The Library

Marlene Winfield, OBE, is a campaigner for patient empowerment. She helps people through the labyrinths of the National Health Service and related institutions. In a career spanning decades, she has changed thousands of lives and prompted reform to breaking down some of the brick walls so many of face when seeking health care. In the 1980s, she ran a campaign that enabled three thousand British women get compensation through the American courts for injuries from a faulty contraceptive.  Her 1990 book on whistleblowing led to the setting up of Public Concern at Work (Protect), a free legal advice centre for employees with ethical concerns.

Her research into the plight of carers in West London in the 1990s led to the setting up of new support services in four London boroughs. In recent years she has been the Vice Chair of the Thalidomide Trust,  supporting people born with severe disabilities due to a medicine given to pregnant women, and a Non-executive Director of the Professional Record Standards Body, setting standards for a variety of electronic patient records. This includes making ‘patient goals’ a compulsory part of every NHS record. She is currently advising NHS England on content and use of the emergency electronic record that every patient in England has. She is also writing an Action Plan for using digital tools to help people with long-term health conditions live the most normal and healthy lives possible.

Join Marlene Winfield with Humphrey Hawksley in a Goldster Magazine Show that will try to clear the fog and confusion about how we can best navigate the NHS and our own health and well-being – 1pm Tuesday April 2nd 2022.

Sara Barnes, who is 62, believes daily cold water immersion has unlocked her creative and romantic spirit. Her first two published books, The Cold Fix (Nov 2022) and The Winter of Our Lives (Nov 2023) are testament to that power. The Cold Fix is Sara’s deeply intimate story of overcoming physical and emotional pain following major leg surgery. Not about how to or where to go cold water swimming, but a touchy feely dive into the inner world of those who have made it a non-negotiable part of their lives.

The Winter of Our Lives is a mediative and uplifting novel set in the Lake District. The premise is: ‘Take three menopausal wild swimmers who need to find a man. Not any old man, but one who is prepared to dip his bits in very cold water’. Set against the stunning landscape of the Lake District, The Winter of Our Lives is a gritty, relatable love story for people who don’t want to give up on romance, passion or life as they grow older.   

On her Instagram account @bumblebarnes she inspires people to be their own change, to age well and to find a passion that comforts you when things get too much. For her that is daily cold water immersion and writing. Join Sara as she chats to Lucinda Hawksley on 26th March.

Social media accounts 

Instagram @bumblebarnes

Threads @bumblebarnes

Substack @sarabarnes

Facebook Sara Barnes Author

www.sarabarnesauthor.co.uk

Tim Eggebraaten is a retired police chief whose advice to all around is to identify the rhythm unique to each of us and use the gifts we have for the good of people around us. It’s a tactic that wins every time, he says – looking for our beat.  The course of our lives can be made better with the thinking: “I am. I can. I will.”  Tim sees himself as a messenger of optimism.  With a bundle of heartwarming stories and practical wisdom, he reveals how he finds beauty amidst the chaos and the resilience within.  In conversation with Humphrey Hawksley.

Tim will take us through life behind a police badge, sharing the highs and lows of a high stress career, his struggles and how he discovered the healing power of music. From the depths of personal challenges to the heights of realistic optimism, he delivers a tapestry of hope, giving us light-hearted anecdotes to profound insights on loss and mental health. He describes his book, Find Your Beat: Walk to the Rhythm of Life as a guide to transforming your life's soundtrack and tuning into the positivity surrounding you. Dance to the melody of optimism, and Humphrey will coax him into playing some tunes.  For an uplifting, funny and story-packed hour, tune into the Goldster Magazine Show 1pm Tuesday March 19th 2024

We rely on our doctors as a first port of call if we feel sick or down and, very often, the last port of call toward life’s end for ourselves or our loved ones. But what is really going through our doctors’ minds? How do they cope with the stress and trauma in their everyday working lives?   Betsy Gall is a widow who was once living the American dream. Married to an oncologist with three healthy children, she was living a great life. That all changed on Thanksgiving Day of 2019 when her husband took his own life. Dr Matthew Taylor Gall who had devoted his entire life to saving lives, was dead at the young age of 49.  Outwardly, Matthew had always been the life and soul of the party, holding everything together.  

From her loss, Betsy wrote The Illusion of the Perfect Profession, drawn from her diaries and her journey with faith throughout her horrific traumatic experience that left her family shattered and asking: How could Matthew’s suicide ever have happened?  Betsy discovered that doctors’ suicides is becoming a trend. In America, up to four hundred physicians kill themselves every year. In Britain, 72 medical professionals (including doctors, nurses, therapy professionals, dentists and midwives) took their own lives in 2020 – that is more than one per week.  Are we asking too much from our doctors?  Can we detect when they are facing a breakdown?  Join Betsy Gall with Humphrey Hawksley to discuss this sad, yet incredibly important issue on Goldster Magazine Show at 1pm Tuesday March 12th 2024. How can we best help our doctors?  

