The Waterstones Podcast

A celebration of the best new talent in children's writing and illustration, the Waterstones Children's Book Prize has recently announced its winners. In this episode we enjoy chats with all four of them about the importance of children's literature and the books that helped form them as readers, writers and illustrators. Join Nathan Bryon, Dapo Adeola, Sharna Jackson and Liz Hyder for a trip back to childhood and a look ahead to a rosy future for kids everywhere. Books mentioned: Look Up!, High Rise Mystery, Bearmouth

We all grow up with a sense of the expectations our family or, indeed, wider society might have of us: grow up, get a job, buy a house, get married, have kids, settle down. And yet every single one of those has been challenged by millennial life. Emma Gannon is well-known for her observations on modern working life and in her debut novel, Olive, her eponymous heroine dares to articulate that she doesn't want to have children, only to find that it remains taboo. We spoke with Emma about choosing to be child-free, choosing fiction to express it, and the special bonds of female friendship. Books mentioned: Olive

The millennial generation have grown up with more choice available than ever before and the encouragement always to be living your best life. So why, for so many, does it feel like they're getting modern life all wrong? With her essay collection How Do We Know We're Doing It Right? Pandora Sykes examines everything from authenticity, binge-watching and modern working lives to 'that dress'. We spoke with her about capturing a moment and what the changes of 2020 have hopefully taught us about living better lives when we emerge on the other side of it. Books mentioned: How Do We Know We're Doing It Right?

Anyone who has spent any time on social media will have seen how outrage provides the fuel for many a discussion. And despite well-meaning intentions, is our desire to make the world a better place being clouded by the rush to insult and those moments where we can be baited into a response. BBC presenter and DJ Ashley ‘Dotty’ Charles is familiar with the provocations of the modern world and joined us for a discussion about returning to a truer course of activism, recorded in the midst of the Black Lives Matter protests. Books mentioned: Outraged: Why Everyone is Shouting and No One is Talking 

With the recent announcement that Stephanie Meyer’s retelling of the Twilight saga from Edward Cullen’s perspective (Midnight Sun) will finally be published in August there has been some ravenous excitement around the original books and perhaps even a reappraisal of their value. Should one feel guilty about enjoying them so much and indeed should one feel guilty about reading anything at all? To help answer those questions I spoke to former Waterstones Children’s Book Prize-winner Kiran Millwood Hargrave and Booker Prize-nominee Daisy Johnson. Lockdown has allowed these near-neighbours to create a bookclub amongst their friends and things have get very intense recently with the Twilight saga turning them all. Books mentioned: Twilight, Midnight Sun, The Mercies, Sisters

We have been told for centuries that humans are not much more than brutal animals with a thin veneer of civilisation on top but in his radical new history of humankind Rutger Bregman seeks to flip things on their head and ask if in fact we're pretty decent after all and if in fact our kindness has helped us to develop so far as a species. Challenging long-held views from philosophy and fiction, we spoke to him about his revolutionary perspective. Books mentioned: Humankind

Now, it might seem a strange time to be calling a podcast episode Apocalypse but in many ways now is the perfect time to enjoy the insights of Mark O’Connell’s odyssey into the end times. We have much to learn from those preparing for civilisational collapse in America, or millionaire bolt holes in New Zealand, the drive to take humans to Mars and an engagement with nature much closer to home. We spoke to him from his home in Ireland about the end, parenthood, and finding hope amidst the chaos. Books mentioned: Notes From An Apocalypse

After bringing the best of world TV to UK screens with Walter Presents, Walter Iuzzolino is now doing the same with literature in conjunction with Pushkin Press. We spoke to him from lockdown in London about why it's so important to get cultural input from around the globe and to find out more about the first book in the series with translator Sam Taylor, who speaks to us from his home in the US to help us understand more about the process of translating from one language to another. Books mentioned: The Mystery of Henri Pick, The Second Life of Inspector Canessa, HHhH, In Paris With You.

A book about human connection would an essential read at any time but right now it seems vital. Vivek Murthy served as Surgeon General in the US and found that loneliness was at the heart of a lot of the health issues he wanted to tackle. We spoke to him from his home in America about why human connection is so powerful for mind, body and spirit and what we can do during this period of isolation to maintain that contact. Books mentioned: Together

As a psychotherapist with over 30 years of experience Julia Samuel knows that change can present moments of crisis and crisis can force moments of extreme change. Her new book, This Too Shall Pass, looks at the moments of change any of us might face in our lifetime and as well as speaking to her about that, we wanted to know what lessons from her book might help us all to navigate the current crisis.  Books mentioned: This Too Shall Pass

A little bonus episode for you, recorded with Jessie Ware and Lennie Ware of Table Manners podcast fame when they came to launch their cookbook at Waterstones Piccadilly. What happens when you combine their passion for food with an equally greedy host and a fine selection of cheese from Paxton and Whitfield? A recipe for disaster? Far from it. Enjoy Books mentioned: Table Manners

In these uncertain times we bring you a podcast that confronts our fears and anxieties to bring a note of hope and even some ideas about what we can do to make the world a better place afterwards. Jenny Offill speaks to us from America about the current coronavirus pandemic, and how she managed to engage with climate change, the opioid crisis and American politics in her new novel, Weather. Rosmaund Lupton shares her techniques for creating suspense in the reader in her latest real-time thriller, Three Hours. And Julia Ebner shares details of her undercover work to document online extremism in Going Dark and what happens when you come face to face with such real world danger. Books mentioned: Weather, Three Hours, Going Dark, House of Leaves, The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse

Memory gives us the chance to speak to three authors who all approach this theme from completely different directions. Eimear McBride takes us to a series of hotel rooms to see what memories they unearth and how they can warp and change over time. Bestselling food writer Meera Sodha shares some of her first food memories and why preserving family recipes is so important. And Nicci Gerrard shares her personal experience of her father’s dementia and why it encouraged her to write What Dementia Teaches Us About Love. Books mentioned: What Dementia Teaches Us About Love, Strange Hotel, East, Somebody I Used To Know, The Sense of an Ending, Playthings

There is something unique about the bond of motherhood but with social media adding to the pressures already present, how do we keep our expectations realistic when it comes to being a good parent? And does history have anything to teach us about our modern approach? Maggie O’Farrell talks about bridging the gap of 400 years in her fictional portrait of Anne Hathaway and the Shakespeare family in Hamnet. And Giovanna Fletcher joins us in the studio to talk about the realities of modern motherhood; the tears and the tantrums. And that’s just the parents. Books mentioned: Letters on Motherhood, Hamnet, Motherwell, The Unit, The Republic of Motherhood. 

What is it that short stories can do that novels cannot? Why does it appeal to some writers and not others? In this episode we embrace the short form and talk to three female writers keen to engage with this unique form of storytelling. Zadie Smith straddles the Atlantic to look at the differences between story culture in the US, UK and beyond. Julia Armfield invokes body horror and genre as she plays with form and liberates herself. And Naomi Ishiguro joins us in the studio to share her journey from student to published author as she launches her debut story collection. Books mentioned: Escape Routes, Grand Union, Salt Slow, Friday Black, The Light Years, Difficult Women.

Books have provided the inspiration for countless films, plays, musicals, TV series, and other works of art. In Adaptation we speak to R. J. Palacio about seeing her best-seller, Wonder, transferred to the big screen. We hear from Neil Gaiman about the different ways he has adapted his own work into other forms and which he thinks have worked the best. And Margaret Atwood speaks to us about seeing The Handmaid’s Tale become a phenomenon and her own adaptation of the works of Shakespeare. Books mentioned: Wonder, The White Bird, The Ocean At The End of the Lane, Coraline, Good Omens, The Handmaid’s Tale, The Testaments, Hag-seed, This Thing of Darkness, An Astronaut’s Guide To Life On Earth, Not The End of the World

At the start of a new year, and indeed a new decade, we’re taking the theme of Changes to allow us to talk to Dr Rangan Chatterjee about the simple ways in which we can genuinely change our health, happiness and fulfilment without having to take out a gym membership or clear the diary. We also hear from Emily Dean about how losing her sister, mother and father in the space of three years, forced a huge amount of change on her and how she coped with this bereavement. And Claudia Hammond tells us why rest is as important as sleep for human health and happiness and why reading might be the very best way to achieve it.  Books mentioned: Feel Better in 5, Everybody Died, So I Got A Dog, The Art of Rest, All Among The Barley, Queenie

Beware: this episode may make you hungry. We’re joined by gourmand Jay Rayner to look back at the life experiences that shaped his taste as he searches for the ingredients for My Last Supper. Michael Palin shares his experiences of eating around the world and how food can be a great unifier of people who may not even share a language. And Lara Williams talks about subverting the idea of appetite for her stunning debut novel about female friendship. Books mentioned: My Last Supper, North Korea Journal, Supper Club, An Echo of Scandal, An Apple A Day, The Best of A. A. Gill

Malcolm Gladwell brings fascinating anecdotes and insight to why humans are so bad at reading each other on first meeting, drawing on events that end in tragedy, wrongful conviction or compromised security. We also look at another meaning to meeting entirely: that between author and character. Sally Rooney talks about the absurdity of ascribing real psychology to figments of her imagination, people who may not exist and yet whom she feels she knows intimately. Arundhati Roy takes things even further by revealing the unique relationship she has with the characters she creates and the way in which they influence decisions about the books they inhabit. Books mentioned: Talking To Strangers, Normal People, The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, 1913, The Psychopath Test, Just Kids.

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.