

1: The Goldster Inside Story Podcast – Introduction Episode – The Goldster Inside Story Podcast
On the Goldster Book Club podcast you hear captivating interviews with best-selling authors, intrepid explorers, former spies and international sports people. We have different shows – Inside Story, Purpose, Passion and Grit, and Author to Author. By joining Goldster you can be part of the live conversation asking our guests directly any question you want — about their failures, successes and what drives them. So far we have talked to best-selling authors, Ian Rankin, Ely Griffiths and Adele Parks; acclaimed historians, adventurers and travel writers Roger Morehouse, Justin Marozzi and Odd Harald Hague; eagle-eyed commentators, Parag Khanna, Tim Marshall and Geoff Payne; The list goes on.
You don’t have to have the read the book or know the subject. Goldster presenters will draw you into their world and make you feel at home; Biographer and descendant of Charles Dickens, Lucinda Hawksley; Journalist, thriller writer and Lucinda’s distant cousin, Humphrey Hawksley; Polar explorer Rosie Stancer; and international cricketer and rugby player, Alistair Hignell. We would love to meet you. Goldster is barely two years old, and we’re booming.
Come join in the Goldster Book Club conversation.
www.Goldster.co.uk/book-club

32: Eva Rice and Lucinda Hawksley – The Goldster Inside Story Podcast – The Goldster Inside Story Podcast
It’s 1990. The Happy Mondays are in the charts, a fifteen-year-old called Kate Moss is on the cover of The Face magazine, and Julia Roberts wears thigh-boots for the poster of a new movie called Pretty Woman. February Kingdom is nineteen years old when she is knocked sideways by family tragedy. Then one evening in May, she finds an escaped canary in her kitchen and it sparks a glimmer of hope in her. With the help of the bird called Yellow, Feb starts to feel her way out of her own private darkness, just as her aunt embarks on a passionate and all-consuming affair with a married American drama teacher. From the author of the modern classic. Eva Rice’s new book, This Could be Everything is a coming-of-age story with its roots under the pavements of a pre-Richard-Curtis-era Notting Hill that has all but vanished.
Eva Rice has written 5 novels and is the author of the Sunday Times bestseller The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets – a post-war coming-of-age story that was runner-up in the 2006 Richard and Judy Book of the Year. It is currently being developed by Fudge Park (creators of The Inbetweeners) and Moonage Pictures (Pursuit of Love) as a major new TV series. Eva has also toured with bands since her early twenties and has written the music and lyrics for Harriet a musical based on an early Jilly Cooper novel due to open in 2023. She has a geek-like fascination with pop music, and her party trick is recalling chart positions.
To watch the recording of this episode then please click here.

30: Jessica Fellowes and Lucinda Hawksley – The Goldster Inside Story Podcast – The Goldster Inside Story Podcast
Jessica Fellowes is the author of the crime series, The Mitford Murders, which has been published in eighteen territories worldwide and nominated for awards in England, Germany, Italy and France. Her first standalone novel, The Best Friend, was published this year in the UK and US.
Jessica started her career in journalism, working as the deputy editor of Country Life magazine and as a columnist on the Mail on Sunday. Her first books were the five official companion books to the TV series Downton Abbey, several of which have appeared in the New York Times and Sunday Times bestseller lists. Jessica has also written short stories for Vogue Italia and contributed to a number of shows on radio and television, from Woman’s Hour to Lorraine Kelly’s show, as well as having given lectures across the US and UK.
To watch the original recording of this podcast, please click here.

