Simon Mayo's Books Of The Year
238 episodes - English - Latest episode: 5 days ago - ★★★★★ - 57 ratingsSimon Mayo and Matt Williams invite the world's finest authors in for a chat.
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Episodes
Andy Weir (Project Hail Mary)
May 12, 2021 09:37 - 36 minutesThe best selling author of The Martian and Artemis returns with a new sci-fi thriller. It has already had its film rights snapped up by Ryan Gosling and MGM. Tim Peake has called Project Hail Mary ‘One of the most plausible science fiction books I’ve ever read’. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Q&A with Sarah Pearse (The Sanatorium)
April 07, 2021 13:25 - 19 minutesThe best selling author of The Sanatorium chats to Simon and Matt about some of her favourite books and authors - which include Jo Nesbo, Enid Blyton and Guy Morpuss. Plus there is a lot of chat about Warwick University Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Sarah Pearse (The Sanatorium)
March 29, 2021 13:08 - 36 minutesSarah Pearse lives by the sea in South Devon with her husband and two daughters. She studied English and Creative Writing at the University of Warwick and worked in Brand PR for a variety of households brands before following her passion for writing. Her experiences living in the Swiss Alps in her early twenties inspired her acclaimed debut novel, The Sanatorium, which was an instant Sunday Times and New York Times Top Ten bestseller in hardback, and a Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick. Hoste...
Q&A with Abigail Dean (Girl A)
March 15, 2021 20:59 - 16 minutesThe best selling author of Girl A talks about some of her favourite books and authors - which include Gone Girl, A Little Life and Never Let Me Go Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Abigail Dean (Girl A)
March 08, 2021 19:13 - 32 minutesAbigail Dean studied English Literature at Cambridge University, and graduated with a double first in 2011. Her first job was as a bookseller at Waterstones. Abigail now works as a lawyer at Google. Ahead of her thirtieth birthday, she took time off between jobs to work on her first novel, GIRL A. The book immediately became a New York Times and Sunday Times Bestseller and has sold in 31 territories including television/film. GIRL A tells the story of Lex, better known to the world as Girl A,...
Q&A with David Baddiel (Jews Don't Count)
February 23, 2021 09:00 - 17 minutesThe multi million selling author and comedian chats about his favourite books and authors which include Alan Partridge, Nick Hornby and John Updike Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
David Baddiel (Jews Don't Count) EXPLICIT
February 16, 2021 10:48 - 50 minutesDavid Baddiel is an author, comedian and screenwriter. He has written and performed in a series of highly successful TV comedy shows, including Fantasy Football, The Mary Whitehouse Experience and Baddiel and Skinner Unplanned. He is the author of four novels as well as six books for children which have sold over 1 million copies. In Jews Don't Count David combines powerful polemic and personal testimony to investigate why, in an age of heightened awareness of the evils of systemic racism, ...
Q&A with Jeanine Cummins (American Dirt)
February 09, 2021 07:00 - 16 minutesThe author of the US best selling novel American Dirt tells Simon and Matt about her favourite books and authors - which include Colson Whitehead, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Ann Patchett, Jasper Fforde and Toni Morrison Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jeanine Cummins (American Dirt)
February 01, 2021 23:16 - 40 minutesJeanine Cummins chats about her US best selling novel. American Dirt follows the path of a Mexican woman who survives an attack by a drug cartel - and escapes as an undocumented immigrant to the United States with her son. It was selected by Oprah for her Book Club and Radio 4 for their Book At Bedtime - but then drew criticism from fellow authors about her representation of Latinos. Jeanine talks openly about the year she has had dealing with the backlash. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/priv...
A Q&A with Jon Sopel (BBC News)
January 21, 2021 08:00 - 18 minutesThe BBC's man in Washington talks us through his favourite books and authors - which include John Le Carre, Hugo Young, Joseph Heller, Robert Caro and Denis Healey Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jon Sopel - UnPresidented
January 14, 2021 17:54 - 38 minutesThe BBC's North America Editor chats about his diary of the 2020 US Presidential Election. It was an incredible year, which started with Joe Biden getting off to a very shaky start in the Primaries. And ended with a riot in Congress. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Q&A with Ian Rankin
December 19, 2020 12:30 - 12 minutesThe award winning, best selling author talks about his favourite books and authors. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Ian Rankin (A Song For The Dark Times)
December 19, 2020 12:26 - 45 minutesWhen his daughter Samantha calls in the dead of night, John Rebus knows it’s not good news. Her husband has been missing for two days. Rebus fears the worst – and knows from his lifetime in the police that his daughter will be the prime suspect. He wasn’t the best father – the job always came first – but now his daughter needs him more than ever. But is he going as a father or a detective? As he leaves at dawn to drive to the windswept coast – and a small town with big secrets – he wonders wh...
