Meet the Writers
Georgina Godwin in conversation with top authors. Explore their inspirations, writing processes, and the stories behind their books.
Latest Episodes
Monocle Reads: ‘Why We Sing’
Julia Hollander is a performer, singing therapist and teacher. She speaks to Georgina Godwin about her intriguing new book, ‘Why We Sing’. It is an exploration of the importance of song for our wellbeing, told through stories from Hollander’s life and the latest scientific research.
Oksana Zabuzhko
One of Ukraine’s most acclaimed contemporary authors sits down with Georgina Godwin. Oksana’s debut novel, ‘Fieldwork in Ukrainian Sex’, is the most translated work of new Ukrainian prose in the world today – but it caused huge controversy on publication in 1996. Since then she has emerged as a leading…
Monocle Reads: ‘Stolen’
Ann-Helén Laestadius is a Swedish Sami journalist and writer. She speaks to Georgina Godwin about her latest book, ‘Stolen’. It is a thought-provoking novel about a young indigenous woman as she tries to protect her culture from xenophobia and defend her family’s reindeer herd from devious hunters and the growing…
Sally Hayden
The Irish journalist and photographer has documented migration, conflict and humanitarian crises across the Middle East, Africa and Europe. Her debut book, ‘My Fourth Time, We Drowned’, about the treatment of refugees travelling to Europe, was named Irish Book of the Year in 2022 and won the Orwell Prize. Sally…
Monocle Reads: ‘On Belonging’
Kim Samuel is a renowned educator and activist. She is the founder of the Samuel Centre for Social Connectedness as well as a visiting scholar at the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative at the University of Oxford. She sits down with Georgina Godwin to discuss her new book, ‘On…
Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀
Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀ is a multi-award-winning Nigerian author. Her debut novel, ‘Stay With Me’, was published in 2017 to huge critical acclaim and won the 9mobile Prize for Literature as well as the Prix Les Afriques. She speaks to Georgina Godwin about her highly anticipated second novel, ‘A Spell of Good…
Monocle Reads: ‘Red Memory’
Georgina Godwin speaks to The Guardian’s foreign leader writer and former China correspondent Tania Branigan about her new book, ‘Red Memory: Living, Remembering and Forgetting China’s Cultural Revolution’.
James Crawford
The Shetland-born writer and TV presenter, best known for BBC documentary series ‘Scotland from the Sky’, speaks to Georgina Godwin. His latest book, ‘The Edge of the Plain: How Borders Make and Break our World’, took him to some of the planet’s most contested and fastest-changing borders, from Israel to…
Monocle Reads: ‘Kick the Latch’
Georgina Godwin speaks to Los Angeles-based artist and writer Kathryn Scanlan about her brilliant new novel ‘Kick the Latch’. Based on transcribed interviews, it tells the story of one woman’s life on the racetrack.
Cal Flyn
The award-winning writer from the Scottish Highlands sits down with Georgina Godwin at Cheltenham Literature Festival. They speak about biodiversity, visiting Chernobyl and Flyn’s new book, ‘Islands of Abandonment: Life in the Post-Human Landscape’, which focuses on the places left behind by humans and reclaimed by nature.
