This is our growing sound archive where you can stream and download free podcasts from past North Cornwall Book Festival events. Handy for those of you who couldn’t make it, or who had such a great time you want to live it all over again! If you prefer, you can access any of these podcasts through iTunes, Pandora, Castbox and TuneIn.

Podcasts

Legendary, Costa-winning YA novelist, Frances Hardinge in conversation with bibliotherapist, Ella Berthoud (herself a major fan) at the 2022 North Cornwall Book Festival about her enthralling latest, Unraveller.

At the 2022 North Cornwall Book Festival, Jasper Fforde, one of the country’s most inventive and funny novelists, delights a packed marquee with a whistle stop tour of his phenomenal writing career.

Polymath airline pilot and FT columnist, Mark Vanhoenacker talks to Petroc Trelawny at the 2022 North Cornwall Book Festival about his luminous memoir of queer boyhood and a lifetime’s fascinating with cities, Imagine a City.

As part of the 2022 Cream of Cornish event at North Cornwall Book Festival, mystery writer Beth Underdown reads from The Key in the Lock, her very Cornish tale of dynamite, under and family secrets.

A hugely distinguished Minnesotan novelist who just happens now to live in Cornwall, Ellen Hawley reads from Other People Manage as part of the 2022 North Cornwall Book Festival’s Cream of Cornish sequence. She’s introduced by novelist, Patrick Gale.

Professor Onyeka Nubia enthrals a packed marquee at the 2022 North Cornwall Book Festival with a talk about Britain’s black early modern history, based on his book England’s Other Countrymen.

In a career first, novelists Esther Freud and her half-sister, Susie Boyt shared a stage at the 2022 North Cornwall Book Festival to talk to novelist, Patrick Gale about their novels I Couldn’t Love You More and Loved and Missed but also about their complex family life.

As part of the 2022 North Cornwall Book Festival’s Cream of Cornish sequence, Charlie Carroll reads from his very North Cornish debut novel, The Lip. He’s introduced by novelist, Patrick Gale.

Inua Ellams performs some of his poems to a rapt night-time marquee at one of the most atmospheric events of 2022’s festival.

A&E doctor, children’s novelist and now Labour councillor, Roopa Farooki talks to Patrick Gale about her gut-wrenching memoir about working in A&E as the Covid epidemic hit, Everything Is True.

Legendary editor and one of the founders of Virago talks to novelist and memoirist Tiffany Murray about her memoir of publishing some of the twentieth century’s biggest literary stars, A Bite of the Apple.

Kit de Waal, author of the runaway bestseller, My Name is Leon, talks to legendary publisher Lennie Goodings about her funny-ouch memoir of her Jehovah’s Witness girlhood, Without Warning and Only Sometimes.

Million copy bestseller and founder of the Women’s Prize, Kate Mosse in conversation with novelist/memoirist Kate Mosse about An Extra Pair of Hands – her memoir about caring for elderly relatives – and gives a glimpse of Warrior Queens and Quiet Revolutionaries, her book of potted feminist inspirations.

Philip Marsden talks about  The Summer Isles, his account of an emotionally significant solo voyage from his Cornish home to the Western Isles.

Patrick Gale discusses his novel about Charles Causley, Mother’s Boy, with Cathy Rentzenbrink.

The great garden writer Anna Pavord in conversation with gardening novelist Patrick Gale.

 George Alagiah in wide ranging conversation with Petroc Trelawny.

 Charles Fox reads from  On the Brink, his witty account of his family’s rich history  as Falmouth shipping agents.

Kate Werran reads from An American Uprising, her account of the brutally suppressed black mutiny in WW2 Launceston

Eleanor Anstruther and Paul Mendez discuss their ground breaking first novels, A Perfect Explanation and Rainbow Milk with Colin Midson.

Joff Winterhart shares the secrets of his extraordinary graphic novels, Days of the Bagnold Summer and Driving Short Distances, with Patrick Gale.

Amanda Craig talks to Colin Midson about her latest book, The Golden Rule, a Cornish, female inversion of the plot of Strangers on a Train. Recorded at North Cornwall Book Festival 2021.

