In Writing with Hattie Crisell

Yomi Adegoke, bestselling author of The List and co-author of Slay In Your Lane: The Black Girl Bible, spoke to me in August for this episode. We discussed the stellar career she's established in her twenties and early thirties – from launching a self-made magazine, to producing an acclaimed book on the experience of black British women, to writing a novel that has sold more than 150,000 copies in little over a year. Yomi spilled the beans on the steep learning curve of moving from non-fiction to fiction; her love of a good edit; and why she thinks literary critics are underappreciated.  You can buy Yomi's books here in the In Writing bookshop: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/in-writing Order my book In Writing: Conversations on Inspiration, Perspiration and Creative Desperation: https://uk.bookshop.org/a/5954/9781803510637 London: I'm in conversation with BBC Radio 4's Sheila Dillon at Ink@84 on 7 November: https://www.ink84bookshop.co.uk/product-page/in-writing-hattie-crisell-in-conversation-with-sheila-dillon Edinburgh: I'm in conversation with novelist Maggie O'Farrell organised by Rare Birds Books on 10 November: https://rarebirdsbooks.com/products/hattie-crisell-in-conversation-with-maggie-ofarrell Glasgow: I'm reading from my book and being interviewed at Glasgow University on 11 November: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/hattie-crisell-reading-and-in-conversation-tickets-1058328712669 Durham: I'm being interviewed by writer Kathryn Tann at Collected Books on 12 November: https://collectedbooks.co.uk/products/hattie-crisell-in-writing-conservations-on-inspiration-perspiration-and-creative-desperation-tuesday-12-november-6-30pm This season of In Writing is sponsored by Curtis Brown Creative – the renowned writing school run by the literary and talent agency. Use code INWRITING20 for £20 off your first online writing course, eligible courses can be found here. Visit https://curtisbrowncreative.co.uk to find out more.

I had a great chat this week with Craig Brown, parody writer and columnist for Private Eye and the Daily Mail, and author of offbeat biographies including A Voyage Around the Queen; One Two Three Four: The Beatles in Time; and Ma'am Darling (about Princess Margaret). Craig takes iconic cultural figures and writes around them, exploring how they were seen by their friends, fans and critics, and the strange, humorous and poignant ways that they affected other lives. It's an art form that Craig has made his own, mixing imagination with fact, and it was so interesting to visit him at his flat in Bloomsbury, London, and hear about how he puts these portraits together. Read Craig's very funny Daily Mail column here: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/profile-2082/criag-brown.html Buy A Voyage Around the Queen or browse more of Craig's books: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/in-writing Order my book In Writing: Conversations on Inspiration, Perspiration and Creative Desperation: https://uk.bookshop.org/a/5954/9781803510637 This season of In Writing is sponsored by Curtis Brown Creative – the renowned writing school run by the literary and talent agency. Use code INWRITING20 for £20 off your first online writing course – eligible courses can be found here. Visit https://curtisbrowncreative.co.uk to find out more.

The very funny and frank Bella Mackie is with me today. We met in August to talk about the writing of her three bestselling books: the nonfiction hit Jog On: How Running Saved My Life, and the witty murder novels How to Kill Your Family and What a Way to Go – a new genre that we dub 'sarcastic crime'. Bella opens up about accepting defeat on a failed manuscript, learning her craft on the job, and battling with structure. And we discuss all of that while her dog Barney wanders around us at her kitchen table. Browse and buy Bella's books here: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/in-writing Read Bella's newsletter on privilege and honesty, 'Do influencers owe you transparency?': https://bellamackie.substack.com/p/manifesting-luck Pre-order my book In Writing: Conversations on Inspiration, Perspiration and Creative Desperation: https://uk.bookshop.org/a/5954/9781803510637 This season of In Writing is sponsored by Curtis Brown Creative – the renowned writing school run by the literary and talent agency. Use code INWRITING20 for £20 off your first online writing course. Eligible courses can be found here: https://www.curtisbrowncreative.co.uk See me and Anna Metcalfe at Stratford Literary Festival on 26 October: https://www.stratfordliteraryfestival.co.uk/events/hattie-crisell-and-anna-metcalfe