28: Paul Chronnell and Sarah-Louise Young and Lucinda Hawksley – The Goldster Inside Story Podcast – The Goldster Inside Story Podcast
In 1985, 24 young people from around the world had their RSVP pen pal requests (and their full postal addresses!) published in the bestselling music magazine of the day, Smash Hits. 35 years later, a couple from South London decided to reply – to all of them.
Paul Chronnell and Sarah-Louise Young then wrote a unique, funny and touching book (think Danny Wallace & Dave Gorman meet Nora Ephron and Richard Curtis) about their quest to first find, and then reunite 24 pen pal seekers with their teenage selves. The result was The RSVPeople. Paul is a feature-film screenwriter, playwright, author. He has written TV comedy and humorous articles for magazines. Sarah is an award-winning actor, singer, writer and cabaret performer, currently touring the country with her one woman show An Evening Without Kate Bush.
Join Lucinda Hawksley for the Goldster Inside Story, as she chats to Paul and Sarah about their quest. It wasn’t easy – who still lives at their childhood address? (In this case: no one.) But armed with nothing more than the obsessive attention to detail of Hercule Poirot, the powers of the Internet and more coffee than is strictly good for a middle aged couple, they followed the clues and contacted strangers, in a self-deprecating bid to answer those 1980’s cries for connection. It’s a story of fun, of surprise, of tenacity, but also one of love – a heart-warming tale about people and the power of actually reaching out and saying hello.
Sarah’s photo credit: Jamie Zubairi
Book jacket credit: Angus Stewart.
Twitter:
@TheRsvpeople
@SLYtheatremaker
@PaulieChronn

26: Joe Treasure and Lucinda Hawksley – The Goldster Inside Story Podcast – The Goldster Inside Story Podcast
The Male Gaze, Joe Treasure’s first novel, was inspired by his experiences in Los Angeles during the early years of George W Bush's "war on terror". In his second novel, Besotted he drew on his memories of growing up in a large, eccentric family and his close bond with a troubled but brilliant brother. This is a theme on which Joe is now working more directly, as he is currently writing a memoir.
Joe’s most recent novel, The Book of Air, envisaged a deadly airborne virus that destroyed society and gave rise to a community of survivors, whose rules and rituals were based on a close reading of Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre.
During the 2020 lockdown, Joe wrote a series of poems about famous paintings. He turned this into a performance in which the readings are richly illustrated by slides – art from six centuries brought dramatically to life through the imagined voices of the artists and the figures in their paintings. Designed initially for Zoom audiences, Out of the Frame: poems on paintings has now been delivered live in the mountains of Colorado and in Monmouth’s medieval Priory. With an actor reading the female-voiced poems (about half of them), Joe will also be presenting Out of the Frame on the 21st of June as part of the Wandsworth Arts Fringe.
To watch the recording of this podcast please click here

24: Anni Domingo and Lucinda Hawksley – The Goldster Inside Story Podcast – The Goldster Inside Story Podcast
Breaking the Maafa Chain takes the reader back to the nineteenth century. Two sisters, Fatmata and Salimatu, are captured and sold separately into slavery. Forced to change their names to Faith and Sarah, they end up in two different countries with opposite slavery laws. Faith ends up in America, where slavery is still legal and slaves don't have any rights; Sarah ends up in a Victorian England and as the goddaughter of Queen Victoria. Can the two sisters reclaim their freedom and identity in a world that is trying to break them down and mould them to its coloniser's will?
Based on the true story of Sarah Forbes Bonetta, Breaking the Maafa Chain will take you on a journey of loss, survival, hope, identity and tradition. Join the author of this acclaimed debut novel on 24 March, when Anni Domingo will be chatting to Lucinda Hawksley about her writing, her career in the theatre, and the story behind this fascinating book.
To watch the recording of this episode please click here

22: Natalie Jenner and Lucinda Hawksley – The Goldster Inside Story Podcast – The Goldster Inside Story Podcast
Natalie Jenner is the internationally bestselling author of The Jane Austen Society and Bloomsbury Girls, which were both instant national bestsellers, Amazon Best Books of the Month, and People Magazine Books of the Week.
The Jane Austen Society has now been published in more than twenty languages and has been optioned for film and television. Natalie's third novel, Every Time We Say Goodbye, is scheduled for release in early 2024.
Natalie was born in England and raised in Canada. She has been a corporate lawyer and career coach, and once owned an independent bookstore in Oakville, Ontario, where she lives with her family and two rescue dogs.
To watch the recording of this episode please click here

