The Sunday Salon with Alice-Azania Jarvis

Christina Patterson is a journalist and author, whose new book Outside The Sky Is Blue, is an absolutely beautiful reflection on family, illness, grief and love. I worked with Christina many years ago. In fact, she sat next to me when I was a very green reporter working on the gossip column of the Independent newspaper. She, in contrast, was an extremely erudite and glamorous columnist, writing about big issues like politics and literature - and she was absolutely lovely to me. What I hadn’t realised was that she’d had to deal with an enormous amount of grief and hardship in her life. Outside The Sky Is Blue recounts the story of her family - whom she calls, at one point, “the mad, sad Pattersons”, including her sister’s schizophrenia, the premature deaths of her mother, father and brother, and her own struggles with lupus and cancer. This might sound depressing, but in fact Outside The Sky Is Blue is very far from a misery memoir. What Christina has done so well is inject humour, nostalgia, and even glamour into her story, whether that’s in recounting her strange time as a member of an evangelical youth group and her exciting, action-packed rise through the world of publishing and the arts and into journalism; or relaying anecdotes about her love life. I absolutely adored the book, and I loved speaking to Christina about it. What a special interview to end on. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.  Buy the book here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/outside-the-sky-is-blue/christina-patterson/9781472282620 Twitter: @aliceazania / @queenchristina_ Instagram: @aliceazania / @queenchristinawriter Edited by Chelsey Moore

I adored this episode. Lily King is the author of five novels - including, most recently, the phenomenal best seller Writers and Lovers, which documents the creative and romantic travails of aspiring writer Casey Peabody. It's one of my favourite books of the year and so speaking to Lily felt like a fitting finale to this series. I loved hearing about everything from why she writes by hand to how she forces herself to work even when she's not feeling inspired and so much more. It was a gorgeous conversation and I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. Buy the book: https://www.waterstones.com/book/writers-and-lovers/lily-king/9781529033137 Edited by Chelsey Moore  

If you're after an eerie thriller to curl up with over Christmas, the New York Times Bestseller The Sanatorium would be pretty perfect  - and I loved interviewing its author Sarah Pearse. She was full of practical advice for getting published, having started by writing short stories for magazines before attempting novels.  And I loved her down-to-earth attitude to writing. We also spoke about Reese Witherspoon, who included Sarah's book in her online book club -and with whom she had a pretty surreal Zoom call. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Buy the book: https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-sanatorium/sarah-pearse/2928377075873   Edited by Chelsey Moore 

Arifa Akbar is the Guardian's Chief Theatre Critic and the author of the phenomenally powerful Consumed: A Sister's Story. It's an astonishing read, which tells the story of Arifa's sister's death from tuberculosis, which was somehow missed by medics at a top London hospital. It delves into the aftermath - Arifa’s search for answers to questions such as whether her sister’s history of poor mental health meant she was taken less seriously, and spools back to their childhood, growing up in poverty in North London having moved to the UK from Lahore. It examines the complexities of sibling relationships, the bonds, shared behaviours, and the arguments, and looks at Arifa and her sister's struggle with binge eating. It's a brilliant, multilayered book - and I found speaking to Arifa about how she wrote it absolutely fascinating. Buy the book:https://www.waterstones.com/book/consumed/arifa-akbar/9781529347524 Edited by Chelsey Moore

Tahmima Anam has had a fascinating life. Born in Bangladesh, she has lived in Paris, New York and Bangkok - and is now based in the UK. Her first novel, A Golden Age (2007), won the Commonwealth Writers Prizes' Best First Book award and launched a highly acclaimed trilogy concerned with telling the history of Bangladesh as an independent nation. Her most recent book, The Start Up Wife, is extremely different - a sort of "romantic comedy" (to use her phrase) which satirises the start-up industry, tech bros, and Big Tech's messianic tenancies. It's hilariously funny and bitingly sharp - she draws on her own experience of working in the field. We talked about all of that and more - including the incredibly difficult experience she had when her son, as an infant, refused to eat for the first five years of his life. I hope you find her as fascinating as I did - and apologies for my naughty, noisy cats playing in the background!  Buy the book: https://tinyurl.com/startupwife Instagram / Twitter: @aliceazania Edited by Chelsey Moore

