Claret and Conversation: Voices from the Creative Industry

Michael Coolwood is a feminist science fiction and fantasy writer. Growing up with shows like Asterix and Futurama, Michael has always enjoyed letting his imagination run wild. After getting back into reading a few years ago, he was absorbed by the works of Ian M. Banks and other stories involving sentient trains, spurring him to start writing his own novels...except with a different stance to traditional sci-fi. In this episode of Claret & Conversation, Michael opens up about his depression and his process of writing. So join us as we trip over our metaphors and discuss the future of the female protagonist.

Tricia Ninian is living her child hood dream as a soprano, having embraced her musical talent at an early age by learning to play the piano and singing in a choir in Westminster Abbey. Now, Tricia has starred as the likes of Liu in Turandot and Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni and her passion has provoked her to set up her own opera company: St Paul’s Opera, here in Clapham. In this episode of Claret & Conversation we discuss the highs and lows of realising your dreams and, in the true style of opera, how love made her what she is today.

Born and raised in Clapham, Sam is an expert traveler and the co-founder of Experience Travel Group. His travel company tailors the trip to the ‘holiday makers’ needs and helps them to explore and appreciate the locations natural form, setting Experience Travel Group apart from the rest. In this episode of Claret & Conversation, we debate the definition of what it means to be creative and whether it’s a bad thing to have too many ideas all at once.

Catherine O’Brien is a voice artist and the founder of Essential Audiobooks based in New York, where she lives with her husband after having moved there from London in 2008. As the daughter of a speech and drama teacher, Catherine has grown up performing In this episode of Claret & Conversation, we’ll consider the current state of the publishing industry and how giants such as Amazon are affecting the market for audiobooks. On a lighter note, we’ll see what it takes to be a long-form narrator and hear about some of the kookier genres of literature you probably never knew existed.

Sam is a gardener and founder of the Cottage Gardener company in Clapham. Sam first began to appreciate the outdoors as a child and was inspired by the nature and colours of the Norfolk countryside where he spent a lot of time growing up. Sam has a new book coming out, entitled Down the Garden Path: Snippets from the Cottage Gardener, which draws on his own experiences as a horticulturalist. In this episode of Claret & Conversation, we evaluate the human need and natural gift for knowledge, as well as how technology is influencing methods of landscape design.

Kees’t grew up in a small town in Holland to liberal parents who encouraged him to embrace his creative side. In this episode of Claret & Conversation, we’ll discuss how Kees’t transitioned from a cameraman director, working with the likes of David Lee; to adventure photography, climbing Mount Everest with Brian Blessed and exploring Antarctica with Stephen Venables; to inventing machinery to turn waste cooking oil into bio-diesel, which is his current venture. We’ll consider the questionable relationship between art and machinery and how to embrace ones fear of not knowing what to do.

Sarah is an author living with Motor Neurons Disease. Published by Claret Press, Sarah writes supernatural stories, saying she loves the uncertainty and the fact that anything could happen. Half Life has been adopted by the NHS to help teach palliative care staff and indeed we will discuss how Sarah has come to terms with her illness in this episode. Hopefully she will have enlighten us all as to how we should pay thanks to all the positives in the world by the end of the podcast.

Alex Reads is a professional journalist and podcast host of Mostly Lit and What Matters, who loves to create. Inspired by David Sedaris, Alex has natural gift for storytelling and plays the piano to exorcise his demons. In this episode of Claret & Conversation, we’ll discuss how the ever-modest Alex doesn’t let stereotypes define him.

Sue Carpenter is a documentary filmmaker, writer and photographer, whose wanderlust has resulted in her making a feature documentary about an uneducated girl in Nepal, Belmaya, who she met 12 years ago. Sue’s film follows Belmaya as she herself trains in filmmaking and makes her own short documentary, which has been selected for six international film festivals and won the UK Asian Film Festival Short Film Competition 2019. In this edition of Claret & Conversation, we delve into Sue’s travels and discuss how her journalism single-handedly saved a crumbling city in India. Visit Sue’s website : I am Belmaya to find out more about her incredible new film.

Nicky Barranger is an ex-BBC radio producer and World Service presenter who tried to interview a sleeping Arthur Miller, eye-locked with Hugh Jackman and spilled wine on Sir Peter Halls. Refering to herself as ‘professionally nosey’, Nicky’s curiosity has lead her through many doors, yet her love for audio and radio has never faded. In this edition of Claret & Conversation, we’ll see how the sound of laser guns and Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy inspired her career choice and the weird obsessions she’s developed during her time working in media.