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: Lviv Bookforum
Lviv Bookforum is Ukraine’s largest literary festival. This year it is teaming up with the UK’s Hay Festival to host 40 writers and thinkers, including Margaret Atwood and Elif Shafak. Georgina Godwin speaks to the festival’s curator, Sophia Cheliak, about the 15-strong programme of conversations covering everything from art in…
Andrey Kurkov
One of Ukraine’s most successful literary exports speaks to Georgina Godwin. Before turning to writing, Kurkov served as a prison warden and later a journalist before trying his hand at fiction. He boasts a wealth of novels and screenplays to his name, including the bestselling ‘Death and the Penguin’. His…
Monocle Reads: ‘The Pachinko Parlour’
Elisa Shua Dusapin is a Franco-Korean writer and author of the award-winning novel ‘Winter in Sokcho’. She sits down with Georgina Godwin to talk about her latest book, ‘The Pachinko Parlour’, which was recently published in English.
Gavin Plumley
The British cultural historian and writer speaks to Georgina Godwin. Gavin’s first book is ‘A Home for All Seasons’, published earlier this year to wide acclaim. Part-memoir, part-history, the book recounts how Gavin and his husband Alastair bought a rural English building after falling in love with it at first…
Monocle Reads: Why We Play
Joanna Fortune is a psychotherapist and a trauma and attachment repair specialist. She speaks to Georgina Godwin about her latest book, ‘Why We Play: How to Find Joy and Meaning in Everyday Life’. It looks at the importance of play in adult life and shares advice on how to stay…
Felix Francis
Before Felix Francis became a novelist he spent many years as a physics teacher, helping his father, crime writer and jockey Dick Francis, with research in his spare time. After his father’s death, Francis became a full-time author in his own right. His 16th novel is ‘Hands Down’, about a…
Monocle Reads: ‘All the Knowledge in the World’
Georgina Godwin speaks to British journalist and non-fiction author Simon Garfield about his latest book, ‘All the Knowledge in the World’. It looks at the fascinating history of the encyclopaedia and asks what value there is in old knowledge.
Jill Dawson
The bestselling author on her extensive writing career and latest novel, ‘The Bewitching’. Based on the 16th-century case of the witches of Warboys, the story follows Alice Samuel who accuses a neighbour of witchcraft and sets in motion a shocking train of events. Dawson has written 11 novels, many of…
Monocle Reads: ‘Survival of the Richest‘
Douglas Rushkoff is an award-winning writer and media theorist who was named as one of the world’s 10 most influential intellectuals by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He speaks to Georgina Godwin about his latest book, ‘Survival of the Richest: Escape Fantasies of the Tech Billionaires’.
Michael Arditti
The award-winning English author and literary critic talks to Georgina Godwin about his 30-year career. His latest novel, ‘The Young Pretender’, is about the rise, fall and attempted comeback of long-forgotten child actor William Henry West Betty in Georgian Britain. Arditti often deals with spirituality and sexuality in his work…
