Bestsellers

We're honoured to have one of Britain's finest writers join us on Bestsellers this week: Irvine Welsh. The man who brought us Trainspotting three decades ago is back with a brand new novel which follows on immediately after Trainspotting and Renton legging it with the cash.

They're all here: Renton, Spud, Begbie, Sick Boy...Trying to turn into Men in Love.

Enjoy!

We kindly thank Irvine Welsh for permission to use two t...

Phil spent last weekend in Harrogate at the Old Swan hotel for the world famous Theakstons Crime Writers Festival. The Old Swan is where Agatha Christie emerged, after going missing in 1926, so what better place to stage a Crime Writing festival.

This is a shorter than usual ep just to give you a flavour of how well the writers get on with each other and the lovely atmosphere in The Drinking Detective outdoor bar, as writers and...

You know when a book comes along and just grabs you so you don't want to put it down? One Yellow Eye is one of those books. It's a thriller, a love story, it's also really witty oh and almost forgot, it does feature a zombie at its pulsing (just about) heart too. If you're concerned zombies are not for you (unless you're Natalie who wrote her uni dissertation about zombie movies) then do not fear - it's all ...

Associate Professor of English, Alison Espach joins Phil and Natalie this week, to discuss her break out third novel, The Wedding People. This went straight into the New York Times Top Ten and has been picked up by Tristar to become a movie.

It walks a tightrope of heart wrenching and seriously funny. Alison talks about posh hotels, weddings and her time working the photo both at them, plus her role as an Exec Producer on the movie ...

Looking for your next read to take on holiday, or the commute, or to read before bed? Then Nat and Phil have got you covered. Here they talk you through 10 new books they are either currently reading, or want to read - that's 5 choices from Nat, and 5 from Phil. There's a range of genres from mystery to memoir, love story to thriller, and hopefully at least one of these will be the next book you want to reach for too.

The re...

On this episode we're talking the joy of thrillers as Iris Mwanza opens up about what inspired her debut page-turner, The Lion's Den. From growing up in a household where people would drop off boxes of books they couldn't take abroad, to channeling the themes of her day job at the Gates Foundation into her fiction work, Iris shares the challenges and rewards with getting a novel out of her brain and into a bookstore. Sh...

OK, so we love a book where music plays a key role but it's so hard to do that well, and make you truly believe in a made-up musician. Thankfully, Holly Brickley has played it brilliantly with Deep Cuts, about a music obsessive and a musician who meet at college and deeply impact each other's lives. Hopefully you trust our instincts, but just in case, actors Saoirse Ronan and Austin Butler are already on board to play those...

The Master Crime Writer and Phil's all time favourite writer, Michael Connelly, returns to Bestsellers to talk about his 40th novel. NightShade features a brand new character, Detective Stilwell, whom Michael loves so much, he's going to return to in future books.

We chat to him about the challenges of creating a brand new series when you're forty books in; where Stilwell fits into the Connelly Universe that already includes Bosch,...

Chris Chibnall is responsible for writing some of the biggest moments in British television. From Broadchurch to Dr Who, you'll have seen his work on screen. Now he's turned his attention to novel writing and speaks to Phil and Natalie about his debut, Death at the White Hart. It's a Christie-esque whodunnit with a follow up already in the works and he's adapting his own novel himself for ITV.

Here he speaks about the challenges of...

The bestselling author of Elizabeth is Missing is back with a brand new chilling thriller called Sweat. Set around gyms and exercise, the book features a woman who gets the opportunity to exact revenge on a controlling ex-boyfriend. But will she get away with it and at what cost..?

It's a deeply personal book for Emma. She talks openly about obsessive fasting and over exercising after pregnancy and how both these things influenc...

This is the book for you if you've ever wanted to know what it's *really* like to do a job that is very different to yours. Charlie Colenutt has interviewed and collated the work stories of 68 employees, from a range of backgrounds, at varying stages in their careers, who all share the truthfulness of their working lives. There's joy and stress and sadness and life-changing moments to enjoy here, and Charlie himself is ...

This book has so much to offer. It delves into cultures of silence within families, how that affects relationships between mothers and daughters, and draws on Tara's exoticism, as she describes it, being a child of divorce growing up in Kolkata in the 1980s. And we haven't even mentioned the descriptions of food yet, which are many, all deserving of their place here and might make you hungry. A most excellent combination in storyte...

Julia Raeside is no stranger to writing or comedy, having written for a number of UK broadsheet newspapers. But this is her debut novel which she's set in the world of stand-up comedy. It explores the sometimes toxic nature of male comedians using coercive controlling behaviour with women and is adroitly observed.

Julia tells Phil and Natalie why she thinks Comedy needs it's own HR department; she talks about what it was like compl...

This is fiction, pure fiction, but Asia Mackay has a particular skill for making this tale about a married couple who happen to be serial killers, relatable. There's so much humour in her writing, and it feels incredibly cinematic which is why it's being adapted for the screen already. Asia has also started a parallel career as a screenwriter too, which we get into in this episode as well, so plenty to enjoy whether you'...

Bestsellers is back for Season 8. Phil & Natalie have sweat blood and tears to bring some of the bestselling writers in the world to your ears for this season.

And we start with the master of the courtroom thriller, making a welcome return to Bestsellers: Scott Turow. Scott created Rusty Sabich forty years ago for Presumed Innocent. Now he's back in the final of the Presumed triumvirate, titled Presumed Guilty, where the lawyer...

Our final episode of Season 7 is a cookbook special. But TENDERHEART is so much more than just a cook book. It's Hetty Lui McKinnon's way of processing the loss of her father aged just 15. He was the fruit n veg man, the father who left crates of exciting fresh produce in the hallway for his children to investigate. And now a parent herself to teenage boys, Hetty uses her brand new vegetarian and vegan recipes combined with an auto...

This week's episode is the multi best selling Irish writer, John Boyne. You will almost certainly have read The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas or The Heart's Invisible Furies and the latest venture for John is a quarter of books which he's been releasing every six months. Next year, he'll release them in one compendium called The Elements. But hot on the heels of Water and Earth, comes Fire: a disturbing novella which looks at child se...

Here are Phil and Natalie's Books of the Year for 2024.

Five picks each. You'll find all of them with links to buy each book on our website

Thanks so much for listening. Please remember to rate, review and subscribe to our podcast and don't forget to subscribe to our mailing list on our website, to hear about Season 8 exclusively...!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more ...

This episode has it all - writing yourself into fiction, being inspired by classic literature, the joy and benefits of being a bit spiky, oh, and there is a fair amount of swearing in this. As an added bonus - depending on your point of view - Nat and Phil also divulge their favourite swear words at the end of the ep... This Motherless Land is Nikki May's story inspired by Jane Austen's Mansfield Park, but takes it to a totally dif...