Episodes Archive - Story Radio Podcast

Chateau d'Orquevaux Writers' Salon

Tabitha Potts interviews Beulah Van Rensburg, who helps run the writers’ and artists’ residency at the Chateau d’Orquevaux, about its history and aims. We then hear a selection of poets’ and writers’ works-in-progress.

Alison Clarke is a poet, historical fiction and fantasy author, and visual artist. She is the author of M: The Mystical Odyssey of Harriet E. Wilson and Phillis: A Poetry Collection (University of Calgary Press, 2020), a #1 Amazon bestseller, as well as the award-winning YA fantasy series The Sisterhood, for which she won Diversity Magazine’s 2016 Writer of the Year. She received the 2020 Fil Fraser award for her contributions to literary and visual art, and was a panellist at Seattle Worldcon 2025. Alison believes that stories can change the world.

Buy M: The Mystical Odyssey of Harriet E. Wilson:

UK: amzn.eu/d/f1sUgPn

USA: a.co/d/6NqDbom

Canada: a.co/d/1i8bo2f

Eli Schaub: Eli is a fourth year creative writing major at the University of South Dakota, yet has been writing since his sophomore year of high school. He has written poems, plays, and short stories over the years. His goal when he graduates is to become a fantasy author, although he also loves writing stories in different genres and modes.

Sophia Bea: @sophiabea.dot on Instagram

Karin Hadadan is a three-times author, filmmaker, speaker and teacher, and the author of When Nothing Makes Sense: Finding God in the Gap Between Prayer & Answer. She also runs the PORTAL app and a Substack newsletter. Follow her at @icietnu on Instagram.

Michelle Lizet Flores is the author of the chapbook Cuentos from the Swamp, alongside the titled works Invasive Species, Places We Build in the Universe and Carlito the Bat. Follow her at @shellyflowers on Instagram.

Anna Maria Manalo is a recipient of the Denis Diderot award as a literary artist in residence at the Chateau d’Orquevaux, and holds a residency at Studio Faire for autumn 2027. She is the first Filipina-American author writing in the supernatural historical suspense genre, and the first to bring a creative nonfiction approach to it. A former screenwriter and therapist, her screenplays Under Tango Road, The Tulpa Effect and Uncharted Darkness have placed as quarterfinalists and top-ten finishers in competitions. Drawing on true accounts of the paranormal gathered across 27 countries, she is the Amazon bestselling author of Haunted Heirlooms and Unholy Structure. She lives in Bucks County, Pennsylvania.

Follow Anna Maria at annamariamanaloauthor.com or @TheSinisterArchives on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and Substack. To contribute a true encounter to her blog, email cinescriber@gmail.com.

Tabitha Potts is the host of Story Radio and the author of the gothic novel The House of Dust and Shadows (Rowan Prose Publishing), as well as the short story collection A Book of Short Stories (Wish Hounds Press). She holds a creative writing MA from Birkbeck and attended a residency at the Chateau d’Orquevaux, where she began work on her second novel, The Devil’s Picture Book, a historical novel set in 1980s Oxford. In this episode, she reads from her work in progress.

Season 4

Interview with Marc S Perlman about his spy thriller The Riddle of the Trees

This month on Story Radio, Tabitha Potts and Martin Nathan talk to Marc S. Perlman about his debut novel, The Riddle of the Trees, published by Koehler Books on 10th March 2026.

The novel opens with two journeys that will soon collide. In Belarus, a physicist is murdered by a KGB agent; in America, Jack Miller boards a flight to Eastern Europe hoping to understand the rift that has divided his Holocaust-surviving father and grandfather for decades. Before too long, their stories intersect in a tense international conflict focused on the Polish and Belarusian borders which meet in the Belavezskaya Forest. It’s a fast-paced espionage novel with a fascinating backdrop.

We talk to Marc about how he was inspired to write the novel while cycling through the Belavezskaya Forest from Poland into Belarus, about how he worked on the motivations for his main character and how he researched the spycraft used in the story.

Marc S. Perlman lives with his wife and son in New York City, where he works as a lawyer and does much of his writing after his son finally agrees to go to bed. A graduate of Bowdoin College and Cardozo Law School, he has a lifelong interest in history and has travelled extensively throughout Eastern Europe. The Riddle of the Trees is his first novel.

Produced by Martin Nathan.

