Always Take Notes

Rachel and Simon speak with the novelist and short-story writer Kit de Waal. Born in Birmingham to an Irish mother and a Caribbean father, she worked for several years in criminal and family law, sitting on adoption panels and writing manuals on foster care. Her experience in this field informed her debut novel, "My Name is Leon", which was published in 2016 after a six-way auction and was adapted into a television film this year. Kit has also worked to increase diversity in publishing, using some of her advance from "My Name is Leon" to fund a creative-writing scholarship and editing "Common People: An Anthology of Working-Class Writers" in 2019. We spoke to Kit at Wimbledon BookFest about getting published for the first time in her 50s, about class and publishing and "Without Warning and Only Sometimes", her new memoir. This episode is sponsored by Curtis Brown Creative, the writing school attached to the major literary agency. CBC has provided an exclusive discount for Always Take Notes listeners. You can use the code ATN20 for £20 off the full price of Creative Writing for Beginners, or any other four- or six-week online writing course. You can find us online at alwaystakenotes.com, on Twitter @takenotesalways and on Instagram @alwaystakenotes. Our crowdfunding page is patreon.com/alwaystakenotes. Always Take Notes is presented by Simon Akam and Rachel Lloyd, and produced by Artemis Irvine. Our music is by Jessica Dannheisser and our logo was designed by James Edgar. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Simon and Rachel speak with novelist Marlon James. Born in Jamaica in 1970, his novel "A Brief History of Seven Killings" won the Man Booker Prize in 2015, and was also a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in the United States and a New York Times Notable Book. Marlon is now working on a trilogy of African fantasy novels, which began with "Black Leopard, Red Wolf", a finalist for the US National Book Award for fiction in 2019, followed by "Moon Witch, Spider King" in 2022. His earlier novels include "The Book of Night Women", which won the Dayton Literary Peace Prize in 2010, and "John Crow’s Devil", his debut in 2005. We spoke to Marlon about growing up in Jamaica and his decision to leave the country, winning the Booker Prize in 2015, and his new "Dark Star" trilogy. This episode is sponsored by Curtis Brown Creative, the writing school attached to the major literary agency. CBC has provided an exclusive discount for Always Take Notes listeners. You can use the code ATN20 for £20 off the full price of Creative Writing for Beginners, or any other four- or six-week online writing course. You can find us online at alwaystakenotes.com, on Twitter @takenotesalways and on Instagram @alwaystakenotes. Our crowdfunding page is patreon.com/alwaystakenotes. Always Take Notes is presented by Simon Akam and Rachel Lloyd, and produced by Artemis Irvine. Our music is by Jessica Dannheisser and our logo was designed by James Edgar. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rachel and Simon speak with Perminder Mann, CEO of Bonnier Books UK. She was the first member of her family to go to university, where she studied drama; after declining an unpaid internship in the media, she turned to publishing, working in sales first at Macmillan, then Transworld and Bonnier. She left Bonnier for a stint in the toy industry, but returned to the company several years later. In 2015 and 2016 she was included on the Bookseller's list of the most influential people in publishing. She became CEO of Bonnier Books UK in 2018, and is also chair of the Publisher’s Association Consumer Publishers Council. We spoke to Perminder about her entry into publishing, her work at Bonnier, now the seventh-largest publisher in Britain, and the idea of author as brand. This episode is sponsored by Curtis Brown Creative, the writing school attached to the major literary agency. CBC has provided an exclusive discount for Always Take Notes listeners. You can use the code ATN20 for £20 off the full price of Creative Writing for Beginners, or any other four- or six-week online writing course. You can find us online at alwaystakenotes.com, on Twitter @takenotesalways and on Instagram @alwaystakenotes. Our crowdfunding page is patreon.com/alwaystakenotes. Always Take Notes is presented by Simon Akam and Rachel Lloyd, and produced by Artemis Irvine. Our music is by Jessica Dannheisser and our logo was designed by James Edgar. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rachel and Simon speak with novelist and screenwriter Irvine Welsh. Born in the Leith area of Edinburgh, Welsh moved to London in 1978 where he immersed himself in the punk scene. He returned to Edinburgh in the late 1980s, studied for an MBA, spent 18 months addicted to heroin and worked in the council's housing department. His debut novel, "Trainspotting", an account of heroin addicts written in a thick Leith dialect, was published in 1993. It became a cult success, helped by a film adaptation in 1996, directed by Danny Boyle. Welsh subsequently wrote two sequels and a prequel to "Trainspotting", as well as a number of standalone novels, including "Glue" (2001) and "The Blade Artist" (2016). His new novel, "The Long Knives", is a sequel to both "Filth" from 1998 and "Crime" from a decade later, which he has also adapted as TV drama. We spoke to Irvine about the impact of "Trainspotting", getting into the minds of violent characters, and why he does not have a literary agent. This episode is sponsored by Curtis Brown Creative, the writing school attached to the major literary agency. CBC has provided an exclusive discount for Always Take Notes listeners. You can use the code ATN20 for £20 off the full price of Creative Writing for Beginners, or any other four- or six-week online writing course. You can find us online at alwaystakenotes.com, on Twitter @takenotesalways and on Instagram @alwaystakenotes. Our crowdfunding page is patreon.com/alwaystakenotes. Always Take Notes is presented by Simon Akam and Rachel Lloyd, and produced by Artemis Irvine. Our music is by Jessica Dannheisser and our logo was designed by James Edgar. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rachel and Simon speak with children's author and illustrator Lauren Child. She set up her own lampshade company and worked at a design agency before turning to books, publishing “I Want a Pet!” and “Clarice Bean, That's Me” in 1999. As well as the Clarice Bean series, Lauren is the author of the award-winning “Charlie and Lola” books (adapted into a television series which ran from 2005-08) and the Ruby Redford detective series. To date she has sold more than 6 million books in 19 languages worldwide. Between 2017 and 2019 she was the British Children's Laureate, a position awarded to a “writer or illustrator of children's books to celebrate outstanding achievement in their field”. We spoke to Lauren about her process of writing and illustrating, the impact of celebrity authors on children's literature and her bestselling series. This episode is sponsored by Curtis Brown Creative, the writing school attached to the major literary agency. CBC has provided an exclusive discount for Always Take Notes listeners. You can use the code ATN20 for £20 off the full price of Writing a Memoir, or any other four- or six-week online writing course. You can find us online at alwaystakenotes.com, on Twitter @takenotesalways and on Instagram @alwaystakenotes. Our crowdfunding page is patreon.com/alwaystakenotes. Always Take Notes is presented by Simon Akam and Rachel Lloyd, and produced by Artemis Irvine. Our music is by Jessica Dannheisser and our logo was designed by James Edgar. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Simon and Rachel speak with the novelist and travel writer Colin Thubron. Colin worked in publishing in London and New York before writing his first travel book, "Mirror to Damascus", in 1967. Other early books continued to focus on the Middle East, but later he was drawn towards the Soviet Union and Communist China. In 1982 Colin travelled by car into the Soviet Union, a journey described in "Among the Russians". His best-known travel books include "Behind the Wall" (winner of the Hawthornden Prize and the Thomas Cook Travel Award), "In Siberia" (which won the Prix Bouvier) and "Shadow of the Silk Road". Colin has also written eight novels, and between 2008 and 2017 he served as president of the Royal Society of Literature. We spoke to Colin about exploring Russia, China and central Asia, his latest book, "The Amur River", and his parallel career as a fiction writer. This episode was produced in conjunction with the London edition of the Jaipur Literature Festival, and is sponsored by Curtis Brown Creative, the writing school attached to the major literary agency. CBC has provided an exclusive discount for Always Take Notes listeners. You can use the code ATN20 for £20 off the full price of Writing a Memoir, or any other four- or six-week online writing course. You can find us online at alwaystakenotes.com, on Twitter @takenotesalways and on Instagram @alwaystakenotes. Our crowdfunding page is patreon.com/alwaystakenotes. Always Take Notes is presented by Simon Akam and Rachel Lloyd, and produced by Artemis Irvine. Our music is by Jessica Dannheisser and our logo was designed by James Edgar. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rachel and Simon speak with the historian and novelist Antonia Fraser. She began her career in the 1950s as an assistant to George Weidenfeld, the co-founder of Weidenfeld & Nicolson, a British publishing house. Lady Antonia wrote her first book, "King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table", in her early twenties; her first major historical work, "Mary Queen of Scots", was published in 1969. Since then she has written biographies of Oliver Cromwell, Charles II, the six wives of Henry VIII and Marie Antoinette, the last of which was adapted into a film directed by Sofia Coppola and starring Kirsten Dunst. She has also written two volumes of autobiography, including "Must You Go? My Life with Harold Pinter". Lady Antonia has served as President of English PEN and Chairman of the Society of Authors. We spoke with her about the success of "Mary Queen of Scots", her research process and her new book, "The Case of the Married Woman". This episode is sponsored by Curtis Brown Creative, the writing school attached to the major literary agency. CBC has provided an exclusive discount for Always Take Notes listeners. You can use the code ATN20 for £20 off the full price of Writing a Memoir, or any other four- or six-week online writing course. You can find us online at alwaystakenotes.com, on Twitter @takenotesalways and on Instagram @alwaystakenotes. Our crowdfunding page is patreon.com/alwaystakenotes. Always Take Notes is presented by Simon Akam and Rachel Lloyd, and produced by Artemis Irvine. Our music is by Jessica Dannheisser and our logo was designed by James Edgar. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Simon and Rachel speak with journalist, author and film-maker Sebastian Junger. Attracted since childhood to “extreme situations and people at the edges of things,” Sebastian grew up in New England and worked as a high-climber for tree removal companies. After a chainsaw injury, he decided to focus on journalism, primarily writing about people with dangerous jobs. That led to his debut book in 1997, "The Perfect Storm", an account of the loss of a fishing boat, which went on to sell over 3.5 million copies and was made into a film starring George Clooney and Mark Wahlberg. Sebastian has reported on conflict in the Balkans, West Africa and Afghanistan, and as a contributing editor at Vanity Fair established a partnership with British photographer Tim Hetherington, with whom he collaborated on the documentary "Restrepo" in 2010. The film was nominated for an Oscar before Hetherington's death in Libya in 2011. Sebastian's other books include "War", "Tribe" and most recently "Freedom". We spoke to Sebastian about his smash-hit debut, his time as a war reporter, and his latest book. This episode is sponsored by Curtis Brown Creative, the writing school attached to the major literary agency. CBC has provided an exclusive discount for Always Take Notes listeners. You can use the code ATN20 for £20 off the full price of Writing a Memoir, or any other four- or six-week online writing course. You can find us online at alwaystakenotes.com, on Twitter @takenotesalways and on Instagram @alwaystakenotes. Our crowdfunding page is patreon.com/alwaystakenotes. Always Take Notes is presented by Simon Akam and Rachel Lloyd, and produced by Artemis Irvine. Our music is by Jessica Dannheisser and our logo was designed by James Edgar. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rachel and Simon speak with the novelist Monica Ali. Granta named her one of their brightest young British novelists in 2003 ahead of the publication of her first book, “Brick Lane”, which was then adapted into a film in 2007. She is also the author of “Alentejo Blue”, “In the Kitchen”, “Untold Story” and “Love Marriage” and has been nominated for awards including the Booker prize, the Orwell prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award. We spoke to Monica about her smash-hit debut, her screenwriting work and her latest book, “Love Marriage”. This episode is sponsored by Curtis Brown Creative, the writing school attached to the major literary agency. CBC has provided an exclusive discount for Always Take Notes listeners. You can use the code ATN20 for £20 off the full price of Plot & Story – The Deep Dive, or any other four- or six-week online writing course. You can find us online at alwaystakenotes.com, on Twitter @takenotesalways and on Instagram @alwaystakenotes. Our crowdfunding page is patreon.com/alwaystakenotes. Always Take Notes is presented by Simon Akam and Rachel Lloyd, and produced by Artemis Irvine. Our music is by Jessica Dannheisser and our logo was designed by James Edgar. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Simon and Rachel speak with novelist David Mitchell. Raised in Worcestershire in England, Mitchell later spent eight years living in Japan. The author of nine novels, including "Cloud Atlas", "The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet" and most recently "Utopia Avenue", David has been nominated for the Booker prize five times. His work has appeared in over 30 languages. David's novel "The Bone Clocks" (2014) won the World Fantasy Book Award and his screenwriting credits include "Matrix: Resurrections". We spoke to David about his 'multiverse' approach to fiction, the smash hit that was "Cloud Atlas", and his screenwriting work. This episode is sponsored by Curtis Brown Creative, the writing school attached to the major literary agency. CBC has provided an exclusive discount for Always Take Notes listeners. You can use the code ATN20 for £20 off the full price of Plot & Story – The Deep Dive, or any other four- or six-week online writing course. You can find us online at alwaystakenotes.com, on Twitter @takenotesalways and on Instagram @alwaystakenotes. Our crowdfunding page is patreon.com/alwaystakenotes. Always Take Notes is presented by Simon Akam and Rachel Lloyd, and produced by Artemis Irvine. Our music is by Jessica Dannheisser and our logo was designed by James Edgar. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices