The Waterstones Podcast

Featuring Bonnie Garmus, Tess Gunty, Louise Kennedy, Sequoia Nagamatsu, Eloghosa Osunde and Tara M. Stringfellow. A unique opportunity to hear all six authors shortlisted for the inaugural Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize. With a prize celebrating debut novels across genres it's no surprise to find such variety amongst our six nominees. Social commentary, science fiction, family sagas, spirituality, great characters and unforgettable lessons in life from the most exciting new voices in fiction. Join us as we discover their road to publication and hear their answers to questions from those who've championed their books: Waterstones booksellers.

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good podcast, must be in want of four historical fiction writers ready to entertain listeners with their insights on why the nineteenth century has so much to tell us about today, how to balance research with storytelling, and why history’s habit of erasing women’s significance is all the invitation they need to set the record straight. Luckily we had Susan Stokes Chapman, Gill Hornby, Karen Joy Fowler and Sophie Irwin on hand to do just that. Enjoy!

As we mark Mental Health Awareness Week and its theme of loneliness, we speak with four writers who know the importance of talking about difficult things and why conversation is at the heart of better mental health. Marian Keyes and Candice Carty-Williams share the personal stories that fed into their fiction, whilst Dr Julie Smith brings her clinical expertise to a wider audience and broadcaster Nihal Arthanayake shows how a career based on dialogue has taught him what can help us all to have better conversations.

Consequences brings together two books that seemed to have one thing in common and then turned out to be connected in entirely different ways. Sam Knight's The Premonitions Bureau is a fascinating look at the work of psychiatrist John Barker and a network of psychic visionaries in the 1960s. A Terrible Kindness is the debut novel from Jo Browning Wroe which shows how compassion and sacrifice can shape a life and how hard it can be to change course. In a fascinating discussion we discover more about the nature of time, of structure and of averting disaster.

All books respond to the world we live in but in this fascinating episode we speak to three incredible authors who have all written books which speak to something absolutely of this time and very often beyond it. How much has the pandemic changed the way we view the world and each other, what about the impact of technology, and what does the future hold? Featuring The Candy House by Jennifer Egan, Our Country Friends Gary Shteyngart, How High We Go In The Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu and Companion Piece by Ali Smith

Cosy crime has been popular for over a hundred years now but with a surge in popularity recently we speak to three authors who've all done something slightly different with the genre to discover the reasons for its enduring appeal, the techniques they use to build up their stories and why we as humans have a fascination with the dark side of life. Featuring Janice Hallett, Nita Prose and the Reverend Richard Coles.

Derek Owusu's debut novel was the first fiction to be published by Stormzy's fledgling imprint #Merky Books and went on to win the Desmond Elliot Prize in 2020. In this episode we hear from Derek about the mental health crisis that first encouraged him to put pen to paper, from his editor Tom Avery about changing the mainstream and from chair of judges Preti Taneja, herself a previous winner of the prize, about why this book is so special. Featuring: Derek Owusu, Tom Avery, Preti Taneja

It was during a lockdown tidying spree that Stephen Fry reacquainted himself with his substantial tie collection. It will come as no surprise that a man who had over 40 ties by the age of 15, now had a collection in the hundreds. What was surprising was how easily the memories associated with those ties came back to him and so after sharing some of the stories on Instagram we now have a gorgeous book version, Fry’s Ties. To celebrate it we took a walk with Stephen along Jermyn Street, home to both him and Waterstones and a series of men’s outfitters whose history is inextricably tied to this most individual piece of clothing.

Marlon James became the first Jamaican-born writer to win the Booker Prize in 2015, when his multi-voiced epic, A Brief History of Seven Killings triumphed amongst a strong shortlist. In this episode we hear from the author about how the novel took its shape, from the publisher about what makes the book such a compelling read and from one of the judges about why it emerged as their unanimous winner.  Featuring: Marlon James, Juliet Mabey, Sam Leith.

We Are Not Like Them shows the impact of a police shooting of an unarmed black teenager from a different angle. Two close friends, Jen and Riley, one white, one black, one the wife of the police officer responsible, one the news anchor charged with covering the story. A premise made all the more intriguing as it was written by not one author but two, Jo Piazza and Christine Pride, one white, one black, both working together to create an unflinching novel that will start conversations. Featuring: Jo Piazza, Christine Pride, Manpreet Grewal, Stephanie Heathcote

Some debut novelists arrive fully formed and as we’ll discover in this episode, Karina Lickorish Quinn is one such novelist; an Anglo-Peruvian writer who has drawn on family memories and the wider history of Peru to create a novel about home, injustice and ghosts that recalls Faulkner’s famous line, ‘The past is never dead. It's not even past.’ Coming from a publisher that has already chalked up multiple Booker Prize wins in recent years you’ll want to know why this year, for them, This Is The Book. Featuring: Karina Lickorish Quinn, Juliet Mabey, Kate Bland, Ben Summers, Seren Adams.

