Liam Bishop curating the best writers to help you with your writing
Episodes
2 hours ago
2 hours ago
“I found myself writing an apology letter…and I didn’t know what I was apologising for.”
In Uttama Kirit Patel’s novel, The Shape of an Apostrophe (Serpent’s Tail), Lina is pregnant, and she’s finding that this seemingly salubrious society is not congenial and accommodating to the difficult challenges of an unplanned pregnancy.
Uttama, born to Gujarati parents who then since found their way to the United Arab Emirates via Kampala, Surat, Pondicherry and Colchester. Her short fiction was nominated for the PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for emerging writers.
Remember, if you buy from Rippling Pages Bookshop on bookshop.org.uk are all sourced from indie bookshops! https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/ripplingpagespod
Support the Rippling Pages on a new Patreon
https://patreon.com/RipplingPagesPod?utm_medium=unknown&utm_source=join_link&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator&utm_content=copyLink
Interested in hosting your own podcast? Follow this link and find out how:
https://www.podbean.com/ripplingpages
Reference Points
Helen Phillips - The Need
Rippling Points
.30 - Uttama's life living around the world.
2.47 - An unexpected pregnancy
3.45 - Limited reproductive rights and setting the novel in Dubai
5.47 - writing a novel about someone who doesn't want children
6.30 - Uttama writing an apology letter to herself
7.59 - On desire
11.17 - Lina's relationship with her parents
12.57 - Does Lina have a support network?
14.03 - Lina's husband and her mother-in-law
16.44 - Is Lina's mother-in-law a feminist?
22.27 - Uttama's interest in sea-life.
24.10 - Lina's feeling of loss
26.41 - Lines, traces and artistry of Lina in the novel.
32.45 - Uttama's writing journey
Saturday Jun 14, 2025
Saturday Jun 14, 2025
“When I set out to plan the business, I wrote ten words - the world I always kept coming to was community.”
The Rippling Pages is all about curating the best writers to inspire you and your writing - today, we’re speaking to another curator. Eden Barnes is the owner of Next Chapter Books, an indie women-focussed bookshop in Leeds, and I had a quick chat with her in store.
There’s lots going on this week in Leeds. Leeds Lit Fest is starting, and it’s Indie Bookshop Week. Here someone who is at the centre of it.
Eden tells us:
The personal journey to opening a bookshop in Leeds
Why she focusses women’s writing
Balancing commercial and personal interests
Creating a safe space and sense of community for readers
What she’s got planned for next week and the rest of the year.
Remember, if you buy from Rippling Pages Bookshop on bookshop.org.uk are all sourced from indie bookshops! https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/ripplingpagespod
Support the Rippling Pages on a new Patreon
https://patreon.com/RipplingPagesPod?utm_medium=unknown&utm_source=join_link&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator&utm_content=copyLink
Check out Next Chapter Books website: https://www.nextchapterleeds.co.uk/
Tickets for Leeds Lit Fest Events: https://www.leedslitfest.co.uk/
Interested in hosting your own podcast? Follow this link and find out how:
https://www.podbean.com/ripplingpages
Thursday Jun 12, 2025
Thursday Jun 12, 2025
"It is also difficult to imbue the people and the movements of the past with the complexities we offer ourselves."
If you were to meet a time traveller from the future, what would you ask them? This is the question Roisin Dunnett asks in her novel, A LINE YOU HAVE TRACED (Magpie Books/Oneworld Publications). Spanning over three centuries, three women are connected by forces they, at first, don’t understand. From post-WWI Britain, to East End London’s modern queer scene, to a portentous dystopian future, Roisin’s novel is coded with messages between the past, present and future. It's published by Magpie Books, an imprint of Oneworld.
You can buy A LINE YOU HAVE TRACED from the Rippling Pages bookshop: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/ripplingpagespod
Support the Rippling Pages on a new Patreon
https://patreon.com/RipplingPagesPod?utm_medium=unknown&utm_source=join_link&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator&utm_content=copyLink
Interested in hosting your own podcast? Follow this link and find out how:
https://www.podbean.com/ripplingpages
Rippling Points
2.01 - the past, present and future.
3.55 - is there a past event that influenced this novel?
6.45 - Narratives of women
10.16 - which character did Roisin write first?
11.33 - Why do characters feel out of time
13.02 - Visions and dreams in Roisin's novel
19.24 - what would we do if we could actually see the future?
24.30 - The marshes in Roisin's novel.
29.24 - Does your dad pick up litter?
30.59 - Roisin's writing journey
Reference Points
Charles Dickens
Thursday May 29, 2025
Thursday May 29, 2025
“They got fired for that!”
Katharina Volckmer is here to discuss her second novel, Calls May Be Recorded for Training and Monitoring Purposes (Indigo Press) and it was live at the Hyde Park Book Club! Thank you to the Hyde Park Book Club for hosting us and Next Chapter Books for supporting the event. This is the second part of our conversation.