Martin Nathan has worked as a labourer, showman, pancake chef, fire technician and a railway engineer. His short fiction has been published by Tangent Press, HCE and Grist and his poetry has appeared in Finished Creatures, Erbacce and Aesthetica. His novel, A Place of Safety, is published by Salt Publishing.

Story Radio CIC is supported by the London Borough of Tower Hamlets and Allia Impact.

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Season 4

Interview with Darren Coffield about Hen, Mistress of Mayhem: A Portrait of Henrietta Moraes

In this episode, Martin Nathan and Tabitha Potts speak to Darren Coffield, artist, author and host at the Colony Room Green, about his book Hen, Mistress of Mayhem: A Portrait of Henrietta Moraes. We learn about Moraes’ appalling childhood, her work as a writer, her life in Bohemian Soho, her friends, lovers and husbands and what it was like to be a muse and model for Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud and Maggi Hambling.

This episode was produced by Martin Nathan.

Martin Nathan has worked as a labourer, showman, pancake chef, fire technician, and a railway engineer. His short fiction has been published by Tangent Press, HCE and Grist and his poetry has appeared in Finished Creatures, Erbacce and Aesthetica. His novel – A Place of Safety is published by Salt Publishing.

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Story Radio CIC is supported by the London Borough of Tower Hamlets and Allia Impact.

Season 4

Cover of book The House of Dust and Shadows showing a ghost on a staircase

Interview with Tabitha Potts about The House of Dust and Shadows

Tabitha Potts is interviewed by Martin Nathan about her debut novel, The House of Dust and Shadows, published by Rowan Prose Publishing on June 16th 2026.

The House of Dust and Shadows is a Gothic mystery novel about the death of a famous painter and how it affects his three daughters when he disinherits all three of them in favour of someone else. We discuss ghosts, art and monstrous fathers in our first ever video interview.

The House of Dust and Shadows is available for pre-order and is being published by Rowan Prose Publishing on June 16th, 2026.

Tabitha Potts is a short story writer and novelist, recognised with an Honourable Mention in the Alpine Fellowship Writing Prize. Her debut novel will be published by Rowan Prose Publishing in 2026.

Story Radio CIC is supported by the London Borough of Tower Hamlets and Allia Impact.

Season 4

Wolf. Normal. by Lynne Curry

In Wolf.Normal., a divorced mother impulsively decides to go on a challenging wilderness hike with a group of strangers. Over a day’s hiking and a night sleeping in a remote cabin, she finds a strength and power within herself that she never realised existed before.

Wolf. Normal was written and read by Lynne Curry. The producer was Tabitha Potts.

The short story was first published in Literally Stories on March 27, 2026.

Alaska/Washington author Lynne Curry—nominated for the 2025 Best of the Net Anthology, the 2024 Pushcart Prize and Best Microfiction—founded “Real-life Writing,” https://bit.ly/45lNbVo and publishes a monthly “Writing from the Cabin” blog, https://bit.ly/3tazJpW and a weekly “dear Abby of the workplace” newspaper column. Curry has published twenty-six short stories; seven poems; two articles on writing craft, and six books.

Sound:

Wolves – Yellowstone National Park by Nivatius — https://freesound.org/s/519592/ — License: Creative Commons 0

Photo of wolf courtesy of Scott Liddell at Morguefile.com

It has come to our attention that individuals posing as Story Radio have been approaching writers asking for payment to be on the show. We never ask writers to pay to submit to us; you can visit our Submissions page and send us a story for free or contact us via email to offer us an author interview. If you want to support us, we do have a Patreon and other ways to donate on our website (below).

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Season 4

Ava Glass, a brunette woman in a white T shirt and black blazer, sits on stone steps. In the foreground a photo of the cover of her book, The Hiding Season

Ava Glass talks about her spy novel The Hiding Season

Ava Glass: The Hiding Season

This week on Story Radio, Tabitha Potts and Martin Nathan talk to Ava Glass (shortlisted for the CWA Steel Dagger and dubbed “the new Queen of spy fiction” by The Guardian) about her compelling new novel, The Hiding Season, published by Penguin on 26th March 2026.

The Hiding Season marks a bold departure from Ava’s acclaimed Emma Makepeace series. Where those novels followed a trained British intelligence officer, this book places an entirely ordinary woman — Maya Landry, recently escaped from a broken marriage and working at a remote Montana ski resort — at the centre of a deadly conspiracy. When Maya witnesses a murder and finds herself with no one to believe her, she is forced to abandon her identity, her home, and everything she knows in order to survive.

