
In Writing with Hattie Crisell
Journalist Hattie Crisell visits the studies of writers of all kinds – novelists, screenwriters, poets, journalists and more – to find out how they write, why they write, and what they can teach us about doing it better.
Latest episodes

Dec 6, 2024 • 55min
S6 Ep63: Jesse Armstrong, screenwriter
Jesse Armstrong, the mastermind behind HBO's 'Succession,' shares his journey as a prolific screenwriter known for 'Peep Show' and 'The Thick of It.' He discusses the creative trials behind his projects that didn't take off and the importance of tone in storytelling. Armstrong reveals how rewrites drove Brian Cox mad and recounts his experiences with iconic collaborators like Armando Iannucci. Delve into the balance of creativity and technology and learn how disconnecting can spark fresh ideas.

Nov 29, 2024 • 51min
S6 Ep62: Sara Collins, novelist
Fresh from judging the Booker Prize, novelist Sara Collins joins us this week. Her debut The Confessions of Frannie Langton won the First Novel prize in the 2019 Costa Book Awards, and having adapted it into a TV series, she's now working on her second book. In this episode, she talks about the careful rhythms of her writing routine; the value of plotting (even in literary fiction); and her perspective on the publishing industry, having spent the first 17 years of her career as a corporate lawyer.
Buy The Confessions of Frannie Langton: https://uk.bookshop.org/a/5954/9780241984017
Watch The Confessions of Frannie Langton, as adapted by Sara: https://www.itv.com/watch/the-confessions-of-frannie-langton/10a1811/10a1811a0001
Listen to Sara and I discussing the writing process with Samira Ahmed on BBC Radio 4's Front Row (from the 28-minute mark): https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0024l44
How to Write a Book, presented by Sara, her agent Nelle Andrew, and publisher Sharmaine Lovegrove: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/how-to-write-a-book/id1756969285
Buy In Writing: Conversations on Inspiration, Perspiration and Creative Desperation: https://uk.bookshop.org/a/5954/9781803510637
This season of In Writing is sponsored by Curtis Brown Creative – the renowned writing school run by the literary and talent agency. Use code INWRITING20 for £20 off your first online writing course – eligible courses can be found here. Visit https://curtisbrowncreative.co.uk to find out more.

Nov 22, 2024 • 58min
S6 Ep61: Tom Crewe, novelist
This week I'm talking to Tom Crewe, author of 2023's The New Life, contributing editor of the London Review of Books and winner of the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award. I visited Tom in September at his London office, which is really more of a nest of books, and we talked about the strange emotional journey of publication; the wrangling of structure; the role of sex scenes and much more.
Buy The New Life here: https://uk.bookshop.org/a/5954/9781529919714
Listen to Tom reading his LRB essay on his childhood obsession with wrestling: https://www.lrb.co.uk/podcasts-and-videos/podcasts/the-lrb-podcast/wrestling-days
Buy my book In Writing: Conversations on Inspiration, Perspiration and Creative Desperation: https://uk.bookshop.org/a/5954/9781803510637
Come and see me and author Anna Metcalfe in Birmingham on Saturday 30 November: https://the-heath-bookshop.eventcube.io/events/68404/hattie-crisell-in-writing-conversations-on-inspiration-perspiration-and-creative-desperation
This season of In Writing is sponsored by Curtis Brown Creative – the renowned writing school run by the literary and talent agency. Use code INWRITING20 for £20 off your first online writing course – eligible courses can be found here. Visit https://curtisbrowncreative.co.uk to find out more.

Nov 15, 2024 • 53min
S6 Ep60: Posy Simmonds, cartoonist and graphic novelist
This week I'm in the London home of artist and writer Posy Simmonds. From the 1970s onwards, Posy had a regular comic strip in The Guardian, where she wrote Mrs Weber's Diary and later serialised the graphic novel Tamara Drewe. She went on to publish two more graphic novels, Gemma Bovery and Cassandra Darke. Earlier this year, she had a major exhibition at the Pompidou Centre in Paris, and became the first British artist to win the Grand Prix at France’s Angoulême International Comics Festival.
Here are some of Posy's books: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/in-writing
...and here are some more: https://www.waterstones.com/author/posy-simmonds/520640
I'm teaching an online writing masterclass with Arvon on Tuesday 19 November: https://www.arvon.org/writing-courses/courses-retreats/masterclass-how-to-improve-the-authenticity-of-your-writing/
I'm doing an event at Oxford's Caper Bookshop on Thursday 21 November: https://checkout.square.site/merchant/ML2NMXXMTK08F/checkout/QDFD4C2ZV7EK2S4TD25M3MUB
I'm interviewing David Nicholls on the writing process in Cambridge on Saturday 23 November: https://www.cambridgeliteraryfestival.com/events/david-nicholls-you-are-here-in-writing-live-with-hattie-crisell/
Buy a signed copy of In Writing: Conversations on Inspiration, Perspiration and Creative Desperation here: https://dauntbooks.co.uk/shop/books/in-writing-owl-bookshop-signed-copy/
This season of In Writing is sponsored by Curtis Brown Creative – the renowned writing school run by the literary and talent agency. Use code INWRITING20 for £20 off your first online writing course – eligible courses can be found here. Visit https://curtisbrowncreative.co.uk to find out more.

