Bookshelfie: Women’s Prize Podcast

Bestselling writer Monica Ali, finishes off this season with an in-depth chat about the books that she loves, the responsibility she takes on as a writer and how she overcame a shattered self confidence. Monica Ali shot to fame with her literary phenomenon Brick Lane 20 years ago. She has since written four other books, Alentejo Blue, In the Kitchen, Untold Story and Love Marriage. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and has been nominated for a long list of accolades including the Booker Prize and the George Orwell Prize. She is also the Chair of Judges for the 2024 Women’s Prize for Fiction. Monica is Patron of Hopscotch Women’s Centre, a charity that was originally set up by Save the Children to support ethnic minority families who had come to join their partners in the UK.  Monica’s book choices are: ** Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lingren ** Emma by Jane Austen ** Middlemarch by George Eliot ** The Bottle Factory Outing by Beryl Bainbridge ** The Group by Mary McCarthy Vick Hope, multi-award winning TV and BBC Radio 1 presenter, author and journalist, is the host of season six of the Women’s Prize for Fiction Podcast. Every week, Vick will be joined by another inspirational woman to discuss the work of incredible female authors. The Women’s Prize is one of the most prestigious literary awards in the world, and they continue to champion the very best books written by women. Don’t want to miss the rest of season six? Listen and subscribe now! This podcast is sponsored by Baileys and produced by Bird Lime Media.

Designer Kit Kemp MBE takes Vick on a literary journey from 1490 to 2022 and explains how she’s built her signature style, and her confidence.  Kit is a British interior designer and Founder and Creative Director of Firmdale Hotels and the Kit Kemp Design Studio. Kit’s signature style combines traditional elements with contemporary flair, resulting in spaces that are both inviting and visually striking. She is known for her blend of bold patterns, vibrant colours and carefully curated artwork and textiles; and for being a highly-respected champion of British art, craft and sculpture. Kit has won many awards including House & Garden's Hotel Designer of the Year and CN Traveller's Best Hotel in the World for Design.She’s also a published author of four books, including A Living Space and her latest book Design Secrets, which offers readers valuable inspiration and practical tips for bringing their own distinctive style into their spaces. Kit’s book choices are:  ** Precious Bane by Mary Webb ** The Lady and the Unicorn by Tracy Chevalier ** Wayward (Just Another Life to Live) by Vashti Bunyan ** Restoration by Rose Tremain ** The Secret Lives of Colour by Kassia St Clair Vick Hope, multi-award winning TV and BBC Radio 1 presenter, author and journalist, is the host of season six of the Women’s Prize for Fiction Podcast. Every week, Vick will be joined by another inspirational woman to discuss the work of incredible female authors. The Women’s Prize is one of the most prestigious literary awards in the world, and they continue to champion the very best books written by women. Don’t want to miss the rest of season six? Listen and subscribe now! This podcast is sponsored by Baileys and produced by Bird Lime Media.

Award-winning broadcaster Anita Rani tells Vick about finding a new confidence in her 40s, taking Woman's Hour to Glastonbury and why she needed to write her own story.  Well known as one of the lead presenters on BBC One’s Countryfile, and a range of shows for both Channel 4 and the BBC, Anita has covered topics from family budgets and waste plastic, to Bollywood and the Partition of India. Anita is also a familiar voice on radio, having worked for the BBC Asian Network and Radio 6 Music and is now the host of BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour alongside Emma Barnett. Alongside her broadcasting work, Anita is a successful writer, publishing her Sunday Times bestselling memoir The Right Sort of Girl back in 2021 - and has recently branched out into fiction, with her first novel Baby Does a Runner now out. Anita’s book choices are: ** Sophia: Princess, Suffragette, Revolutionary by Anita Anand  ** Somebody Loves You by Mona Arshi ** Pessimism is for Lightweights by Salena Godden  ** How to Be a Woman by Caitlin Moran ** Wahala by Nikki May Vick Hope, multi-award winning TV and BBC Radio 1 presenter, author and journalist, is the host of season six of the Women’s Prize for Fiction Podcast. Every week, Vick will be joined by another inspirational woman to discuss the work of incredible female authors. The Women’s Prize is one of the most prestigious literary awards in the world, and they continue to champion the very best books written by women. Don’t want to miss the rest of season six? Listen and subscribe now! This podcast is sponsored by Baileys and produced by Bird Lime Media.