Sometimes all you need is a one sentence pitch to immediately get excited about a book. And when publisher Knights Of announced earlier this year that they would be publishing Empress & Aniya, a YA novella from Candice Carty-Williams which would be South London’s answer to Freaky Friday, you could almost hear the whoops and squeals across social media. In this episode we’ll hear from author, publisher and early readers about why, particularly if you’re a teenage girl, This Is The Book. Featuring: Candice Carty-Williams, Aimée Felone, Eishar Brar, Tanya Byrne.

The rich mythology and linguistic skills on display in Yuri Herrera's Signs Preceding The End Of The World had been thought by some to make it untranslatable but in this episode we hear from the author about the mythical basis for this modern tale of border crossing, from translator Lisa Dillman about meeting the challenges of bringing the Spanish text to an English readership, from cultural critic and commentator Maya Jaggi about what makes the book so special and from publisher Stefan Tobler about why translating fiction is so important to And Other Stories as they celebrate their 10th birthday. Featuring: Yuri Herrera, Stefan Tobler, Lisa Dillman, Maya Jaggi

Publisher And Other Stories have spent the last decade bringing bold new voices to English readers and in their anniversary year they continue to break new ground. Interdisciplinary artist Tice Cin takes the reader inside the Turkish men's clubs and households of North London for a unique perspective on the heroin trade that spans generations and borders. In this episode we hear from those around the publication about what makes Cin so exciting as an artist and she shares some of what she has had to go through to bring us this striking debut novel.  Featuring: Tice Cin, Max Porter, Stefan Tobler, Nichola Smalley, Donald Winchester.

When Susanna Clarke's magical vision of an alternate Georgian England arrived it became an instant bestseller but as we discover in this episode, the book's journey was far from certain. Clarke shares how a writer's confidence can wax and wane and we discover how secret support behind the scenes helped her writing come into the light. Featuring Neil Gaiman and voices from publishing and bookselling, this is the inside story of an 'instant' classic. Featuring: Susanna Clarke, Neil Gaiman, Alexandra Pringle, Kathleen Farrar, Josh Prince, Becky Kelly

In 2014 a book with a striking bird on its cover appeared in bookshops but what kind of book was it? Was it a memoir about grief, or a book about training a goshawk? Was it a biography of T. H. White, or was it nature writing? Or was it perhaps a melding of all of these things? And how did this hybrid book go on to become an award winner and international bestseller? In this episode we hear from Helen Macdonald about turning grief into almost a new genre of writing and from the team at publisher Jonathan Cape, which celebrates its centenary this year, about creating a modern classic. Featuring: Helen Macdonald, Dan Franklin, Suzanne Dean, Chris Wormell, Ruth Waldram, Rob Verner Jeffreys, Steve Bundy

Being a small, independent publisher doesn't mean thinking small, and with prize-winning successes already under their belt, Galley Beggar Press took on the challenge of publishing a novel consisting of a single sentence that ran for more than a thousand pages. Ducks, Newburyport went on to win prizes too as well as Booker recognition and in this episode we hear from Lucy Ellman about how you write a stream-of-consciousness novel on this scale and from those involved in publishing it about the challenges in typesetting it, printing it, and narrating the audio book. Featuring Lucy Ellman, Sam Jordison, Eloise Millar, Alex Billington, Stephanie Ellyne, Aaron Myles, Rob Verner-Jeffreys

With perfect timing, our episode telling the inside story of A Kind of Spark by Elle McNicoll arrives just as we announce that it has been chosen as the overall winner of the Waterstones Children's Book Prize 2021. We speak to those involved about the serendipity of how it came to be published, why it's important to get the right people in the room when it comes to publishing and why this book is not just important but also one of the best books for children of the last decade. Featuring: Elle McNicoll, David Stevens, Eishar Brar, Lauren Gardner, Marissaié Jordan, Kay Wilson, Lizzie Huxley Jones, Florentyna Martin

As a bowler for the West Indies, Michael Holding was well known for his measured run up and devastating fast bowling, an approach he has taken into his punditry where he is always calm and controlled but also frank and honest with his opinions. So when rain delayed the start of play and conversation was steered to the impact of racism in cricket in the wake of the murder of George Floyd, Holding spoke with a clarity which forced everyone watching and those who caught up later to take notice of his words. A year on, the conversation he started has become a book, including the conversations he's had with other sporting icons, and another view of history that shows how important education is in eradicating racism and improving equality for all. In this episode we find out from those involved why this book is so important and their hopes for what it might achieve. Featuring: Michael Holding, Ed Hawkins, Ian Marshall, Samar Habib

After a few years working at one of the most established publishers in New York, Zakiya Dalila Harris was inspired to write a novel which would turn its gaze on the world of publishing itself and set up one of the most intriguing literary thrillers of the year. She spoke to us about the encounter that provided the novel's seed and the experience of working both inside publishing and outside it as an author. We also hear from editor Alexis Kirschbaum about this book's unique qualities and fellow author Erin Kelly about why she couldn't stop turning its pages. Featuring: Zakiya Dalila Harris, Alexis Kirschbaum, Erin Kelly