Lisa Woollett, mudlarker and author of Rag and Bone, and Lamorna Ash, author of Dark, Salt, Clear: Life in a Cornish Fishing Town, talk to Petroc Trelawny at North Cornwall Book Festival 2021.

Louise Doughty discusses her latest thriller, Platform Seven, with Patrick Gale at North Cornwall Book Festival 2021.

The seventh North Cornwall Book Festival concluded with this conversation between Windham-Campbell Prize-winning writer Tessa Hadley and Patrick Gale, recorded in St Endellion Church. The two discuss Tessa’s newest novel, Late in the Day, the art of writing and the human psyche. A literary moment not to be missed.

Oct 13 2019

Damien Lewis, the Sunday Times number one bestselling author and filmmaker, gives his North Cornwall audience a fascinating talk about SAS Italian Job, his latest book on crazily risky SAS operations in WW2.

Oct 13 2019

Deborah Moggach, the author behind such hugely popular novels as The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, The Ex-Wives and Tulip Fever, is interviewed here by writer Cathy Rentzenbink. Download to hear them chat about Deborah’s latest book The Carer, as well as families, marriages and writing.

Oct 13 2019

Sophie Ratcliffe, academic, writer and literary critic, talks to Cathy Rentzenbrink about her unique and moving memoir, Lost Properties of Love. “It’s sort of Brief Encounter, but with more sex, and Lego… and fish fingers.”

Oct 13 2019

An unmissable conversation with Barbara Hosking and Petroc Trelawney. Hear how Barbara’s extraordinary life has shaped the political landscape, the realities of being an ambitious young woman in the 1950s, how she came to terms with her sexuality and much more as they discuss her autobiography Exceeding My Brief: Memoirs of a Disobedient Civil Servant.

Oct 13 2019

Patrick Gale interviews singer, songwriter and writer Tracey Thorn about adolescence and suburbia, as depicted in her memoir Another Planet.

Oct 12th 2019.

Raynor Winn, writer of chart-topper The Salt Path, discusses what it means to have a home, and the extraordinary journey of her life so far, with Lisa Cooper.

Oct 12th 2019.

Bestselling writer John Boyne discusses his latest book for adults, A Ladder to the Sky, with broadcaster Petroc Trelawney.

Oct 12th 2019.

The audio quality of this recording is higher after the first couple of minutes.

Journalist and extreme runner Adharanand Finn talks to Freddie Kimpton about The Rise of the Ultra Runners, his new book.

Oct 12th 2019

The wonderful novelist and screenwriter David Nicholls talks to Patrick Gale about his latest book, Sweet Sorrow.

Oct 12th 2019

Legendary children’s writer Michael Morpurgo holds the rapt attention of his audience in St Endellion Church. Hear him talk about the the refugee crisis, his relationship with Cornwall, and his latest book Boy Giant, in one of the most special events of the 2019 festival.

Oct 12th 2019

Cornish ‘wild writer’ Natasha Carthew, who has published poetry and several young adult novels, talks about her first book for adults, All Rivers Run Free. Part of our Cream of Cornish event.

Oct 12th 2019

S K Tremayne is one of the two pseudonyms of journalist, Sean Thomas, who also writes archaeological and religious thrillers under the name of Tom Knox. Here he reads from his chilling new book The Assistant. Part of our Cream of Cornish event.

Oct 12th 2019

Mary J Oliver is known in West Cornwall as an artist and innovative art teacher. Hear her read from her debut publication, Jim Neat, a fictionalised memoir containing poetry, prose and photographs. Part of our Cream of Cornish event.

Oct 12th 2019

Distinguished literary theologian Paul Fiddes reads from his Murdochian whodunnit, A Unicorn Dies. Part of our Cream of Cornish event.

Oct 12th 2019

“Why do you write about the awful things that happen in the world?”
In this incredibly insightful question and answer session with local secondary school students, John Boyne talks about what it means to be a writer in 2019. Listen until the end to hear a brand new poem.

