Meet the Writers
Georgina Godwin in conversation with top authors. Explore their inspirations, writing processes, and the stories behind their books.
Latest Episodes
The writers we met in 2020. Part 1: The Booker prize
We revisit our interview with this year’s Booker prize-winner Douglas Stuart, and hear from shortlisted authors Maaza Mengiste, Tsitsi Dangarembga and Brandon Taylor.
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: Nanjala Nyabola
Nanjala Nyabola is a writer, political analyst and activist. With degrees from both Oxford University and Harvard Law School, she has written across a variety of topics including the internet, politics and travel. She speaks with Georgina Godwin about her latest book ‘Travelling While Black: Essays Inspired by a Life…
Peter Cardwell
As special adviser to a total of four cabinet ministers, Peter Cardwell worked at the highest levels of government, gaining insight into rarely seen aspects of life in Whitehall. His book, ‘The Secret life of Special Advisers’, reveals all, detailing what the roles of people such as Dominic Cummings and…
Monocle Reads: Antony Johnston
Antony Johnston is a ‘New York Times’ bestselling writer and podcaster whose work spans multiple genres and formats, from books to video games. One of his most notable works, the graphic novel ‘Coldest City’, went on to be adapted into the Hollywood blockbuster ‘Atomic Blonde’ starring Charlize Theron. He speaks…
Jason Diakite
Jason Diakite is best known for his illustrious career as a hip hop artist in Sweden. Performing in the group Excel and then solo as Timbuktu, he has performed all over the world, including at the Nobel Peace prize ceremony. His critically acclaimed memoir ‘A Drop of Midnight’ has sold…
Monocle Reads: Elizabeth Green
‘Not in the Script’ is Elizabeth Green’s unconventional and moving memoir about growing up with the feeling that she had been written out of a family story dominated by her entrepreneurial brother, Philip Green of Arcadia. She tells Georgina Godwin about the upbringing that shaped them both in very different…
Peter Hain
Despite growing up in apartheid South Africa, Peter Hain is best known for his career spanning three decades as a UK Labour Party MP. He served in the cabinets of both Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, and chaired the UN Security Council. His latest book, ‘The Rhino Conspiracy’, is a…
Monocle Reads: Craig Brown
Craig Brown’s Beatles biography, ‘One Two Three Four: The Beatles in Time’, won the 2020 Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction. The journalist and author of 18 books been writing his parodic diary in ‘Private Eye’ since 1989 and is the only person to have won three different Press Awards –…
Booker prize winner Douglas Stuart
The 2020 Booker prize went to ‘Shuggie Bain’ by Douglas Stuart. Only the second Scot to win the prize, he tells Georgina Godwin about growing up with an alcoholic mother in Glasgow, his career in fashion, his move to New York – and now his coronation at the very pinnacle…
