Stranger Than Fiction was the monthly newsletter I wrote from 2019-2020 (some pretty impressive staying power there, I think you’ll agree), exploring how fiction can teach us to live a better life - with help from awesome authors such as Yomi Adegoke, Candice Carty-Williams, Katy Brand and Natasha Devon MBE. It was super fun, and a lot of work. I might start it up again one day. Who knows. In the meantime, here’s the archive. Browse at will.
Big Book Weekend 2
This time last year, the author Kit de Waal and I has just started exploring a little idea we’d temporarily dubbed the Big Book Weekend. We’d seen book festivals across the UK getting cancelled by you-know-what, and we were sure there must be some way to salvage some of their fantastic events online.
You can read the full story here.
Seven weeks later, after a crazy amount of work and gin and weeping, as well as support from the BBC and Arts Council England, our pipe dream actually came to life. In May 2020 we had over 24,000 views from across the world of 28 sessions featuring some of the brightest authors, illustrators and thinkers in the UK, with thousands more tuning in on catch-up.
Honestly, we were blown away by the response. Especially when people from a whole range of backgrounds reached out to tell us that it was the first time they’d ever considered watching a book event… and that they wanted more.
The result is that today sees the launch of Big Book Weekend 2, broadcasting live and free on BBC Arts online over the next two days. Programmed by Kit and me from scratch this time, we’re bringing the likes of Ian Rankin, Candice Brathwaite, Lenny Henry, Douglas Stuart, Guvna B, Val McDermid, Greg Davies, Russell Kane, Alex Wheatle, Naoise Dolan, Julie Ma and Ruby Tandoh right into our living rooms (or bedrooms, or baths) for intimate chats and debates alongside recommendations for books to keep our spirits high and our minds well-fed in these shitty lockdown days.
And the thing is: this isn’t a festival just for bibliophiles or author fanboys. With with 12 talks and conversations ranging from WHY WE LOVE A LIAR to HOW TO BE A MAN to BRITISH VILLAGE LIFE: HEAVEN OR HELL?, we hope BBW2’s got something for everyone – including people who can’t remember the last time they read a book.
So whether you’re a passionate reader or you prefer boxsets to books, do take a pause from the relentless doomscroll of the news, grab a cuppa, and give it a try. And let me know what you think. ✨
The Big Book Weekend
In late March, I got an email from a hero of mine.
Kit de Waal was a guest on Stranger Than Fiction back in February last year. An award-winning fiction writer, outspoken champion of diversity in the arts and FutureBook Person of the Year 2019, she is known in the book trade for making important shit happen, fast.
"I’ve been reading on social media and elsewhere about the hardship caused to many writers and literary festivals over cancellations of events," Kit wrote. "So many artists and authors (and others) depend on festivals for promotion, book sales, interaction, networking and visibility." She wanted, she continued, to create "a virtual literary festival online with capacity for say 200 - 500 audience." Would I help?
"But can you keep it to yourself for now?" she finished. "It may come to nothing and just end up being one of those nice ideas that has no teeth and no future."
Seven weeks on, and we're knee-deep in finishing touches for the Big Book Weekend: a free three-day virtual book festival supported by BBC Arts and Arts Council England, broadcast online next weekend (8th-10th May). With huge names like Neil Gaiman, Marian Keyes, Sir Tim Rice, Maggie O'Farrell and Bernadine Evaristo rubbing shoulders with rising stars and unknown debuts, it showcases the best of the cancelled UK lit fests, in a big fat joyful celebration aiming to encourage people of all backgrounds and tastes to read more books, talk more about books and realise that book festivals are for everyone.
And it has all come about because a whole bunch of people from across all four nations, most of whom have never met, have poured their time and passion into turning a nice idea with no teeth into a great beautiful chomping book beast, just because they believe in the value of stories to help people survive shitty times.
That's the power of books.
I very much hope you’ll join us. Check out the full programme here, then sign up here ready to watch.
📚🎙🙌
On books that started as podcasts (and vice versa)
Last week I was delighted to be invited into The Mothership to talk about how (and why) podcasts are being turned into books with the delicious Mariella Frostrup on BBC Radio 4’s Open Book. I name-checked three personal favourites - My Dad Wrote a Porno, The Guilty Feminist and Welcome To Night Vale - but I’d love to discover some new ones, so do let me know your own favourites too.
We also talked about the three-part podcast I created with Pan Macmillan around the paperback launch of The Charmed Life of Alex Moore. Now available to download on iTunes, Spotify and Acast, The Success Monologues saw me tour the UK asking amazing women (from an asylum seeker to the Head of Technology for Sky) to share their stories about how they’ve challenged their limiting self-beliefs and redefined what success looks like in their lives.