20: Philip Clark and Lucinda Hawksley – The Goldster Inside Story Podcast – The Goldster Inside Story Podcast
Philip Clark is an author and music journalist who spent twenty years writing about classical music, modern composition, jazz, free improvisation and rock music for many leading publications, including The Wire, Gramophone, The Guardian and London Review of Books.
He trained as a composer (and in that capacity worked with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the percussionist Orphy Robinson), but has more recently preferred to produce his own sounds playing piano as part of a weekly free improvisation workshop.
His biography of Dave Brubeck – A Life In Time – was published in 2020, and he worked with legendary guitarist of The Kinks, Dave Davies, on his autobiography, Living On A Thin Line, published in 2022. Philip is currently writing Sound and The City – due for publication in 2024 – a history of the sound of New York City. He was co-winner of the 2021 Eccles Centre and Hay Festival Writers Award, which gave him a year-long writer’s residency at the British Library.
To watch the original recording the click here

18: Rosie Stancer and Lucinda Hawksley – The Goldster Inside Story Podcast – The Goldster Inside Story Podcast
Last October we interviewed our own PPG Presenter, the world-renowned explorer Rosie Stancer, as she introduced her plans to cross the Sinai desert to gather scientific evidence on the depredation of climate change on the lives of the Bedu nomads of the Sinai Peninsula and her intention to report to the COP 26 Conference at the end of their 160 mile journey. (see map below of their proposed camel trek).
Unfortunate security concerns in Egypt prevented the expedition from going at their chosen time – but the good news is that the wait is over, the trip is on again, and Rosie and her formidable team will be setting off on 15th Feb for their adventure.
Besides Rosie Stancer , herself a veteran of record breaking journeys to both the North and South Poles, , her latest expedition a crossing of the dried up Aral Sea, brings experience and leadership, the team also consists of her deputy, Pom Oliver, a veteran herself of many Arctic and Antarctic journeys, and another member of the Aral Sea expedition importantly gathering physiological data on human destruction of water systems.. Arabella Dorman, a war artist. will be recording another conflict now facing humanity – the dangers and effects of climate change. In her paintings she will record not only landscape but also the effects on the lives of those nomads coming to terms with a changing environment, and, last but very much not least, the redoubtable Lee Watts whose title on the expedition, Communications and Medic, belies the serious all round responsibility for the safety of his companions and the effectualness of the expedition. A former paratrooper, he is a veteran of war, a trainer and instructor and a bible of first aid. On retirement from the armed forces he established his own Gym, where he has been exercising his fellow travellers.
Goldster will be monitoring the expedition throughout, keeping daily track of the journey and – put it in your diaries – on 28th February Humphrey Hawksley will interview the team at the isolated St Catherine’s Monastery in the middle of the desert., a third of the way through their desert crossing.
On Tuesday 14th February, a day before Rosie leaves for Egypt, Lucinda will interview her on PPG. As the adventure begins she will ask how Rosie is feeling, how has she overcome the disappointment and delays, what is she is looking forward to now, and what does she fear …

16: Katherine May and Lucinda Hawksley – The Goldster Inside Story Podcast – The Goldster Inside Story Podcast
Katherine May is an internationally bestselling author and podcaster living in Whitstable, UK. Her hybrid memoir Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times became a New York Times, Sunday Times and Der Spiegel bestseller. It was also was adapted for BBC Radio 4’s Book of the Week, and was shortlisted for the Porchlight and Barnes and Noble Book of the Year.
The Electricity of Every Living Thing, her memoir of a midlife autism diagnosis, is currently being adapted as an audio drama by Audible. Her other titles include novels such as The Whitstable High Tide Swimming Club, and The Best, Most Awful Job, an anthology of essays about motherhood which she edited. Her journalism and essays have appeared in a range of publications including The New York Times, The Observer and Aeon.
Katherine lives with her husband, son, two cats and a dog. She loves walking, sea-swimming and pickling slightly unappealing things. On 8 December, Katherine will be chatting to Lucinda Hawksley about her writing career and the importance of ‘wintering’.
To watch the original recording, then please click here

