podcast Archives - Story Radio Podcast

Dogs by S P Murphy

A woman at home with her baby during lockdown hears the unsettling sound of dogs fighting in the street. It isn’t long before she is in danger herself – and she has to decide how to fight back.

Dogs by S P Murphy was first published in Litro Magazine.

S. P. Murphy is an American writer and arts consultant living in London. He has served on the board of PEN America and the Victoria and Albert Museum. He writes short stories and contributes articles on culture and politics to various publications. He is working on his first novel, a love story set in the US in 1970, when the nation was, like today, tragically divided.

This episode was produced by Tabitha Potts.

Season 3

Interview with author Ava Glass and reading from The Chase

Martin Natha interviews spy insider turned author Ava Glass about her debut novel, The Chase, published by Penguin.

Listen to this podcast to find out more about how Glass found her inspiration, and hear her talking about how she structured her novel which has been highly praised by various critics for its gripping plot and breathless pace. She also reads from The Chase for Story Radio.

‘A thrilling read … I could not have loved it more!’ Lisa Jewell

‘A high-octane, warp-speed thriller’ Guardian

This episode was produced by Martin Nathan. Martin Nathan has worked as a labourer, showman, pancake chef, fire technician, and 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. In 2020 he was shortlisted for the Woodward International Playwriting Prize and the Nick Darke Award.

Season 3

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.

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

Season 3

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.

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.

Season 3

Efflorescence by Miki Lentin

Efflorescence, a short story by Miki Lentin takes us into that time when a man bumps into a friend unexpectedly while on an evening walk, with surprising consequences.

Efflorescence is part of a collection of short stories released by Miki Lentin called I er Core, published by Afsana Press that 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 Litro, Storgy, Story Radio, MIR amongst others. Miki volunteers with refugee charity foodkind in Greece, and dreams of one day ru ing a café again. Find him on Twitter @mikilentin or read his work on his website.

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

The reader was Francis Gilbert.

Francis Gilbert has been writing fiction for many years. He is best known for his memoir, I’m A Teacher, Get Me Out of Here (2004 Short Books), his story of working as a young, incompetent i er-city school teacher in the 1990s. It was serialized as Radio 4’s Book at Bedtime, and spawned a sequel, Teacher on the Run (2006 Short Books).

His novel The Last Day of Term (2011 Blue Door Press) is also set in school. However, more recently he has explored more personal topics in his fiction: Who Do You Love (Blue Door Press 2017) is about a middle-aged man reflecting upon a university romance, and Snow on the Danube (2019) is about a brother and sister torn apart by the Second World War.

For the past few years, he has been working on writing short stories. He was delighted to read Miki Lentin’s powerful short fiction, which he feels shares many similarities with his own work in its depiction of tortured, emotional men. He really loved Miki’s story Efflorescence, and hopes other people enjoy his reading of it, as much as he liked recording it.

His day job is as senior lecturer in education at Goldsmiths, but his heart truly remains in writing and reading fiction.

http://www.francisgilbert.co.uk

http://www.bluedoorpress.co.uk

This episode was produced by Tabitha Potts.

Season 3

A Mean Spirit by Joan Treacy

A group of mourners attend a funeral and a wake for a shopkeeper and we learn more about his past and relationships.

This short story was written and read by Joan Treacy.

Joan Treacy has been writing for about five years. She has written many short stories and several of them have been published in Irish magazines. She is a member of Leixlip library writing group and they have helped and encouraged her writing. She is also the author of a horror novel, Orchard House.

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.

Season 2

Loverman by Lindsay Gillespie

Livingstone Franklin, a hospital cleaner, has a side hustle as a soul singer – and a crush on a beautiful colleague.

This story is written by Lindsay Gillespie, a Lewes-based writer. It is read by Luke Blackwood-Stevenson.

The producer is Martin Nathan. Martin Nathan has worked as a labourer, showman, pancake chef, fire technician, and 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. In 2020 he has been shortlisted for the Woodward International Playwriting Prize and the Nick Darke Award.

Sounds under CC-BY 3.0:

Janie Joelle accapella.wav by juskiddink

Photo by Octavio Lopez at Morguefile.com

Season 2

Photograph of Waterloo Station clock by Martin Nathan

Jacqueline by Tatum Anderson

A young woman leaves Jamaica for the UK, hoping to emulate her cousin Jacqueline by working as a nurse. When she arrives, nothing is quite as she expected it to be.

Jacqueline was written by Tatum Anderson. She is a journalist and writer from London. She received an MA In Creative Writing at Birkbeck, University of London and is now working on a PhD there in the autumn.

She has recently completed her first novel about Jamaican soldiers in the First World War which was Highly Commended in the Blue Pencil Agency First Novel Award 2020. She is now working on a second novel.

The reader is Juliet Jordon. She is a recent Drama, Applied Theatre and Performance graduate. She is doing an MFA (Master in Fine Arts) in directing. She studied Acting at Morley College London on the Performing Arts HND course.

This story was directed and 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.

Website: http://www.martinnathan.co.uk

The music and image used in this episode are both reproduced with the permission of Martin Nathan.