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  • Sally Hayden: My Fourth Time, We Drowned

    Sally Hayden: My Fourth Time, We Drowned
    2024/04/23
    I spoke to Sally Hayden about her book My Fourth Time, We Drowned.

    It's about people who tried to cross the Mediterranean Sea from Africa to Europe but ended up locked in detention centres in Libya. The book won the Orwell Prize and was shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize. She describes it as a 'book of evidence'.

    We talked about:
    • her early reporting on the story while working for Vice
    • the role played by business cards
    • the importance of making yourself contactable
    • having to respond to sources at all hours
    • how the story took over her life
    • struggling to get the story commissioned
    • how journalism awards helped change that
    • warnings from MI6 that her life was in danger
    • working out what the book would be
    • finding an agent and publisher who believe in what you're doing
    • giving away her prize money

    You can buy her book here:

    https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/my-fourth-time-we-drowned-seeking-refuge-on-the-world-s-deadliest-migration-route-sally-hayden/6026367

    She recommended Against A Tide of Evil by Mukesh Kapila:

    https://www.amazon.co.uk/Against-Tide-Evil-Whistleblower-Twenty-First/dp/0991099338

    And you can buy my books here:

    https://uk.bookshop.org/contributors/andrew-hankinson

    Thanks for listening.
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    1 時間 3 分
  • David Whitehouse: About A Son

    David Whitehouse: About A Son
    2024/02/16
    This episode features David Whitehouse discussing his Gordon Burn Prize-shortlisted nonfiction book About A Son. It's about Colin Hehir's battle to know the truth about his son's murderer.

    The book is written in second-person, which we get into. We also discuss why David switched from novels to nonfiction, his start in men's magazines, how he got the material for this book, and finally ethics, including a decision by David which surprised me.

    You can buy David's books here:

    https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/about-a-son-a-murder-and-a-father-s-search-for-truth-david-whitehouse/7277920

    https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/bed-david-whitehouse/3460206

    https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/mobile-library-david-whitehouse/3501647

    https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/the-long-forgotten-david-whitehouse/165838

    David recommended Stay True by Hua Hsu, which is here:

    https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/stay-true-winner-of-the-pulitzer-prize-in-memoir-hua-hsu/7512493

    And you can buy my books here:

    https://uk.bookshop.org/contributors/andrew-hankinson

    Thanks for listening.
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    1 時間 7 分
  • Philip Gould: When I Die (interview with Keith Blackmore)

    Philip Gould: When I Die (interview with Keith Blackmore)
    2024/02/02
    In this episode I interviewed Keith Blackmore, who edited Philip Gould’s book When I Die, which was published after Philip had died.

    Philip was one of the architects of New Labour, but in 2011 he had cancer. Keith, then the deputy editor at The Times, started serialising an essay Philip had written about his experience, which later formed part of the book. A few months later, Philip died, after which his family asked Keith to edit this book, When I Die.

    In the interview we talk about how Keith became involved and the way newspaper editing can make for gripping narrative, but mostly we talked about how he gathered all the words Philip had left behind, Philip’s writing style, and how Philip documented his death so beautifully.

    You can buy the book here:

    https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/when-i-die-lessons-from-the-death-zone-philip-gould/1858616?ean=9780349139111

    Keith also recommended A Death in Malta by Paul Caruana Galizia . You can buy that here:

    https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/a-death-in-malta-an-assassination-and-a-family-s-quest-for-justice-paul-caruana-galizia/7419825?ean=9781529151558

    If you want to have a look at Tortoise, go here:

    https://www.tortoisemedia.com/

    And finally, my books are here:

    https://uk.bookshop.org/contributors/andrew-hankinson

    Thank you for listening.
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    54 分
  • David Wolf: The Guardian Long Read

    David Wolf: The Guardian Long Read
    2024/01/26
    A slightly different episode, this time I spoke to David Wolf, editor of The Guardian Long Read, about their new magazine-format publication comprising some of their best pieces.

    David previously worked for Prospect magazine, so we talked a bit about his road to becoming editor of Guardian Long Read, before getting into the mechanics of producing longform journalism, what can go wrong, and what the experience is at the editor's end of things.

    You can buy the magazine here:

    https://guardianbookshop.com/the-guardian-long-read-9781399968713

    David recommended two books. which are here:

    https://www.amazon.co.uk/Crossing-Line-Year-Land-Apartheid/dp/0892553251

    And here:

    https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/this-house-of-grief-helen-garner/482318?ean=9781399606806

    And finally, you can buy my books here:

    https://uk.bookshop.org/contributors/andrew-hankinson

    Thanks for listening.
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    57 分
  • David James Smith: The Sleep of Reason

    David James Smith: The Sleep of Reason
    2023/12/08
    I spoke to David James Smith about his book The Sleep of Reason, which is about the murder of James Bulger.