This week, meet Donal Ryan, who has since 2012 published seven bestselling novels and a collection of short stories. Based in County Limerick, Ireland – where he teaches creative writing at the University of Limerick – he writes heartfelt stories inspired by the kinds of people he's lived among all his life. His latest novel, Heart, Be At Peace, is a sequel to his debut, The Spinning Heart, which won the Guardian First Book Award and Irish Book of the Decade, among other plaudits. We sat down in London in August and talked about the self-doubt that delayed the start of his writing career; the characters he loves so much that he can't stop writing them into new stories; and his wife Anne-Marie's important role in his work. Browse and buy Donal's books here: https://uk.bookshop.org/lists/donal-ryan-novelist Pre-order my book, In Writing (thank you!): https://www.amazon.co.uk/Writing-Conversations-Inspiration-Perspiration-Desperation/dp/1803510633 This season of In Writing is sponsored by Curtis Brown Creative – the renowned writing school run by the literary and talent agency. Use code INWRITING20 for £20 off your first online writing course – eligible courses can be found here: https://www.curtisbrowncreative.co.uk Here are the details of my book tour: https://www.instagram.com/p/DA5bYGqIqYN/ Buy tickets for my online masterclass in writing with emotional honesty (discounts are available for various groups including those on low income): https://www.arvon.org/writing-courses/courses-retreats/masterclass-how-to-improve-the-authenticity-of-your-writing/

We're back! And I'm sitting down with influential Canadian writer and thinker Naomi Klein, author of Doppelganger, No Logo, The Shock Doctrine and many more. Naomi studies and writes about corporate globalisation and the climate emergency, but today we're talking about the challenges of hiding from a child in order to get some work done, and not being able to read one's own handwriting, among other writerly challenges like structure and tone. She's really interesting on honing her voice as a writer and what she learnt from seeing a creative-writing tutor during the pandemic. Browse Naomi's books here: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/in-writing Pre-order my book, In Writing: https://uk.bookshop.org/a/5954/9781803510637 or at Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Writing-Conversations-Inspiration-Perspiration-Desperation/dp/1803510633 This season of In Writing is sponsored by Curtis Brown Creative – the renowned writing school run by the literary and talent agency. Use code INWRITING20 for £20 off your first online writing course. Eligible courses can be found here. Visit https://curtisbrowncreative.co.uk to find out more.

In this final episode of the season, recorded in February 2023, I'm joined by the beloved poet and author Michael Rosen. Known equally for humorous children's verse and his poetry and prose for adults, Michael's books for kids include We're Going on a Bear Hunt, Chocolate Cake, Michael Rosen's Sad Book and Jelly Boots, Smelly Boots. He's also written a number of more grown-up books, including Many Different Kinds of Love and the memoir Getting Better, about healing and recovery. In recent years he's written and spoken about his experience of spending seven weeks in intensive care with Covid-19, at the peak of the pandemic. In this conversation, we talk about how writing can help us after trauma; how performing poetry for children shaped his work; and how plain, understated language can express great emotion. Browse Michael's books in the In Writing bookshop: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/in-writing Visit his YouTube channel for kids: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7D-mXO4kk-XWvH6lBXdrPw Watch the short film Many Different Kinds of Love: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsrSN-OCk8w Listen to Word of Mouth, hosted by Michael, on BBC Radio 4: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qtnz Subscribe to the In Writing newsletter and leave your questions about the podcast in the comments, and I'll do my best to answer them: https://inwriting.substack.com/ This season of In Writing is sponsored by Curtis Brown Creative. Use code INWRITING20 for £20 off one of their four, five, six, or ten-week online writing courses. Visit https://www.curtisbrowncreative.co.uk to find out more.

This week's guest is the beloved novelist Barbara Trapido, who I met at her home in Oxford in March 2023. Barbara's first novel was 1982's Brother of the More Famous Jack, which was published when she was 41; she followed it with Noah's Ark (1984), Temples of Delight (1990), Juggling (1994), The Travelling Hornplayer (1998), Frankie & Stankie (2003) and Sex & Stravinsky (2010). She's now in her early eighties, and talked to me about finding the energy to write in later life; her playful philosophy of writing; and her memories of introducing a young, then-aspiring novelist Maggie O'Farrell to her first agent. You can find Barbara's novels here in the In Writing bookshop: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/in-writing Please do subscribe to my newsletter on the writing process, and join me for writing hours on Google Meet, here: https://inwriting.substack.com Here's the episode of In Writing with novelist Maggie O'Farrell, who talks about Barbara: https://audioboom.com/posts/7835707-maggie-o-farrell-novelist This season of In Writing is sponsored by Curtis Brown Creative. Use code INWRITING20 for £20 off one of their four, five, six, or ten-week online writing courses. Visit https://www.curtisbrowncreative.co.uk to find out more.

A little detour into death this week – or life, depending on how you look at it. Nigel Williamson, obituary writer for The Times newspaper, joins me to talk about the art of summing up a person one final time, over 1600 words or so, for the permanent record. I met Nigel in March at the News Building in London to talk about researching a biography, interviewing the bereaved, and trying to get the essence of a whole human life into a couple of pages. You can buy the latest Times anthology of obituaries, Lives Less Ordinary, here, including Nigel's pieces on Ken Dodd, Greg Lake, Rod Temperton, Anita Pallenberg, April Ashley, Magic Alex, Christina Smith, Richard Cole, Jan Morris and many more: https://uk.bookshop.org/a/5954/9780008537913 And here are some more of Nigel's obituaries: Lisa Marie Presley: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/lisa-marie-presley-dies-elvis-priscilla-aged-54-r5jt9v6ls Jeff Beck: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/guitarist-jeff-beck-dies-aged-78-djff57bw9 Hilary Alexander: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/hilary-alexander-obituary-fxc02swrk and my 2013 piece on Hilary Alexander, which I loved writing: https://www.thecut.com/2013/01/hilary-alexander-will-stop-working-someday.html Join me on 18 April 2023 in London for this live event with the London Writers' Salon: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/how-to-build-a-self-directed-writing-career-w-london-writers-salon-tickets-609412698787 For a 50% discount and a drink at the bar, use the code HATTIEFRIEND when you purchase your ticket. This season of In Writing is sponsored by Curtis Brown Creative. Use code INWRITING20 for £20 off one of their four, five, six, or ten-week online writing courses. Visit curtisbrowncreative.co.uk to find out more.

This week's guest is my friend Tor Freeman, who writes and illustrates comics and children's picture books. Tor is a hugely imaginative person, a smart observer of human nature, and a very funny writer. Her comics include Sister Clawdetta: Murder at the Monastery and Welcome to Oddleigh, while her children's books include The Toucan Brothers and Olive and the Bad Mood. In November 2017 she was the winner of the Observer/Cape/Comica graphic short story prize (you can read her entry here). We sat down at her home in Shepherd's Bush, London, in October 2022 to talk about the mysteries of creative inspiration, how she brings together images and words, and the perils of working alone at home (including a profound question all freelancers will recognise: are you distressed or do you just need a banana?). One of my favourites of Tor's personal comics, Dad's Improvement Schemes: https://www.instagram.com/p/CglvcldIiuO/ Her newsletter, The ReposiTORy: https://torfreeman.substack.com/ Wrapping paper and prints for sale, illustrated by Tor: https://torfreeman.bigcartel.com/ The Book that No One Wanted to Read by Richard Ayoade, with very funny illustrations by Tor: https://uk.bookshop.org/a/5954/9781529500301 Browse some of Tor's books and others by guests of the podcast in the In Writing bookshop: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/in-writing This season of In Writing is sponsored by Curtis Brown Creative. Use code INWRITING20 for £20 off one of their four, five, six, or ten-week online writing courses. Visit curtisbrowncreative.co.uk to find out more.

Geoff 'genre-defying' Dyer, whose career moves between fiction, non-fiction and a grey area in between, joins me this week from California. Geoff published his first book in 1986 and is highly prolific. Some of his best-known works include Out of Sheer Rage; Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi; and Yoga for People Who Can't Be Bothered to Do It. Last year he published his most recent book, The Last Days of Roger Federer: And Other Endings – a meditation on getting older and how a career can be brought to an elegant close. In this conversation, recorded in January, he tells me how he developed his highly distinctive authorial voice; what he believes to be the perfect writing acoustic; why he's disgusted by Moleskine notebooks, and lots, lots more. Browse Geoff's books in the In Writing bookshop: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/in-writing This season of In Writing is sponsored by Curtis Brown Creative. Use code INWRITING20 for £20 off one of their four, five, six, or ten-week online writing courses. Visit curtisbrowncreative.co.uk to find out more.

