Always Take Notes
104 episodes - English - Latest episode: about 3 years ago - ★★★★★ - 13 ratingsAlways Take Notes is a fortnightly podcast from London for and about writers and writing. Hosts Simon Akam and Rachel Lloyd speak to a diverse range of people in the industry on a variety of topics, from the mysteries of slush piles and per-word rates, to how data are changing the ways newspapers do business and how to pitch a book. patreon.com/alwaystakenotes
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Episodes
#101: Natalie Haynes, author and comedian
February 09, 2021 06:00 - 1 hour - 83.6 MBSimon and Rachel speak with Natalie Haynes. Following an education as a classicist and a career as a stand-up comedian, Natalie has written three novels—“The Amber Fury”, “The Children of Jocasta” and “A Thousand Ships” (which was shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction in 2020)—as well as two non-fiction books, “The Ancient Guide to Modern Life” and “Pandora’s Jar”. Natalie has also written for publications including the Times, the Independent, the New Humanist, the Guardian and the O...
#100: James Ashton, business journalist and author
January 26, 2021 06:00 - 54 minutes - 75.4 MBRachel and Simon speak with business journalist and author James Ashton. James was city editor and executive editor of the Evening Standard and Independent titles and before that city editor of the Sunday Times. He has also written for the Telegraph, Times, Daily Mail, Scotsman, Business AM and Reuters. His book “The Nine Types of Leader” chronicles the different categories of CEO he has encountered in over twenty years of journalism. We spoke to James about the art of the CEO interview, his...
#99: Sirin Kale, feature writer
January 12, 2021 06:00 - 57 minutes - 78.5 MBRachel and Simon speak with feature writer Sirin Kale. After a stint in lobbying, Sirin turned to journalism and worked at Dazed & Confused and Vice UK. Now freelance, she contributes to publications including the Guardian, where she writes the widely read “Lost to the Virus” series, Observer, Vogue, Wired, GQ and 1843 Magazine. We talked to Sirin about her decision to change careers, the importance of time management and reporting sensitive stories. You can find us online at alwaystakenote...
#98: Ed Needham, editor Strong Words, former editor FHM, Maxim, Rolling Stone
December 29, 2020 06:00 - 1 hour - 87.2 MBSimon and Rachel talk with magazine editor Ed Needham. Today Ed single-handedly writes and edits Strong Words, a literary journal for book lovers who want to locate their next great read more accurately amid an ocean of new product. Formerly Ed was editor of FHM in London during its million-selling heyday in the 1990s, then moved to New York in 1999 to launch and edit the American edition. In New York he was also managing editor of Rolling Stone and editor-in-chief of US Maxim, at a time whe...
#97: Rebecca Giggs, author
December 15, 2020 06:00 - 59 minutes - 81.1 MBSimon and Rachel talk with the nature writer Rebecca Giggs. Rebecca, who is from Perth, Australia, writes about how people feel towards animals in a time of technological and ecological change. Her work has appeared in the Atlantic, the New York Times Magazine, Granta, and in anthologies including Best Australian Essays and Best Australian Science Writing. We spoke with Rebecca about “Fathoms: the World in the Whale”, her debut non-fiction book, her exhaustive research process and about the ...
#96: Samanth Subramanian, magazine writer and author
December 01, 2020 06:00 - 1 hour - 93.7 MBRachel and Simon talk to magazine writer and author Samanth Subramanian. Samanth is a contributing writer to the Guardian Long Read, and his writing has also appeared in the New Yorker, the New York Times Magazine, WIRED, Granta, Harper's and 1843, among other publications. He is the author of three books, “Following Fish: Travels Around the Indian Coast,” (which won the Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize in 2010), “This Divided Island: Stories from the Sri Lankan War” (winner of the 2015 Crosswo...
