Posted in: Season 3
The Institution book cover

Interview with Helen Fields author of The Institution

In this episode Martin Nathan and Tabitha Potts speak to best-selling crime novelist Helen Fields, criminal law barrister turned writer, about her new book The Institution.

The Institution is a nail-biting psychological thriller about a criminal profiler, Dr Connie Woolwine, who goes undercover in a high security prison hospital while she tries to solve the brutal murder of one of the nurses, and find her missing child.

Helen also reads the opening chapter of The Institution. Content warning: some listeners might find this distressing.

This episode was produced by Martin Nathan.

Posted in: Season 3

A terrible thing has happened by Elinora Westfall

It is March 1941 during the Second World War, and a young evacuee, Tabitha, is fascinated by the stories about a famous author who lives nearby.

Content warning: contains references to suicide.

The story is written and read by Elinora Westfall. Influenced by David Bowie, Virginia Woolf and Sally Wainwright, Elinora Westfall is a lesbian writer of stage, screen, fiction, poetry and radio from the UK.

Her novel, Everland, was selected for the Penguin and Random House WriteNow Editorial Programme, and her short films have been selected by Pinewood Studios & Lift-Off Sessions, Cannes Film Festival, Raindance Film Festival, Camden Fringe Festival and Edinburgh Fringe Festival, while her theatre and audio shows have been selected by The British Library and performed in London’s West End and on Broadway, where she won the award for Best Monologue.

The story was produced by Tabitha Potts.

Music used courtesy of Timbre of Freesound.org

Photo of Virginia Woolf By George Charles Beresford – Filippo Venturi Photography Blog, Public Domain.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=50293324

Posted in: Season 3
Woman dressed as man sitting in wooden chair smoking cigar and laughing

Life in the dressing room of the theatre

This short story is about a young woman whose heart is stolen by a mysterious magician.

The story is written and read by Elinora Westfall. Influenced by David Bowie, Virginia Woolf and Sally Wainwright, Elinora Westfall is an Australian/British lesbian actress and writer of stage, screen, fiction, poetry and radio from the UK.

Her novel, Everland has been selected for the Penguin and Random House WriteNow 2021 Editorial Programme, and her short films have been selected by Pinewood Studios & Lift-Off Sessions, Cannes Film Festival, Raindance Film Festival, Camden Fringe Festival and Edinburgh Fringe Festival, while her theatre shows have been performed in London’s West End and on Broadway, where she won the award for Best Monologue.

Elinora is also working on The Art of Almost, a lesbian comedy-drama radio series as well as writing a television draoma series and the sequel to her novel, Everland.

The story was produced by Tabitha Potts.

Posted in: Season 3
Greg Mosse and Kate Mosse photographed in their library

Interview with Greg Mosse and Kate Mosse

Tabitha Potts and Martin Nathan interview best-selling novelist and short story writer Kate Mosse and playwright and debut novelist Greg Mosse, whose novel The Coming Darkness (Moonflower Books) is publishing on the 10th November.

Early praise for Greg Mosse’s dystopian thriller have included Lee Child’s review:

“Greg Mosse writes like John le Carre’s hip grandson”

We interviewed both writers about their writing techniques in a wide-ranging discussion of their work.

Kate Mosse is the best-selling author of ten novels and short story collections including the multimillion-selling Languedoc Trilogy – Labyrinth, Sepulchre and Citadel – and Gothic fiction including The Winter Ghosts and The Taxidermist’s Daughter, which she has adapted for the stage for 2022.

Greg Mosse is currently the founder and leader of the Criterion New Writing script development programme at the Criterion Theatre, London,

Since 2015, he has written and produced 25 plays and musicals, often in collaboration.

During the coronavirus lockdowns, he wrote two-and-a-half novels, of which The Coming Darkness will be the first to be published.

The producer was Tabitha Potts. She is a writer living in East London. She has had several short stories published in print and online and short-listed for various awards, most recently the Alpine Fellowship Writing Prize. In a previous life, she was a BBC Radio Drama producer.

Read more at http://www.tabithapotts.com.

Posted in: Season 3
Photo of Amanda Owen

Interview with Amanda Owen, the Yorkshire Shepherdess

In this episode, Martin Nathan interviews Amanda Owen, the Yorkshire Shepherdess, about what writing means to her, and she reads an extract from her new book, Celebrating the Seasons with the Yorkshire Shepherdess, about the harsh but rewarding realities of living in tune with the seasons on one of the highest, most remote hill farms in the country.

