The Author Archive Podcast

Donna Leon : The joys and frustrations of being a writer residing in Venice

This interview is a conversation found in the digital archive.

Donna Leon has written crime novels set in the magnificent city of Venice. This interview happened long ago before Italy entered the Eurozone. Donna expressed some fairly attention grabbing facts. 

Didn't put me off going to Venice!

I was reminded of this interview when I was in Cheltenham Hatchards today and there was  a whole table filled with the latest Donna Leon novel.

Jeffery Archer : the author and disgraced Tory politician talked to me about his joy in being a story teller.

This conversation has contemporary resonances. LIke others that came after him this former vice chairman of the Conservative Party and would be Mayor of London had supreme confidence in his ability to tell lies and then lie his way out of the consequences of the earlier untruths. Jeffery Archer was supremely confident he would always 'get away with it'. The edifice of untruths became unsustainable and eventually collapsed. We see this happening again.

The reason for this interview was the publication of a new collection of short stories. The coverage in the tabloids at the time was much more about his relationship with a prostitute and how he persuaded a friend to give her money to go away.

With hindsight his lies were going to send him to prison and I should maybe have asked him about being banished from the Tory party and his payments to sex worker Monica Coghlan. That might have made a more riveting conversation. 

This fits in with all the revelations in the Channel 5 documentary.

It was a long time ago ..... I was young!!!

Ken Dark : The Archaeology of Jesus’ Nazareth

In this new book published by Oxford University Press, Professor Dark explains  what his archeological investigations have revealed  about the small  village where Jesus grew up.  

There are surprising details about the life style and beliefs of the community that Jesus and his family were a part.

Jeremy Worman - The Way to Hornsey Rise : an Autobiographical Novel

In his excellently written evocative memoir, Jeremy Worman recounts how a privately educated schoolboy came to live in the biggest squat in Europe.  

This is a personal story, but it is also full of observations about the way the world was back then.

Jeremy met the most glamorous film star of the time, saw Jimi Hendrix at the Isle of Wight festival..... and fell in love.

Twice.

This autobiographical novel was published in March 2023

 

 

 

 

 

Marilyn Wisbey : Gangster’s Moll. A true life crime story.

Marilyn Wisbey is the daughter of one of the Great Train Robbers. She grew up with her father in jail and remembers the difficulties of visiting him.

When she was an adult she was drawn to criminals and for ten years was the partner of the gangster 'Mad' Frankie Fraser.

Listening to this interview now there are so many questions I would like to ask ....... what was the electric pliers incident??

Gangster's Moll was published in 2001.

Patricia Cornwell : Isle of Dogs

Patricia Cornwell became successful at writing crime novels because she knew what she was writing about. 

She had been a journalist covering crime when she took a job in the office of the Chief Medical Officer of Virginia.

Her first hand experience lead to the writing of the Kay Scarpetta series of novels.

This interview was recorded in London when Patricia was launching the third of the Trooper Andy Brazil novels.

 

 

Toby Matthiesen : The Caliph and the Imam : The making of Sunnism and Shiism

Dr Toby Matthiesen is Senior Lecturer in Global Religious Studies at the University of Bristol. 

In this new book Dr Matthiesen looks at the way, at this death, the followers of the Prophet Muhammad disagreed on who should succeed him. This argument started in AD632. This book traces the history of the split through history and shines a light on the modern world. Was the invasion of Iraq a good idea?

The Caliph and the Imam is published by Oxford University Press.

Mike McCartney, Roger McGough, John Gorman known collectively as Liverpool group, The Scaffold

In spring 1973 these three Liverpudlians were the comedy, poetry and musical group The Scaffold.

Mike McCartney was known as Mike McGear to differentiate himself from his Beatle brother Paul.

This conversation was recorded at a time when the trio were travelling the country to promote their Island LP, Fresh Liver.

From time to time they became serious but the overriding atmosphere was a bit silly. Some of what was said shows how perceptions of what is funny have changed over 50 years!

Carl Hiaasen - Basket Case : The case of the dead rock star.

The journalist and novelist talked to David Freeman in London when his novel Basket Case was first published.

It's a mystery surrounding the fate of the frontman of Jimmy and the Slut Puppies. On the surface it looks like he died in a  scuba diving accident .... but maybe that just doesn't smell right.

Michael G.Welham : Combat Divers

Mike Welham used to have a career as a combat diver so he has a handle on the secret subject he writes about.

This elite within an elite are sadly very relevant in our world today with a war in Europe. The author explains.