The Waterstones Podcast

Kate Atkinson's latest novel beautifully combines her skills in historical detail and crime caper plotting for a story which assembles a motley crew of misfits attempting to curate 1951's Festival of Britain. We sat down to speak with her about the allure of the period, how she creates character and why bringing joy to readers is still what drives her.

Join us as we celebrate Rebecca Perry as the author of this year's Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize-winner, May We Feed The King. Over a glass of bubbly, we discuss the connections between her curator character and the art of writing, playing with the tropes of historical fiction, and her love of cats.

Jon Ronson's latest journalistic adventure begins with a series of text messages from his son which then leads to an odyssey from reality TV, to influencers, to America's disenfranchised men to paint a portrait of masculinity in crisis as only he can. We spoke with him about where his work ethic comes from, being a slave to the algorithm and how many turrets is too many turrets.

When Alice Oseman created the first volume of Heartstopper on her own, she couldn’t have foreseen what a phenomenon it would become. As the final volume hits shelves and the Netflix adaptation concludes with the film Heartstopper Forever, we were delighted to spend some time with Alice to reflect on all those years of work, the incredible fans and maybe even what might come next.

Andrew Sean Greer writes the kind of novels that you want to press into others' hands when what they need is a book filled with charm, comedy and a sense of romance. After the trials of his hapless author Arthur Less in his eponymous Pulitzer Prize-winning Less, Greer’s latest novel transports us to Villa Coco in Tuscany for a summer we will never forget. We sat down to speak with him about how to create a ‘charm novel’, the real-life inspiration behind his fiction and the deeper meaning that lies underneath even the funniest moments.