#95: Emily Hayward-Whitlock, book-to-film agent
November 17, 2020 06:00 - 55 minutes - 75.9 MBSimon and Rachel speak with agent Emily Hayward-Whitlock, head of the book-to-film department at The Artists Partnership. Emily handles the film and TV rights for various literary agencies and publishers, including Rogers Coleridge and White, Serpent’s Tail, Janklow and Nesbit, Unbound, Profile Books and Nosy Crow. Her recent deals include Richard Osman’s bestselling novel, “The Thursday Murder Club”, to Amblin Pictures and Gail Honeyman’s “Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine” to Hello Sunsh...
#94: Patrick Radden Keefe, author and New Yorker staff writer
November 03, 2020 06:00 - 53 minutes - 74.1 MBRachel and Simon speak with Patrick Radden Keefe, a staff writer at The New Yorker magazine and author of three books. Patrick's most recent title is the best-selling “Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland.” His work at The New Yorker, where he has been a contributor since 2006, has received the National Magazine Award for Feature Writing. “Say Nothing” received the Orwell Prize for Political Writing and the National Book Critics Circle Award. We spoke to Patrick...
#93: Phoebe Hurst, managing editor, Vice UK
October 20, 2020 05:00 - 54 minutes - 74.3 MBSimon and Rachel speak with Phoebe Hurst. As the managing editor of Vice UK, Phoebe is responsible for commissioning and editing stories with a youth-focused lens; she has also written about topics as varied as mental health, plastic waste, and the rise of Pret A Manger. Before that, she was the editor of Munchies, Vice's food channel, and has freelanced for publications including Wired, the Guardian and Dazed. We spoke to Phoebe about getting started in journalism, the joys of a good editor...
#92: Alexander McCall Smith, novelist
October 06, 2020 05:00 - 55 minutes - 76.1 MBRachel and Simon speak with prolific novelist Alexander McCall Smith. Alexander was a professor of Medical Law, before turning his hand to writing fiction. His first book, “The White Hippo”, a children’s title, was published in 1980. But it wasn’t until the appearance of the highly successful “The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency” series that Alexander became a household name. The series has now sold over twenty million copies in English alone. Alexander’s various series of books have been tra...
#91: Linda Grant, writer and novelist
September 22, 2020 05:00 - 49 minutes - 68.4 MBSimon speaks with the writer and novelist Linda Grant. She began her career as a journalist, writing for the Guardian and the Independent on Sunday, before publishing “The Cast Iron Shore”, her first novel, in 1996. Her subsequent books include “Remind Me Who I Am, Again” (1998), “When I Lived in Modern Times” (2000), “Still Here” (2000), “The People on the Street” (2005) and “The Clothes on their Backs” (2008). Her work has variously won or been nominated for a clutch of prizes, including t...
#90: Geoff Dyer, author
September 08, 2020 05:00 - 55 minutes - 76.2 MBRachel and Simon speak with the prolific and genre-bending author Geoff Dyer. Geoff’s many books include the novel “Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi,” “But Beautiful” (about jazz), “Yoga For People Who Can’t Be Bothered To Do It,” “Zona” (about Andrei Tarkovsky’s film “Stalker”) and, most recently, “Broadsword Calling Danny Boy” (on the film “Where Eagles Dare”). His books have been translated into twenty-four languages and he currently lives in Los Angeles where he is Writer in Residence a...
#89: Amanda Craig, novelist
August 25, 2020 05:00 - 53 minutes - 73.1 MBRachel and Simon speak with the novelist Amanda Craig. After a brief spell in advertising and PR, Amanda became a journalist—writing for the Sunday Times, the Observer, the Telegraph and the Independent—and went on to win the Young Journalist of the Year and the Catherine Pakenham Award. Amanda is now a full-time novelist and her latest book, “The Golden Rule”, was published in June. We talked to Amanda about writing interconnected stories, the economics of the publishing industry and her ex...
#88: Toby Young, journalist and author
August 11, 2020 05:00 - 1 hour - 84 MBSimon and Rachel speak with journalist and author Toby Young. He has written for the Times, the Sun on Sunday, the Daily Mail, the Daily Telegraph and has been a columnist at the Spectator since 1998. His book, “How to Lose Friends & Alienate People”, about his stint at Vanity Fair, became a bestseller and was adapted into a film starring Simon Pegg. Toby co-founded the West London Free School and is the chief executive of the Free Speech Union. We talked to Toby about his entry into journal...