Q&A with CK McDonnell (The Stranger Times)
December 14, 2020 10:46 - 15 minutesComedian and author CK McDonnell tells us about some of his favourite books and authors - which include Simon Mayo, Terry Pratchett, Simon Mayo, Gary Delaney, Simon Mayo, Rick Wakeman, Simon Mayo and Don Winslow Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
CK McDonnell (Stranger Times)
December 10, 2020 12:33 - 38 minutesWhat if the weird news was the real news?! There are dark forces at work in our world (and in Manchester in particular), so thank the Lord The Stranger Times is on hand to report them . . . A weekly newspaper dedicated to the weird and the wonderful (but mostly the weird), it is the go-to publication for the unexplained and inexplicable. At least that's their pitch. The reality is rather less auspicious. Their editor is a drunken, foul-tempered and foul-mouthed husk of a man who thinks little...
Q&A with Grace Dent (Hungry)
November 29, 2020 19:00 - 14 minutesHungry author Grace Dent chats about her favourite authors which include Rupert Everett, Kenneth Williams, Nancy Mitford and Nigel Slater Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Grace Dent (Hungry)
November 22, 2020 20:00 - 40 minutesAngel Delight, Cadburys and Carlisle. A very funny episode featuring restaurant critic Grace Dent. Hungry traces Grace's story from growing up eating beige food to becoming one of the much-loved voices on the British food scene. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Simon's Itchcock Moment
November 17, 2020 07:57 - 24 minutesThanks for all your correspondence. You may hear some of it discussed in this special show. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Some nice bits from previous shows you may have missed
November 07, 2020 12:52 - 36 minutesSimon and Matt chat to Graham Norton, Heather Morris, Robbie Williams, John Simpson, John Boyne, Ben MacIntyre and Robin Ince - among others. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Q&A with Andrew Child (The Sentinel)
November 03, 2020 18:52 - 14 minutesThe new author of the Jack Reacher series takes our book Q&A - discussing the likes of Alistair MacLean, Ben MacIntyre and Genghis Khan. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Andrew Child & Lee Child (The Sentinel)
October 28, 2020 09:00 - 38 minutesFor Jack Reacher's 25th adventure, author Lee Child brings in his younger brother Andrew to help. Here they chat about the process, the Chuckle Brothers and stitching up Ian Rankin... from their homes in Colorado and Wyoming. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Q&A with Ben MacIntyre
October 21, 2020 12:58 - 16 minutesBest selling spy author Ben MacIntyre turns his attention to our Q&A on his favourite books, authors and spy films Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Ben MacIntyre (Agent Sonya)
October 13, 2020 14:57 - 43 minutesBen MacIntyre writes fantastic books about real life spies. Agent Sonya is another one. Ursula Kuczynski Burton was a spymaster, saboteur, bomb-maker and secret agent - who spent a large part of her career in rural Oxfordshire. Codenamed 'Agent Sonya', her story has never been told - until now. From planning an assassination attempt on Hitler in Switzerland, to spying on the Japanese in Manchuria, to preventing nuclear war (or so she believed) by stealing the science of atomic weaponry from B...
Q&A with Robert Harris (V2)
October 07, 2020 10:16 - 18 minutesThe author of V2, Fatherland and Munich tells us about about his favourite books and authors...which include Just William, Maigret, Kingsley Amis and and AJP Taylor Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Q&A with Robert Harris (V2)
October 07, 2020 10:16 - 16 minutes - 19.4 MBThe author of V2, Fatherland and Munich tells us about about his favourite books and authors...which include Just William, Maigret, Kingsley Amis and and AJP Taylor See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Robert Harris (V2)
September 30, 2020 06:00 - 37 minutesSimon and Matt chat to the best-selling author of Fatherland and Munich. Robert Harris's new novel is a WWII thriller about a German rocket engineer, a former actress turned British spy, and the Nazi rocket program. It's November 1944, Willi Graf, a German rocket engineer, is launching Nazi Germany's V2 rockets at London from Occupied Holland. Kay Connolly, once an actress, now a young English Intelligence officer, ships out for Belgium to locate the launch sites and neutralize the threat. Bu...