Yeah, I know, tough gig.
You can catch up on the Open Book episode here - our chat starts 10 minutes in, but the whole show’s a cracker (the stuff about queer nature writing is brilliant).
Happy listening; let me know what you think. 🎙📚🎧💫
Alex Moore's paperback tour
I can’t quite believe I’m typing this, but today sees the launch of the paperback of The Charmed Life of Alex Moore - with a BRAND NEW COVER featuring *sparkly silver bits* ✨
To celebrate, PanMacmillan and I are running a UK tour of The Success Monologues, featuring honest and inspiring stories from a diverse group of women in each city about how they’ve overcome their own self-limiting beliefs and redefined the meaning of success. I’d love to see you there, so do check out the locations and speakers below and click on the links to book.
On Monday 25th February in Nottingham I will be joined by:
Mirriam Mutanda - an asylum seeker housed by Nottingham Arimathea Trust, Miriam has been seeking asylum for 13 years. More importantly, Mirriam is a poet, an avid reader - and an extraordinarily wise and inspiring person.
Lucy Burrow - the president of the Nottingham City Women's Institute, Lucy formed the group early in 2009 with other likeminded twentysomethings eager to share skills, meet new people and have some fun. Since then, City WI has grown into a large and friendly community for women of all ages.
Eleanor Field - a Nottingham-based theatre designer and artist who has worked on a variety of projects for theatre, opera and dance across the UK. Last year, with fellow designer Laura Cordery, she created a living drawing project, ‘A Pageant On Paper’, which celebrated the lives of nearly 200 successful women, past and preset. She also helps to run the female-focused The Party Somewhere Else theatre festival in Nottingham. Twitter: @EleanorMField
On Tuesday 26th February in Manchester I will be joined by:
Lauren Coulman - CEO and Social Impact Strategist at Noisy Cricket, Lauren helps build people-powered movements to bring collective voices together to create equality. Writer for Forbes, campaigner for Free to Be Ok platform, and featured on Northern Power Women Future List, Lauren is dedicated to causes that will ensure social impact and change. Twitter: @LaurenCoulman
Jo Morfee - Co-Founder of InnovateHer - a extra curriculum programme designed to inspire and empower younger girls, and Director of Liverpool Girl Geeks - supporting those who seek careers in the tech industry. Jo is passionate about changing the status quo in tech sector to create a more balanced and diverse workforce. Twitter: @JoMorfee / Instagram: @jogirlgeek
Vimla Appadoo - one of the instigators behind SheSays MCR, a platform helping women in digital and creative industries further their careers, facilitating change through design thinking at FutureGov. Vimla was voted as a Northern Power Woman Top 50 Future Leader. Twitter: @ThatGirlVim
Dior Bediako - Founder of Pepper Your Talk and The Junior Network, platforms that support and educate the next generation of fashion creatives. After leaving a lucrative position at Burberry, Dior set about creating a space for young fashion professionals to help them find their feet in an industry renowned for its competitiveness. Twitter: @DiorRnCBediako / Instagram: @diorrichnconnected
Charlotte Instone - Founder and CEO of Know The Origin, the Fairtrade, organic fashion label, ranked as EthicalConsumers top ethical fashion brand October 2017. Charlotte is passionate about ensuring transparency in the fashion industry; a true trailblazer and force to be reckoned with. Twitter: @Lottieinstone / Instagram: @charlotteinstone
Alice Sparks - Founder at Invisible Manchester, a social enterprise that works with people who have been affected by homelessness and trains them to become walking tour guides. Sharing real stories of homelessness helps to raise awareness about what it actually means to be homeless and encourages people to look at the streets differently. Twitter: @InvisibleMcr / Instagram: @alice_spooks
On Wednesday 27th February in Leeds I will be joined by:
Lucy Sheridan - the world’s first and only Comparison Coach, Lucy is a Hay House author and life coach who specialises in helping her clients come to grips and deal with the compare and despair cycle, symptomatic of heightened social media use. Twitter: @lucysheridan / Instagram: @lucysheridan
Lou Kirby - blogger and Founder of Woman Ready - an online community to help inspire, support and empower us to be the women we want to be, while also talking about the issues that face women today. Twitter: @WomanReadyBlog / Instagram: WomanReadyBlog
Kimberly Robinson - mental health activist, visual artist and founder of Keep Real - a social enterprise supporting better mental health in all communities. Twitter: @kimmykeepreal / Instagram: @kimmykeepreal
Natasha Sayce-Zelem - Head of Technology for Digital Service at Sky and Founder of Empowering Women with Tech. Natasha has many strings to her bow and has been instrumental in opening up the opportunities for women in Leeds and nationally, so that they can carve out successful careers in digital, technology and science fields. Twitter: @unharmonic
Laura Wellington - designer and entrepreneur behind one of Habitat's most iconic designs of the past 50 years. Co-Founder of creative hub Duke Studios and The Big Disco, Laura has been at the heart of numerous initiatives re-shaping and evolving the design and culture of Leeds. Twitter: @LauraWelli / Instagram: @laurawelli
And on Thursday 28th February in Orkney I will be joined by:
Caroline Wickham Jones - archaeologist, consultant and author of a book about submerged landscapes around the British Isles. Caroline says “coming to Orkney has been a good move for me, though I started digging here years ago….It was the internet that allowed me to move here…”.