14: Laura Payne and Lucinda Hawksley – The Goldster Inside Story Podcast – The Goldster Inside Story Podcast
Laura Payne began her career as a journalist and has a background in international media and marketing. She has advised and mentored some of the world’s leading businesses and organisations – and then, in her 50s, she decided to change her life and career. She made the decision to go back into academia and train as a psychotherapist.
Her book Nine Steps to a Mindful Life (Without Meditating) grew out of her new way of life. The book contains simple exercises with which Laura believes you can turn your life around. It is for anyone looking for a fresh approach, and for all those seeking a sense of calm and empowerment.
Whether you are tired, anxious, stressed or just looking to explore a new ‘you’, Nine Steps to a Mindful Life (Without Meditating) will give you insights into how to achieve personal transformation. Join Lucinda Hawksley on 2 February, as she talks to Laura about mindfulness, dream therapy and how Goldster members can enrich their life with her strategies.
http://www.laurapayne.co.uk/
To watch the recording of this episode, please click here

12: Midge Gillies and Lucinda Hawksley – The Goldster Inside Story Podcast – The Goldster Inside Story Podcast
There’s nowhere quite like Piccadilly Circus. From the moment they emerge, blinking from the underground station, visitors to Piccadilly Circus face a sensory onslaught. Its streets and alleyways merge into an intoxicating thoroughfare, with the power to propel an individual onwards to adventure, romance, or something more sinister. Ever since its iconic Eros statue appeared in 1893, the junction has been a vibrant meeting place, attracting visitors and pleasure-seekers from all walks of life: political plans and theatrical careers were hatched at its restaurant and café tables, lovers met below the statue of Eros, and to this day tourists pour out of its historic Tube to experience the bright lights of London’s nightlife.
Piccadilly explores how the area has been shaped by social and historical events – from female suffrage to world wars to technological advancements – and by its colourful cast of characters – from flower girls, shop assistants and sex workers, to film stars, Bright Young Things and conmen (and women).
For many, the Circus has represented both a home from home and a brave new world, as campaigners, revellers, opportunists and romantics have all been drawn to Piccadilly’s bright lights. Join Lucinda Hawksley on 12 January, as she chats to fellow author Midge Gillies about why the story of why Piccadilly Circus continues to mean so much to so many.
To watch the original video recording, please click here

10: Henrietta Heald and Lucinda Hawksley – The Goldster Inside Story Podcast – The Goldster Inside Story Podcast
Henrietta Heald is the author of Magician of the North, a biography of William Armstrong, the dazzling Victorian inventor, engineer and industrialist who created Cragside in Northumberland, the first house in the world to be lit by hydroelectricity. The book was shortlisted for two literary prizes and, since first publication in 2010, has generated huge interest in Armstrong, with Henrietta making many appearances on TV and radio and in various publications to elucidate his life and work. Earlier this year, she appeared in ‘Diggers’, an episode of BBC2’s Inside the Factory, when she was interviewed about Armstrong’s invention of the hydraulic crane.
Henrietta’s most recent book is Magnificent Women and Their Revolutionary Machines, about the extraordinary and inspiring individuals who set up the Women’s Engineering Society a century ago. She argues that the achievements of the women engineers amounts to a vibrant ‘wave’ of feminism that until now has eluded the attention of historians.
Before taking up the pen herself, Henrietta had a long and successful career in book publishing. She was chief editor of Chronicle of Britain and Ireland and the Reader’s Digest Illustrated Guide to Britain’s Coast. Her other books include Coastal Living, La Vie est Belle, Blue & White At Home and a National Trust guide to Cragside. A graduate in English from Durham University, she has become a campaigner on behalf of women engineers and the regeneration of local heritage in northeast England. Join Henrietta as she chats to Lucinda Hawksley, at 12pm on 5th May, on the Goldster Inside Story.
To watch the original video recording, please click here

8: Joanne Harris and Lucinda Hawksley – The Goldster Inside Story Podcast – The Goldster Inside Story Podcast
We have a very special Goldster Book Club event to welcome in the new year. Lucinda Hawksley will be chatting online to Joanne Harris, the award-winning author of 19 novels, including Chocolat, Blackberry Wine and The Strawberry Thief. Her novels also include four psychological thrillers, including Gentlemen & Players and Different Class. Chocolat was turned into an Oscar-nominated movie, starring Juliette Binoche and Johnny Depp.
Joanne was born to a French mother and an English father, and in addition to having written several novels set in France, she has also written books on French cookery, including – of course! – a book on cooking with chocolate. Her latest books include the enchanting "mosaic novel" Honeycomb and a non-fiction book, perfect for all aspiring writers: Ten Things About Writing. She has also written novellas (including one about Doctor Who), short stories, screenplays, game scripts, libretti for two short operas, and a musical. Joanne is also a passionate advocate for authors’ rights, and is currently the Chair of the Society of Authors (SOA) and a member of the Board of the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS).
Join Joanne Harris as she chats to Goldster Book Club Presenter and fellow author Lucinda Hawksley.
To watch the video of this podcast, then please click here