Q&A with Alastair Campbell
September 23, 2020 05:00 - 21 minutesOne of the key figures in British politics for the past 30 years, Alastair Campbell tells us about his favourite books and authors. Alastair is a British journalist, broadcaster and political aide. He worked as Tony Blair's spokesman and campaign director (1994–1997), then as Downing Street Press Secretary (1997–2000) for Blair, who was then Labour Prime Minister. He then became Downing Street Director of Communications and spokesman for the Labour Party (2000–2003). He resigned in August 200...
Q&A with Alastair Campbell
September 23, 2020 05:00 - 19 minutes - 22.7 MBOne of the key figures in British politics for the past 30 years, Alastair Campbell tells us about his favourite books and authors. Alastair is a British journalist, broadcaster and political aide. He worked as Tony Blair's spokesman and campaign director (1994–1997), then as Downing Street Press Secretary (1997–2000) for Blair, who was then Labour Prime Minister. He then became Downing Street Director of Communications and spokesman for the Labour Party (2000–2003). He resigned in August 2...
Alastair Campbell (Living Better)
September 16, 2020 11:10 - 36 minutes"Last Christmas I almost killed myself. Almost. I've had a lot of almosts. Never gone from almost to deed. Don't think I ever will. But it was a bad almost." Living Better is Alastair Campbell's honest, moving and life affirming account of his lifelong struggle with depression. It is an autobiographical, psychological and psychiatric study, which explores his own childhood, family and other relationships, and examines the impact of his professional and political life on himself and those arou...
Richard Osman (Thursday Murder Club)
September 01, 2020 20:50 - 33 minutesIn a peaceful retirement village, four unlikely friends meet up once a week to investigate unsolved murders. But when a brutal killing takes place on their very doorstep, the Thursday Murder Club find themselves in the middle of their first live case. Elizabeth, Joyce, Ibrahim and Ron might be pushing eighty but they still have a few tricks up their sleeves. Can our unorthodox but brilliant gang catch the killer before it's too late? Richard Osman is an author, producer and television present...
Q&A with Richard Osman (Thursday Murder Club)
August 26, 2020 10:43 - 16 minutesTV producer and presenter - and now author... Richard Osman tells us about some of his favourite books and authors...which include Ben MacIntyre, Marian Keyes and Viz! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Lee Child interviews Simon Mayo (Knife Edge)
August 19, 2020 08:42 - 1 hourOne of the world's most prolific and successful authors takes over presenting duties to interview Simon Mayo (Itch, Mad Blood Stirring, Radio 1 Roadshow). Simon's new thriller is Knife Edge. In a series of coordinated attacks, seven men and women across London have been targeted. For journalist Famie Madden, the horror unfolds as she arrives for the morning shift. The victims have one thing in common: they make up the investigations team at the news agency where Famie works. The question ever...
A little taster of Lee Child interviewing Simon
August 15, 2020 06:21 - 7 minutesLee Child, the 100 million selling author of the Jack Reacher novels, takes over presenting duties to interview fledgling author Simon Mayo about his new book Knife Edge. In this clip they talk about the perils of rolling news. And how Jack Reacher would wear a mask Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Q&A with Sabine Durrant
August 08, 2020 04:00 - 18 minutesSabine Durrant is a former assistant editor of The Guardian and a former literary editor at The Sunday Times. She is currently a magazine profile writer for The Sunday Telegraph and a contributor to The Guardian’s family section. Her latest novel is the thriller Finders, Keepers. In our Q&A Sabine tells us about her favourite books and authors which include Georgette Heyer, Robert Harris and Jilly Cooper Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad ch...
Sabine Durrant (Finders, Keepers)
August 01, 2020 06:08 - 37 minutesHoarding, how to write endings, ice cream vans - and Matt's desire to kill Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Q&A with Robert Webb (Come Again)
July 25, 2020 07:00 - 19 minutesThe best selling author and Peep Show star tells us about his favourite books and authors, which include Huckleberry Finn, Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, Clive James and Mr Uppity. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Robert Webb (Come Again)
July 18, 2020 10:07 - 39 minutesThe No 1 best selling author of How Not To Be A Boy releases his debut novel Come Again - where his heroin finds herself back in 1992, trying to save the life of her future partner. "It's mean to be funny" R Webb 2020 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Q&A with Anthony Horowitz OBE
April 22, 2020 20:02 - 16 minutesThe best selling author chats about his favourite books and authors - including Agatha Christie, Charles Dickens, Ian Fleming, Ben MacIntyre and Ian Rankin Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Anthony Horowitz OBE (Alex Rider)
April 17, 2020 17:31 - 34 minutes - 39.5 MBAnthony Horowitz has written over 40 books including the bestselling teen spy series Alex Rider, estimated to have sold 19 million copies worldwide. Anthony is also an acclaimed writer for adults and was commissioned by the Conan Doyle Estate to write two new Sherlock Holmes novels, and more recently he was commissioned by the Ian Fleming Estate to write new James Bond novels. Simon Mayo is a greedy guts jelly baby guzzler Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast...