Oct 11th 2019

Hip hop or Shakespeare?

Matt Windle, the Poet with Punch, catches local teens and their teachers off guard with quotes from hip hop artists and the works of Shakespeare, in this clip from his poetry workshop.

Oct 11th 2019

“He’s in the national belly-flopping competition!”
Best-selling Cornwall-based author Liz Kessler works with pupils from local secondary schools in this snippet from her creative writing workshop.

Oct 11th 2019

Martin Brown, illustrator of the hugely successful Horrible Histories books, leads an action-packed talk full of jokes, stories, live drawing and audience participation, based on the Horrible Histories and the recent acclaimed Lesser Spotted Animals books.

Oct 10th 2019

Mazed Tales: Writer Anna Chorlton and storyteller Sue Field begin their children’s writing workshop based on Cornish Folk Tales of Place, a collection of tales from North and East Cornwall, with the help of their friendly marionette Nellie Slogget.

Oct 10th 2019

Legendary Irish novelist, Anne Enright in conversation with Patrick Gale about the mothers in her novels and the mother in her life, among many other things…

Oct 7th 2018

Laurence Rose talks about his book The Long Spring in which he traces the arrival of Spring from North Africa to North Norway, watching his beloved birds as he goes.

Oct 7th 2018

Jill Murphy, author of countless children’s books, not least the Worst Witch ones, shares her journey to becoming one of the world’s best loved author/illustrators via her ingenious childhood experiments.

Oct 7th 2018

Andrew McMillan and Kate Clanchy read from their poetry collections in St Endellion Church.

Oct 7th 2018

Natalie Haynes gives one of her breathless, unique stand-up routines where she riffs on themes from the beliefs and literature of the Ancient Greeks and Romans.

Oct 7th 2018

Horatio Clare talks about and reads from his book Icebreaker, about his journey into the frozen north of Finland.

Oct 7th 2018

Wyl Menmuir and Fiona Mozley, both Booker-nominated for their dark first novels, The Many and Elmet, in conversation about landscape, Gothic and more.

Oct 7th 2018

Patrick Gale and Nina Stibbe discuss their 1970s-set novels, Take Nothing With You and Paradise Lodge, and their mothers, their adolescences and and and…

Oct 6th 2018

Sometime hermit, Neil Ansell, talk to historian, Lisa Cooper about encroaching deafness, the conflicting demands of family life and the impulse to solitude and his search for the ultimate extremes of landscape in The Last Wildnerness.

Oct 6th 2018

Philip Hoare talks about his book risingtidefallingstar, a prose poem to our enduring fascination with the deep and its creatures.

Oct 6th 2018

Martin Brown, illustrator of Horrible Histories, entertains a packed out St Endellion Church with a demonstration of how he conjures up his Lesser Spotted Animals.

Oct 6th 2018

Joanna Trollope is interviewed by Cathy Rentzenbrink about her novel, An Unsuitable Match.

Oct 6th 2018

Aida Edemariam is interviewed by Cathy Rentzenbrink about her family memoir, The Wife’s Tale.

Oct 6th 2018

Stephen Price-Brown reads from his memoir, The Riddle of the Waves, about his adventure sailing around the UK on a traditional tall ship with a crew of war-scarred veterans.

Oct 6th 2018.

Felicity Notley reads to the Cream of Cornish session from her site specific story, I Turn on My Own Axis.

Oct 6th 2018.

David Taylor reads to the Cream of Cornish session from his novel, The Man who Lived Twice.

Oct 6th 2018.

Lucy Wood reads to the Cream of Cornish session from her story, Standing Water, from her collection The Sing of the Shore.

Oct 6th 2018.

Laura Wood talks about her young adult novel, A Sky Painted Gold.

Oct 5th 2018.

Natalie Haynes blasts Cornish secondary school students out of their pews with a whistle stop tour of Oedipus Rex, Greek Tragedy, democracy and why it all matters.

Oct 5th 2018.

Laura Wood on her Poppy Pym series.

Oct 4th 2018.

Ross Montgomery, author of Max and the Millions, works with Cornish primary schoolchildren on their creative processes.