Health and well-being specialist, Dr Robert Lee Kilpatrick, has spent a career working on the science around preventative healthcare and well-being. He is a founding partner at Technology Vision Group LLC which advises clients on strategic development issues. His two current projects are a book The Future of Human Care: Health Innovation and Social Impact and a six-part documentary film and book, Paradigm Shift: A Wellness Revolution.

As a Strategic Development Advisor to Scientific American in New York City, Robert helped create a media project The New Science of Wellness, which was sponsored by Google and Phenome Health. He is now engaged with Scientific American on another media project,Healthspan: Living Better Longer. He is a Strategic Advisor to Nature Portfolio in London, developing a global project, Building Sustainable Healthcare Systems, specifically aimed at transforming healthcare from a focus on disease to one on wellness and prevention.

From 2022-23, he was an Academic Visitor at Oxford University’s Martin School and St Antony’s College where he advised on live sciences. Many years earlier, he earned his doctorate at Cambridge where he was a Wellcome Trust Research Fellow. Join Robert Kilpatrick on the Goldster Magazine Show when Humphrey Hawksley will ask about his personal story and the changing attitudes over the years toward how we can all be healthier and feel more upbeat. Are doctors really changing their minds. Goldster Magazine Show with Robert and Humphrey at 7pm London time Tuesday March 5th 2024.

A World War Two historical fiction The Baker’s Secret centres on the experiences of Zenta and Estere, two sisters living in Riga Old Town. As their lives are torn apart by Russian occupation and Nazi invasion, the sisters struggle to survive alongside the people of their city. As the war comes to its fateful climax, they are forced to make an impossible choice. To save a child, one sister must flee, while the other must stay behind. The secret of what happens next will endure for generations. But the truth won’t stay hidden forever…

Lelita Baldock was born and raised in Australia, before moving to the UK in 2018. Granddaughter to a Latvian War refugee, The Baker’s Secret is drawn from the real life experience of her family and explores the lesser-known story of the people of Latvia during this life-changing period of history.

Jean Briggs taught English for many years in schools in Cheshire, Hong Kong, and Lancashire. She now lives in a cottage by a river in Cumbria with a view of the Howgill Fells and a lot of sheep – although it is the streets of Victorian London that are mostly in her mind, when writing about Charles Dickens as a detective. Her first case for Dickens was The Murder of Patience Brooke, published in 2014. There are eleven novels in the series so far, published by Sapere Books. Her most recent in the series, The Waxwork Man, came out in September 2023. A new book, set in WW1, was published in January 2024, but Mr Dickens, just now busy writing Bleak House, will be investigating again before long.

Jean was Vice Chair of the Crime Writers’ Association (2018-2022) and is still a board member of the CWA. She is also a member of the Historical Writers’ Association, the Dickens Fellowship, The Society of Authors, and a trustee of Sedbergh Book Town. Jean will be joining Lucinda Hawksley to chat about her books on 15 February at 12pm. Join them and be a part of the Goldster Conversation. 

Social media:

www.facebook.com/jcbriggsbooks

Twitter @jeancbriggs

Website jcbriggsbooks.com

Please also tag Lucinda in any posts: 

Twitter, Threads & Instagram: @lucindahawksley 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LucindaHawksleyauthor

A very special Inside Story brings together Goldster Conversations’ two founding hosts Lucinda and Humphrey Hawksley in both a Zoom and in-person audience event at Kingfisher Wharf, Riverstone, Fulham. Three years ago, at the height of the pandemic, with millions isolated and alone, Goldster founder Mike Reid had a vision: What if he could deliver activities, social interaction, community and stimulus straight into people’s homes. With his experience in health and well-being, Mike did exactly that to make Goldster the brilliant success story it is today. His plan included a Book Club to encourage discussion and reading. This became Goldster Conversations where Humphrey and Lucinda have hosted hundreds of fascinating guests.

Today, the tables will turn with Lucinda asking Humphrey about his books and work. Why did work is passage to Australia straight after leaving school? What drew him into journalism to become one of the BBC’s most respected foreign correspondents? Find about his long-running campaign against slavery and quiz Humphrey on world affairs? Are we heading for war? How can we secure peace? And where did he get the idea for his highly-acclaimed Rake Ozenna thriller series, based on a remote Alaskan island?

Being Goldster, of course, where anything goes, you might find Humphrey quizzing Lucinda, especially as she is the great-great-great granddaughter of Charles Dickens and, in her blood, carries his campaigning literary talent with an array of books on history, travel and, yes, beards. Don’t miss this unique Goldster Conversation 12.00 Thursday February 8th on Zoom and at Riverstone, Fulham.

Kate Griffin’s Fyneshade is an homage to Victorian gothic, offering readers the familiar tropes of the genre twisted into something darkly devious. When the anti-heroine, Marta, is banished to the wilds of Derbyshire to become a governess at a remote and crumbling mansion, murder ensues. 

