Meet the Writers

Magda Szubanski is known as Sharon Strzelecki in the comedy series ‘Kath and Kim’ in Australia and globally for the role of Esme Hoggett in the ‘Babe’ film series. The comedy actress won the 2016 Douglas Stewart Prize for her memoir, ‘Reckoning’, which describes her journey of self-discovery from a suburban childhood that was haunted by the demons of her father’s espionage activities in wartime Poland. She speaks to Georgina Godwin about her career so far, the creative scene in Melbourne and her future writing plans. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Life for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank is often stalked by violence, heightened by the events following 7 October. When US journalist Nathan Thrall decided to write about their experience, he wanted to unveil the sheer catastrophe that they live through daily. The Pulitzer Prize-winning book, ‘A Day in the Life of Abed Salama’, focuses on Abed whose son died in a bus crash in 2012, and the other individuals linked to the tragedy. Speaking to Georgina Godwin, Thrall shares the relationships he has with Salama and others, the reaction to their story and the Israel-Hamas war. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Novuyo Rosa Tshuma is a Zimbabwe-born writer who spent her time writing instead of studying at university during one of the most turbulent times in the country’s history. She talks to Georgina Godwin about her childhood, the start of her writing career and her latest novel, “Digging Stars”, which probes the emotional universes of love, friendship, family and nationhood. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Best-selling author Elif Shafak is the most widely read female author in Turkey and her work has been translated into a staggering 57 languages. Her 2019 novel ‘10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World’ was nominated for the Booker Prize and her novels have been shortlisted in the Costa Award, the British Book Awards and the Women’s Prize for Fiction. Shafak returns to Midori House to speak to Georgina Godwin about her new novel, ‘There are Rivers in the Sky’, a timeless story that follows three lives spanning centuries, continents and two great rivers connected through a single drop of water. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Australian politician who popularised koalas in the 1980s and created the “throw another shrimp on the barbie” tourism ad joins Georgina Godwin in Sydney to talk about his new book, ‘Brownie: The Minister for Good Times’. John Brown, the first in his family to achieve school qualifications, went on to serve as an MP in the Federal House of Representatives for 13 years, and held several ministerial posts in the Hawke government where he transformed the face of tourism and sport in Australia. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For years, author and satirist Gabby Hutchinson Crouch has scoured the week’s news for material to use on the programmes in BBC Radio 4’s Friday-night topical slot, ‘Dead Ringers’ and ‘Newzoids’. She has also written for ‘Horrible Histories’, the Bafta-winning children’s series inspired by ‘Blackadder’ and ‘Monty Python’. Today she discusses her latest book, the first in a new ‘historical romantasy’ series, and is quizzed by a ‘Horrible Histories’ enthusiast. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In Microsoft’s pioneering AI For Good Lab, data scientists and researchers’ use of artificial intelligence (AI) is helping to tackle disinformation, predict wildfires, track whales and even detect leprosy in vulnerable populations. But what are the dangers in AI being used for bad? Chief Scientist and Lab Director Juan M Lavista Ferres has co-authored the book ‘AI for Good’, which explores the measurable effect, potential and limitations of AI’s application in addressing global challenges in health, climate change and human rights, explored in this in-depth conversation. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ever wondered what David Bowie liked to eat for dinner, or how the members of Queen wrote and rehearsed their famous “Galileos”? Tiffany Murray’s new memoir invites us into the lives of 1970s rock nobility. Set at two recording studios, including the legendary Rockfield Studios where she was raised, her mother Joan was a chef for the likes of Black Sabbath and Motörhead. Georgina Godwin speaks to the author about Freddie Mercury’s love for the family’s great dane, her first encounter with drugs and vengeful neighbouring farmers in this enchanting account of the rural recording studio. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The twentieth-century author Christopher Isherwood, made famous by his 1930s work in Berlin, approached his writing about queerness, politics and religion with frankness and wit. The writer repeatedly fictionalised himself and his friends in his novels. Katherine Bucknell, the editor of four volumes of Isherwood’s diaries and letters, explains that it was his mother’s own diaries that first introduce us to the character of Isherwood. Using a wealth of unpublished material, Bucknell reveals the drama and complexity of the author’s inner world in an epic new biography. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The 2024 UK general election is just days away. Speaking to Georgina Godwin is an expert on many aspects of UK government and politics, in particular, the support systems to ministers and prime ministers. Alun Evans CBE, a civil servant for more than three decades, lifts the lid on what’s happening behind the door of 10 Downing Street during important transitions in politics through his new book, ‘The Intimacy of Power: An insight into private office, Whitehall’s most sensitive network’. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today’s guest is perhaps the only playwright and novelist to have been an international athlete, teacher of those on death row at San Quentin prison in California and a tree surgeon – and he only began writing in his thirties. He won the inaugural Harold Pinter Playwright’s Award for ‘If You Don’t Let Us Dream, We Won’t Let You Sleep’ at the Royal Court and his play ‘Lampedusa’ has been performed in 40 countries. His debut novel is ‘Three Burials’, a satire on the refugee crisis. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Taking home this year’s prize is US writer and journalist V V Ganeshananthan for her second novel, ‘Brotherless Night’, which took her almost two decades to complete. Her debut novel, ‘Love Marriage’, was longlisted for the Women’s Prize in 2009. ‘Brotherless Night’ is the story of Sashi, a 16-year-old aspiring doctor, growing up in Jaffna, Sri Lanka, in the 1980s. The novel vividly and compassionately centres erased and marginalised stories – Tamil women, students, teachers, ordinary civilians – exploring the moral nuances of violence and terrorism against a backdrop of oppression and exile. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Berlin-based author and playwright was born in the then-USSR and emigrated to Germany in 1995. ‘Glorious People’, their second novel, now translated into English, was longlisted for the German Book Prize and won several others. Salzmann has since been awarded the prestigious Kleist Prize for 2024, the biggest prize for literature in Germany. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The British-Cambodian writer and editor initially wrote ‘The Ministry of Time’ – her gripping sci-fi rom-com debut – as a joke for a handful of friends. The genre-bending thriller, which explores themes including immigration and environmentalism, became an instant bestseller. Even before the novel landed on bookshelves last month, the BBC beat Netflix in a bidding war to turn the book into a TV drama. Kaliane Bradley tells Georgina Godwin about the obligation she felt to write a “serious” book about Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge, her work at Penguin Classics as an editor, and how her funny and fantastical debut came about. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Announced this week is the winner of the International Booker Prize 2024. The recipient of this year’s award is ‘Kairos’ by German writer Jenny Erpenbeck and translated by Michael Hoffman, who each take home half of the £50,000 prize money. Host Georgina Godwin speaks to the winning duo and the administrator of the prize, Fiammetta Rocco, who lifts the lid on the selection process. We also talk to Granta’s Sigrid Rausing, who reveals who is buying translated literature and what sells best. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Award-winning Scottish author and editor at large at the ‘London Review of Books’, Andrew O’Hagan has spent the past decade working on his state-of-the-nation novel, ‘Caledonian Road’. Employing the traditions of Victorian writing, his research took him to the homes of Russian oligarchs, the Old Bailey and even a ship from Venice to Trieste. Here, O’Hagan talks about how libraries “saved” him, ghostwriting Julian Assange’s autobiography and his brief brushes with royalty. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