Katharina’s first novel, THE APPOINTMENT, was translated into over fifteen languages, it was adapted for the stage starring Camille Cottin and was nominated for several prizes. Katharina is in ribald mode in this funny, outlandish, and yet, very melancholic novel about a man called Jimmie who works in a call centre. Jimmie helps holiday makers. He placates their fears about sharks in the waters of Mykonos, Greece, among many other strange and wonderful challenges. He also manages a complicated relationship with his mother and has a traumatic memory of an electric carving knife that threatens to burst to the surface. The Irish writer, Colm Tóibín, said the book is ‘filled with brilliant dialogue, unexpected turns, some very dirty talk with sudden bursts of hilarity, and then fierce sadness.’
A special treat here - Leeds based poet Kirsty Went gave a reading for, some of her work to open the event. We’ve re-recorded for the purposes of the podcast.
You can buy CALLS MAY BE RECORDED FOR TRAINING AND MONITORING PURPOSES from the Rippling Pages bookshop: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/ripplingpagespod
Interested in hosting your own podcast? Follow this link and find out how:
https://www.podbean.com/ripplingpages
Where to find Next Chapter Books: https://www.nextchapterleeds.co.uk/
Rippling Points
1.35 - writing about mothers and fathers
5.03 - clowns
9.45 - on jokes and fantasies
11.23 - Kirsty Went reading
14.19 - questions from the audience - where does the relentless comic vulgarity come from?
20.10 - question from the audience - does this book fit into the wonderfully weird fiction category? Can we have more daring takes in fiction?
23.35- question from the audience - did Katharina know the book would end in this subversive way?
Reference points
Thomas Bernhard
Thursday May 15, 2025
Thursday May 15, 2025
Katharina Volckmer is here to discuss her second novel, Calls May Be Recorded for Training and Monitoring Purposes (Indigo Press) and it was live at the Hyde Park Book Club! Thank you to the Hyde Park Book Club for hosting us and Next Chapter Books for supporting the event.
Katharina’s first novel, THE APPOINTMENT, was translated into over fifteen languages, it was adapted for the stage starring Camille Cottin and was nominated for several prizes. Katharina is in ribald mode in this funny, outlandish, and yet, very melancholic novel about a man called Jimmie who works in a call centre. Jimmie helps holiday makers. He placates their fears about sharks in the waters of Mykonos, Greece, among many other strange and wonderful challenges. He also manages a complicated relationship with his mother and has a traumatic memory of an electric carving knife that threatens to burst to the surface. The Irish writer, Colm Tóibín, said the book is ‘filled with brilliant dialogue, unexpected turns, some very dirty talk with sudden bursts of hilarity, and then fierce sadness.’
You can buy CALLS MAY BE RECORDED FOR TRAINING AND MONITORING PURPOSES from the Rippling Pages bookshop: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/ripplingpagespod
Buying from this link supports the podcast (I receive a 10% commission) and indie bookshops!
Interested in hosting your own podcast? Follow this link and find out how:
https://www.podbean.com/ripplingpages
Where to find Next Chapter Books: https://www.nextchapterleeds.co.uk/
Rippling Points
05.07 - Katharina's tour of Leeds.
05.49 - What's Katharina's novel about?
08.11 - Jimmie's need for the toilet in the opening scenes!
10.28 - A reading from the novel.
14.07 - Life in a call centre.
16.42 - Experience of moving abroad
19.03 - Why people overshare
20.33 - Differences between this novel and Katharina's previous novel
24.14 - Intimacy and speaking to strangers
26.14 - The other side of anonymity
28.25 - Kafka
Reference Points
Franz Kafka
The Appointment - Katharina Volckmer
Sunday May 04, 2025
Sunday May 04, 2025
Welcome to the first edition of Rippling Pages: Ask the Host!
Over the years, I’ve been asking the questions, but it’s about time I answered some too.
So, that’s what I’ve done: I’ve picked out some questions from the Rippling Pages inbox, and answered them!
In this episode, I answer:
- Where am I from?
- Why did I start the podcast?
- Who would I like to interview?
- What books have I enjoyed recently?
- Would I rather speak every language or to every animal?!
Got a question yourself? Why not leave a review and a question and I might pick out one for a future show!
*****
Tickets to Katharina Volckmer in conversation!
https://www.seetickets.com/event/katharina-volckmer-in-conversation/hyde-park-book-club/3381984
*****
Don’t forget there’s a Rippling Pages bookshop: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/ripplingpagespod
Buying from this link supports the podcast (I receive a 10% commission) and indie bookshops!
Interested in hosting your own podcast? Follow this link and find out how:
https://www.podbean.com/ripplingpages
*****
Lots of books and writer’s mentioned in this one
Reference Points:
Alice Chadwick - Dark Like Under (Daunt Books)
Anton Chekhov
Vincent Delacroix - Small Boat (Hope Road Publishing) - translated Helen Stevenson
Gurnaik Johal - Saraswati (Serpent’s Tail)
Vincenzo Latronico
Tiago Miller
Iris Mwanza
Oluwaseun Olayiwola - Strange Beach (Fitzcarraldo Editions)
Pola Oloixarac
Mercè Rodereda
Montserrat Roig - The Song of Youth (Fum d’Estampa)
Montserrat Roig - Goodbye Ramona (Fum d’Estampa)
Montserrat Roig - The Time of the Cherries (Daunt Books)
Anthony Shapland - A Room Above a Shop (Granta Books)
Olga Tokarczuk
Virginia Woolf