Little Written Podcast - Conversations with Writers Thomas Oléron Evans

In part two of my interview with novelist, Sophie Coulombeau, she discusses her upcoming second novel, Point No Point, a multi-stranded political novel set in 1790s London. The first part (https://soundcloud.com/littlewritten/sophie-coulombeau-little-written-part-1) covered her award-winning first novel, Rites.

Over the two parts, our topics of discussion range across the challenge of balancing multiple narrators, portrayals of Catholicism in fiction, inept internet trolls, the possibility that her new novel is an elaborate metaphor about Jeremy Corbyn (It isn't. She was joking.) and much more.

We recorded this interview back in January, and Sophie mentions that she was intending to get the manuscript of her new novel to her agent in March, so hopefully the book is now a step or two closer to publication.

Rites is a really intriguing (and fairly short) novel, which I read straight through from cover to cover, pausing only for as long as it took a passport control officer to verify that I was allowed into the UK. I would thoroughly recommend that everyone gives it a go.

Sophie will also be a guest on the May edition of The Global Lab (@the-global-lab), so keep an eye out for that.

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RITES
Amazon (referral link): www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/19019…mathistophele-21

TWITTER
Sophie Coulombeau: www.twitter.com/SMCoulombeau
Little Written: www.twitter.com/LittleWritten
Thomas Oléron Evans: www.twitter.com/Mathistopheles

WEBSITES
Sophie Coulombeau: www.sophiecoulombeau.wordpress.com/
Little Written Podcast: www.littlewritten.co.uk

In this, the first part of a two-part interview, I talk to Sophie Coulombeau, novelist and academic, about her award-winning first novel, Rites, which was published in 2012 . The second part (https://soundcloud.com/littlewritten/sophie-coulombeau-little-written-part-2) will focus on her upcoming second novel Point No Point, which may well be out next year.

Over the two parts, our topics of discussion range across the challenge of balancing multiple narrators, portrayals of Catholicism in fiction, inept internet trolls, the possibility that her new novel is an elaborate metaphor about Jeremy Corbyn (It isn't. She was joking.) and much more.

Rites is a really intriguing (and fairly short) novel, which I read straight through from cover to cover, pausing only for as long as it took a passport control officer to verify that I was allowed into the UK. I would thoroughly recommend that everyone gives it a go.

Sophie will also be a guest on the May edition of The Global Lab (https://soundcloud.com/the-global-lab), so keep an eye out for that.

___________

RITES
Amazon (referral link): http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1901927520/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=1901927520&linkCode=as2&tag=mathistophele-21

TWITTER
Sophie Coulombeau: www.twitter.com/SMCoulombeau
Little Written: www.twitter.com/LittleWritten
Thomas Oléron Evans: www.twitter.com/Mathistopheles

WEBSITES
Sophie Coulombeau: https://sophiecoulombeau.wordpress.com/
Little Written Podcast: www.littlewritten.co.uk

In this episode, I talk to Dan Rebellato, playwright, academic and lead writer on the first season of BBC Radio 4's massive adaptation of Emile Zola's twenty-volume Rougon-Macquart novels, titled Blood, Sex and Money, which starts this Saturday (21 November) and runs for nine consecutive days.

The adaptation will eventually total twenty-seven episodes across three seasons (called Blood, Sex and Money, appropriately enough), and Dan has written episodes one, two and nine of the first run. He very kindly gave me a sneak preview of his episodes and talked to me about his role on the project.

Our conversation covers the challenges of adapting such an enormous body of work, why narrators can be boring, why no one in nineteenth century France speaks French, doing action scenes in audio, the finer points of nineteenth century French naturalist literature (well, sort of) and much more.

The discussion becomes a little spoilerific in the final ten minutes or so, but Dan does give a warning about this when it happens, so listen out for that if you are concerned, and act accordingly. Otherwise, enjoy the interview and be sure to follow the serial over the next week. It's pretty marvellous.

Twitter:

Dan Rebellato: www.twitter.com/DanRebellato
Little Written: www.twitter.com/LittleWritten
Me: www.twitter.com/Mathistopheles

Websites:

Dan Rebellato: www.danrebellato.co.uk
BBC Radio 4 - Blood, Sex and Money: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06pydll
Little Written Podcast: www.littlewritten.co.uk

In this episode, I interview theatre reviewer, Annegret Märten. Annegret writes for Exeunt Magazine, and has worked behind the scenes on a variety of theatrical productions.

Our conversation covers her approach to reviewing plays, the mysterious role of the dramaturge, the differences between British and German theatre, her doctoral thesis on speechless monsters, and plenty more besides.

Sadly, our brief foray into the possible academic relevance of Buffy the Vampire Slayer was lost, because the memory card ran out of space. Godzilla did make the cut though, so there's no need to despair!

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Twitter:

Annegret Märten: twitter.com/anne_schreibt
Exeunt Magazine: twitter.com/theatremagazine

Websites:

Annegret Märten: http://annegretmarten.co.uk
Exeunt Magazine: http://exeuntmagazine.com

Podcasts:

Pursued by a Bear (Soundcloud): @exeunt-magazine
Pursued by a Bear (iTunes): itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/pursu…id990841757?mt=2
Uncaused Effects (the specific episode): https://soundcloud.com/exeunt-magazine/uncaused-effects-playwrights-on-playwriting
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Little Written Website: www.littlewritten.co.uk
Little Written on Twitter: twitter.com/LittleWritten
Me on Twitter: twitter.com/Mathistopheles

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PS. The frogs and crickets (picked up from http://soundbible.com) are a public domain substitute for a theme tune… and yes, that is indeed celebrity mathematician and broadcaster, Dr Hannah Fry (twitter.com/FryRsquared), kindly reading the podcast title.

In this episode, I interview writer, director, theatre producer and broadcaster, Nick Hennegan. Nick is artistic director of the Maverick Theatre Company, founder of the London Literary Pub Crawl and presents of the Literary London Show on Resonance 104.4FM.

Since Nick recently gave a very extensive interview on his career to The Zone Show (Episode 141), I wanted to avoid a retread of that ground by focussing more on how he actually goes about his writing.

Our conversation covers his plays Henry V - Lion of England, A Ghost of a Chance, PALS and his version of Hamlet, along with a bit of a diversion into Doctor Who and our mutual appreciation of Russell T Davies!

Nick Hennegan on Twitter: twitter.com/NHennegan
Maverick Theatre: www.maverick-theatre.co.uk/
London Literary Pub Crawl: www.londonliterarypubcrawl.com/
Literary London Podcast: itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-l…id925374298?mt=2
Henry V - Lion of England: www.henryvplay.com/
The Zone Show: www.thezoneshow.com/

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Little Written Website: www.littlewritten.co.uk
Little Written on Twitter: twitter.com/LittleWritten
Me on Twitter: twitter.com/Mathistopheles

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PS. The frogs and crickets (picked up from http://soundbible.com) are a public domain substitute for a theme tune… and yes, that is indeed celebrity mathematician and broadcaster, Dr Hannah Fry (twitter.com/FryRsquared), kindly reading the podcast title.