    David is a tremendous journalist who has written features for places like The Sunday Times Magazine and Esquire. We talked about his early career in journalism and how he came to be commissioned to write a book about the murder of James Bulger weeks after it happened.

    We spoke about the ethics of the book and how he wrote it, including ingratiating himself with the solicitor of one of the murderers, getting to know police and attending the trial.

    You can buy the book here:

    https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/the-sleep-of-reason-the-james-bulger-case-david-james-smith/3222824?ean=9780571340569

    He recommended The New Journalism by Tom Wolfe:

    https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/new-journalism-tom-wolfe/121601?ean=9780330243155

    And my books are here:

    https://uk.bookshop.org/contributors/andrew-hankinson

    Thanks for listening.
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    1 時間 5 分
  • Will Storr: The Status Game

    Will Storr: The Status Game
    2023/11/02
    This is an interview with Will Storr about his book The Status Game, which was named a book of the year by The Times and was recently championed on Joe Rogan's podcast.

    Will is my friend and former features editor. We started off talking about how he got into journalism, his early Gonzo-influenced magazine work at Loaded, and how he shifted into becoming an award-winning journalist for broadsheets.

    We also talked about his other books, including The Science of Storytelling, which is about how and why people tell stories; we talked about when he went undercover with Nazis; about writing in the dark; and about working out how much he should be present in his books.

    You can buy Will's books here:

    https://uk.bookshop.org/contributors/will-storr

    Will recommended Tom Kizzia's Pilgrim's Wilderness:

    https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/pilgrim-s-wilderness-a-true-story-of-faith-and-madness-on-the-alaska-frontier-tom-kizzia/4407020?ean=9780307587831

    And my books are here:

    https://uk.bookshop.org/contributors/andrew-hankinson

    Thanks for listening.
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    1 時間 14 分
  • David Blum: Flash in the Pan

    David Blum: Flash in the Pan
    2023/05/03
    This was a hugely revealing conversation with David Blum, who now works for Audible, but once wrote books.

    We started off talking about David's early journalism career, including the famous 1985 New York Magazine article about the Brat Pack, a phrase he coined.

    He then wrote the book Flash in the Pan which came out in 1992. It was about a New York restaurant, invested in by actor Matt Dillon. For 15 months David embedded himself at the restaurant as it was launched and slowly failed.

    We talked about why the book didn't sell well, the impact on his career, the reaction of those he was writing about, and his career afterwards, including the book having a second life after being championed by Anthony Bourdain, who called the book "painfully hilarious".

    We also talked about his techniques, how he got dialogue down, how he gained access not just at the restaurant but to the Brat Pack, and his use of raw material on the page.

    You can buy Flash in the Pan here:

    https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/flash-in-the-pan-david-blum/3506245?ean=9781439193778

    David recommended George Orwell's Down and Out in Paris and London, which is here:

    https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/down-and-out-in-paris-and-london-george-orwell/4817584?ean=9780008442651

    And finally, my books are here:

    https://uk.bookshop.org/contributors/andrew-hankinson

    Thanks for listening.
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    1 時間 1 分
  • Jo Ann Beard: Festival Days

    Jo Ann Beard: Festival Days
    2023/02/06
    For this episode I spoke to American writer Jo Ann Beard about her latest collection Festival Days and her previous collection The Boys of My Youth.

    We talked about fact, fiction, creative writing, journalism, how her experience of a workplace shooting in which people died changed her writing career, writing for the New Yorker, writing about death or proximity to death, how she feels about using people's stories, and how she constructs her work piece by piece, very, very slowly.

    I found out about Jo Ann's work from William Fiennes, who told me about an essay called The Fourth State of Matter, which is included in The Boys of My Youth and was published by the New Yorker. Here is a link to that essay:

    https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1996/06/24/the-fourth-state-of-matter

    You can buy Festival Days here:

    https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/festival-days-jo-ann-beard/5000893?ean=9780316497220

    You can buy The Boys of My Youth here:

    https://www.amazon.co.uk/Boys-My-Youth-Ann-Beard/dp/0316085251

    She recommended Mothers of Sparta by Dawn Davies:

    https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mothers-Sparta-Memoir-Dawn-Davies/dp/125013370X

    The other book she recommended was The Tender Land by Kathleen Finneran:

    https://www.amazon.co.uk/Tender-Land-Family-Love-Story/dp/0618340742

    Finally, you can buy my books here:

    https://uk.bookshop.org/contributors/andrew-hankinson

    Thank you for listening.
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    1 時間 4 分