Liam Bishop curating the best writers to help you with your writing
Episodes
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
Thursday Apr 17, 2025
Thursday Apr 17, 2025
"She finds herself in London working in a theatre having to touch people!"
Elaine Garvey, to discuss her novel, THE WARDROBE DEPARTMENT, published by Canongate Books. It’s 2002. Mairéad Sweeney has moved from rural Ireland to work in London’s West End. While the prestige of working in theatre doesn’t exactly wear off, the long hours and spoiled actors make Mairéad’s transition from Ireland more difficult than it should be. Things get even more difficult when Mairéad has to return home for her grandmother’s funeral. It’s here she begins to reconcile with the life, people and values she left behind. This is Elaine’s first book. She has been published in the Dublin Review and the Winter Papers, and has been awarded funding schemes by the Irish Department of Arts for her writing.
*****
Tickets to Katharina Volckmer in conversation!
https://www.seetickets.com/event/katharina-volckmer-in-conversation/hyde-park-book-club/3381984
*****
You can buy THE WARDROBE DEPARTMENT 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
Rippling Points
1.31 - Why the year 2002?
4.32 - books about women walking.
5.39 - who is Mairéad and why is she in London
7.39 - what is the wardrobe department
9.40 - shadowing the costume department!
12.10 - differences between London and Mairéad's home in Ireland.
13.34 - Mairéad's family.
14:40 - Mairéad's boss.
18.15 - Similarities to the Milkman
21. 16 - when is Mairéad's moment of realisation
23.48 - Choosing your words and religion.
27.29 - Is how Mairéad feels about Ireland different to Elaine?
29.15 - how the novel emerged from a short story.
Reference Points
Anna Burns - Milkman
Charlotte Brontë - Jane Eyre
Seamus Heaney - Sweeney Astray
Hilary Mantel - The Mirror and The Light
Herta Müller - The Land of Green Plums
Rozsika Parker - The Subversive Stich
Virginia Woolf - Mrs Dalloway
Thursday Apr 03, 2025
Thursday Apr 03, 2025
“It’s my mum’s favourite book that I wrote!”
Benjamin Markovits is here to talk about his new and twelfth novel, THE REST OF OUR LIVES, published by Faber and Faber. Tom Layward has made a pact with himself. After his daughter moves out of college, he’s moving out too. His wife had an affair, and he feels like he owes himself a road trip across America. He takes in the sights, sounds and basketball games of the American heartland and beyond. But he’s deferring some health issues and it seems like it’s only a matter of time before his body asks him to stop and slow down, some of which was inspired by Ben’s own experiences.
Ben’s novel, You Don’t Have to Live Like This, won the James Tait Black Prize for fiction. He was a Granta Best of Young British Novelists. His writing has featured prolifically in mainstream publications.
We discuss:
- Are families about power dynamics? Hear about Ben and I reflecting on our family life
- Is Steph Curry Benjamin’s new obsession instead of Michael Jordan?
- Why is Syme, Ben’s first novel, his mum’s favourite novel?
*****
Tickets to Katharina Volckmer in conversation!
https://www.seetickets.com/event/katharina-volckmer-in-conversation/hyde-park-book-club/3381984
*****
You can buy THE REST OF OUR LIVES 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
Thursday Mar 20, 2025
Thursday Mar 20, 2025
‘The people I like to write about are what I would describe as moderately successful failures.’
Benjamin Markovits is here to talk about his new and twelfth novel, THE REST OF OUR LIVES, published by Faber and Faber.
Tom Layward has made a pact with himself. After his daughter moves out of college, he’s moving out too. His wife had an affair, and he feels like he owes himself a road trip across America. He takes in the sights, sounds and basketball games of the American heartland and beyond. But he’s deferring some health issues and it seems like it’s only a matter of time before his body asks him to stop and slow down, some of which was inspired by Ben’s own experiences.
Ben’s novel, You Don’t Have to Live Like This, won the James Tait Black Prize for fiction. He was a Granta Best of Young British Novelists. His writing has featured prolifically in mainstream publications.
*****
Tickets to Katharina Volckmer in conversation!
https://www.seetickets.com/event/katharina-volckmer-in-conversation/hyde-park-book-club/3381984
*****
You can buy THE REST OF OUR LIVES 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
Rippling Points
2.42 - Why Tom goes on a roadtrip
4.12 - Feelings of failure and sport
7.10 - Constructing the narrator
9.00 - Tom’s difference to other narrators of Ben’s
11.30 - Pick-up basketball
15.15 - East Coast privilege
16.00 - The NBA - basketball and race
21.20 - Katharina Volckmer in conversation
22.45 - Tom’s relationship with his children
23.57 - Tom and Ben’s illness
26.58 - Matters of life and death
28.10 - Doctors and writers
29.45 - Ben’s next steps
Reference Points
Philip Roth
John Updike
Ben’s novels
The Syme Papers
Playing Days
You Don’t Have to Live Like This
The Sidekick