The Waterstones Podcast

Author and bookshop owner Ann Patchett joins us to talk about why a bookshop should be at the heart of any community and why book design is more important than ever. Jason Reynolds talks about what binds communities together and gives us his perspective on black culture and its influence around the world. And we also hear from an event around Pride in London at which Zing Tsjeng and Amrou Al-Kadhi interrogate whether corporate sponsorship of events like Pride is a good or bad thing. Books mentioned: The Dutch House, Long Way Down, Look Both Ways, Unicorn, Forgotten Women, Queer Intentions, Sanctuary, Under Milk Wood, Bold Girls.

Culture comes in many forms and we’ve tried to cram as much as we can into this week’s episode. Richard Ayoade takes us to the movies with his inimitable perspective on perhaps the best cabin crew dramedy ever filmed: View From the Top starring Gwyneth Paltrow. We get the chance to speak to cultural icon Debbie Harry, who shares what it was like to be in the New York of the 1970s involved in music, fashion, art and filmmaking. And essayist Jia Tolentino talks about the influence of the internet on our culture and why we should be very careful about what we give up to social media. Books mentioned: Ayoade on Top, Face It, Trick Mirror, A Field Guide To Getting Lost, The Lonely City, The Importance of Music to Girls.

Robert Macfarlane joins us in the studio to talk about the world outside, the climate emergency and how the landscape has shaped his writing and thought over the years. With climate strikes becoming a regular feature we also speak to veteran activist and essayist, Rebecca Solnit, about whether we should be hopeful about the future of the planet. And we actually head outside with the microphone to speak to Professor Shane O’Mara about why the act of walking is far more miraculous and fundamental to being human than we may have imagined. Books mentioned: Underland, Ness, Whose Story Is This?, In Praise of Walking, Modern Nature, Haunts of the Black Masseur, The Secret Garden.

You don’t start a new podcast season at this time of year without injecting some thrills and chills. Stephen Chbosky, author of The Perks of Being A Wallflower has made us wait 20 years for another novel but with Imaginary Friend he’s back with a bang. He spoke to us about where his idea for it came from and how he provokes reactions from readers. We also get to hear a genuine ghostly encounter from Jeanette Winterson who will have you checking the doors and windows before bedtime. And Andrew Michael Hurley shares his own fascinations with death and the afterlife and why we’re all a little bit obsessed with what happens next. Books mentioned: Imaginary Friend, Starve Acre, Frankissstein, Ghost Stories, Rivers of London, Thin Air.

For our final episode in season one we tackle our nearest (if not dearest). Jeanette Winterson talks about how being adopted has shaped her concept of family and why the future may not look great for its traditional form. A. M. Homes, another adopted child, talks about the differences of writing about family in fiction and memoir. And to finish off we hear from Emilie Pine about her honest and frank personal essay collection and how she managed to share the intimate details of her family life. BOOKS MENTIONED: Frankissstein, This Brutal House, The Mistresses’ Daughter, May We Be Forgiven, Notes To Self, The Unmumsy Mum, Never Mind, Educated.

Elizabeth Day, creator of the How To Fail with Elizabeth Day podcast and book joins the team to share failures and to see what their connection is to success. After putting so many of her personal failures in her book, would Elizabeth have any new ones to share? We hear from Man Booker Prize-winner Arundhati Roy about becoming a global sensation with her debut, Man Booker Prize-winning novel and what that meant for her, her friends and her family. And we also hear from Sarah Perry about what it meant to have The Essex Serpent named as Waterstones Book of the Year. BOOKS MENTIONED: How To Fail, The God of Small Things, Ministry of Utmost Happiness, The Essex Serpent, Mothering Sunday, Painter To The King, On The Come Up, Range, Golden Hill.

What do we mean by perfection and is the pursuit of it a pointless exercise? We hear from poet Charly Cox about why just the word alone is enough to induce anxiety, Sebastian Faulks considers where in the arts perfection might lie and why capturing it might mean a journey to perfection and then back again. Finally we hear from novelist Gabriel Tallent who shares the sheer blood, sweat and tears of writing his debut novel. BOOKS MENTIONED: She Must Be Mad, Paris Echo, Love Is Blind, My Absolute Darling, Dept of Speculation, Ink, Carol, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone

Hannah Witton joins Will and Holly in the studio to talk about Sex. As a sex-positive vlogger on YouTube, author of Doing It and The Hormone Diaries, plus a podcaster in her own right, Hannah Witton is the perfect guest to discuss why we’re so silly about sex writing in the UK and what makes for great sex on the page and between the sheets. They also listen to broadcaster and author, Caitlin Moran and Women’s Prize-winner A.M. Homes talking about writing sex in their fiction as well as Candice Carty-Williams, who shares some of the personal experiences that feed into her bestselling debut, Queenie. Doing It, The Hormone Diaries, How To Be Famous, Music For Torching, Queenie, Pimp State, Jack of Hearts, Trumpet, An American Marriage, Eleven Minutes, The Dilly, Three Women.

Will, Dan and Holly talk about friendship with book recommendations coming straight away from Holly, who loves Expectation by Anna Hope. Dan talks about a Waterstones event for Empathy Day and how reading, empathy and friendship are all connected. We get to hear from Waterstones Children’s Book Prize-winner Angie Thomas talking about friendship in the wake of her huge success with The Hate U Give. Tash Aw talks about how his international life puts a huge pressure on friendship and why it requires work to succeed. And to finish off we drop into an event featuring Yomi Adegoke and Elizabeth Uviebenene, authors of Slay In Your Lane. The two best friends talk about how their book began and how their friendship helped them to share more of themselves through it. BOOKS MENTIONED: Expectation, The Hate U Give, We, The Survivors, Slay In Your Lane, The Lido, Release, The Watchmaker of Filigree Street

In this first episode we get to meet hosts Will Rycroft, Holly Davies and Dan Bird as they talk with bestselling author and screenwriter David Nicholls about their beginnings with books. Nicholls also shares his experiences as actor which feed directly into his new novel, Sweet Sorrow, which charts one life-changing summer as Charlie meets Fran during rehearsals for Romeo and Juliet and the two experience the transformative power of first love. Nicholls also speaks about his BAFTA Award-winning adaptation of Edward St Aubyn’s Patrick Melrose novels for TV. There’s also the chance to hear from Michael Palin as he talks about the fear and excitement that attends to the beginning of almost any enterprise, whether that be a journey, a new TV programme or sitting down to write fresh comedy. His latest book, Erebus, tells the story of HMS Erebus, the famous exploring vessel which went missing in the Arctic and whose wreck was recently discovered. We also hear from Tomi Adeyemi’s event to launch her Waterstones Children’s Book Prize Older Fiction category-winning YA novel, Children of Blood and Bone. She shares a brilliant story about a young girl jumping to the head of the signing queue to demonstrate the importance of representation in encouraging younger generations to begin writing themselves. BOOKS MENTIONED: Sweet Sorrow, Erebus, Children of Blood and Bone, Patrick Melrose, The Bad Beginning, Tales of the City, Dear Ijeawele