#87: Anne Enright, novelist
July 28, 2020 05:00 - 55 minutes - 75.8 MBRachel and Simon speak with the author Anne Enright. Anne has written two collections of stories, one book of non-fiction and six novels. “The Gathering”, which was published in 2007, won the Booker Prize; Anne has also received the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction and the Kerry Group Irish Fiction Award. In 2015 she was appointed the first Laureate for Irish Fiction and in 2018 she received the Irish PEN Award for Outstanding Contribution to Irish Literature. We spoke to Anne...
#86: Matthew Syed, author and journalist
July 14, 2020 05:00 - 50 minutes - 69.2 MBRachel and Simon speak with Matthew Syed, an author and journalist who writes about the practices and techniques that underpin high performance. He has written six books on the subject - including the best-sellers "Bounce" and "Black Box Thinking" - and has worked as a consultant with many leading organisations. He is also a journalist for The Times and a regular contributor to television and radio. In his previous career, Matthew was the England table tennis number one for almost a decade. ...
#85: Louise Doughty, novelist
June 30, 2020 05:00 - 55 minutes - 75.8 MBRachel and Simon speak with Louise Doughty. Louise is the author of nine novels, including “Apple Tree Yard”, a number-one bestseller which was adapted as a four-part series by the BBC. Her sixth novel, “Whatever You Love”, was nominated for the Costa Novel Award and Orange Prize for Fiction; her eighth novel, “Black Water”, was chosen by the New York Times as one of their Notable Books of the Year. Her work has been translated into 30 languages. We spoke to Louise about creative writing pro...
#84: Guy Stagg, travel writer
June 16, 2020 05:00 - 58 minutes - 53.2 MBSimon speaks with the travel writer Guy Stagg. In 2013 Guy, who had grown up in Paris, Heidelberg, Yorkshire and London, walked from Canterbury to Jerusalem. "The Crossway," an account of this journey, was published by Picador in 2018. The book won an Edward Stanford Travel Award and was shortlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize, the RSL Ondaatje Prize, the Somerset Maugham Award, and the Deborah Rogers Foundation Award. We spoke to Guy about travel writing in the age of Tripadvisor, his long...
#83: Hadley Freeman, journalist and author
June 02, 2020 05:00 - 48 minutes - 44 MBRachel and Simon speak with the journalist Hadley Freeman. She has been a staff writer at the Guardian since 2000, working in London and the US on the fashion desk, as a features writer and as a columnist. She has contributed to other publications including the British and American editions of Vogue, and written several books. We spoke to Hadley about fashion journalism, the challenges of column writing and her family memoir, “House of Glass”. https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/oct/01/nic...
#82: Colum McCann, novelist
May 19, 2020 05:00 - 55 minutes - 50.4 MBSimon and Rachel speak with Colum McCann, who is the author of six novels and three collections of stories. His novel, "TransAtlantic", was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2013, and his previous novel, "Let the Great World Spin", won the National Book Award, the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and was a New York Times bestseller. His work has been published in 40 languages and he teaches on the MFA program at Hunter College in New York. We spoke with Colum, who was born in Du...
#81: Alysoun Owen, editor of the Writers’ & Artists’ Yearbook
May 05, 2020 05:00 - 54 minutes - 49.9 MBSimon and Rachel speak with Alysoun Owen, editor of the “Writers’ & Artists’ Yearbook” and the “Children’s Writers’ & Artists’ Yearbook”, and the author of the “Writers’ & Artists’ Guide to Getting Published”. She has worked in the publishing industry, both in Britain and overseas, for more than 25 years; in 2012 she established her own consultancy. Alysoun talked about the history of the yearbook, first published in 1906, as well as how its content - and how the industry at large - has chang...
