The Waterstones Podcast

After creating the irresistible anti-hero Grace in How To Kill Your Family, Bella Mackie returns with more familial dysfunction, more unlikeable characters and, yes, more murder in What A Way To Go. We sat down to discuss the lives of the super wealthy, her fascination with the appeal of true crime, and finding humour in the darkest of places.

Clare Chambers knows how to hook readers, with her previous novel, Small Pleasures, winning The British Book Awards 2022 Pageturner Book of the Year. She looks set to do it all over again with her latest, Shy Creatures, which unearths the story of a mute patient in a psychiatric hospital. We sat down to talk about factual inspiration, the influence of lockdown on even this period piece, and why human flaws provide such narrative fuel.

After introducing us to legal dogsbody Gary Thorn in The Satsuma Complex, comedian Bob Mortimer returns with its sequel, The Hotel Avocado. We sat down with a nice slice of Battenberg cake to discuss death row meals, memories of his days as a South London solicitor and the correct ratio of marzipan to cake.

Ferdia Lennon’s riotously funny debut disarms from the very first page. With a setting of Syracuse in 412 BC but a very modern Irish vernacular, readers will enjoy every minute they spend with best friends Gelon and Lampo as they seek to stage a performance of Euripides with a group of captured Athenian soldiers. We spoke with him about finding the right voice, has fascination with the classics, and why what will survive of us is art.

Chris Whitaker's previous novel, We Begin At The End, was a multi-award-winning smash with readers, who fell in love with its characters and pressed copies on friends so as to have someone to discuss it with. He’s done it again with All The Colours of the Dark, which again features characters that will get under your skin, a plot so propulsive the pages fly past, and a story that doesn’t release its grip on your heart. We spoke with Chris to find out more about creating characters, writing about a country he doesn’t live in, and the moments of trauma from his own life that find their way into his fiction.

The Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize is powered by our brilliant booksellers, whose keen eye for the most exciting new talent makes it a thrilling short list every year. In this third year, we spoke with authors from around the globe about having the support of booksellers, the release of seeing years of work finally realised and how specificity in their stories builds bridges with all readers. Enjoy!

Hot from winning the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2024, we spoke with V. V. Ganeshananthan about her novel, Brotherless Night, which took over 15 years to complete. Exhaustive research, an incendiary setting, and characters that capture your heart. We spoke with her about the politics of civil war, the time it takes to write and the support you need along the way.

The concept of following Brooklyn with a sequel took even the author by surprise, but after 15 years the story of Eilis continues in Long Island. We spoke with Colm Tóibín about his rigorous approach to avoiding the tedious, his long working relationship with editor Mary Mount and his connection to his hometown Enniscorthy in County Wexford, Ireland.

Some debuts are so assured and so distinctive that you just have to know more about what went into their creation. Kaliane Bradley’s The Ministry of Time is one such debut. We sat down with her to discover how the book was originally meant to be something else entirely, the inspirations behind its brilliant plot, and how she managed to balance comedy and trauma in such an entertaining read.

With a novel that spans twenty years, marked by three celestial events and characters with their feet firmly on the ground, we sat down for a fascinating conversation with former Waterstones Book of the Year author, Sarah Perry. How do faith and science intersect, what do we really mean by love, friendship and family, and when our orbits bring us back together how do we mark this significance?