This week, the Guardian journalist Zoe Williams joins me on In Writing. I recorded with Zoe at her home in London just before Christmas. She's well-known in the UK as a prolific writer of features, confessional columns and political opinion, and she was as outspoken and entertaining in person as she is in print. She talked me through her ability to write 1000 words in 20 minutes, but then take six months to file one feature; the pros and cons of writing about her personal life; and the most useful tips she's picked up from newspaper editors. You can read Zoe in the Guardian here: https://www.theguardian.com/profile/zoewilliams Here's her piece on Marie Kondo (complete with pictures of Zoe's study, where we recorded this conversation): https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2022/nov/17/she-dropped-three-cheese-and-onion-crisps-and-a-tooth-into-my-hand-what-happened-when-marie-kondo-tidied-my-home Here's her piece on time-management guru Julie Morgenstern: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/nov/14/time-management-productivity-julie-morgenstern This season of In Writing is sponsored by Curtis Brown Creative. Use code INWRITING20 for £20 off one of their four, five, six, or ten-week online writing courses. Visit www.curtisbrowncreative.co.uk to find out more. Sign up for the In Writing newsletter and join my writers' community on Substack: https://inwriting.substack.com

Hallå! My guest this week is Swedish screenwriter and director Ruben Östlund, who I met in London in December. Ruben's feature films include 2014's Force Majeure, 2017's The Square, and 2022's Triangle of Sadness, which is nominated for three Oscars including Best Original Screenplay. He has a unique way of writing, doing a lot of talking before he even gets close to typing out the script; he tells me about that, plus how making ski movies influenced his sense of dramatic excitement, and why it's a good thing that filmmaking never gets easier. He makes reference to Stanley Milgram's famous electric shock experiment, which you can read about here: https://simplypsychology.org/milgram.html Watch the trailer for Triangle of Sadness here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWrS7f_nS9w  Sign up for the In Writing newsletter and join my writers' community on Substack: https://inwriting.substack.com/ This season of In Writing is sponsored by Curtis Brown Creative (http://www.curtisbrowncreative.co.uk). Use code INWRITING20 for £20 off one of their four, five, six, or ten-week online writing courses.  Or, visit https://www.curtisbrowncreative.co.uk/course/writing-an-original-tv-drama-serial-0423 to read about their 18-week, in-person course in Writing an Original TV Drama Serial.

This week's guest is Sophie Mackintosh, author of books including the Booker Prize-longlisted The Water Cure, and new novel Cursed Bread. Sophie talks to me about the optimum balance of social life and writing life; how playlists help her get into the worlds of her novels; and how she powers her work with 'little treats'. Browse Sophie's books in the In Writing bookshop to support this podcast and independent booksellers: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/in-writing This season of In Writing is sponsored by Curtis Brown Creative. Use code INWRITING20 for £20 off one of their four, five, six, or ten-week online writing courses. Visit https://www.curtisbrowncreative.co.uk to find out more. Sign up for the In Writing newsletter and join my writers' community on Substack: https://inwriting.substack.com/ 

The fifth season of In Writing continues with Vogue columnist Raven Smith, who's known for his witty takes on pop culture, modern life and masculinity. Raven is the author of two collections of personal essays: Raven Smith's Trivial Pursuits and Raven Smith's Men, which has just come out in paperback (buy it here https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/in-writing). He talks to me about how gaining confidence as a writer helped him gravitate towards more honesty; life as a columnist and Instagram wit; and what he learned from working with newspaper editors. This season of In Writing in sponsored by Curtis Brown Creative. Use code INWRITING20 for £20 off one of their four, five, six, or ten-week online writing courses. Visit https://www.curtisbrowncreative.co.uk to find out more. Sign up for the In Writing newsletter and join my writers' community on Substack: https://inwriting.substack.com/ 

I'm back! And very happy about it. This week, Nigerian novelist Ayobami Adebayo speaks to me from her home in Lagos. Ayobami is the author of 2017's Stay With Me, and A Spell of Good Things, which was published in the UK last week. Stay With Me was a hugely successful debut; it won the 9mobile Prize for Literature, and was shortlisted for the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction and the Wellcome Book Prize. It’s now been translated into 20 languages, and the French translation won the Prix Les Afriques. Ayobami talks to me through her painstaking editing process, draft by draft; explains how residencies helped her progress; and shares her patient, stoical view of the writing life (with all its ups and downs). Buy her novels at the In Writing bookshop, where 10% of your money will support the making of this podcast: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/in-writing Check out the In Writing newsletter and community on Substack: https://inwriting.substack.com/  This season of In Writing is sponsored by Curtis Brown Creative. Use code INWRITING20 for £20 off one of their four, five, six, or ten-week online writing courses. Visit https://curtisbrowncreative.co.uk to find out more.