Your Questions
April 03, 2020 07:44 - 58 minutes - 67.2 MBMayo/Williams. Our version of Frost/Nixon. With the help of your questions (if you were one of them who sent them in). NB Simon has a nice microphone. Matt has a tin can and some string. Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.
Q&A with Ariana Neumann
March 16, 2020 11:02 - 14 minutesThe author of When Time Stopped talks us through some of her favourite books, authors and poets - including WH Auden, Enid Blyton, Dani Shapiro and Joyce Carol Oates Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Ariana Neumann (When Time Stopped)
March 10, 2020 07:33 - 37 minutesWhen Time Stopped -A Memoir of My Father’s War and What Remains Ariana meticulously uncovers the astonishing truth of her father’s extraordinary escape from Nazi-occupied Prague and seemingly inevitable deportation to the camps. Her painstaking investigation leads her across continents and reveals his astonishing and courageous choice to assume a fake identity and live out the war undercover, spying for the allies in Berlin itself—at the heart of the Nazi empire, deep in the ‘darkest shadow’....
Q&A with Mark Billingham
February 08, 2020 04:25 - 14 minutesOne of Britain's finest crime writers tells us about his favourite books and authors - which include Elvis Costello, Leon Garfield and Charlie Brooker Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mark Billingham (Their Little Secret)
February 08, 2020 04:24 - 43 minutesMark Billingham is one of the UK's most acclaimed and popular crime writers - selling over 5 million copies. A former actor, television writer and stand-up comedian, his series of novels featuring D.I. Tom Thorne has twice won him the Crime Novel Of The Year Award as well as the Sherlock Award for Best British Detective and been nominated for seven CWA Daggers. His standalone thriller IN THE DARK was chosen as one of the twelve best books of the year by the Times and his debut novel, SLEEPYHE...
Q&A with Andrew Hunter Murray
February 06, 2020 22:29 - 22 minutesQI Elf Andrew talks us through his favourite authors which include Rik Mayall, Douglas Adams, Terry Pratchett and PG Wodehouse. Andrew's debut novel is The Last Day - which focuses on a world which has stopped turning. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Andrew Hunter Murray (The Last Day)
February 03, 2020 12:38 - 31 minutesQI Elf, Private Eye contributor and No Such Thing As A Fish presenter Andrew Hunter Murray tells us about his debut novel The Last Day - a thriller set in a world which has spun to a halt, bringing civilization to the brink of chaos. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Q&A with Sophie Hannah
February 01, 2020 00:00 - 19 minutesSophie is an internationally best selling crime author. In our Q&A she tells Simon and Matt about her favourite authors which include Agatha Christie, Samantha Downing and Howard Jacobson Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Sophie Hannah (Haven't They Grown)
January 29, 2020 11:19 - 37 minutesIn Sophie Hannah's latest thriller Beth sees some old friends...but "twelve years have passed and the children don't look any older...why haven't they grown?" Sophie is a Sunday Times and New York Times bestselling writer of crime fiction, published in forty-nine languages and fifty-one territories. Her books have sold millions of copies worldwide. In 2014, with the blessing of Agatha Christie’s family and estate, Sophie published a new Poirot novel, The Monogram Murders, which was a bestsell...
Q&A with Michael Lewis (Moneyball, The Big Short, The Fifth Risk...)
December 28, 2019 13:32 - 15 minutesOne of America's finest investigative writers answers our book Q&A Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Michael Lewis (The Fifth Risk)
December 19, 2019 12:54 - 33 minutesMichael Lewis is the global bestselling author of The Big Short and Moneyball - both of which were turned in to hugely successful movies. His latest book is The Fifth Risk, an exploration of Trump and the mechanics of The White House. It examines the transition and political appointments of the Donald Trump presidency. It’s been optioned by the Obamas for their new Netflix production company. It is both thrilling and terrifying. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more informatio...