Elif Shafak is - among other things - an activist, public speaker and academic with a PhD in political science who teaches at universities in Turkey, the US and the UK. She is also the author of an incredible 12 novels which have been translated into 55 languages. Her most recent  novel, The Island of Missing Trees, is a sweeping story of intergenerational trauma set in Cyprus and London. I loved talking to her about it - and in particular in the role of nature as a plot device - as well as about her fascinating life: she was born in Strasbourg, before moving to Turkey, where she was later put on trial for "insulting Turkishness" in her acclaimed book The Bastard of Istanbul. She is now based in London. We discussed all this and more - including her struggle with postnatal depression, writing in a second language, and the power of being an outsider.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.  Buy the book: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/316/316722/the-island-of-missing-trees/9780241434994.html Twitter / Instagram: @aliceazania  Edited by Chelsey Moore 

Hello and welcome to a new series of the Sunday Salon! I've got so many fantastic guests coming up - and today's episode is particularly special. Emily Ratajkowski is a model, activist and actress - and now the author of My Body, a collection of essays reflecting on her position in the spotlight and how her appearance has shaped people's behaviours and attitudes towards her. It's a riveting and extremely moving read - Emily reveals some deeply traumatic experiences, including being sexually assaulted while working as a model (her allegations about Robin Thicke have been widely publicised in recent weeks; he hasn't yet responded publicly) and earlier, at the age of just 14, by a schoolfriend. I have to say, I was blown away with how raw and accomplished each essay was, and I'm so grateful to Emily for speaking so openly and honestly with me. We covered so much - including what it's like to have everything you do become  "clickbait", her own physical hyper-awareness as someone who is constantly photographed, revisiting painful memories in public, and finding catharsis in writing. I hope you find it as fascinating as I did. Buy the book: https://www.waterstones.com/book/my-body/emily-ratajkowski/9781529420906 Edited by Chelsey Moore

Right, I'm off to enjoy my honeymoon (yes, all being well, by the time you read this I will be one day into married life). But I'm leaving you with a joy of an episode. I loved this book. The Troubles with Us: One Belfast Girl on Boys, Bombs and Finding Her Way is a brilliant memoir by Alix O'Neill about her time growing up in Northern Ireland. Taking in everything from bomb threats to pop music and her (very) eccentric family, it's both hugely entertaining and enjoyable but also massively informative and interesting from a more historical point of view. As you can imagine, I had a LOT to ask Alix about - I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Buy the book: https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-troubles-with-us/alix-oneill/9780008393700 Edited by Chelsey Moore

Today's episode was such a joy to record - Phoebe Luckhurst is an editor at the Evening Standard newspaper, and also the author of The Lock In, a totally fun indulgence of a book about what happens when three housemates (and a date) find themselves trapped in the attic of their house share. Phoebe is such a clever writer - she has managed to work in so many touchpoints of millennial culture and London life, from dating apps to public transport calculations to awful landlords and so much else. Fittingly, she wrote most of the book in lockdown - something I loved hearing about as I can remember having the opposite experience, and feeling totally uncreative and uninspired. I was also fascinated by her tales of student journalism (she was one of the founding staff members on the student tabloid The Tab). Anyway - I'll leave you to discover the rest. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Buy the book here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-lock-in/phoebe-luckhurst/9780241508756 Edited by Chelsey Moore

This was such a fun interview! Olivia Petter is a podcasting phenomenon and the author of Millennial Love, a kind of modern anthropological anthology of what dating and relationships are like now. From apps to ghosting and how social media can affect both the beginning - and end - of relationships, to how the MeToo movement changed ordinary women's lives, there was so much we covered. I loved her book, and I loved talking to her about it - I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Buy the book: https://www.waterstones.com/book/millennial-love/olivia-petter/9780008412302 Edited by Chelsey Moore

