Grace Dent – Guardian restaurant critic, columnist, author and Masterchef star – joins me from her bed this week. With a string of young adult novels under her belt (including the Diary of a Chav and Diary of a Snob series), Grace has most recently written Hungry: a memoir of food, family, and conquering the London journalism scene as a working-class northerner. Recording in November 2020, we chat about the harsh realities of restaurant reviewing; how Grace navigated writing about her father's dementia; and why when it comes to getting your writing done, a Premier Inn is better than an Italian villa. Support the podcast and independent bookshops by buying Hungry and other books by guests of In Writing here: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/in-writing 

Brandon Taylor, author of the novel Real Life, joins me from Iowa this week. At the end of a whirlwind year in which his debut was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, Brandon talks about how he emerged as a novelist from an illiterate family; why he objects to the idea that it's easy for black writers to write black characters; and why 'It's only a draft' can be a game-changing thought. Support the podcast and independent bookshops by buying Real Life or other books by guests of In Writing here: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/in-writing  And read Brandon's excellent essay on empathy at Literary Hub: https://lithub.com/there-is-no-secret-to-writing-about-people-who-do-not-look-like-you/

In this bonus episode, I speak to London Grammar‘s Hannah Reid, songwriter and vocalist. Ahead of the release of the band's third album, Californian Soil, Hannah talked about the value and risk of vulnerability in songwriting. Californian Soil is out on 9th April, and you can hear singles Baby It’s You, Californian Soil and Lose Your Head now. To continue the conversation about writing, come and find me on Twitter (@hattiehattie) or Instagram (@hattiecrisell), or share your thoughts with the hashtag #InWriting.

This week, John Lanchester joins me from his writing shed at the bottom of the garden. John has just published a new collection of spooky short stories – Reality & Other Stories – and has also written five novels, including Capital (which became a BBC series) and The Wall. He's a winner of the Whitbread First Novel Prize and the E.M Forster Award, among others, and is also a journalist and writer of non-fiction. He talks about writing his first few books on index cards; why fact is allowed to be more outlandish than fiction; and how to cope when you're in the 'tunnel' of a manuscript and not entirely confident you can reach the other side. To buy John's books, or browse some of my recommended books on writing, visit https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/in-writing – your purchases support independent booksellers, and help me to keep making this podcast. This episode is sponsored by Papier. Listen out for a discount code for 15% off your first order. And to continue the conversation about writing, come and find me on Twitter (@hattiehattie) or Instagram (@hattiecrisell), or share your thoughts with the hashtag #InWriting.

Lucy Prebble, playwright and screenwriter, shares insights on Succession, relationships with actors, and quitting TV success. She highlights her writing process, the importance of dialogue, and the secret of writers' rooms. Lucy reflects on her journey from Secret Diary of a Call Girl, while encouraging support for independent bookshops

My final guest of the second series is Jon Ronson: journalist, documentary-maker, screenwriter, and author of wonderful narrative longform non-fiction. Jon’s books include The Psychopath Test and So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed, and he tells me about the complicated legacy of the latter. In his work he’s delved into some murky worlds, including the Ku Klux Klan, the pornography industry and the Church of Scientology, and found the humour and pathos in subjects that most of us would overlook. In this conversation he explains why he appears as a character in his own work, the years of research that go into each story, and why empathy is the key to it all.

Kit de Waal, whose books include My Name Is Leon, The Trick to Time and the new short story collection Supporting Cast, joins me this week from her home in the West Midlands. Kit started writing in her mid-forties, and remembers being stunned by how hard it was. In our chat she reflects honestly on that time, the stories that worked, the novels that didn’t, and how getting too interested in her characters tripped her up. She also spills the beans on her plotting spreadsheet, her knack for tackling heartbreaking subjects with lightness and warmth, and how she cracked the problem of description.

TV writer Robert Popper joins me for a chat this week, fresh off the sixth series of his Channel 4 sitcom Friday Night Dinner. Robert has been involved in some of the best British comedy of the last 20 years; he co-wrote the cult favourite Look Around You, a spoof science documentary series that ran from 2002 to 2005, and worked as a script editor on Peep Show, The Inbetweeners and The IT Crowd. He is also the alter ego of Robin Cooper, author of The Timewaster Letters. He tells me how he made an artform out of writing insane things to strangers; the unorthodox way he broke into the television world (it also involved letter-writing); and why in comedy, the story must always come before the jokes.

Mhairi McFarlane is the author of six great novels in the genre of romantic comedy/chick lit (delete as preferred), including her most recent, If I Never Met You. This week she speaks to me from her front room – she does not have or want a study – about the process of rewriting her first book, You Had Me At Hello, and what she learned along the way, plus the essential components of a good romcom.

This week I chat to Will Harris, a London-born poet and essayist of mixed Anglo-Indonesian heritage. Will’s debut poetry collection RENDANG came out in February; previously he was perhaps best known for the essay Mixed-Race Superman, which was published in 2018, and which The New York Times called “A zany, exuberant and highly original meditation on what it means to come of age as a mixed-race person in a predominantly white world.” He spoke to me about how engaging with his family history helped his poetry, the value of therapy as a writer, and why in his work, the political can’t be separated from the personal.