#495: Matt Carr, fiction and non-fiction writer, journalist and podcaster
Release Date: 10/25/2025
#507: Hanif Kureishi, celebrated novelist, screenwriter and playwright
Collected: The Podcast
In this special interview, cult author and RLF beneficiary Hanif Kureishi tells Paul Dodgson about working with David Bowie, why he has given up listening to music except for one particular song, and how he has rebuilt his writing process after the fall that left him paralysed in 2022. © Royal Literary Fund www.rlf.org.uk
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#506: Sara Shaarawi, playwright and producer
Collected: The Podcast
The Cairo-born scriptwriter joins host Ann Morgan to explore her accidental route into writing, what it means to speak English wrong, the challenges and opportunities of being a writer of migrant heritage and how she has blended Egypt and Scotland in her work. © Royal Literary Fund www.rlf.org.uk
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#505: Hugo Williams, award-winning poet
Collected: The Podcast
The winner of the T.S. Eliot Prize and the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry joins host Julia Copus to discuss why he hardly reads novels, shifting literary fashions, building poems from snippets and growing up in a family of actors. © Royal Literary Fund www.rlf.org.uk
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#504: Katharine Quarmby, novelist, journalist and non-fiction writer
Collected: The Podcast
The East Anglian writer tells Jonathan Tulloch what editing taught her about rejection and why ghosting is so damaging for writers. She also discusses investigating asbestos and hate speech, and discovering the spectres of places that used to exist through archival research. © Royal Literary Fund www.rlf.org.uk
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#503: Pat Cumper MBE, playwright, producer, director and cultural commentator
Collected: The Podcast
Pat Cumper, the celebrated former artistic director of Talawa Theatre Company talks to fellow playwright Juliet Gilkes Romero about the survival of political theatre, her experience of racism at Cambridge University in the 1970s, adapting work by Toni Morrison and what it means to be in the writing zone. © Royal Literary Fund www.rlf.org.uk
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#502: Emma John, journalist and memoirist
Collected: The Podcast
Emma John, chronicler of cricket, bluegrass music and singlehood, talks to presenter Paul Dodgson about creating a writing panic room, writing memoirs by accident and when it is acceptable to tweak facts in non-fiction. © Royal Literary Fund www.rlf.org.uk
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#501: John Lewis-Stempel, celebrated nature writer and farmer
Collected: The Podcast
The celebrated nature writer and farmer delves into the Royal Literary Fund archive, reflecting on his singular creative processes, why rewilding may not always be a good thing and how he learnt to speak dog. © Royal Literary Fund www.rlf.org.uk
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#500: Abigail Mann, comedy writer turned queen of erotic fiction
Collected: The Podcast
In her first conversation about her hotly anticipated new erotic novel Wet Ink, written under the pen name Abigail Avis, RLF Fellow Abigail Mann tells presenter Ann Morgan about the importance of portraying a diversity of experiences in sex scenes, the perils of the productivity mindset and the fear of combining writing and motherhood. Abigail will be writing a series of articles for Collected following the process of Wet Ink’s publication this year. Follow her journey on the RLF's Substack: © Royal Literary Fund www.rlf.org.uk
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#499: Vanessa Collingridge, broadcaster and non-fiction writer
Collected: The Podcast
Collected's Caroline Sanderson is joined by author and broadcaster Vanessa Collingridge to discuss writing about neurodiversity, chronicling the adventures of her distant relative Captain Cook, tackling fake news and democratising knowledge, and a career that has spanned seven continents. © Royal Literary Fund www.rlf.org.uk
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#498: Paula Hawkins, internationally bestselling novelist
Collected: The Podcast
International bestseller and RLF trustee Paula Hawkins joins Collected host Sonia Faleiro to reflect on her journey to success, how she deals with criticism, and the way each book comes to her differently. Paula's renowned thrillers include The Girl on the Train, A Slow Fire Burning and Into the Water. © Royal Literary Fund www.rlf.org.uk
info_outlinePresenter Paul Dodgson is joined by Matt Carr, whose wide-ranging curiosity has led him to write books on topics as diverse as the history of terrorism, the conquest of Patagonia and Charles Darwin. As a lifelong Hispanophile, Matt also writes fiction and nonfiction often focused on themes from Spanish and Latin American culture, history, and politics.
© Royal Literary Fund