 A best-selling author, Amanda is also a full-time shepherdess with 800 sheep, a vintage tractor owner, sheepdog breeder, conservationist (the farm is a haven for nesting birds such as curlews and lapwings), horsewoman, and mother of nine. 

Amanda and her family have worked the rugged land at Ravenseat Farm in Swaledale on the Yorkshire Cumbria boarder for more than 25 years and are passionate caretakers of the countryside.

This episode was produced by Martin Nathan. Martin Nathan’s short fiction and poetry has appeared in a range of journals and his novel – A Place of Safety is published by Salt Publishing. His dramatic writing has been shortlisted for the Nick Darke award and the Woodward International Prize.

Posted in: Season 3
Image showing deserted swings and snow

Eventide by Kae Hart

A young woman spends time with her younger sister Anya in a deserted playground, while wrestling with her inner demons.

The story was written by Kae Hart. Kae is a university student who learned to speak by telling stories to everyone who would listen. The cashier at the local grocery store was her first fan. Since then, she has written stories, poems, and novels, and hopes to continue to do so.

The story was read by Claire Lubert.

Claire has been working for Humanitarian Organisations for the last eight years (currently Médecins Sans Frontières). She is also involved in writing projects and is a voice artist, having previously trained at Rada and worked as an actor in TV, Film and theatre. She is based in SW London.

Eventide was produced by Tabitha Potts.

The photograph used in this episode is courtesy of Cherie Durbin.

Posted in: Season 3
Picture of boy in tree, vintage, film camera

Killing the Serpent by Doug Jacquier

A young Australian boy learns some difficult lessons about temptation and faith when he meets another boy from a local religious cult.

This story was written and read by Doug Jacquier. He has lived in many places across Australia, including regional and remote communities, and has travelled extensively overseas. His poems and stories have been published in Australia, the US, the UK and Canada. He blogs at Six Crooked Highways.

This episode was produced by Tabitha Potts.

Recording of artist Jimmie P Rodgers under Creative Commons License 0 from qubodup at Freesound.org

Photo by Vintage Film Pics at Morguefile.com.

Posted in: Season 3

The Glass Wall by Goran Baba Ali

Goran Baba Ali, author of The Glass Wall, talks to Martin Nathan, Tabitha Potts and Miki Lentin about his novel and reads a brief extract.

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The Glass Wall is about a teenage refugee who must relive the pain of his past to enter the land waiting behind a glass wall. Will his story be convincing enough to guarantee his safety?

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Goran Baba Ali has written and published various literary and journalistic works in Kurdish, Dutch and English. The Glass Wall is his debut novel in the English language.

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As an ex-refugee, originally from Iraqi Kurdistan, he has personally experienced some of the protagonist’s hardship in this novel, including a few weeks living in a desert. 

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The producer of this episode was Martin Nathan.

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Sound effects taken from Freesound.org and licensed under the Creative Commons 0 license.

Posted in: Season 3

Waiting for Pilar by Declan Geraghty

In this short story, a man waits in an anonymous hotel room in Madrid drinking beer and watching television while he waits for his lover, Pilar, to arrive.

This story was written by Declan Geraghty. Geraghty is a writer, poet and spoken word performer from Dublin.

It was first published by Epoque Press Ezine 2021.

The story was read by Miki Lentin, and produced by Tabitha Potts.

Sound effects taken from Freesound.org and licensed under the Creative Commons 0 license.

Photo by Pedrojperez at Morguefile.com

Posted in: Season 3

Miki Lentin talks about his collection, Inner Core

Martin Nathan, Tabitha Potts and Goran Baba Ali talk to Miki Lentin about his short story collection, Inner Core, recently published by Afsana Press. Includes a short reading by Miki Lentin. This interview was produced by Martin Nathan.

 

Inner Core is available to buy as an ebook and paperback with proceeds of all sales going to the refugee charity foodKIND.

 

Miki Lentin took up writing while travelling the world with his family a few years ago. He completed an MA in Creative Writing at Birkbeck in 2020 and was a finalist in the 2020 Irish Novel Fair for his first book Winter Sun.

 

He has been placed highly in competitions including Fish Publishing Short Memoir 2020 and 2022 and Leicester Writes and has been published in LitroStorgyStory Radio, MIR amongst others. 

 

Miki volunteers with refugee charity foodkind in Greece, and dreams of one day running a café again. Find him on Twitter @mikilentin or read his work on his website.

 

https://www.mikilentin.net/my-writing