#80: Tim Rice, lyricist
April 21, 2020 05:00 - 56 minutes - 51.3 MBRachel and Simon speak with lyricist Tim Rice, who has worked in music, theatre and films since 1965. In collaboration with composer Andrew Lloyd Webber, Tim wrote song lyrics for “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,” “Jesus Christ Superstar” and “Evita.” He has since worked with other distinguished popular composers such as Elton John (“The Lion King,” “Aida”) and Alan Menken (“Aladdin,” “Beauty and the Beast”). His awards include three Oscars, four Tonys, five Grammys and one Emmy...
#79: Sophie Elmhirst, magazine writer
April 07, 2020 05:00 - 54 minutes - 49.9 MBRachel and Simon speak with magazine writer Sophie Elmhirst, a freelance journalist. As well as writing regularly for the Guardian Long Read and The Economist’s 1843 Magazine, on subjects ranging from millennial culture to the inner workings of the tampon business, Sophie is a contributing editor at The Gentlewoman and Harper’s Bazaar. She talked about her decision to enter, leave, and re-enter journalism, producing longform features and how she manages multiple commissions at once. https://...
#78: Simon Lancaster, speechwriter
March 24, 2020 06:00 - 1 hour - 55.8 MBSimon speaks with Simon Lancaster, who runs Bespoke Speechwriting Services and has written speeches for top politicians and the CEOs of some of the biggest companies in the world, including Unilever, Rio Tinto, and Nestle. Simon is the author of “Speechwriting: The Expert Guide” and “Winning Minds: Secrets from the Language of Leadership.” He is a fellow at Henley Business School, lectures at Cambridge and Oxford Universities, and regularly appears as a media pundit on oratory. Simon told us ...
#77: Kiley Reid, novelist
March 10, 2020 06:00 - 41 minutes - 38.2 MBSimon and Rachel speak with Kiley Reid, the bestselling author of “Such a Fun Age”. A recipient of the Truman Capote Fellowship at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, “Such a Fun Age” is her debut novel. The book was the subject of a 10-way bidding war while the television and film were acquired by Lena Waithe, an Emmy-award winning writer and producer, ahead of its publication. Kiley talked about how her experiences informed the book’s plot, the process of workshopping a novel and what it’s like to ...
#76: Giles Hattersley, features director, British Vogue
February 25, 2020 06:00 - 55 minutes - 50.8 MBRachel and Simon speak with Giles Hattersley, the features director of the British edition of Vogue magazine. Giles studied English at Warwick University and completed an MA in fashion journalism before joining the Sunday Times in 2003. Working his way up from an intern on the Style section, he joined the News Review later that year and went on to become the paper's youngest ever chief interviewer, aged 25, writing profiles of everyone from Beyonce to Richard Dawkins. In 2007, he briefly beca...
#75: Lisa Taddeo, author and journalist
February 11, 2020 06:00 - 53 minutes - 49.2 MBRachel speaks with Lisa Taddeo, the bestselling author of “Three Women”, a non-fiction book exploring love and longing in America. Her journalism has appeared in Esquire, Playboy and New York magazine, and her short stories have won two Pushcart prizes. Lisa is currently working on a novel, due to be released in 2020. Lisa talked about the process of writing “Three Women”, imagining the last days of Heath Ledger for Esquire and the best time to get in touch with an editor. https://classic.es...
#74: Jay Rayner, restaurant critic, the Observer
January 22, 2020 19:38 - 58 minutes - 53.5 MBSimon and Rachel speak with Jay Rayner, the restaurant critic of the Observer. After studying politics at Leeds University, where he edited the student newspaper, Jay entered national newspaper journalism, winning Young Journalist of the Year at the British Press Awards in 1992. The restaurant critic of the Observer since 1999, Jay has also worked extensively in television, including as a judge on Masterchef, and written several books. Jay talked about how, in his view, there is no such thing...
