It was the end of a relationship in London that led Tabitha Lasley to pack her bags, leave her journalism job and move to Aberdeen, Scotland, to pursue a story that she’d been sitting on for years. She grew up on the Wirral in northwest England, a place frequented by the men who worked on oil rigs in the Irish Sea. She initially set out to write an objective ... Show More
Nov 2023
A Word in Your Ear – The Half-Blood
Texas-based Bulgarian writer Miroslav Penkov wasn’t sure if anyone would pay attention to his first English-language novel, Stork Mountain. However, when the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative paired him with The English Patient author Michael Ondaatje, it gave him the boos ... Show More
24m 12s
Nov 2023
A Word in Your Ear – Disquiet
Winner of Pulitzer and Nobel prizes, the late Toni Morrison was one of the all-time great American novelists. For the inaugural Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative, she was paired with Australian writer Julia Leigh, who was busy writing her second novel, Disquiet. Hear Kerry ... Show More
19m 11s
Oct 2022
Erin Keane, "Runaway: Notes on the Myths That Made Me" (Belt Publishing, 2022)
From Erin Keane, editor in chief at Salon, comes Runaway: Notes in the Myths that Made Me (Belt Publishing, 2022), a touching memoir about the search for truths in the stories families tell. In 1970, Erin Keane's mother ran away from home for the first time. She was thirteen year ... Show More
1h 10m
Apr 2020
Young Carers, Elizabeth Strout, Matilda McCrear
How are young carers coping in the lockdown? We hear from 17 year old James who looks after his mum and grandma. And Dr Kate Blake-Holmes joins us too. She's a social worker at the University of East Anglia and is carrying out research into this area. As we experience lockdown, h ... Show More
49m 17s
Nov 2023
Laleh Khalili, "Corporeal Life of Seafaring" (MACK, 2023)
The body of the seafarer is a fulcrum upon which global systems of power, longstanding maritime traditions, and gendered and racialised pressures all rest. In this vital new essay, scholar Laleh Khalili draws on her ongoing research and experiences of travelling on cargo ships to ... Show More
47m 27s
Jan 2023
Katrina Megget - Her battle with self doubt and self-worth - walking the Te Araroa Trail in New Zealand and sailing around Great Britain with her partner on a 28-ft boat.
<div> <p>Katrina Megget is an ordinary woman who dared to believe she was more than she thought she was. After three years of listening to her self-doubt and the negative voice in her head that told her she wasn't good enough she finally set out to walk the 3,000km (1,864 mile) T ... Show More
49m 41s
May 2024
Matilda Bickers, "Working It: Sex Workers on the Work of Sex" (PM Press, 2023)
Fiercely intelligent, fantastically transgressive, Working It: Sex Workers on the Work of Sex (PM Press, 2023) is an intimate portrait of the lives of sex workers. A polyphonic story of triumph, survival, and solidarity, this collection showcases the vastly different experiences ... Show More
38m 6s