I loved this conversation: Nadifa Mohamed is an award-winning novelist whose most recent book The Fortune Men is a dazzling account of the real-life events surrounding the wrongful imprisonment and execution of a Somali seaman and father, who was the last man to be hanged in Cardiff prison. Set in Tiger Bay in the 1950s and fusing historical reportage and literary fiction, it has just been longlisted for a Booker prize - and quite right too. I loved talking to Nadifa about her unique approach to writing - her first book Black Mamba Boy was similarly inventive: part novel, part account of her father's life in Yemen and his journey to the UK. It was just so interesting to hear about the process of taking real life events - whether from newspapers or her family life - and applying artistic license to turn them into stories, as well as her stop-start approach to writing, the importance of 'fallow time', and adapting her work to opera. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Buy the book: https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-fortune-men/nadifa-mohamed/9780241466940 Edited by Chelsey Moore

Today's guest is the absolutely brilliant Bella Mackie, author of the fabulous and funny new novel How To Kill Your Family. You may also know her non-fiction work, particularly her phenomenally successful memoir Jog On, which chronicled how taking up running after her first marriage collapsed helped manage her anxiety. It was a bestseller, and she has become one of the most high-profile and refreshingly down-to-earth voices on mental health around. I loved our conversation, which took in everything from the pomodoro method (she's a fan!) to the research that went into writing her rather bloody book - to the anxiety she experienced in the wake of Jog On's success, having never imagined it would garner so much attention. We spoke before How To Kill Your Family was published, and Bella was really nervous to see how her first piece of fiction was received - well, it's since become a Sunday Times number one bestseller. Quite right too. I hope you enjoy the interview as much as I did. Buy the book: https://www.waterstones.com/book/how-to-kill-your-family/bella-mackie/9780008365912 Edited by Chelsey Moore

​I​'m so​,​ so excited for you to hear today's episode. L​i​sa Taddeo is a phenomenon. She shot to fame as the author of Three Women, which covers the sexual and emotional lives of three women from different backgrounds and regions of the United States. It was described as ​'groundbreaking​'​, ​'​seminal​'​ and having created a ​whole ​new genre. Now she has written a novel, Animal, a gripping and often dark story of rage, power, control and abuse. ​I absolutely loved talking to her - she was totally fascinating, opening up on everything from the profound grief she felt after the death of her parents, to how she kept persisting with Three Women, even as the time it took stretched way beyond her initial contract to eight years. ​I couldn't ask for a more interesting interviewee - I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

I'm so happy to be back - and I'm so excited about today's guest. Natasha Lunn is a journalist and the author of Conversations On Love, an absolutely gorgeous book in which she interviews authors and experts, while also drawing on her own experience in a series of riveting personal essays. She asks three key questions: how do we find love? How do we sustain it? And how do we survive when we lose it? This is truly the stuff of life, and I couldn’t put Conversations On Love down. I've known Natasha for a few years, and her fascination with love is totally genuine and infectious. The book - which was born out of her wildly popular newsletter of the same name - takes in both her long quest for romantic love, as well as the aftermath of her miscarriage and her struggle to conceive again. And it explores other kinds of love too: the love between friends, siblings, parents and even strangers. It's so moving and beautifully written - but also funny, warm and wise. I had such fun recording this episode - it was my first one in person for over a year - hence the birdsong in the background (windows open!!), which I rather love for the summery feel it adds. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Buy the book: https://www.waterstones.com/book/conversations-on-love/natasha-lunn/9780241448731 Instagram: @conversations_on_love / @natashachloelunn / @aliceazania Twitter: @Natashalunn / @aliceazania Edited by Chelsey Moore

Where to start with this? I absolutely loved Malibu Rising. A heady mix of 80s Malibu and 60s Hollywood, it’s an absolute blast to read. But then I shouldn’t be surprised - after all, it was written by Taylor Jenkins Reid, author of 2019’s smash-hit Daisy Jones and the six. I just adored speaking to her about it, as well as hearing about her unconventional path to writing (it involves Jennifer Aniston), her love of chick lit and how motherhood has made her better at her job. It’s was a great conversation - and a wonderful way to wrap up the series. Buy the book: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/111/1116392/malibu-rising/9781786331526.html Edited by Chelsey Moore

Where to start with this? I absolutely loved Malibu Rising. A heady mix of 80s Malibu and 60s Hollywood, it’s an absolute blast to read. But then I shouldn’t be surprised - after all, it was written by Taylor Jenkins Reid, author of 2019’s smash-hit Daisy Jones and the six. I just adored speaking to her about it, as well as hearing about her unconventional path to writing (it involves Jennifer Aniston), her love of chick lit and how motherhood has made her better at her job. It’s was a great conversation - and a wonderful way to wrap up the series. Buy the book: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/111/1116392/malibu-rising/9781786331526.html Edited by Chelsey Moore

I’m not sure you could have come up with a more ambitious task than Kat Arney set herself when she decided to write her most recent book Rebel Cell: Cancer, Evolution and the Science of Life, in which she looks at the history of cancer in the human race, as well as how we tend to view, prevent and treat it today. It’s not her first massive challenge - before this, she wrote a book about understanding how our genes work. I loved hearing how she took on the task, how she built her career in science and science communication in a frequently male-dominated field, and what it has been like to have science become the focus of so much attention over the past year. I hope you find her as fascinating as I did. Edited by Chelsey Moore Buy the book: https://www.waterstones.com/book/rebel-cell/dr-kat-arney/9781474609302

Dima Alzayat has had a fascinating life. Born in Damascus, Syria, she grew up in California before moving to the UK to study creative writing. Her collection of short stories Alligator and Other Stories is a riveting read, in which she ranges across genres and formats in a way I’ve not seen before. I loved talking to her about this - hearing about her process and path to publication (not to mention how motherhood has changed that) as well as about some of the frustrations she has felt in having her work pidgeonholed as “a muslim, Arab book” simply because of her background. It was a fascinating conversation and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Buy the book: https://www.waterstones.com/book/alligator-and-other-stories/dima-alzayat/9781529029918 Edited by Chelsey Moore

This was such a fun episode to record. Katie Service is a former makeup artist and beauty editor who is now Editorial Beauty Director at Harrods - and the author of The Beauty Brief: An Insider's Guide to Skincare. She’s also an old colleague of mine - we worked together on ES magazine, where she became my go-to guru for anything vaguely beauty related. I have to admit: this is not natural territory for me. Left to my own devices (for instance in lockdown) I tend to go a bit feral. So I loved the chance to pick Katie’s brains on what I should be doing now that normal life is resuming, as well as what it’s like to work in such a glamorous and competitive industry - often fielding big egos on photo shoots. Her book is absolutely packed with useful information, explaining everything from how different products work to what ingredients lists mean, and what is definitely not worth wasting your time and money on. I hope you enjoy hearing her as much as I did. Buy the book: https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-beauty-brief/katie-service/constanza-goeppinger/9780500295465 Edited by Chelsey Moore

This was such a fun conversation. After becoming fascinated by an old photo taken on the island of Hydra in Greece, Polly Samson set about researching the lives of the musicians, writers and artists who settled there in the 1960s, from Marianne Ihlen and Leonard Cohen to the writers Charmian Clift and George Johnston. Her novel, A Theatre For Dreamers, is a lush fictionalised account of their lives, and a look at the problematic role of an artist's muse. I loved hearing about how and why she wrote it, her experience writing lyrics - she has written dozens for her husband David Gilmour of Pink Floyd - and her glamorous-sounding career in publishing in the 90s. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Buy the book: https://www.waterstones.com/book/a-theatre-for-dreamers/polly-samson/9781526600592 Edited by Chelsey Moore