is doing some India & South Asian episodes of We'd Like A Word with us every now & then.

We'd Like A Word is a podcast & radio show from authors Paul Waters & Stevyn Colgan. (And sometimes Jonathan Kennedy.) We talk with writers, readers, editors, agents, celebrities, talkers, poets, publishers, booksellers, & audiobook creators about books - fiction & non-fiction. We go out on various radio & podcast platforms. Our website is http://www.wedlikeaword.com for information on Paul, Steve & our guests. We're on Twitter @wedlikeaword & Facebook @wedlikeaword & our email is [email protected] Yes, we're embarrassed by the missing apostrophes. We like to hear from you - questions, thoughts, ideas, guest or book suggestions. Perhaps you'd like to come on We'd Like A Word to chat, review or read out passages from books.

Paul is the author of a new Irish-Indian cosy crime series set in contemporary Delhi. The first in the series is Murder in Moonlit Square, which published by No Exit Press / Bedford Square Publishers in October 2025 - but you can pre-order it now. (Ah go on.) It'll also be published in India in paperback in October 2025 by Penguin India. Paul previously wrote the 1950s Irish border thriller Blackwatertown.

We can also recommend Cockerings, the comic classic by Stevyn Colgan, and his hugely popular YouTube channel @Colganology

1. ​ Catalan Crime in translation: We'd Like A Word hosts Paul Waters & Stevyn Colgan hear from Barcelona-born author Teresa Solana; Peter Bush the translator of her crime thriller Black Storms - he's also Teresa's husband; and Marina Sofia the co-founder of Corylus publishers, which publishes crime fiction in translation from Catalan, Spanish, Romanian, Icelandic, Argentinian Spanish, and German.

We also talk about authors and translators Ian Rankin, Gene Kerrigan, Jeffrey Archer, Frederick Forsyth, Tony Kent, Lisa Jewell, the Rev Richard Coles, Robert Thorogood, David Gullis, Fred Vargas, Petros Markaris, Rene Goscinny, Albert Uderzo, Anthea Bell, Derek Hockridge, Chico Buarque and Juan Goytisolo - plus the Chiltern Kills crime and Khushwant Singh London literary festivals.

And more - including dead Catalan authors v dead Spanish authors; the author-translator power dynamic; Catalonia / Catalunya and Spain; Cornwall, folk culture and Cornish independence; Steve becoming a witch; Paul having a book out soon and some book launch events; snoring dogs; Biafra; whether La Sagrada Familia is a cathedral or a basilica; Asterix the Gaul; and the secret location where this podcast episode was part-recorded.

We'd Like A Word is a podcast & radio show from authors Paul Waters & Stevyn Colgan. (And sometimes Jonathan Kennedy.) We talk with writers, readers, editors, agents, celebrities, talkers, poets, publishers, booksellers, & audiobook creators about books - fiction & non-fiction. We go out on various radio & podcast platforms. Our website is http://www.wedlikeaword.com for information on Paul, Steve & our guests. We're on Twitter @wedlikeaword & Facebook @wedlikeaword & our email is [email protected] Yes, we're embarrassed by the missing apostrophes. We like to hear from you - questions, thoughts, ideas, guest or book suggestions. Perhaps you'd like to come on We'd Like A Word to chat, review or read out passages from books. Paul is the author of a new Irish-Indian cosy crime series set in contemporary Delhi. The first in the series is Murder in Moonlit Square, which published by No Exit Press / Bedford Square Publishers in October 2025 - but you can pre-order it now. (Ah go on.) It'll also be published in India in paperback in October 2025 by Penguin India. Paul previously wrote the 1950s Irish border thriller Blackwatertown. We can also recommend Cockerings, the comic classic by Stevyn Colgan, and his hugely popular YouTube channel @Colganology

33. Sherlock Holmes in Turkey (part 1): Author & foreign correspondent Andrew Finkel talks to We'd Like A Word hosts Paul Waters & Stevyn Colgan, about his book The Adventure of the Second Wife - The Strange Case of Sherlock Holmes and the Ottoman Sultan.

We also talk about how to decide where to start a complex, multi-layered novel (& if it really matters), Arthur Conan Doyle, the most romantic way to enter Istanbul, how to get in trouble in Turkey and how to avoid it, Kemal Tahir - the translator & then fabricator of Mickey Spillane novels, the Ottoman sultan Abdul Hamid II (big Sherlock & Conan Doyle fan, aid donor to Irish people during the 1840s famine, block on Russian expansion, tyrant to Bulgarians according to Gladstone), playing basketball with Orhan Pamuk, quirky Turkey, some Persian phrases, the Cottingley Fairies, and a good place for coffee in Istanbul - the Kıraathane - Istanbul Literature House.

We'd Like A Word is a podcast & radio show from authors Paul Waters & Stevyn Colgan. (And sometimes Jonathan Kennedy.) We talk with writers, readers, editors, agents, celebrities, talkers, poets, publishers, booksellers, & audiobook creators about books - fiction & non-fiction. We go out on various radio & podcast platforms. Our website is http://www.wedlikeaword.com for information on Paul, Steve & our guests. We're on Twitter @wedlikeaword & Facebook @wedlikeaword & our email is [email protected] Yes, we're embarrassed by the missing apostrophes. We like to hear from you - questions, thoughts, ideas, guest or book suggestions. Perhaps you'd like to come on We'd Like A Word to chat, review or read out passages from books. Paul is the author of a new Irish-Indian cosy crime series set in contemporary Delhi. The first in the series is Murder in Moonlit Square, which published by No Exit Press / Bedford Square Publishers in October 2025 - but you can pre-order it now. (Ah go on.) It'll also be published in India in paperback in January 2026 by Penguin India. Paul previously wrote the 1950s Irish border thriller Blackwatertown. We can also recommend Cockerings, the comic classic by Stevyn Colgan, and his hugely popular YouTube channel @Colganology

32. Sherlock Holmes in Turkey (part 2): Author & foreign correspondent Andrew Finkel talks to We'd Like A Word hosts Paul Waters & Stevyn Colgan, about his book The Adventure of the Second Wife - The Strange Case of Sherlock Holmes and the Ottoman Sultan.

We also talk about how to decide where to start a complex, multi-layered novel (& if it really matters), Arthur Conan Doyle, the most romantic way to enter Istanbul, how to get in trouble in Turkey and how to avoid it, Kemal Tahir - the translator & then fabricator of Mickey Spillane novels, the Ottoman sultan Abdul Hamid II (big Sherlock & Conan Doyle fan, aid donor to Irish people during the 1840s famine, block on Russian expansion, tyrant to Bulgarians according to Gladstone), playing basketball with Orhan Pamuk, quirky Turkey, some Persian phrases, the Cottingley Fairies, and a good place for coffee in Istanbul - the Kıraathane - Istanbul Literature House.

We'd Like A Word is a podcast & radio show from authors Paul Waters & Stevyn Colgan. (And sometimes Jonathan Kennedy.) We talk with writers, readers, editors, agents, celebrities, talkers, poets, publishers, booksellers, & audiobook creators about books - fiction & non-fiction. We go out on various radio & podcast platforms. Our website is http://www.wedlikeaword.com for information on Paul, Steve & our guests. We're on Twitter @wedlikeaword & Facebook @wedlikeaword & our email is [email protected] Yes, we're embarrassed by the missing apostrophes. We like to hear from you - questions, thoughts, ideas, guest or book suggestions. Perhaps you'd like to come on We'd Like A Word to chat, review or read out passages from books. Paul is the author of a new Irish-Indian cosy crime series set in contemporary Delhi. The first in the series is Murder in Moonlit Square, which published by No Exit Press / Bedford Square Publishers in October 2025 - but you can pre-order it now. (Ah go on.) It'll also be published in India in paperback in January 2026 by Penguin India. Paul previously wrote the 1950s Irish border thriller Blackwatertown. We can also recommend Cockerings, the comic classic by Stevyn Colgan, and his hugely popular YouTube channel @Colganology

31. Sherlock Holmes in Turkey (part 3): Author & foreign correspondent Andrew Finkel talks to We'd Like A Word hosts Paul Waters & Stevyn Colgan, about his book The Adventure of the Second Wife - The Strange Case of Sherlock Holmes and the Ottoman Sultan.

We also talk about how to decide where to start a complex, multi-layered novel (& if it really matters), Arthur Conan Doyle, the most romantic way to enter Istanbul, how to get in trouble in Turkey and how to avoid it, Kemal Tahir - the translator & then fabricator of Mickey Spillane novels, the Ottoman sultan Abdul Hamid II (big Sherlock & Conan Doyle fan, aid donor to Irish people during the 1840s famine, block on Russian expansion, tyrant to Bulgarians according to Gladstone), playing basketball with Orhan Pamuk, quirky Turkey, some Persian phrases, the Cottingley Fairies, and a good place for coffee in Istanbul - the Kıraathane - Istanbul Literature House.