For the last episode of the fourth series of In Writing, Rumaan Alam joins me remotely from his house in Brooklyn, New York. Rumaan is the author of Rich and Pretty, That Kind of Mother, and most recently Leave the World Behind – a literary thriller about a family holiday that takes a sinister twist. (Leave the World Behind is set to become a Netflix movie, with Julia Roberts and Mahershala Ali reportedly in lead roles.) Rumaan talks to me about the lengthy preparation that allows him to write a first draft fast; how his omniscient third-person narrator helped him to manage the mystery at the heart of his book; and why he thinks most modern novels are too long. Buy Leave the World Behind and browse other books by guests of this series at https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/in-writing Thank you to The Novelry for sponsoring this episode: https://www.thenovelry.com/

Georgia Pritchett is my very funny guest this week. She's been writing for TV since the early Nineties and has worked on Smack the Pony, The Thick of It, Veep, Succession and, importantly, Spice World. She's also the creator of the new Apple TV series The Shrink Next Door, starring Will Ferrell, Paul Rudd and Kathryn Hahn – and she has recently published a wonderful memoir about anxiety, My Mess Is a Bit of a Life. Georgia spoke to me in early November about the grain of honesty in every good joke, why Armando Iannucci says that team writing is like making a gravy, and what she's learnt about rich people from working on Succession. Buy My Mess Is a Bit of a Life here: https://uk.bookshop.org/a/5954/9780571365883 This episode is sponsored by Scribe Lounge: https://scribelounge.com/

The 40th episode of In Writing focuses on the art of letter-writing. Shaun Usher, who spoke to me last week from his home in Manchester, is the founder of Letters of Note, a blog that led to several very successful books and a star-studded live event (Letters Live). He has dedicated his career to finding the most brilliant, funny, insightful or poignant letters from all over the world and bringing them to a wider audience – whether that's a young Tom Hanks trying to charm the director George Roy Hill, or Albert Einstein's letter to a Sunday school class. Shaun speaks to me about falling in love with his wife and the letter-writing tradition at the same time; the massive research involved in his job; and the very finest letters he's read. Shop the Letters of Note series in the In Writing bookshop: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/in-writing Follow Letters of Note on Twitter: https://twitter.com/lettersofnote and make sure you have a look at Letterheady, Shaun's collection of wonderful letter heads: https://www.letterheady.com/

Australian writer Liane Moriarty joins me this week from her family home in Sydney. Liane has written nine novels, including her latest mystery Apples Never Fall, and has sold over 20 million books worldwide. She is perhaps best known as the author of Big Little Lies and Nine Perfect Strangers, which were adapted into glossy TV series starring Nicole Kidman, Reese Witherspoon and Melissa McCarthy.  Liane talks to me about the dark turn that took her fiction from successful to stratospherically successful, her no-planning approach to plot, and how she and her writer sisters help each other navigate reviews. Browse Liane's books and buy Apples Never Fall at the In Writing bookshop, where 10% of your money goes towards the making of the podcast: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/in-writing

Today's interview is with the writer and editor Craig Taylor, who dials in from an island shack off the coast of western Canada. Once a Guardian contributor, with his column One Million Tiny Plays About Britain (which became a book and a play), Craig has since become known for oral histories including 2006's Return to Akenfield and 2011's Londoners. For his latest book New Yorkers, he collected and edited over a million words of interviews with residents of the Big Apple; this week it won a Brooklyn Public Library Literary Prize. We spoke in May, when he told me all about his quiet island life, the routines he uses to keep himself productive, and how he pulled together his ambitious portraits of London and New York. Buy New Yorkers here: https://uk.bookshop.org/a/5954/9781848549708 Craig is also the editor of the literary magazine Five Dials: https://fivedials.com/ And read the Guardian piece on handwriting vs typing here: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/dec/16/cognitive-benefits-handwriting-decline-typing