#73: Alexandra Pringle, editor-in-chief, Bloomsbury Publishing
January 14, 2020 06:00 - 57 minutes - 52.9 MB2020 sees a new co-host join Always Take Notes - Rachel Lloyd, assistant editor for Books and Arts at The Economist. In this episode Simon and Rachel speak with Alexandra Pringle, the editor-in-chief of Bloomsbury Publishing. Alexandra began her career at Art Monthly, before joining the pioneering feminist press Virago in 1978, where she edited the Modern Classics series before becoming editorial director. After stints at Hamish Hamilton and as a literary agent, Alexandra joined Bloomsbury in...
#72: Charles Moore, journalist and biographer
December 31, 2019 06:00 - 51 minutes - 47.4 MBSimon and Eleanor speak with Charles Moore, who was handpicked by Margaret Thatcher to write her authorised biography – he has just published his third and final volume, Herself Alone. Prior to writing about Mrs Thatcher, Charles was editor of the Spectator between 1984 and 1990, and editor of the Daily Telegraph between 1995 and 2003. Charles spoke about editing Boris Johnson's copy, his one journalistic regret, and his heated tête-à-têtes with Margaret Thatcher. You can find us online at a...
#71: Tanya Gold, freelance journalist
December 17, 2019 06:00 - 55 minutes - 50.8 MBSimon speaks with freelance journalist Tanya Gold, who has written for a broad range of publications in both the UK and the US. Tanya discussed her investigation into anti-semitism in the Labour Party for the American magazine Harper's, her experience at the centre of a Twitter storm earlier this year after she criticised Nike's plus-sized mannequins, her decision 15 years ago to first write about her struggles with alcohol, and her plans for a potential book on that subject. https://harper...
#70: Robbie Collin, Telegraph film critic
December 03, 2019 06:00 - 1 hour - 80 MBIn this episode, Eleanor spoke with The Telegraph's chief film critic Robbie Collin, who joined the paper in 2011. Robbie discussed starting his career at News of the World and his most formative films, the difficulties of seeing so many films in one week, his trickiest interviews, and his infamous encounter with actor Joaquin Phoenix. You can find us online at alwaystakenotes.com, on Twitter @takenotesalways, and on Facebook at facebook.com/alwaystakenotes. Our crowdfunding page is patreon...
#69: Laura Weir, editor-in-chief, ES Magazine
November 19, 2019 06:00 - 50 minutes - 46.5 MBIn this episode, Eleanor spoke with editor-in-chief of ES Magazine Laura Weir, who after a stint at Elle and The Sunday Times, was headhunted from Vogue in 2016 to head up the redesign of the weekly magazine published by London's Evening Standard newspaper. Laura discussed the new direction in which she has taken ES Magazine, what makes a quintessential ES Magazine story, the difficulties that come with writing a weekly column, and the problem with today's pitching standards. You can find us...
#68: Simon Robinson, global managing editor, Thomson Reuters
November 05, 2019 06:00 - 56 minutes - 52 MBSimon and Eleanor speak with Simon Robinson, global managing editor at Thomson Reuters. Simon joined the news service in 2010 and ran investigations and enterprise reporting in Europe, Middle East and Africa for six years, editing major series on Iran, Russia and migration. Between 2017 and 2019 he was regional editor for EMEA, running Reuters' biggest region. Between 1995 and 2010, Simon was a correspondent and then editor for Time magazine, reporting from more than 50 countries. Simon spoke...
#67: Anna Davis, director, Curtis Brown Creative
October 22, 2019 05:00 - 55 minutes - 50.9 MBSimon speaks with Anna Davis, founder and director of Curtis Brown's creative writing school, which launched in 2011. Anna worked for Curtis Brown for more than a decade as a literary agent before setting up Curtis Brown Creative. Previously she was a lecturer on Manchester University’s MA in novel writing. She is also a former Guardian columnist, and the author of five novels, published around the world in 20 languages: The Dinner, Melting, Cheet, The Shoe Queen and, most recently, The Jewel...