We'd Like A Word is a podcast & radio show from authors Paul Waters & Stevyn Colgan. (And sometimes Jonathan Kennedy.) We talk with writers, readers, editors, agents, celebrities, talkers, poets, publishers, booksellers, & audiobook creators about books - fiction & non-fiction. We go out on various radio & podcast platforms. Our website is http://www.wedlikeaword.com for information on Paul, Steve & our guests. We're on Twitter @wedlikeaword & Facebook @wedlikeaword & our email is [email protected] Yes, we're embarrassed by the missing apostrophes. We like to hear from you - questions, thoughts, ideas, guest or book suggestions. Perhaps you'd like to come on We'd Like A Word to chat, review or read out passages from books. Paul is the author of a new Irish-Indian cosy crime series set in contemporary Delhi. The first in the series is Murder in Moonlit Square, which published by No Exit Press / Bedford Square Publishers in October 2025 - but you can pre-order it now. (Ah go on.) It'll also be published in India in paperback in January 2026 by Penguin India. Paul previously wrote the 1950s Irish border thriller Blackwatertown. We can also recommend Cockerings, the comic classic by Stevyn Colgan, and his hugely popular YouTube channel @Colganology

30. How to write & perform stand up comedy (part 1): Comedians Ian Stone & Phoebe Haywood talk to We'd Like A Word hosts Paul Waters & Stevyn Colgan, about Ian's new book To Be Someone about his love affair with The Jam & surviving the 1970s.

We also talk about comic timing, how to write a joke, taboo topics, physical comedy, making it personal, Mods, racists, Nazis, Sham 69, skinheads, being Jewish, never reading a book until your 20s, having ADHD, making money from comedy, the difference between writing for performance & writing to be read, Worcestershire ales, the comedy circuit in and beyond London, heckling, great stand up comedians & illustrations by Phil Jupitus. The Empire in Belfast and the Hellfire Club in High Wycombe also get mentioned.

We'd Like A Word is a podcast & radio show from authors Paul Waters & Stevyn Colgan. (And sometimes Jonathan Kennedy.) We talk with writers, readers, editors, agents, celebrities, talkers, poets, publishers, booksellers, & audiobook creators about books - fiction & non-fiction. We go out on various radio & podcast platforms. Our website is http://www.wedlikeaword.com for information on Paul, Steve & our guests. We're on Twitter @wedlikeaword & Facebook @wedlikeaword & our email is [email protected] Yes, we're embarrassed by the missing apostrophes. We like to hear from you - questions, thoughts, ideas, guest or book suggestions. Perhaps you'd like to come on We'd Like A Word to chat, review or read out passages from books. Paul is the author of a new cosy mystery series set in contemporary Delhi. The first in the series is Murder in Moonlit Square, which will be published by Bedford Square publishers in 2025. He previously wrote a thriller set on the 1950s Irish border called Blackwatertown. We can also recommend Cockerings, the comic classic by Stevyn Colgan.

29. How to write & perform stand up comedy (part 2): Comedians Ian Stone & Phoebe Haywood talk to We'd Like A Word hosts Paul Waters & Stevyn Colgan, about Ian's new book To Be Someone about his love affair with The Jam & surviving the 1970s.

We also talk about comic timing, how to write a joke, taboo topics, physical comedy, making it personal, Mods, racists, Nazis, Sham 69, skinheads, being Jewish, never reading a book until your 20s, having ADHD, making money from comedy, the difference between writing for performance & writing to be read, Worcestershire ales, the comedy circuit in and beyond London, heckling, great stand up comedians & illustrations by Phil Jupitus. The Empire in Belfast and the Hellfire Club in High Wycombe also get mentioned.

We'd Like A Word is a podcast & radio show from authors Paul Waters & Stevyn Colgan. (And sometimes Jonathan Kennedy.) We talk with writers, readers, editors, agents, celebrities, talkers, poets, publishers, booksellers, & audiobook creators about books - fiction & non-fiction. We go out on various radio & podcast platforms. Our website is http://www.wedlikeaword.com for information on Paul, Steve & our guests. We're on Twitter @wedlikeaword & Facebook @wedlikeaword & our email is [email protected] Yes, we're embarrassed by the missing apostrophes. We like to hear from you - questions, thoughts, ideas, guest or book suggestions. Perhaps you'd like to come on We'd Like A Word to chat, review or read out passages from books. Paul is the author of a new cosy mystery series set in contemporary Delhi. The first in the series is Murder in Moonlit Square, which will be published by Bedford Square publishers in 2025. He previously wrote a thriller set on the 1950s Irish border called Blackwatertown. We can also recommend Cockerings, the comic classic by Stevyn Colgan.