Editor-in-Chief of ELLE UK Kenya Hunt discusses her love of the essay, the multiplicity of motherhood and the importance of blazing your own trail.   Kenya is an award-winning American journalist who has now been working in the UK for a decade. Her career spans working for some of the most influential women's publications on both sides of the Atlantic, from her post-graduate days as an Assistant Editor at the seminal magazine, Jane, to her time as Deputy Editor of Grazia UK. Kenya is the author of Girl Gurl Grrrl: On Womanhood and Belonging in the Age of Black Girl Magic, and in 2021, she was recognised by The British Fashion Council for her work with a Global Leader Of Change Award.  Kenya’s book choices are: **All About Love by bell hooks **The Flagellants by Carlene Hatcher Polite **Against Interpretation by Susan Sontag **The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison **Creative Visualisation by Shakti Gawain  Vick Hope, multi-award winning TV and BBC Radio 1 presenter, author and journalist, is the host of season six of the Women’s Prize for Fiction Podcast. Every week, Vick will be joined by another inspirational woman to discuss the work of incredible female authors. The Women’s Prize is one of the most prestigious literary awards in the world, and they continue to champion the very best books written by women. Don’t want to miss the rest of season six? Listen and subscribe now! This podcast is sponsored by Baileys and produced by Bird Lime Media.

Actress Tanya Reynolds talks about why being an introvert is a superpower, her final Sex Education scenes and when books come into your life and act like medicine.  Tanya is perhaps known best for her scene-stealing role as Lily Iglehart in the Emmy award-winning Netflix show Sex Education, but has been gracing our screens with roles in Outlander, Death in Paradise and more recently 2020’s film adaptation of Jane Austen's Emma, alongside Anya Taylor-Joy and Bill Nighy. Tanya was named  as one of Screen International's Stars of Tomorrow in 2020, and has recently been treading the boards at London’s Almeida Theatre in critically acclaimed play A Mirror. Tanya’s book choices are: ** Angus, Thongs and Full Frontal Snogging by Louise Rennison ** Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë **  My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferante  ** Quiet by Susan Cain ** Everyone in this room will someday be dead by Emily Austen  Vick Hope, multi-award winning TV and BBC Radio 1 presenter, author and journalist, is the host of season six of the Women’s Prize for Fiction Podcast. Every week, Vick will be joined by another inspirational woman to discuss the work of incredible female authors. The Women’s Prize is one of the most prestigious literary awards in the world, and they continue to champion the very best books written by women. Don’t want to miss the rest of season six? Listen and subscribe now! This podcast is sponsored by Baileys and produced by Bird Lime Media.

Author, broadcaster, comedian and classicist Natalie Haynes joins Vick to chat about her love for Greek Mythology and why there’s an appetite for female-focused stories. Natalie is a Women’s Prize for Fiction 2020 shortlisted author for her novel In A Thousand Ships, which retells the story of the Trojan War from an all-female perspective. Her book Stone Blind tackles the story of Medusa through a feminist lens, and her latest book, Divine Might: Goddesses in Greek Myth is a female-centred look at Olympus and the Furies. She is a  self-declared “classics nerd” who has made her career reinventing Greek myths for a modern audience through her books, stand-up, radio and television.   Natalie’s book choices are: ** The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper ** The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie **  A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki ** If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho by Anne Carson ** The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa   Vick Hope, multi-award winning TV and BBC Radio 1 presenter, author and journalist, is the host of season six of the Women’s Prize for Fiction Podcast. Every week, Vick will be joined by another inspirational woman to discuss the work of incredible female authors. The Women’s Prize is one of the most prestigious literary awards in the world, and they continue to champion the very best books written by women. Don’t want to miss the rest of season six? Listen and subscribe now! This podcast is sponsored by Baileys and produced by Bird Lime Media.

Scandal star Kerry Washington opens up about the revelations in her new memoir, why she’s ditching feelings of shame and how sharing your most vulnerable self is actually the most empowering thing you can do. Kerry Washington is a celebrated actor, director, producer, activist and a Shondaland superstar. Kerry received widespread public recognition for her role as Olivia Pope on the hit ABC drama Scandal, breaking barriers as the first Black woman since 1974 to headline a network TV drama. She’s also starred in the Little Fires Everywhere adaptation, and films including Django Unchained and Ray.  She’s a lifelong advocate and activist, using her voice to fight for justice and was honoured as one of Time magazine’s 2022 Women of the Year. And now, to add to that impressive list, she’s a New York Times best-selling author, thanks to her new memoir, Thicker Than Water - in which she gives readers an intimate view into both her public and private worlds - as an artist, an advocate, an entrepreneur, a mother, a daughter, a wife, and a Black woman.  Kerry’s book choices are: ** The Color Purple by Alice Walker  ** The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity by Julia Cameron **  Kindred by Octavia E. Butler ** The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion ** The Vagina Monologues by Eve Ensler   Vick Hope, multi-award winning TV and BBC Radio 1 presenter, author and journalist, is the host of season six of the Women’s Prize for Fiction Podcast. Every week, Vick will be joined by another inspirational woman to discuss the work of incredible female authors. The Women’s Prize is one of the most prestigious literary awards in the world, and they continue to champion the very best books written by women. Don’t want to miss the rest of season six? Listen and subscribe now! This podcast is sponsored by Baileys and produced by Bird Lime Media.