#66: Ferdinand Addis, historian
October 08, 2019 05:00 - 54 minutes - 49.8 MBSimon speaks with Ferdinand Addis, the author of Rome: Eternal City, a narrative history of Rome which spans 3,000 years over some 650 pages. Ferdinand read Classics at university before embarking on a career as a journalist and author. His wrote three short books for the publisher Michael O'Mara before moving on to his epic biography of Rome, which was published last year. He is now working on a history of Roman Britain. Ferdinand spoke about the origins of his interest in Rome, gave a robus...
#65: May Jeong, magazine writer
September 24, 2019 05:00 - 52 minutes - 48.3 MBSimon speaks with Canadian magazine writer May Jeong, who spent five years reporting on Afghanistan, and is best known for her months-long investigation in to the bombing of the Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) hospital in Kunduz for The Intercept. This story won her the 2017 South Asian Journalists Association’s Daniel Pearl Award for Outstanding Report on South Asia, as well as the Prix Bayeux Calvados Award for War Correspondents in the Young Reporter category. May's work has also appeared i...
#64: Jeffrey Archer, novelist
September 10, 2019 05:00 - 56 minutes - 52 MBSimon speaks with Jeffrey Archer, a novelist whose books have sold more than 275 million copies worldwide. Archer wrote his first novel aged 34, when a failed business deal left him heavy in debt. His third novel, Kane and Abel, sold over a million copies in its first week of release in 1979. He has now written more than 20 novels, alongside short stories, a play and non-fiction, and is published in 97 countries and more than 33 languages. Archer was deputy chairman of the Conservative Party ...
#63: Zahra Hankir, editor and anthologist
August 27, 2019 05:00 - 54 minutes - 50 MBEleanor and Simon speak with Zahra Hankir, journalist and editor of Our Women on the Ground, an anthology of essays from Arab women reporting from the Arab world, published this month by Penguin. Zahra spoke about her personal connection as an Arab woman to these journalists, their stories and their work. She discussed the difficulties of compiling and editing an anthology broaching delicate political topics that could prove dangerous to their writers. She also talked about whether she ever w...
#62: Jamie Glazebrook, executive producer, Peaky Blinders
August 13, 2019 05:00 - 1 hour - 62 MBEleanor speaks with Jamie Glazebrook, the executive producer of hit BBC series Peaky Blinders, whose fifth series will air later this year. Peaky Blinders, which has won a slew of television awards, follows the exploits of the eponymous Birmingham-based gang in the years after the First World War. Jamie discussed whether we have reached peak TV, the influence of the streaming giants and whether the TV and film industry still has a class problem. Jamie himself has developed and produced televi...
#61: Ruth Padel, poet
July 30, 2019 05:00 - 47 minutes - 43.5 MBEleanor and Simon speak with Ruth Padel, who is a poet, novelist, critic and Professor of Poetry at King’s College London. Ruth spoke about her verse biography of her great-great-grandfather Charles Darwin, as well as her upcoming verse biography of Beethoven, Beethoven Variations. Ruth also discussed her brief tenure as Professor of Poetry at Oxford in 2009, and her view on the new generation of Instagram poets. You can find us online at alwaystakenotes.com, on Twitter @takenotesalways, and...
#60: James Graham, playwright and screenwriter
July 16, 2019 05:00 - 1 hour - 55.6 MBSimon speaks to James Graham, one of Britain's best known contemporary playwrights who has also written widely for film and television. James' first award was the Pearson Playwriting Bursary in 2006. His big break came when his 2012 play This House, written for the National Theatre and set in the British parliament in the 1970s, enjoyed a sell out run and garnered widespread critical acclaim. His subsequent work includes the 2017 play Ink, about the early days of Rupert Murdoch, and this year...
#59: Christina Lamb, chief foreign correspondent, the Sunday Times
July 02, 2019 05:29 - 59 minutes - 54.3 MBSimon speaks to Christina Lamb, one of Britain’s leading foreign correspondents who has documented conflict across the world, from Afghanistan to Rwanda. Currently chief foreign correspondent for the Sunday Times, Christina discussed balancing her war reporting duties with her work as an author, including writing I Am Malala and her most recent book Our Bodies, Their Battlefields, about women in war. She also talked about getting arrested and deported in Pakistan while reporting for the Finan...