Lizza Hume - Co-founder of contemporary textiles business Hume Sweet Hume with her sister Jenna. Lizza creates an exclusive range of interior and fashion accessories, inspired by the pristine environment of the remote island of Westray. Twitter @Hume_Sweet_Hume
Lena Lewis - once described by a local newspaper as a 'Woman in a Man's World', former Company Director Lena is a keen amateur dramatist and tap dancer. Born in London in 1930, she now lives in Orkney with her African Grey parrot.
If you can’t make any of the dates, never fear - we’re also creating a podcast to accompany the tour, so keep your eyes peeled on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook so you can catch up on all the honest, inspiring, goosebumpy goodness.
Hope to see you there, and in the meantime - keep fighting for your best possible Story x
The Visitation: a short story
A Thousand Word Photos invites photographers to share a photo with a writer, who is then asked to create a short story of a thousand words inspired by the image they receive.
Selected short stories are then published online, and read to stroke patients at Hospitals across London by actors working with the charity Interact.
I was delighted to be invited to contribute to such an amazing project, and my story, THE VISITATION - inspired by this incredible photo from Dan Sully - is the first in the series to be published. It’s about men, tech and wildness; what happens when the quantifiable self meets unquantifiable mystery.
AH’M A FECKIN’ CYBORG, MATE!’ Mal roared.
To read the other 993 words, click here.
Exploring the British Library's Macmillan archive with Chris Riddell
I have three things to say about being given the opportunity to delve into five of the British Library’s most amazing bookish treasures (from the original woodcuts from Alice in Wonderland to an early edition of Millicent Garrett Fawcett’s The Education of Women for the Middle and Upper Classes) as part of Pan Macmillan’s 175th birthday celebrations, on camera, with the legendary writer/illustrator/children’s laureate/hero that is Chris Riddell.
One: Books, although.
Two: Chris Riddell is not just a fountain of talent, modesty, humour, generosity and knowledge - he has a GOLD BLUE PETER BADGE.
Three: Could I not at least have brushed my hair?
Can female science fiction save the world?
Last night I appeared on BBC Radio 4's Front Row with Kirsty Lang and Christina Dalcher, author of the brilliant new novel VOX, to discuss 'feminist sci-fi' and how a rise in female authors, themes and characters in the genre could inspire more girls to enter the notoriously male tech industry.
You can catch up with the conversation on the podcast below - and hang on to the end to get my and Christina's recommendations for our favourite feminist speculative fiction books. Let me know what you think of my choice....
The Future Of Reading In A Digital World
I was recently invited to chat about books with the futurist Mike Walsh.
Mike is one of those people who makes you feel like you could probably Try Harder. He’s a futurist, global speaker and author who travels the world teaching companies like Sony, BBC Worldwide, Deloitte, Cisco and Red Bull about things like “leadership in the age of machine intelligence”.
If that description makes you want to kill him, you should know that he’s also the kind of guy who orders you a flat white (with biscuit) so that it’s there waiting for you, all steaming and velvety, when you show up to record his podcast after a hard day’s graft on a rainy January Wednesday. So: not just an impressive human being, but a good one.
I first met Mike back in my agency days, when we were both doing keynotes at a giant marketing conference in Bogotá, Colombia. People were drinking cocktails and wearing strapless dresses while listening to speakers talk about ‘digital megatrends’ at 10am. It was beyond satire.
This time round, a good five years later and in the much colder but equally beyond-satire environs of a Mayfair hotel, Mike wanted to get my take on the future of publishing. So we talked the importance of libraries, the need to be an entrepreneurial author, the joys of print, the rise of independent presses, and my own debut novel, The Charmed Life of Alex Moore (see what I did there?).
Anyway - let me know what you think.