Nov 8, 2024 • 50min
S6 Ep59: Nathan Silver, filmmaker
Nathan Silver, director and co-writer of Between the Temples (and many other movies) joins me from New York today to talk about his 'scriptment' approach to screenwriting, in which scripts read more like novellas. Nathan and I have a great chat about how he collaborates with cast and uses improvisation to tell a story; how comedy helps him to 'Trojan horse' experimental work to audiences; and his thoughts on letting an audience feel a little bit lost.
Watch the trailer for Between the Temples, starring Jason Schwartzman and Carol Kane: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UNPfUU0UZI
If you liked this episode, try my interview with filmmaker Ruben Ostlund: https://audioboom.com/posts/8259325-ruben-ostlund-filmmaker
'Great rewards come from being brave' – read my Q&A in Curtis Brown Creative's newsletter: https://www.curtisbrowncreative.co.uk/blog/hattie-crisell-author-interview
Order a signed or dedicated copy of my book for someone you love (possibly yourself): https://dauntbooks.co.uk/shop/books/in-writing-owl-bookshop-signed-copy/
To celebrate the publication of In Writing, Granta Books is giving away twenty 'Creative Desperation' T-shirts. To be in with a chance of winning one, all you have to do is pre-order or purchase a copy of the book from any retailer. Email your receipt/proof of purchase to publicity@granta.com before Tuesday 12th November, putting ‘In Writing Giveaway’ in the email subject. Terms and conditions:
Entrants must be UK-based. The winners will be chosen at random. Any entries received after the closing date will not be counted. Entries must include proof of purchase. Both online and in-store purchases are accepted as entries.
This season of In Writing is sponsored by Curtis Brown Creative – the renowned writing school run by the literary and talent agency. Use code INWRITING20 for £20 off your first online writing course – eligible courses can be found here. Visit https://curtisbrowncreative.co.uk to find out more.

Nov 7, 2024 • 48min
S6 Ep58: Hattie in the hot seat
This slightly silly bonus episode marks the launch today of In Writing: Conversations on Inspiration, Perspiration and Creative Desperation, published in the UK by Granta Books. Friend of the podcast and former guest Sathnam Sanghera came to visit the room where I write, for a conversation about the writing life – touching on elaborate procrastination, the fetishisation of fountain pens, and whether writers are good at a party (or not).
Listen back to Sathnam's first appearance on In Writing, from 2019: https://audioboom.com/posts/7782209-sathnam-sanghera-journalist-memoirist-and-novelist
Buy my book, if you feel like it: https://uk.bookshop.org/a/5954/9781803510637
This season of In Writing is sponsored by Curtis Brown Creative – the renowned writing school run by the literary and talent agency. Use code INWRITING20 for £20 off your first online writing course. Eligible courses can be found here. Visit https://curtisbrowncreative.co.uk to find out more.

Nov 1, 2024 • 41min
S6 Ep57: Yomi Adegoke, novelist and non-fiction writer
Yomi Adegoke, bestselling author of The List and co-author of Slay In Your Lane: The Black Girl Bible, spoke to me in August for this episode. We discussed the stellar career she's established in her twenties and early thirties – from launching a self-made magazine, to producing an acclaimed book on the experience of black British women, to writing a novel that has sold more than 150,000 copies in little over a year. Yomi spilled the beans on the steep learning curve of moving from non-fiction to fiction; her love of a good edit; and why she thinks literary critics are underappreciated.
You can buy Yomi's books here in the In Writing bookshop: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/in-writing
Order my book In Writing: Conversations on Inspiration, Perspiration and Creative Desperation: https://uk.bookshop.org/a/5954/9781803510637
London: I'm in conversation with BBC Radio 4's Sheila Dillon at Ink@84 on 7 November: https://www.ink84bookshop.co.uk/product-page/in-writing-hattie-crisell-in-conversation-with-sheila-dillon
Edinburgh: I'm in conversation with novelist Maggie O'Farrell organised by Rare Birds Books on 10 November: https://rarebirdsbooks.com/products/hattie-crisell-in-conversation-with-maggie-ofarrell
Glasgow: I'm reading from my book and being interviewed at Glasgow University on 11 November: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/hattie-crisell-reading-and-in-conversation-tickets-1058328712669
Durham: I'm being interviewed by writer Kathryn Tann at Collected Books on 12 November: https://collectedbooks.co.uk/products/hattie-crisell-in-writing-conservations-on-inspiration-perspiration-and-creative-desperation-tuesday-12-november-6-30pm
This season of In Writing is sponsored by Curtis Brown Creative – the renowned writing school run by the literary and talent agency. Use code INWRITING20 for £20 off your first online writing course, eligible courses can be found here. Visit https://curtisbrowncreative.co.uk to find out more.

