Booktails Podcast

Festive Frolics 3

On the first day of Christmas Booktails gave to you a baby Alan in a pear tree!  It's the 12 days of Christmas as you've never seen them before! A grumpy widower and his children start receiving very specific and familiar gifts on the days leading up to Christmas... but who is sending them and what could they mean? 

Join Rachel and Serena as they rake through ladies dancing, unbelievable children, lords a leaping,...

Festive Frolics 2: The Secret Christmas Library and interview with bestselling author Jenny Colgan. 

It's a big one readers: it's our first author interview and we were over the moon to have the one and only Jenny Colgan on to discuss their new book with us!

Join us as we drink a festive old fashioned, chat about real life castle libraries, why books are always the best Christmas gifts and play a festive game of Red Flag Green Flag...

Festive Frolics 1: Rachel's recommendation 

It's the most wonderful time of the year! That's right, the season is upon us, time to roast those chestnuts and sing some carols in the snow! And for this first romantic romp you might just want to look out the mistletoe!

Join Serena and Rachel as they follow identical twins who swap lives for the twelve days before Christmas in this Hallmark-esque holiday adventure, featuring just about...

Prize Winners 3: British Book Awards Debut Fiction Book of the Year

We hope you're hungry readers, because if not you're about to be! Based on a true case this book explores murder, feminism and most importantly, the joys of eating. It's never too late to change your life or to start eating good food!

After today's game Rachel and Serena will never be eating margarine again. We're even putting butter in our cocktails these days! So...

Prize Winners 2: Women's Prize for Fiction Winner

Let's go girls! The Women's Prize was set up in response to the lack of female writers being shortlisted for the Booker Prize despite being more numerous than males, and they have been paving the way for representation and equality ever since! Yasss Queens!

This week we dive into the Safekeep and discuss literary wartime lesbians, hare obsessions, twist endings and what pears have t...

Prize Winners 1: Pulitzer Prize Winner

First up in this prize winning books of 2025 category is a retelling of the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which will turn that tale on its head with an unforgettable narrator and a completely new spin on the hi-jinks of a couple of children in the American South!

Travel down the Mississippi with Serena and Rachel as they discuss past mojito trauma, the language of slavery, absurd travelling ...

Spooky Stephen King 4.

Misery is the undisputed perfect name for this 1987 Stephen King classic, but we are here to ease your misery today!

Listen along as we discuss the bodice ripping novel-within-a-novel, Annie's unhinged psyche and iconic quotes and an unexpected ending, all paired with a delicious Suffering Bastard cocktail courtesy of Hauntingly Good Spirits.

Is it a horror or a thriller or just plain cockadoody? You decide.

Spooky Stephen King 3: Serena's Recommendation 

This is the book King himself rates as his scariest and it's clear why! A normal young family moves to rural Maine and is ripped apart by the forces at work in the ancient burial ground in their backyard. This week Serena and Rachel find hidden Stephen King universe Easter eggs, learn what kind of pet would haunt them, find unexpected spicy scenes and realise that Stephen King is abso...

Spooky Stephen King 2: Rachel's Recommendation 

Whoa it's a biggie this week! Over one thousand pages to be exact! We are diving headfirst into the sewers and into one of the spookiest Stephen King stories around!

Journey with us to Derry, Maine where danger lurks just below the surface. Rachel and Serena become honorary members of the Losers Club this week as they sip on Drunk Ghost cocktails...

Spooky Stephen King 1

HEEEEEEERE'S BOOKTAILS!

It's finally spooky season and we are celebrating with the master of horror this month, Stephen King! Join us roaming the iconic hallways of the Overlook Hotel as the nights draw in.

Join Rachel and Serena as they discuss unreliable narrators, the Kubrick film adaptation, justice for Wendy and try to get to grips with who or what Tony is, whilst getting more than a little tipsy! 

But al...

Cosy Murders 3.

Are you hungry? Grab a seat at the table because Rosemary Shrager is about to serve you up quite the meal and we are here to pour the tea! 

Take a sip of your perfectly paired aperitif Death by Rhubarb and meet the cast of very posh potential murderers in this classic country manor setting where murder is definitely on the menu. But can our wholesome granny/ granddaughter sleuth duo solve the case before it's too la...

Cosy Murder 2: The Trial by Rob Rinder (Rachel's Recommendation) 

WE OBJECT, YOUR HONOUR - to the use of advocaat in a SECOND pod cocktail! But we do not object to the second book in our cosy murder series - The Trial by (Judge) Rob Rinder.

The cocktail this week is the Cliveden's Gotcha, or if you fancy a mocktail, the Solicitor. Gather your evidence and get ready to present your case to the eternal judges Rachel and Serena as we ...

Cosy Murders 1: Serena's Recommendation 

Get the gang together on your zimmers because the time has come for... COSY MURDER SEASON! 🔪🧣🍁☕ Change to your winter duvet, get your knitting out and put the kettle on because the seasons are changing and it's time to curl up with murder of the most comforting variety!  And we're starting with a modern favourite- The Thursday Murder Club! 

Join our very own Booktails Murder Club by liste...

Deadly Competitions 2

If you thought your school was bad, it had nothing on this one! It's time to dive into the Battle Royale phenomenon- 42 kids are taken on a 'school trip', given weapons and told to kill each other until only one survives.

With a Kiriyama Bloody Mary in hand (pasta sauce) Serena and Rachel join the race for survival and find out how long they would last in a battle royale. Have a think to yourself who from your...

Deadly Competitions 1: Rachel's Recommendation 

Minus 55 minutes and counting On your marks, get set... DEADLY COMPETITIONS TIME! ⏳🔪

Grab your running shoes and grab a natural energy drink (cocktail) full of electrolytes because it's time for a new Booktails Podcast theme! 

We're starting with a bang with The Running Man by Stephen King (as Richard Bachman)

Join Rachel and Serena as we don our disguises and race alongside Ben Rich...

Centenery Series 3 (Rachel's Rec)

If you've ever missed your stop on the train this episode is for you. We're channeling Kafka and staying alcohol free this week, but feel free to add a splash of something stronger to K's Defence if you prefer! He needs all the help he can get with this Trial after all!

Have you ever felt like you're living in a bureaucratic fever dream? (Every time you have to book an appointment at your GP?) Don'...

Centenery Series 2.

There's no way we could do a series on books from 1925 without including one of the most studied and revered books of all time!

That's right, we are bringing out the big guns and meeting The Great Gatsby. But is he a hero or a fraud? Is Daisy really the worst? And what is actually up with those famous eyes in the sky? All these questions and more will be answered by Rachel and Serena this week.

So grab a gin Ric...

Centenary Series 1: Serena's Recommendation 

"Kissing your hand may make you feel very very good but a diamond and safire bracelet lasts forever." This is just one important life lesson given to the reader by the force which is Lorelei Lee.

Join Serena and Rachel, 'Tiara' cocktail in gloved hand, as they talk through Lorelei's famous trip to Europe, meet her many suitors, wish Dorothy was their best friend too and reflect on the jo...