Mirza Waheed speaks with Ann Morgan about his childhood in Kashmir and the injustice and violence he witnessed there, encountering the English literary canon in Delhi, and the influence of those experiences when writing his first novel in London.

David Spencer takes us on a tour of Halifax, exploring its 20th century history and meeting his own family ghosts.

Leigh Russell takes us far from the bucolic, to a piece of waste ground lying beside a railway track.

Sue Teddern speaks with Bethan Roberts about her varied writing career in magazines, radio, TV and fiction, and the need for realism when dealing with the unavoidable constraints of commercial writing.

Amanda Dalton considers the ventriloquism of the author, and encounters the deeper writing self that can speak uncomfortable truths ‘from the gut’.

Shahrukh Husain unveils the obstacles faced by the author, however well-established, who is contemplating a mid-career change of genre.

Hannah Vincent speaks with Bethan Roberts about how acting led her to playwriting, working as a script editor, her mid-career move into fiction, the ‘core self’ that drives creativity and some of the recurring themes in her work.

Robert Hudson celebrates Kilburn, the place where he learned to be the person he is.

Vayu Naidu finds an unexpected Blue Plaque in the heart of London, celebrating a Hindu philosopher.

Heidi Williamson speaks with John Greening about inspirations including science and traditional print processes, the importance of pattern in writing poems, her need to surprise herself and her new collection drawing on a painful section of public and personal history.

Mahendra Solanki speaks with Amanda Whittington about the meaning of ‘home’ in his poetry, the legacy of violence in his childhood, the vital role of libraries and the crucial difference between ‘writing and therapy’ and ‘writing as therapy’.

Jon Mayhew lauds Eastham Woods on the Wirral - a space of real and imaginary dangers where children could go properly feral.

Sue Roe does something she never expected to do - writing about her childhood home of Leicester.

Tim Pears speaks with John Greening about how family history took him from contemporary novels to historical ones, eschewing psychology for a newly filmic style of fiction, seeing his work on television and the benefits of a hands-on early career.