Vicky

On Thursday 24th October 2007 I chatted with a very rushed LC Tyler about his very humerous book "The Herring Sellers Apprentice". I didn't believe the press release that this novel could actually be funny - but it was! Enjoy!

On Tuesday October 29th I met with Irish author Cora Harrison to chat with about her first adult book "My Lady Judge". Cora used to be a school teacher and wrote childrens books and I have to say her first foray into adult section is a complete success. I very much enjoyed meeting her and look forward to the sequel in 2008.

Alison Weir is an author who knows how to make her subject matter fascinating, and who's knowledge on the history of the royal family going back several centuries, knows no bounds. I thoroughly enjoyed meeting her, and I wish I'd had Alison as my history teacher, I might have stayed with it instead of swanning of to geography! I had no idea who Katherine Swynford was, but as I learned about her I discovered all about John of Gaunt, Chaucer and many many other historical figures. Alison here talks very enthusiastically and persuasively.

On a very cold 9th November 2007 morning, I went up to London to chat with Timothy Freke about his and Peter Gandy's very humerous book, "The Gospel of the Second Coming" on the mystery's and myths of Jesus Christ and Christianity. I very much enjoyed meeting Tim and hearing his very different, and I have to say, valid viewpoint. His enthusiasm shines through and certainly made me want to know more of his way of thinking.

Below  is the transcript of the Audio interview - enjoy.

On Tuesday 18th October 2007 I interviewed Miranda Glover at the top of Watersones Piccadilly, with it's magnificent views across London. She talked indepth about her research on twins, and has actually put some of it in her book "Soulmates", using one of her characters to bring it to life as a part of the story line. I very much enjoyed meeting Miranda and look forward to her next book.

Niall Edworthy has written a wonderful book called 'The Curious World of Christmas' full of facts and stories. We here at The Bookfiend's Kingdom could not resist sending him some email questions which he has kindly answered for us here.

Enjoy!

VW: Why did you pick on the Curious World of Christmas to write about.

NE: The publishers invited me to write the book as apart of a series entitled ‘The Curious World Of...'. It follows a book I wrote called the Curious Gardener's Almanac, which is a collection of weird and wonderful facts about nature in British gardens.

VW: What was the criteria for choosing the many different facts and stories.

In 1992 when I was running my charity HOPE and making programmes for Hospital Radio, I met Douglas Adams, writer of the Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy. I only had approximately 20 minutes with him but my goodness did he give me a gem of an interview! I discovered he was very ahead of his time in being well in to Artifical Intelligence (A.I.), scientific exploration and ecology.

This is a transcription of the interview which you can also listen to in the Spoken Interview menu. Enjoy!

VW Douglas Adams welcome to HOPE you've written another excellent book called 'Mostly Helpless'.

DA Yes I've written another book, if you think it is excellent, I'm delighted its not for me to say (laughter) thank you very much.

VW It took you a long time to do this one though didn't it?

DA It did, it got very interrupted though by a number of things while writing the book. One of which was making a programme about writing the book for Melvin Braggs Show, which took several months out of my working schedule, and I also got married!

VW Congratulations.

On a very cold sunny morning on thursday 18th October 2007, I went to the Long Way Down HQ to interview Charley Boorman re his and Ewan McGregor's latest trip - Long Way Down. I also got to see the motor bikes still covered in African mud!

Charley was very congenial though tired, and it was very obvious that he was very much still coming down from the adventure; but none the less he talked very enthusiastically about the trip and the charity projects (CHAS, UNICEF, Riders for Health) they were supporting.

I have only lightly edited the transcript. Enjoy!

VW: Charlie Boorman, Welcome back to the Bookfiend's Kingdom. It's been a whole year and you've done a whole load. This time we are going to talk about the Long Way Down.