In this conversation, we find out what drew Ava to write a different kind of spy story, told in the first person, set firmly on American soil, and focused on the collateral damage an intelligence operation can inflict on those who stumble, unwittingly, into its path. We learn about the craft decisions behind The Hiding Season: the novel’s distinctive time structure, which resists a straightforward linear narrative; the challenge of writing a resourceful but untrained protagonist; and the atmospheric weight that the landscapes of Montana, Texas, and Chicago bring to the story.

We also talk about what it means to reinvent yourself — a theme that resonates far beyond the world of espionage — and about the two figures at the novel’s heart: Maya, who must outwit her pursuers on instinct alone, and Riley Maguire, the FBI agent whose motives she cannot quite bring herself to trust.

Drawing on her years working alongside British intelligence and her earlier career as a crime reporter in America, Ava Glass brings a rare depth of knowledge to The Hiding Season, her most personal novel yet.

Produced by Martin Nathan.

Story Radio CIC is supported by the London Borough of Tower Hamlets and Allia Impact.

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Season 4

Podcast cover showing Lottie Moggach holding her book Mrs Pearcey

Interview with Lottie Moggach about her novel Mrs Pearcey

In this episode of Story Radio, we are delighted to welcome Lottie Moggach to discuss her gripping new novel, Mrs Pearcey (published by Phoenix Books on 5th February 2026).

Inspired by the true crime that scandalised 1890s London, the novel follows Hannah Teale, a bright young woman whose life becomes entwined with the trial of Mary Pearcey – a woman accused of a brutal double murder in Camden Town. When Mary’s fiance Cosmo, a journalist, is undercover in an asylum, Hannah decides to try to help him by investigating the case and writing about it herself.

We discuss researching historical novels and learn about Moggach’s fascinating connection to the real life Mrs Pearcey, how Fleet Street journalism evolved, how close Hannah is to being a Victorian ‘New Woman’ and the reasons for our cultural obsession with true crime.

I inhaled Mrs Pearcey. What an incredible book. Gripping and creepy and compulsive, yet deeply touching . . . brilliant – Sabine Durrant

About Lottie Moggach

Lottie Moggach is the acclaimed author of Kiss Me First, Under the Sun, and Brixton Hill. She lives in North London with her husband, son and dog.

This episode was produced by Tabitha Potts.

Tabitha Potts is a short story writer and novelist, recognised with an Honourable Mention in the Alpine Fellowship Writing Prize. Her debut novel will be published by Rowan Prose Publishing in 2026.

Story Radio CIC is supported by the London Borough of Tower Hamlets and Allia Impact.

Season 4

Photo of Sally Page holding her book Six Little words with a Norfolk seaside background

Interview with Sally Page author of Six Little Words

We speak to Sally Page, best-selling author, about her new novel Six Little Words. Six Little Words follows two strangers embarking together on a Shakespeare-inspired scavenger hunt only to learn that you’re never too old to find love or pursue your dreams.

We discuss mid-life romance, friendship, exploring your creativity, writing the male voice, lies, synaesthesia, painting and more.

Blackstone Publishing is the US publisher and the publication is 24 Feb 2026.

HarperCollins is the UK publisher and the publication day is 12 March 2026.

About Sally Page:

Sally Page is the internationally bestselling author of The Keeper of Stories, The Book of Beginnings, and The Secret of Flowers. After studying history at university, Sally moved to London to work in advertising. In her spare time, she studied floristry, eventually opening up her own flower shop, an experience that offered a unique window into people’s lives that has inspired her writing. She has two daughters, bestselling author Libby Page and Alex, a doctor. She lives in Dorset.

This episode was produced by Martin Nathan.

Season 4

Iris Murdoch Poems from an Attic book cover

Interview with Dr Miles Leeson editor of Poems from an Attic by Iris Murdoch

Long hidden in an attic, vivid and revelatory poems shine a new light on the life and loves of Iris Murdoch.

In the dusty attic of Iris Murdoch’s Oxford home lay a battered, black chest. In 2016, when the chest was finally opened, Murdoch’s life in poems was revealed.

Renowned for her fiercely intelligent novels and groundbreaking philosophy, Murdoch was one of the great writers of the twentieth century. Yet she is also known for her equally radical life – intense friendships, relationships with both men and women, and an open marriage – about which much has, often controversially, been written. Now, her tightly wrought and vivid poems reveal a new, deeply personal account in Murdoch’s own voice. They range over the preoccupations closest to her heart, from the state of Ireland to memories of a first love lost in the Second World War.

