Libsyn Directory

68: How The One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House, with Cherie Jones

Release Date: 02/04/2021

The Brit Lit Podcast

Our guest on episode 78 is poet Blake Auden, who has almost 300,000 Instagram followers and is known for speaking openly about mental health. He also has four collections of poems out in the world, and the most recent is Murmuration, which came out in October.

Bonus episode: The Idea Of You, with Robinne Lee

The Brit Lit Podcast

My guest in this special bonus episode is Robinne Lee, the author of my favourite read of 2021, The Idea Of You. She's not British, but I loved this book so much that I wanted to bring you this interview anyway!

77: The Party Crasher, with Sophie Kinsella

The Brit Lit Podcast

I’m so excited to bring you an interview with none other than Sophie Kinsella, who’s known to many as the queen of British chick lit and the author of the mega-bestselling Shopaholic series.

76: Careless, with Kirsty Capes

The Brit Lit Podcast

This month’s guest is Kirsty Capes, author of the novel Careless. We talked about why she wanted to write about female friendship, what it was like to study with Bernadine Evaristo, why it's especially important for kids in the foster care system to see themselves reflected in books, and a whole lot more.

75: The Roxy Letters, with Mary Pauline Lowry

The Brit Lit Podcast

This month’s guest is Mary Pauline Lowry, who wrote . Mary is married to a Brit, and she had lots of fascinating insights about the cultural differences between the countries, and I loved talking to her back about Bridget Jones and Jane Austen too. The Roxy Letters was one of my favourite reads of 2020. It was really fun and just what I needed. It’s out now in paperback.  Mary and I talked about why we love epistolary novels, took a bit of an accidental deep dive into books about Hollywood, chatted about the difference between...

74: The Summer Job, with Lizzy Dent

The Brit Lit Podcast

Our guest on episode 74 of the Brit Lit Podcast, is Lizzy Dent, who wrote The Summer Job, and who’s also a YA author -- as Rebecca Denton, she wrote This Beats Perfect, among other books.

73: Star-Crossed, with Minnie Darke

The Brit Lit Podcast

Our guest on episode 73 of the Brit Lit Podcast is Danielle Wood who, as Minnie Darke, wrote one of Claire's very favourite books of recent years, called Star Crossed. Among other things, she discussed what makes One Day by David Nicholls such an amazing novel, and gave some recommendations for books by Tasmanian authors.

72: Who's Loving You: Love Stories by Women of Colour, with Sareeta Domingo

The Brit Lit Podcast

Our guest today is Sareeta Domingo, who’s the author of both adult and young adult fiction, and most recently the editor of the collection called Who's Loving You: Love Stories by Women of Colour. She talks about romantic reads she loves, the process of putting together an anthology, why books by British authors of colour are important, and more.

71: Exciting Times, with Naoise Dolan

The Brit Lit Podcast

Today, we hear from Naoise Dolan, who’s an Irish author and the writer of the Women’s Prize longlisted novel Exciting Times. She and I talked about cultural and literary differences between the UK, the US, and Ireland, what we both think about the idea of “likeable” characters, some great Irish authors, and more.

The Most Fun Job, with Laurie Gillman of East City Bookshop

The Brit Lit Podcast

Happy Independent Bookstore Day! I work part-time in a lovely bookshop on Capitol Hill in Washington DC, and in this bonus episode, I interview my boss, Laurie Gillman, who founded the shop five years ago, to talk about what goes into starting and running a bookshop.

More Episodes

Our guest today is Cherie Jones, whose Barbados-set novel How The One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House is hot off the press and has won praise from all quarters. Cosmopolitan calls it “visceral and haunting” and Bernadine Evaristo says that it’s “a hard-hitting and unflinching novel from a bold new writer who tackles head-on the brutal extremes of patriarchal abuse”.

Cherie and I talked about what it’s like to study writing far from home, where to start if you want to read short stories, what it’s like to live in Barbados, and more.

Books Mentioned on the Podcast:

(All available in the UK here and most available in the US here)

How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House, by Cherie Jones UK / US / Worldwide

In Praise of Love and Children, by Beryl Gilroy UK / US / Worldwide

The Girl with the Louding Voice, by Abi Daré UK / US / Worldwide

Augustown, by Kai Miller UK / US / Worldwide

The Underground Railroad, by Colson Whitehead UK / US / Worldwide

Important Artifacts and Personal Property from the Collection of Lenore Doolan and Harold Morris, by Leanne Shapton UK / US / Worldwide

Ms Hempel Chronicles, by Sarah Shun-Lien Bynum UK / US / Worldwide

Summer Lightning & Other Stories, by Olive Senior UK / US / Worldwide

Miguel Street, by V. S. Naipaul UK / US / Worldwide

People Like Her, by Ellery Lloyd UK / US / Worldwide