Rippling Pages: Interviews with Writers

Simon Wroe is answering some big questions! 

What if the dead came back? Not just for a fleeting moment, but for an entire month. What if the streets of London were suddenly crowded with ghosts, and the people left behind were given an extraordinary chance to welcome their loved ones back into their lives? Would you embrace them? And, perhaps more importantly, could you bear to let them go again?

These are the questions at the heart of Simon Wroe’s Ghost Month, published by Faber. And while this might sound like the premise for a chilling ghost story, it’s not quite that. Rather, it’s a wonderfully strange, wry and unexpectedly tender novel that left me wanting to wrap up warm with a hot drink and sit with a little melancholy.

Simon talks to us about the things unsaid, memoires and family refusing to disappear. But it's also a beautiful hymn to the interconnectedness of cities and London in its own way.

 

If you fancy getting more from the Rippling Pages and helping keep the podcast going, including an exclusive Patreon only podcast on what makes the openings of books so good, why not consider suscribing here!
https://patreon.com/RipplingPagesPod?utm_medi
 
And buy all the books mentioned on the show in a curated reading list as well as other picks from my time hosting the RipplingPages

https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/ripplingpagespod

1.45 - Feeling mournful
3.30 - Why does Simon thank 'Death'? and how does it relate to his Dad?
09.45 - Death is not black and white
12.30 - Writing about death returning
18.15 - Writing scenes with ghosts
27.00 - writing four different characters
32.30 - the narrative perspective
38.15 - writers and books that influenced the novel
43.30 - Simon's next book

Movies
Casper the Friendly Ghost

Books
José Saramago - Death at Intervals
H.G. Wells - The Invisible Man
Tom Wolfe - Bonfire of the Vanities
Émile Zola - L'Assommoir
Émile Zola - Therese Raquin 

 

I got to sit with one of the most interesting and inventive writers working today: Keith Ridgway, the Goldsmith’s Prize shortlisted writers!

So, today, we really are having a coffee with one of the world’s most interesting writers as I speak to Keith about his latest novel, Dooneen. 

On late night walk through London, a man suddenly finds himself in an uncanny version of Dublin and at a distance from his lover. How does he reconcile this place that once appears to be like home then isn’t? 

These are the questions at the heart of Keith Ridgway’s novel, Dooneen.

Keith has been described by The Times as one of Ireland’s best writers, in a country that isn’t short of them.’ His previous novels include, A Shock, which won the 2021 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction, and Hawthorn and Child. His first novel The Long Falling was filmed by Martin Provost as Ou Va La Nuit. He’s won several French literary prizes too. 

If you fancy getting more from the Rippling Pages, including an exclusive Patreon only podcast on what makes the openings of books so good, why not consider suscribing here!
https://patreon.com/RipplingPagesPod?utm_medi
 
And buy all the books mentioned on the show. Buying from this link supports indie bookshops and the Rippling Pages as I get a very small commission from every book sold through this link.

https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/ripplingpagespod

Chapters

3.45 - is this a love story 
6.10 -Mootie and Mew’s relationship
09.00 - What is this version of Dublin. 
11.15 - Keith’s personal relationship with Dublin
15.20 - Terror 
19.20 - Mootie the silent but important character
26.00 - pathos and trust
28.15 - rippling pages bookshop
29.20 - is Mew dead
36.10 - other writers of influence
41.00 - Liam O’Flaherty
46.30 - Why end Dooneen in tunnels

Books
Samuel Beckett
Anna Burns - Milkman (Faber and Faber)
Charles Dalton - With the Dublin Brigade (2014, Mercier Press)
Kazuo Ishiguro - The Unconsoled (1995, Faber and Faber)
James Joyce 
Ferenc Karinthy - Metropole (1970)
Anna Kavan - Ice (1967)
Liam O’Flaherty - The Informer
James Plunkett - Strumpet City
Keith Ridgway - A Shock (2021, Pan MacMillan)
George Saunders - Lincoln in the Bardo (2017, Bloomsbury)
Kurt Vonnegut

We're going to the bottom of the ocean and to outer space for this near-future literary escapade about when the world is no longer habitable.

Deb Olin Unferth joined me from Austin, Texas, to talk about her latest novel, Earth 7. Deb's novel is inventive in its world-building, taking us into the cosmos, its exploration of human and non-human relationships, and capacity for both fear and wonder for what the future might hold for humans. 

Deb has quite the. C.V. She’s the author of seven books, including novels Barn 8 and Vacation, and the memoir, Revolution, which was a finalist for the National Book Critics’ Circle Award. She’s published graphic novels, story collections, and her writing has also appeared in Harper’s, the New York Times, Paris Review, Granta, and McSweeney’s. She’s also received Guggenheim Fellowships and Pushcart Prizes.

So a good episode if you're wanting to see a writer pushing their boundaries and modes and picking up awards and fellowships along the way

 

If you fancy getting more from the Rippling Pages, including an exclusive Patreon only podcast on what makes the openings of books so good, why not consider suscribing here!
https://patreon.com/RipplingPagesPod?utm_medi
 
And buy all the books mentioned on the show. Buying from this link supports indie bookshops and the Rippling Pages as I get a very small commission from every book sold through this link.

https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/ripplingpagespod

Chapters
0.17 - Introduction to Deb's work.
2.40 - the capacity of Deb's novel
3.30 - Why Deb went to space.
7.20 - the fate of humans
12.20 - the mother daughter relationship
19.20 - How would Deb's dad respond to this book
20.45 - the idea of hope
26.15 - the rippling pages patreon
27:45 - where are the other earths
34.15 - The importance of Deb's research.
39.00 - How does love fit into the novel. 
42.00 - cynicism and feeling hopeful. 