6: Damian Le Bas and Lucinda Hawksley – The Goldster Inside Story Podcast – The Goldster Inside Story Podcast
Damian Le Bas was brought up by Romany Traveller parents, who had lived a life of hardship and adventure on the road. Because his family had largely settled down by the time he was born, Damian always felt that he had missed out on a vital part of his culture. While he was working as a journalist defending Romany people and other Travellers, he realised that few people really saw ‘Gypsies’ as belonging on the cultural and geographical maps of Britain. So he decided to spend a year living in a Ford Transit van, staying in places with an historical attachment to Britain's nomadic peoples – the stopping places – and writing about his experiences alongside the history of ethnic Travellers and snippets of his own family story. The result was his first book, The Stopping Places: a Journey Through Gypsy Britain. It mixes aspects of travel writing, memoir, folk history and nature writing and, in addition to winning several awards, was a BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week.
Damian Le Bas is a former editor of Travellers’ Times magazine. In 2019 he presented the documentary A Very British History: Romany Gypsies on BBC4 and has been a consultant on various TV programmes, mostly translating into the Romani language. When he is not writing Damian is a keen hill walker, scuba diver, outdoor swimmer and sitter in coffee shops.
His next book is due to be published by Chatto & Windus in 2023.
To watch the recording of this episode please click here

4: Elly Griffiths and Lucinda Hawksley – The Goldster Inside Story Podcast – The Goldster Inside Story Podcast
Elly Griffiths wrote four novels under her own name (Domenica de Rosa) before turning to crime with The Crossing Places. This was her first novel featuring forensic archaeologist Dr Ruth Galloway – since then her name has entered into the elite of fictional detectives, with The Times commenting “Galloway now seems as real as Marple and Morse’.
The Crossing Places won the Mary Higgins Clark award and several novels in the series have been shortlisted for the Theakstons Crime Novel of the Year. The 14th novel in the series, The Locked Room, was published in February 2022 and Elly is currently writing the 15th book.
Elly also writes the Brighton Mysteries, a series set in the theatrical world of the 1950s and 1960s. The 6th book, The Midnight Hour came out in 2021 and the 7th is waiting in the wings, to be published soon. In 2020, Elly wrote what was described as a “standalone” mystery, The Stranger Diaries. It won the Edgar award for Best Crime Novel – and her detective, Harbinder Kaur, was so popular, that it became another series. The third book, Bleeding Heart Yard, is being published on 29 September.
In 2016 Elly was awarded the CWA Dagger in the Library for her body of work – and she prolifically keeps producing new novels every year. Elly was one of our first Inside Story authors on Goldster and we are thrilled to invite her back on the eve of Agatha Christie’s birthday, to talk about her writing career and what it was like to be chosen as one of the special few authors asked to write a brand new Miss Marple story.
To watch the filming of the recording, please click here

2: Adele Parks and Lucinda Hawksley – The Goldster Inside Story Podcast – The Goldster Inside Story Podcast
Join Lucinda Hawksley as she chats with Adele Parks about her amazing writing career.
Adele Parks MBE was born in North Yorkshire and has become one of Britain’s best-loved novelists. She is the author of 22 bestselling novels, including the Sunday Times and eBook Number One bestseller, Both Of You.
Over four and a half million UK editions of Adele’s work have been sold, and her books have been translated into 31 different languages. Her recent Sunday Times Number One bestsellers, Lies Lies Lies and Just My Luck were shortlisted for the British Book Awards and have been optioned for development for TV.
Adele is an ambassador of the National Literacy Trust and the Reading Agency: two charities that promote literacy in the UK. She has lived in Botswana, in Italy and in London and is now settled in Guildford, Surrey. In 2022 she was awarded an MBE for services to literature.
To watch the filming of the recording, please click here