Award-winning journalist and New York Times bestselling author Naomi Klein reveals how she had to write herself into her new book to rediscover her voice.  Naomi Klein is a bestselling author, with nine critically acclaimed books which include The Shock Doctrine and This Changes Everything. In 2018 she was named the inaugural Gloria Steinem Endowed Chair at Rutgers University and is now Honorary Professor of Media and Climate at Rutgers. In September 2021 she joined the University of British Columbia as UBC Professor of Climate Justice and co-director of the Centre for Climate. Her newest book, Doppelganger is part memoir teamed with political reportage, and cultural analysis, in which Naomi grapples with her own doppelganger. Naomi’s book choices are: ** The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank **  House of the Spirits by Isabelle Allende ** The Dispossessed by Ursula K Le Guin ** Flight Behaviour by Barbara Kingsolver  ** Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado Vick Hope, multi-award winning TV and BBC Radio 1 presenter, author and journalist, is the host of season six of the Women’s Prize for Fiction Podcast. Every week, Vick will be joined by another inspirational woman to discuss the work of incredible female authors. The Women’s Prize is one of the most prestigious literary awards in the world, and they continue to champion the very best books written by women. Don’t want to miss the rest of season six? Listen and subscribe now! This podcast is sponsored by Baileys and produced by Bird Lime Media.

World famous classicist Prof Mary Beard covers ageism, feminism, university fees, the role of children’s books, why men are obsessed with the roman empire and of course, her favourite books. She is also a television and radio presenter, trustee of the British Museum and the author of more than 20 books on classical history, feminism and academic life, including the bestsellers Pompeii, SPQR and Women & Power. She was appointed a Dame Commander of the British Empire in 2018. In 2022 she retired from a 40-year academic career at the University of Cambridge. Her new book, Emperor of Rome, looks at the facts and fictions around the Roman rulers, from Julius Caesar to Alexander Severus and is out now. Mary’s book choices are: ** Story of a Fierce Bad Rabbit by Beatrix Potter **  The Emperor’s Babe by Bernardine Evaristo ** Female Eunuch by Germaine Greer ** Purity and Danger by Mary Douglas ** Poems and Fragments of Sappho Vick Hope, multi-award winning TV and BBC Radio 1 presenter, author and journalist, is the host of season six of the Women’s Prize for Fiction Podcast. Every week, Vick will be joined by another inspirational woman to discuss the work of incredible female authors. The Women’s Prize is one of the most prestigious literary awards in the world, and they continue to champion the very best books written by women. Don’t want to miss the rest of season six? Listen and subscribe now! This podcast is sponsored by Baileys and produced by Bird Lime Media.

Former Spice Girl Geri Halliwell Horner discusses the history of girl power, Anne Boleyn and why her family are her proudest achievement. Geri is an accomplished singer, writer, producer and actress who is widely recognised for her iconic place in British pop culture as an original member of the record breaking girl group The Spice Girls. As ‘Ginger Spice’ Geri played a formative role in the band as they became one of the biggest selling girl groups of all time, with nine UK No 1 singles and more than 100 million records sold worldwide. In her solo career, she recorded a number of albums that collectively sold 45 million copies worldwide.  She’s released two bestselling autobiographies and a children’s book that sold a quarter of a million copies in five months. She’s also been a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations and she has just published her first of a series of children’s books, Rosie Frost and the Falcon Queen.  Geri’s book choices are: ** The Story of Tracy Beaker by Jacqueline Wilson **  I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou ** Hamnet by Maggie O’ Farrell ** Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë ** The Six Wives of Henry VIII by Antonia Frazer Vick Hope, multi-award winning TV and BBC Radio 1 presenter, author and journalist, is the host of season six of the Women’s Prize for Fiction Podcast. Every week, Vick will be joined by another inspirational woman to discuss the work of incredible female authors. The Women’s Prize is one of the most prestigious literary awards in the world, and they continue to champion the very best books written by women. Don’t want to miss the rest of season six? Listen and subscribe now! This podcast is sponsored by Baileys and produced by Bird Lime Media.