‘For me, beauty and disgust don’t really exist in binary.’ AK Blakemore’s discovery of tales of The Great Tarare, a French showman with an insatiable appetite, was the perfect setting for her to explore her love of the grotesque and abject. Shortlisted for this year’s Dylan Thomas Prize, her novel ‘The Glutton’ explores the almost folkloric life of the soldier-turned-street performer, as he tours around France eating everything from nails and stones to snakes and puppies. Blakemore also talks about her childhood living on the 24th floor of a tower block in southeast London, experiencing visual and auditory hallucinations, and the symbolic power of food in literature. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

“We left Iraq as Jews, and we arrived in Israel as Iraqis.” Acclaimed historian Avi Shlaim is a man with a complicated backstory as an Arab Jew. He has a very clear-eyed view of events leading up to the current crisis in the Middle East. He traces the origins of the conflict to antisemitism in the UK after the First World War and even to the Jews of Babylon 2,500 years ago. Shlaim tells us why he believes that accusations of antisemitism and anti-Zionism are being used to silence the critique of Israel’s practices, and why he considers Marilyn Monroe a “profound thinker”. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In 1868 writer John William DeForest introduced the idea of the ‘great American novel’ – a work that succeeded in ‘the task of painting the American soul’. Now, the editors of ‘The Atlantic’ have published a list that offers a wider, deeper and weirder take on the idea. Author and senior editor Gal Beckerman talks us through the 136 books chosen by the magazine. He tells us about the fascinating selection process and how ‘The Atlantic’ is returning to its founding principles and defending democratic values. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

“Education for girls is the family business”, says Sudanese-British broadcast journalist Zeinab Badawi. She tells us about her family, career and what it’s like to interview the world’s most notable politicians on ‘BBC Hard Talk’. Badawi explains how her groundbreaking TV series, ‘The History of Africa’, for which she visited 34 African countries over seven years, led her to write her debut book ‘An African History of Africa’. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.