We speak to Dr Miles Leeson, one of the editors of Poems from an Attic by Iris Murdoch, to learn more about this exciting discovery and how it adds to our understanding of the work of the famous philosopher and novelist.

Dr Leeson also reads three poems from the book, ‘Reverie in Winchester Cathedral’, ‘I find that honesty is a hard thing’, and ‘Macaw in the Snow’.

Dr Miles Leeson is Director of the Iris Murdoch Research Centre at the University of Chichester and Visiting Research Fellow at Kingston University. He is Lead Editor of the Iris Murdoch Review, Series Editor of Iris Murdoch Today with Palgrave Macmillan, host of the Iris Murdoch Podcast, and has published widely on Murdoch’s work.

He published Iris Murdoch: Philosophical Novelist in 2010, the edited collection Incest in Contemporary Literature (2018), the festschrift Iris Murdoch: A Centenary Celebration (2019), the co-edited collections Iris Murdoch and the Literary Imagination (2022) and Iris Murdoch and the Western Theological Imagination (2025), co-edited her selected poetry Poems from an Attic: Selected Poems 1936-1995 (2025), and is currently writing Visiting Mrs Bayley and Other Essays (2026) Iris Murdoch and Feminism and editing The Oxford Handbook of Iris Murdoch (2028).

You can find out more about him and his work here:

https://www.chi.ac.uk/people/miles-leeson/

Iris Murdoch

Iris Murdoch was born in Dublin in 1919. After working in the Treasury and in the UN, she discovered philosophy, eventually becoming Fellow at St Anne’s College, Oxford. Her philosophical concerns are at the heart of the 25 novels for which she became famous, gaining the Whitbread Prize for The Sacred and Profane Love Machine and the Booker Prize for The Sea, The Sea. Until her death in 1999, she lived in Oxford with her husband, the academic and critic, John Bayley. She wrote poetry all her life.

The Iris Murdoch Society

Buy the book: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/470920/poems-from-an-attic-by-murdoch-iris/9781784746124

Music: “The Silver Swan” (O. Gibbons), performed by Denis Carpenter, Clara IMSLP (CC BY 3.0): https://clara.imslp.org/work/51148 — <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/" rel="noopener…

Season 4

Interview with Mathew Gostelow editor of Silent Screams and reading by Terry Holland

Story Radio interviews Mathew Gostelow, the editor of Silent Screams: An Anthology of Quiet Horror, about trends in the horror genre, the meaning of ‘quiet horror’, the child’s perspective in horror writing, contemporary vs historical fiction and many other topics such as Twin Peaks and Frankenstein.

We listen to a reading of ‘Barnabas Calstock’s Last Wish’ by the author Terry Holland (Trigger warning: this story contains references to war and violence that some listeners may find disturbing).

About Mathew Gostelow

Mathew Gostelow haunts a leafy suburb of Birmingham, UK. His CV is a chaotic patchwork quilt, including journalism, pheasant farming, catering, and marketing. Mat’s taste in art, music, film, and literature is equally eclectic, although he tends to gravitate towards anything with a creepy, dreamy aesthetic.

If you catch him staring intently into the middle distance, Mat is either thinking about Twin Peaks or cooked breakfasts.

Some days he wakes early and scribbles strange tales.

Mat has written several books, including two speculative short story collections entitled An Ill-Stitched Menagerie and See My Breath Dance Ghostly, and a novella-in-flash; Dantalion is a Quiet Place. Mat has also co-written a horror-thriller novella called Watcher with his friend JP Relph, and edited an anthology of quiet horror short stories, titled Silent Screams.

He has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net, and Best Microfiction.

You can find Mat on Twitter: @MatGost, and BlueSky: @MatGost.

Website: https://weirding-words.blogspot.com/p/about.html

Substack: https://matgost.substack.com/

About Terry Holland

Terry Holland grew up in Essex, England, before studying in London and Berlin. He has dabbled in the theatre, music, journalism, translation and the occult and currently lives in the Netherlands with his black cat, Mackem, who is a reincarnation of a wise woman and herbalist known as Black Meg, persecuted as a witch in the northeast of England in the seventeenth century. He writes flash and short stories and will never, ever write a novel.

He bleats his Wordle scores @terryholland.bsky.social

The Producer was Martin Nathan.

Cover image by…