Books and Writers
Samantha Harvey - Orbital
Barn 8 - Deb Olin Unferth
Pascal
Clancy Martin

What company Louisa Bello is! A story about an agent, a publisher and a pub and sheer determination to get published, and taking a friend’s experience to inspire your first novel. 

Louisa Bello is here to talk about WHERE THE SHADOW’S END (époque Press) 
What I loved about Louisa’s novel, however, is its commitment to, indeed, presenting a panoply of voices and identities in its inner city suburbs. But also it’s fierce commitment to exploring the mental health of a man trying to negotiate his way through this community. 

Louisa herself is a British-Nigerian who was raised in south-London, but has lived all over the world. She’s led creative workshops for Africa Writers at the British Library, and served as a trustee for the Pelican Post. This novel is her first and was longlisted for the Pat Kavanagh Prize for Writing Excellence, and supported by an Arts Council Grant.

Please note that today’s episode features discussions of schizophrenia and mental health

Get exclusive subscriber benefits from the Rippling Pages Patreon and become a Page Rippler!
https://patreon.com/RipplingPagesPod?utm_medi

 
Buy all the books here!:https://uk.bookshop.org/lists/louisa-bello-reading-list?&new-list-page=true&bkshp-astro=t

Chapters
1.30 Living in Ecuador 
2.27 - leave a five star review
2.58 - A story based on a friend’ 
6.10 - Diverse London community
8.35 - an agent, a publisher, and a pub
13.50 - Sam’s trauma and loneliness 
22.30 - How Louisa researched the novel 
29.15 - Other London writers and trauma
34.45 - Louisa’s next novel

Reference Points

Films
- Crazywise (2016: Phil Borges and Kevin Tomlinson)

Books
- Bernadine Evaristo 
- Carl Jung
- Mel Robbins
- Zadie Smith - White Teeth

This is some bonus content from the latest Rippling Pages Coffee Conversations. This is as real as it gets - two microphones, two writers getting real about writing!

Here, Deepa is talking about our favourite Rippling Pages bonus segment, and speaks about the importance of Moby Dick. 

You’ll also hear a preview of the Rippling Points podcast, a podcast for those who want to understand the ideas behind books exclusive to Patreon Subscribers.

Get exclusive subscriber benefits from the Rippling Pages Patreon and become a Page Rippler!
https://patreon.com/RipplingPagesPod?utm_medi

 

Books 

Buy all the books here!: https://uk.bookshop.org/lists/july-s-reads-2026?&new-list-page=true&bkshp-astro=t

Rudyard Kipling
T.S.Eliot 
Herman Melville - Moby Dick
Alexandra David-Néel
Larissa Pham - Discipline (2026, Serpent’s Tail)
Larissa Pham - Pop Song. (2021, Catapult Books)

Deepa’s Books

Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line - (2020, Random House)

Letters to a Writer of Color: An Anthology (2023, Vintage Books) - edited by Deepa Anappara, Taymour Soomro, and Madeleine Thien 

Chapters

0.15 - Introduction
03.50 - Deepa Anappara objects of influence
08.20 - Rippling Points preview

 

It’s time for another special episode where we have another coffee conversation!

As ever with the coffee conversations, this is a real as it gets. Two microphones, two writers getting real about writing!

And this is a book that has a bit of everything.

It’s 1869. Tibet is a forbidden kingdom and closed to foreigners. Tibet is also an unwilling participant in what was called, ‘The Great Game’, a geopolitical rivalry, shall we call it, that didn’t escalate into a full-scale war, but it did see both Russia and the United Kingdom trying to expand their territories.

Deepa takes us on a sweeping journey back into history as she brings to life what was at stake for those explorers who, secretly, conceitedly, and ambitiously, crossed those borders.

But it's also a prescient exploration of boundaries and borders and a hymn to the complicated emotion of grief. And, as well all that, it’s an example of just really good storytelling.

Deepa Anappara is here to talk to me about THE LAST OF EARTH published by Oneworld Publications.

Get exclusive subscriber benefits from the Rippling Pages Patreon and become a Page Rippler!
https://patreon.com/RipplingPagesPod?utm_medi

 

Chapters
2.45 - Writing about the mountains 
6.20 - Political dimensions of map-making
8.30 - inspiration from maps 
12.15 - Characters and the captain
15.15 - Moby Dick and naming characters 
21.45 - Rippling Pages Patreon 
23.15 - Who is Catherine? 
28.30 - Women, race, and getting into Tibet 
31.15 - Guilt, death and grief 
35.20 - Finding meaning in loneliness 
37.30 - Deepa’s own grief 

Reading List

Buy all the books here!: https://uk.bookshop.org/lists/july-s-reads-2026?&new-list-page=true&bkshp-astro=t

Rudyard Kipling
T.S.Eliot 
Herman Melville - Moby Dick
Alexandra David-Néel

Deepa’s Books

Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line - (2020, Random House)

Letters to a Writer of Color: An Anthology (2023, Vintage Books) - edited by Deepa Anappara, Taymour Soomro, and Madeleine Thien