#58: Jon Lee Anderson, staff writer, the New Yorker
June 18, 2019 05:00 - 59 minutes - 54.5 MBSimon and Eleanor speak to Jon Lee Anderson, a staff writer at the New Yorker magazine and veteran war correspondent. Jon Lee began his career in the early 1980s, reporting on Central America. As a New Yorker staff writer since 1998, he has reported from Syria, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Somalia, Liberia and many other countries. Jon Lee spoke about about the myths and realities of conflict journalism, the time he discovered the hidden grave of Marxist revolutionary Ernesto “Che” Gueva...
#57: Anna Codrea-Rado, campaigner for freelancer rights
June 04, 2019 05:00 - 59 minutes - 54.6 MBSimon speaks with Anna Codrea-Rado, a freelance journalist who has written for titles including the New York Times and Wired, and who now advocates for better conditions for freelancers, through her #FairPayForFreelancers campaign, her popular newsletter The Professional Freelancer, and FJ&Co, a platform that provides tools and resources and organises events. Alongside discussing her campaigning, Anna, who studied journalism at Columbia in New York, talks about the potential pitfalls of journ...
#56: Ed Caesar, magazine writer
May 21, 2019 05:00 - 57 minutes - 52.7 MBSimon and Eleanor speak to British magazine writer Ed Caesar, who was recently made a contributing writer at the New Yorker and whose work has also appeared in the New York Times Magazine, the Atlantic, Wired, GQ and numerous other publications. Ed talked about his early career at the Independent, his decision to go freelance, breaking into the American market and the challenges of balancing his writing work and travel with his domestic commitments. He also discussed why he chooses not to liv...
#55: Ann Goldstein, Elena Ferrante's translator
May 07, 2019 05:30 - 51 minutes - 47.5 MBSimon and Eleanor speak to Ann Goldstein, who translated Elena Ferrante's phenomenally successful Neapolitan novels (My Brilliant Friend and its three sequels) out of Italian and into English. Ann also had a long and distinguished career as an editor at the New Yorker, where she rose to become head of the copy department. Ann spoke about the process of literary translation, the challenges of working with a writer whose identity she did not know, and also how the world of magazines has changed...
#54: Kamal Ahmed, editorial director, BBC News
April 23, 2019 05:00 - 39 minutes - 36.4 MBEleanor speaks to Kamal Ahmed, editorial director of BBC News and one of Britain’s most prominent journalists. He joined the BBC in April 2014 as business editor after a 20-year career in newspapers, including the Guardian, the Observer and the Sunday and Daily Telegraph. Kamal spoke about reshaping the BBC for a younger, more-open minded generation, and about the difficulties of maintaining a publicly apolitical stance. You can find us online at alwaystakenotes.com, on Twitter @takenotesalw...
#53: Pandora Sykes, journalist and podcaster
April 09, 2019 05:00 - 53 minutes - 48.6 MBSimon and Eleanor speak to Pandora Sykes, journalist and co-host of the hugely successful podcast the High Low. Pandora began her journalistic career at the Sunday Times, where she held the position of fashion features editor and wrote the Wardrobe Mistress column for the paper's Style magazine. She has written for numerous other titles including Elle, the Telegraph, the Guardian, Marie Claire, and the Spectator, and consults widely for a range of brands from Topshop to Cartier. https://www....
#52: Andrew Hankinson, journalist and author
March 26, 2019 06:00 - 45 minutes - 42 MBIn an episode recorded live at the Well Told longform journalism conference in London, Simon and Eleanor speak with author and journalist Andrew Hankinson. Hankinson has written magazine features for the Observer, Wired and Cosmo, and is author of literary nonfiction book You Could Do Something Amazing With Your Life, a retelling of the last eight days of killer Raoul Moat and his stand off with the Northumbrian police in 2010. Hankinson spoke about why he chose to write in the rarely used se...