Author Interviews | Page 1

Kirsty Capes | 'It’s important to have stories about the care experience that are positive'

Half way through my interview with Kirsty Capes, she mentions the fact that... Read more

Owen Eastwood | 'We never want anybody to leave their culture at the door'

Over the past decade, from somewhere under the radar, Cotswolds-dwelling Kiwi Owen Eastwood has become... Read more

Rahul Raina | 'Part of my thinking was trying to put my version of Delhi onto the map'

With its witty, ruthless skewering of the Indian middle classes, Rahul Raina’s roistering, whip-smart and... Read more

Melvin Burgess | 'Like a lot of white folks, I’ve been wary of writing Black characters'

Melvin Burgess’ Three Bullets, which interrogates themes of brainwashing and the far-right, will be released this summer alongside a 25th-anniversary edition of the author’s pioneering... Read more

Clare Weze | 'It’s only latterly I’ve been making the characters whatever [I want them to be]'

"I like the hybridity of literature and science. They belong together, and they certainly belong together in my head,” says Clare Weze, a trained scientist... Read more

Alice Oseman | 'It’s more of an episodic story, so I decided a comic would be a better format'

Nick and Charlie, the lead characters in graphic novel series Heartstopper, first appeared in Alice Oseman’s début Young Adult novel Solitaire. The pair were fairly... Read more

Vaseem Khan | 'I wanted to write a book just for myself, and I put in there all the things I love'

Vaseem Khan was reading about the history of Mumbai as part of research for his successful Baby Ganesh Agency series—which stars the newly retired Inspector... Read more

Erin Kelly | 'In terms of plotting, it’s the hardest book I’ve ever written'

"My policy around this book is to say as little as I possibly can, in case I blow the twist!” says Erin Kelly, only half-joking,... Read more

Anita Sethi | 'Healing comes from keeping open to the world and to other people'

In May 2019, Manchester-born writer and journalist Anita Sethi was on a TransPennine train from Liverpool to Newcastle when she became the victim of a... Read more

Leone Ross | 'I knew I wanted magic, and I knew I wanted magic realism'

"Everything in Popisho was born with a little something-something... a little something extra. The local name was cors. Magic, but more than magic. A gift,... Read more

Lauren Ace and Jenny Løvlie | 'You can be kind and strong and good, but you don’t have to be exceptional'

"It's really special that, with a book about female friendship, we have genuinely become friends... Read more

Michael Rosen | 'I don’t think I realised, until maybe August, how ill I’d been'

"Will I wake up?" "There's a 50:50 chance." Admitted to intensive care in late March... Read more

Rachel Piercey & Freya Hartas | 'We wanted the seasons to be accurately represented'

Poetry and woodland creatures, along with a dose of nostalgia and a nod to Jill Barklem’s Brambly Hedge books, all feature in the big search-and-find... Read more

Stuart Lawrence | 'Without optimism and hope, I wouldn’t be able to do the things I do'

"I’m a very optimistic person. Without optimism and hope, I wouldn’t be able to do the things I do,” says Stuart Lawrence, the author of... Read more

Andrew Hunter Murray | 'I wanted the story to be the uncovering of a secret about this world'

Andrew Hunter Murray was out walking when an image occurred to him: a still Earth, half in light, half in darkness, no longer rotating. ... Read more