Oct 4th 2018.

Vivian French talks to Cornish primary schoolchildren about her writing process.

Oct 4th 2018.

John Dougherty on the importance of play.

Oct 4th 2018.

John Dougherty sings the Stinkbomb and Ketchup-Face song.

Oct 4th 2018.

Art historian Alan Powers on the life and works of Edward Ardizzone.

Oct 7th 2017.

Yasmin Alibhai-Brown challenges her audience to be bolder in a climate of racial tension.
Oct 8th 2017.

Lynn Knight on the stories clothes can tell us and the importance of Sindy doll.
Oct 8th 2017.

Bestselling writer Sarah Winman discusses her new novel ‘Tin Man’ with Jim Naughtie.
Oct 8th 2017.

Dame Hermione Lee talks to Patrick Gale about Edith Wharton, Penelope Fitzgerald and the writing of biographies.
Oct 8th 2017

Costa prizewinner Maggie O’Farrell talks to Patrick Gale about ‘I Am, I Am, I Am’, her memoir of near-death experiences.
Oct 7th 2017

“You can make a story from anything!”
Children’s author Eleanor Updale shows pupils her Boring Bag and collaborates on an extraordinary story.
Oct 5th 2017

Emily Barr gives pupils in her workshop tips on writing three dimensional characters. Oct 5th 2017.

Children’s writer Christopher William Hill creates uproar and gets upstaged by a bee.
Oct 7th 2017.

Petrus Ursem reads from his young adult thriller, ‘The Fortune of the Seventh Stone’.
Oct 7th 2017.

Carla Vermaat reads from her Cornish-set crime novel, ‘Tregunna’.

Oct 7th 2017.

Cornish author Rob Turner reads from ‘Inward’, the first book in his post-apocalyptic saga ‘Perception’.
Oct 7th 2017.

Rose Hilton discusses her extraordinary life and art with an old friend, actor Dudley Sutton.
Oct 7th 2017.

Local author Wyl Menmuir reads from Booker Prize longlisted ‘The Many’.
Oct 7th 2017.

“I’d like you to imagine that you’re in the Amazon rainforest…”
Pascale Petit reads in St Endellion Church.
Oct 7th 2017.

Poet/boxer Matt Windle explains part of his creative process to teens. Oct 5th 2017.

Bestselling author Matt Haig talks to Eleanor Updale about his latest book, ‘How To Stop Time’.
Oct 7th 2017.

Broadcaster and writer James Naughtie discusses the allure of secret worlds and his latest spy thriller, ‘Paris Spring’.
Oct 7th 2017.

Alyson Hallett reads in St Endellion Church.
Oct 7th 2017.

A track from Wild Willy Barrett and the French Connection who played for us on October 22 2016.

A track from Senegalese virtuoso Amadou Diagne and Group Yakar who played for us on October 21st.

Readings by performance poet, Rob Barratt. Oct 22 2016

Reading from The Mysterious Loss of the Darlwyne by Martin Banks. Oct 22 2016

Anneliese Mackintosh reads from Any Other Mouth. Oct 22 2016

Readings by Katrina Naomi. Oct 22 2016

Rachel Joyce interviewed by Patrick Gale. Oct 22 2016

Readings by Ian Adams. Oct 22 2016

Rupert Thomson interviewed by Andrew Miller. Oct 22 2016

Readings by Jackie Kay. Oct 22 2016

Readings by Robert Wilton. Oct 23 2016

Vanessa Matthews reads from The Doctor’s Daughter. Oct 23 2016

Tom Vowler reads his short story An Arrangement. Oct 23 2016

Simon Grennan talks about his graphic novel, Disposession. Oct 23 2016

Katharine Norbury interviewed by Jackie Kay. Oct 23 2016

Charlotte Hobson reads from The Vanishing Futurist. Oct 23 2016

Andrew Miller interviewed by Rupert Thomson. Oct 23 2016

Gavin Knight reads from The Swordfish and the Star. Songs from Stamp and Go. Oct 23 2016