Lockdown kept us indoors, but in some ways it opened our horizons. With a little help from technology we crossed the Atlantic to catch up with Claire Handscombe, presenter and producer of BritLit, a fortnightly podcast that tracks what’s going on in the British publishing world.
From Claire’s novel Unscripted to her favourite recent reads, we talk books and recommendations. We also discuss some of her own favourite interviews, including The High-Low’s Dolly Alderton, Eizabeth Day (of How to Fail) and John Mitchinson, of lovable books podcast Backlisted.
And finally, for anyone out there who has been dreaming of making a books podcast of their own, Claire gives a mini-masterclass on how to approach authors, figure out your content and keep up with the reading.
Book recommendations
Books mentioned in this episode:
- Unscripted by Claire Handscombe
- Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
- Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng
- Little Fires Everywhere by Celest Ng
- The Roxy Letters by Mary Pauline Lowry
- The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole by Sue Townsend
- Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid
- Rules for Being a Girl by Candice Bushnell and Katy Cotugno
- What You Wish For by Katherine Center
- Head over Heels by Hannah Orenstein
- The Book of Hidden Wonders by Polly Crosby
Notes
For more BritLit check out Claire’s BritLit blog. We also love her Twitter feed @britlitpodcast, which she regularly updateswith great links from the book world. For any Wingnuts out there who might be listening, you can also check out Claire’s book Walk With Us: How the West Wing Changed Our Lives.
