Showing results by author "Holly Newson" in All Categories

Joining us at the Audible studios is Sir Lenny Henry, actor, writer, presenter and comedian. Henry has spent decades in the British public eye on television, on our radios, big screens and as a stand-up comedian, often touring internationally. He co-founded Comic Relief in 1985 and has taken part in almost every year’s show since then, the charity raising over £1 billion so far! Henry has documented his career in his books, and most recently penned Rising to the Surface, which takes a look at his hectic life during the ‘80s and ‘90s.

We'll be talking to Nicolas Hamilton about his debut book, Now That I Have Your Attention, finding out what his role is within the Hamilton family, why he pushes himself so hard and how it feels to race against able-bodied drivers.

One of Britain’s greatest lyricists, George the Poet was born in London to Ugandan parents, and regularly performs about diversity, inclusion, equality and discrimination. We’ll be speaking with George the Poet to find out more about Track Record, his memoir which delves into community, colonialism and how these things shape the world around us. We’ll be asking what George learnt about the music industry from having a record deal, how his community growing up shaped him, and why colonialism still persists.

Joining us at Audible Studios is founder and CEO of Netflix Marc Randolph, who has founded over eight companies and is a serial entrepreneur. Randolph's Netflix journey began alongside his friend Reed Hastings in 1997, when they decided to give mail-order DVDs a try. Randolph, having picked up marketing and other tricks of the trade through previous roles, designed the original user interface and spent the first year of Netflix testing different designs to create the perfect business model for customer satisfaction.

Joining us at Audible Studios is Ransom Riggs, the author of the Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children series, to speak to us about the newest installment in the series: A Map of Days. This book, the fourth in the series, tells of Jacob and his friends back in Florida, exploring the legacy of Abe, Jacob’s grandfather. Their adventures begin with a subterranean bunker and delve deeply into the peculiar unlike anything they’ve experienced before.

Author of the New York Times best-selling Daughter of Smoke & Bone trilogy and National Book Award finalist Laini Taylor is a master of young adult fantasy. Following on from Strange the Dreamer, Laini has now published its sequel, Muse of Nightmares, released in October 2018. Laini Taylor talks to us about the protagonists in her new book, how much emphasis she puts on world building and whether or not she actually enjoys writing.

Returning to the Audible Studios to discuss her newest project, international best-selling author and illustrator of the How to Train Your Dragon books Cressida Cowell talks about her latest magical adventure series, The Wizards of Once. With a critically acclaimed series to her name and over 20 published titles, Cressida discusses the underlying themes to her characters, the magical inspiration behind The Wizards of Once and how it feels to have David Tennant as her narrator.

With her debut novel, The Arrangement, Canadian-born Sonya Lalli visits the Audible Studios to talk of all things love, culture and arranged marriages. Now based in London, Sonya is a part-time journalist for legal magazine Global Competition Review and author of The Arrangement, an East-meets-West tale of cultural expectations and modern society that gives a refreshing insight into an all too familiar tale.

When Covid struck and the country entered lockdown, Widdicombe and Beckett were stuck at home and the reality of parenting young children without the escape of work hit hard. They decided to start a podcast, Lockdown Parenting Hell, which meant they could go upstairs, leave the children for a while, and moan about the difficulties of being a dad, which over 2 million people a month started listening to! With the success of the podcast, Beckett and Widdicombe decided there was plenty they hadn’t covered that would make a great audiobook.

A familiar face to many, playing Mr Brown in the Paddington films, and Lord Grantham in Downton Abbey, Hugh Bonneville has been on our screens and stages since the late '80s. His love of acting came from the National Youth Theatre, where his hobby turned into a career path. Ranging from Shakespeare to Mr Stink, Bonneville has playing an incredible range of characters. Looking back at his life so far, Hugh has written his memoir, Playing Under the Piano, giving us an insight into one of Britain’s best-loved actor’s life behind the scenes.

