Horatio Clare ponders the necessary pragmatism of the professional writer, and shares a glimpse of what writers really talk about amongst themselves.

Clare Pollard celebrates the playfulness and variety of nonsense verse, sharing examples from across the centuries.

Brian McCabe speaks with Geoff Hattersley about why mathematicians are a bit like artists, how something being funny doesn’t mean it’s light, and the process of imaginatively recreating the worldview of a child.

John Keay speaks with James McConnachie about relics of Empire and roving Scots, the other writers in his family and the hectic schedule of non-fiction writers with new books to promote.

Jonny Wright considers the sobering parallels between the 1959 play A Raisin In The Sun, featuring a black family in Southside Chicago, and the racial inequality, downward economic mobility and defacto housing segregation of contemporary London.

Kerry Young describes her journey from failing 'O'-level English to becoming a successful novelist, and how her writing is a gift both to her late father and to the diverse cultures that have produced contemporary Jamaica.

Michael Blackburn speaks with Geoff Hattersley about his literary origins, his antipathy to The Establishment, and being the former Enfant, now Grand-père Terrible of the British poetry scene.

John Keay speaks with James McConnachie about hands-on historical researches from the Himalaya to the Highlands, his best writing advice and the idea that what historians really need is not more documents but stronger boots.

Charles Boyle considers the range of circumstances that make writers stop writing, sometimes forever, and why this can be an amicable separation.

Kevin Clarke shares a cautionary tale about deliberate plagiarism in the screen-writing industries - an issue he has had to contend with not once, but at least five times.

Tania Hershman shares an audio diary in which even a rotten cold can’t squash her enthusiasm for the writing life — and she manages to get some writing done.

Tracey Herd speaks with Julia Copus about the prevalence of female iconography in her work, the low status of writing based on popular culture, and how the spirits of the truly gifted can live on through music, film and literature.

Jonathan Tulloch treats us to his third seasonal delicacy, the al fresco fare of football season, featuring Dick Whittington, the devil, a scotch pie and fate in a styrofoam cup of bovril.

Kate Colquhoun, Charles Jennings and Susan Barker introduce their 'Life-Changing Literature'.