Meet the Writers
525 episodes - English - Latest episode: 23 days ago - ★★★★★ - 17 ratingsWant to know more about the authors behind your favourite books? Tune in to discover the methods of – and inspiration behind – some of the world’s most exciting writers. Every Saturday, Georgina Godwin hosts an in-depth discussion with the person behind the prose.
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Episodes
Julian Sayarer
December 08, 2018 15:02Julian Sayarer is a true adventurer: he broke a world record in his mid-twenties, he’s hitchhiked through middle America and travelled by boat to remote islands in Asia. It’s come together with his background in political science to create a critically acclaimed travel-writing style – politics at roadsides – as he discusses with Georgina Godwin.
Tim Moore
December 01, 2018 15:02British travel writer Tim Moore has 10 travelogues under his belt. His latest, ‘Another Fine Mess: Travels Through Trumpland in a Model T Ford’, charts his journey through the Trump-voting areas of the US. He tells us all about it.
ScotiaBank Giller prize
November 24, 2018 15:02In a special episode we feature the award that recognises excellence in Canadian writing. We hear from all the shortlisted authors (including the winner, of course), judge Philip Hensher and the executive director of the prize, now in its 25th year.
Paul Kenyon
November 17, 2018 15:02Kenyon is a Bafta-winning journalist. His new book, ‘Dictatorland: The Men Who Stole Africa’, describes the violence and excess of some of the continent’s strongmen – and behind them, the greed and complicity of the West.
Sulaiman Adonia
November 10, 2018 15:02Eritrean-born writer Addonia grew up in a Sudanese refugee camp and arrived unaccompanied in the UK without a word of English. Since then he’s been published around the world in more than 20 languages; he tells Georgina Godwin about his amazing journey.
Kamal Ahmed
November 03, 2018 15:02This week we examine identity through the eyes of prominent journalist Kamal Ahmed. He discusses his dual heritage – his mother is English and father was Sudanese – in his new book ‘The Life and Times of a Very British Man’.
André Aciman
October 27, 2018 15:02Aciman is the author of ‘Call me by your Name’, now an award-winning film. He’s also an American memoirist, essayist, novelist and scholar of 17th-century literature – we talk about his work and life.
Gail Jones
October 13, 2018 15:02Jones, one of Australia’s most celebrated authors, has been winning almost every prize going recently – not least making the longlist for the Man Booker and the Orange prize. She tells us about her journey through fiction.
Michael Quetting
October 06, 2018 15:02Quetting talks to us about an extraordinary project – and the resulting book ‘Papa Goose’. It’s a work that charts the moving and often hilarious story of bringing up seven goslings from egg to independence over the course of a year.
Robert Ferguson
September 29, 2018 15:02A former postman, factory worker and cook, Ferguson had many lives. Then he took a course in Scandinavian studies, moved to Norway and his literary career began. We talk to him about what it means to be Scandinavian.
Lauren Groff
September 22, 2018 15:02In 2015, then-president Barack Obama named Groff’s ‘Fates and Furies’ his book of the year. She was named by Granta as one of the best young American writers of her generation and has a new collection of short stories out. We talk about her journey so far.
Peter Stamm
September 15, 2018 15:02As we spend the week broadcasting from our Zürich bureau, we talk to Swiss author Peter Stamm, one of the country’s bestselling authors.
Franny Moyle
September 08, 2018 15:02A passionate cultural historian, Moyle started her career as the BBC’s first dedicated commissioner for arts and culture before moving onto writing some of the most riveting biographies of recent years.
SJ Naudé
September 01, 2018 15:02We head to the Edinburgh International Book festival to meet SJ Naudé. The South African former lawyer talks about his novel ‘The Third Reel’, which explores the Cold War and anti-apartheid movement.
Nik Gowing
August 25, 2018 15:02After 18 successful years as a foreign-affairs specialist at ITN, Nik Gowing went on to be the longest-serving anchor on BBC World News. He talks to us about his career and his new book ‘Thinking the Unthinkable’.
Anuradha Roy
August 11, 2018 15:02One of India’s greatest living novelists, Anuradha Roy has been longlisted for the Man Booker prize for her writing. In this interview, she discusses her work, and inequality and nationalism in India.
Joanna Coles
August 04, 2018 15:02Joanna Coles is the former editor of ‘Cosmopolitan’ and was the inspiration behind television shows ‘Running in Heels’ and ‘The BoldType’. We discuss her meteoric career rise and new book, ‘Love Rules: How to Find a Real Relationship in a Digital World’.
Panashe Chigumadzi and Ellah Wakatama Allfrey
July 28, 2018 15:02As Zimbabwe holds elections we look at its history through the eyes of Panashe Chigumadzi, a Zimbabwean-born novelist and essayist. Plus: we talk to her publisher Ellah Wakatama Allfrey of The Indigo Press about starting a publishing house from scratch.
Tim Winton
July 14, 2018 15:02As one of Australia’s foremost writers, Winton has twice been shortlisted for the Man Booker prize. He tells us about toxic masculinity and the accidents that have shaped his life.
Ben Rhodes
July 07, 2018 15:02Rhodes was a speechwriter and foreign-policy adviser to Barack Obama during the leader’s entire tenure. Here he gives us a unique insight into the everyday affairs of the Oval Office, as well as his personal friendship with the US president.
Sir Antony Beevor
June 30, 2018 15:02English military historian Sir Antony Beevor is the author of four novels and 12 non-fiction books. We discuss his latest book on the Battle of Arnhem, and the war stories that countries sometimes prefer not to be told.
Burhan Sonmez
June 23, 2018 15:02On the eve of the Turkish elections, Georgina Godwin speaks to the prize-winning Turkish novelist whose latest work, ‘Istanbul Istanbul’, has been published in more than 20 countries. He tells us about his writing career and being Kurdish in Turkey.
Marcello Di Cintio
June 16, 2018 15:02Marcello Di Cintio has wandered through western and northern Africa, and has written a book about the experience. He’s also written about walls, fences and other ‘hard’ barriers – and the people who live in their shadows. And now, in his latest work, he takes us on a powerful journey through Palestine’s contemporary culture – he tells Georgina Godwin about it.
Sarah Sands
June 09, 2018 15:02As the winner of the Women’s Prize for Fiction is announced, we speak to the chair of the judges, Sarah Sands.
Ted Hodgkinson
June 02, 2018 15:02We head to the heart of London’s cultural scene as the senior programmer for literature and spoken word at the Southbank Centre gives us a tour and talks about this year’s exciting line-up.