Glover worked her way through the ranks of BBC Radio, starting as a filing clerk, and becoming the presenter of The Listening Project for BBC Radio 4 and My Perfect Country for the BBC World Service, besides many other award-winning projects. Garvey spent a lot of her career on BBC Radio 5 Live, being the first voice heard on the station when it launched at 5am in 1994. She presented some of its main shows such as Midday and Drive, going on to host BBC Radio 4's prestigious Women's Hour.

Joining us at Audible Studios is Rosie Jones, British stand-up comedian, screen writer and children’s author. Having begun her career as a junior researcher for comedy panel shows, Jones realised she wanted to be the one telling the jokes, not just writing them. A couple of years on, and Jones is a regular on shows such as The Last Leg, 8 Out of 10 Cats, and across BBC Radio 4. Jones writes for sitcoms such as Netflix's Sex Education and launched her own podcast called Daddy Look at Me.

After nearly dying of septic shock after an emergency caesarean section, Candice Brathwaite started speaking about changes needed in the healthcare system when it comes to the treatment of black women, who are five times more likely to die during childbirth than white women. This experience, amongst other things, led to her first book, I Am Not Your Baby Mother, which went on to be a Sunday Times best seller. Brathwaite is also a regular on Lorraine on ITV, known for her on-point beauty and fashion advice, and is a Contributing Editor to Grazia.

Giedroyc grew up in Leatherhead and attended Trinity College, Cambridge, becoming a member of the Footlights comedy club. Starting her career alongside Sue Perkins, the duo became the household names of Mel and Sue, known for their baking puns as presenters of The Great British Bake Off, following their stint presenting Light Lunch.

Joining us for a chat is the people's poet laureate, the punk performance poet, John Cooper Clarke, who is releasing his memoir I Wanna Be Yours. Clarke, born in Salford, is well known for his classic look of drainpipe jeans, wild black hair and sunglasses, whatever the weather, something which hasn't changed since the 1970s. Being inspired and encouraged by an English teacher at school, Clarke decided that he would make a living from poetry. He performed with many hugely successful bands, such as The Sex Pistols, Joy Division and New Order.

Ant and Dec met on CBBC's Byker Grove and an instant friendship was formed, on and off screen. They moved from acting to music, releasing three albums as PJ & Duncan, including their still popular hit, 'Let's Get Ready to Rhumble'. From there, presenting children's TV with shows such as SMTV and Gimme 5 was the next step in their journey towards international renown. Next came primetime slots, with the duo presenting shows such as Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway, Britain's Got Talent and I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!

Thurlow was born and raised in Scotland and is a former Miss Edinburgh winner. After attending university in England and leaving with a First, Thurlow worked for four years with the Halo Trust in Explosive Ordnance Disposal: locating, de-arming and removing landmines that put lives and livelihoods at risk in former war zones. Thurlow found the work began to take a toll on her health and took a step back. At which point, she was approached to be a contestant on the reality TV show Love Island.

Gray has written for many major publications, such as The Guardian, The Telegraph, Grazia, BBC Earth and Marie Claire. During her 20s, Gray worked for Glamour and Cosmopolitan. As you might have read in her debut book, The Unexpected Joy of Being Sober, Gray battled addiction to alcohol during her 20s and early 30s but managed to keep holding down her job. We spoke to Catherine Gray about what counts as ‘fun gratitude’, what the significance is of the Hedonic Treadmill and why ordinary things are so great.

Miller played the lead role in Death in Paradise before leaving to spend more time with his family. Beyond television, Miller has acted in films such as Johnny English (2003) and its sequel, Molly Moon and the Incredible Book of Hypnotism (2014), and on stage in The Ladykillers (2011) and The Duck House. His directorial debut was the film Huge. We'll be chatting to Ben Miller about his book The Boy Who Made the World Disappear, his partnership with Alexander Armstrong and what he would put into a black hole.

Joining us at Audible Studios is Lara Maiklem, who runs the largest online mudlarking community, and has recently released a book all about it: Mudlarking. Expert mudlarker, Lara Maiklem, is uniquely skilled in the art of seeking. Tirelessly trekking across miles of the Thames' muddy shores, where others only see the detritus of city life, Maiklem unearths evidence of England's captivating, if sometimes murky, history, with some objects dating back to AD 43, when London was just an outpost of the Roman Empire.