Oct 25, 2024 • 1h
S6 Ep56: Craig Brown, satirist and biographer
I had a great chat this week with Craig Brown, parody writer and columnist for Private Eye and the Daily Mail, and author of offbeat biographies including A Voyage Around the Queen; One Two Three Four: The Beatles in Time; and Ma'am Darling (about Princess Margaret). Craig takes iconic cultural figures and writes around them, exploring how they were seen by their friends, fans and critics, and the strange, humorous and poignant ways that they affected other lives. It's an art form that Craig has made his own, mixing imagination with fact, and it was so interesting to visit him at his flat in Bloomsbury, London, and hear about how he puts these portraits together.
Read Craig's very funny Daily Mail column here: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/profile-2082/criag-brown.html
Buy A Voyage Around the Queen or browse more of Craig's books: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/in-writing
Order my book In Writing: Conversations on Inspiration, Perspiration and Creative Desperation: https://uk.bookshop.org/a/5954/9781803510637
This season of In Writing is sponsored by Curtis Brown Creative – the renowned writing school run by the literary and talent agency. Use code INWRITING20 for £20 off your first online writing course – eligible courses can be found here. Visit https://curtisbrowncreative.co.uk to find out more.

Oct 18, 2024 • 47min
S6 Ep55: Bella Mackie, novelist
The very funny and frank Bella Mackie is with me today. We met in August to talk about the writing of her three bestselling books: the nonfiction hit Jog On: How Running Saved My Life, and the witty murder novels How to Kill Your Family and What a Way to Go – a new genre that we dub 'sarcastic crime'. Bella opens up about accepting defeat on a failed manuscript, learning her craft on the job, and battling with structure. And we discuss all of that while her dog Barney wanders around us at her kitchen table.
Browse and buy Bella's books here: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/in-writing
Read Bella's newsletter on privilege and honesty, 'Do influencers owe you transparency?': https://bellamackie.substack.com/p/manifesting-luck
Pre-order my book In Writing: Conversations on Inspiration, Perspiration and Creative Desperation: https://uk.bookshop.org/a/5954/9781803510637
This season of In Writing is sponsored by Curtis Brown Creative – the renowned writing school run by the literary and talent agency. Use code INWRITING20 for £20 off your first online writing course. Eligible courses can be found here: https://www.curtisbrowncreative.co.uk
See me and Anna Metcalfe at Stratford Literary Festival on 26 October: https://www.stratfordliteraryfestival.co.uk/events/hattie-crisell-and-anna-metcalfe

Oct 11, 2024 • 43min
S6 Ep54: Donal Ryan, novelist
This week, meet Donal Ryan, who has since 2012 published seven bestselling novels and a collection of short stories. Based in County Limerick, Ireland – where he teaches creative writing at the University of Limerick – he writes heartfelt stories inspired by the kinds of people he's lived among all his life. His latest novel, Heart, Be At Peace, is a sequel to his debut, The Spinning Heart, which won the Guardian First Book Award and Irish Book of the Decade, among other plaudits. We sat down in London in August and talked about the self-doubt that delayed the start of his writing career; the characters he loves so much that he can't stop writing them into new stories; and his wife Anne-Marie's important role in his work.
Browse and buy Donal's books here: https://uk.bookshop.org/lists/donal-ryan-novelist
Pre-order my book, In Writing (thank you!): https://www.amazon.co.uk/Writing-Conversations-Inspiration-Perspiration-Desperation/dp/1803510633
This season of In Writing is sponsored by Curtis Brown Creative – the renowned writing school run by the literary and talent agency. Use code INWRITING20 for £20 off your first online writing course – eligible courses can be found here: https://www.curtisbrowncreative.co.uk
Here are the details of my book tour: https://www.instagram.com/p/DA5bYGqIqYN/
Buy tickets for my online masterclass in writing with emotional honesty (discounts are available for various groups including those on low income): https://www.arvon.org/writing-courses/courses-retreats/masterclass-how-to-improve-the-authenticity-of-your-writing/
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