In most examples of classic ‘governess gothic’ the heroine is a pure-hearted ingenue, but Marta is a practising witch and very far from innocent. It is soon apparent that Fyneshade and its inhabitants have much to fear from a young woman who brings the darkness with her.

Kate Griffin studied English Literature and went on to work as an assistant to an antiques dealer, a journalist for local newspapers and, until recently for The Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings. Her love of all things Victorian is apparent in her Kitty Peck Murder Mystery series published by Faber and Faber. She is the co-author (with Marcia Hutchinson) of the forthcoming historical novel The Blackbirds of St Giles to be published by Simon & Schuster under the pseudonym Lila Cain.

Join Kate as she chats to Lucinda Hawksley on the Goldster Inside Story at 12pm on 2 February. 

Social media:

Twitter: @KateAGriffin

Instagram: kateagriffin

Threads: kateagriffin

Blue Sky: @kateagriffin.bskysocial

Twitter, Threads & Instagram: @lucindahawksley 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LucindaHawksleyauthor

Fran Hill is an author and retired English teacher from Warwickshire, England. She started publishing articles, features, short stories and poems in her 20s and wrote a monthly humourous column about education in the (then) Times Educational Supplement for several years.

In her 50s, Fran tried a little harder and her first full-length book Miss, What Does Incomprehensible Mean? (SPCK, 2020) is a funny but poignant memoir about a year in her life as a teacher.

Her first novel Cuckoo in the Nest was published by Legend Press in 2023. Set in the heatwave summer of 1976, it is inspired by Fran’s own experience of being fostered. Its narrator is bright, sarcastic, 14-year-old poet, Jackie Chadwick, newly-fostered by the Wall family. Jackie desperately needs stability but the Walls’ insecure, jealous teenage daughter Amanda isn’t happy about the ‘cuckoo’ and sets about ousting her.

Join Fran on 1 February, as she chats to Lucinda Hawksley about  her writing career, including the brilliant Cuckoo in the Nest – which you may have heard featured on BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour. 

Social media:

Twitter & Instagram: @franhill123 

Twitter, Threads & Instagram: @lucindahawksley 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LucindaHawksleyauthor

Emma Darwin’s latest book, This is Not a Book About Charles Darwin, was described by Saga Magazine as ‘a refreshingly frank, witty, eloquent memoir-cum-biography’. The Times called her debut novel, The Mathematics of Love, ‘that rare thing, a book that works on every conceivable level’ and it’s probably unique in being nominated for both the Commonwealth Writers’ Best First Book, and the Romantic Novelists’ Association Novel of the Year Awards. The Mail on Sunday called her Sunday Times bestselling second novel, A Secret Alchemy, ‘powerful and utterly convincing’, while her Get Started in Writing Historical Fiction is described by publisher Scott Pack as ‘essential reading’. She has taught creative writing for the Open University, Oxford University and Goldsmiths, mentors individual writers, and blogs at This Itch of Writing.

Join Emma and Lucinda Hawksley on 30 January as they chat about writing, teaching writing, and being descended from famous ancestors! Come along and be a part of the Goldster Conversation. 

Social media: 

Facebook: @EmmaDarwinWriter

X/Twitter: @emma_darwin

Bluesky: @emmadarwinwriter.bsky.social

Instagram: @emmadarwinwriter

Substack: @emmadarwin

Twitter, Threads & Instagram: @lucindahawksley 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LucindaHawksleyauthor

Jenifer Roberts began writing biography shortly after her 50th birthday – almost by accident. She was a professional photographer, having trained and worked in the old way, spending many enjoyable hours in the darkroom. She says “There were two strands to my work, portraiture and landscape photography, and I worked almost entirely in black and white. My landscapes were exhibited in England and abroad, and a book of my photographs, Spirit of the Place, was published by Creative Monochrome in 1992.”

After her mother’s death in 1985, Jenifer discovered letters written in the 1850s by a distant relative. They told a strange story which stayed in her mind. A few years later, eager to find out more, she began to research the family and, rather to her surprise, found that she was telling their stories in her head as she went along. This began her second career as a writer.

Now, almost three decades later, Jenifer has written six books of biography and narrative history, whose stories take place in the UK, Portugal and New Zealand. They are: Glass; The Madness of Queen Maria; Fitz, the Colonial Adventures of James Edward FitzGerald; The Beauty of Her Age: A Tale of Sex, Scandal and Money in Victorian England; and Entertaining the Braganzas. Her most recent title is Where the Wind Blows.

Join Jenifer on 25 January at 12pm, as she chats to Lucinda Hawksley about the intriguing subjects of her  books and her fascinating career. 

Social media: 

Twitter, Threads & Instagram: @lucindahawksley 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LucindaHawksleyauthor

Juliet Campbell was the first of Britain’s pioneering female ambassadors -- ‘An inspiration for those with ambition to make a difference in the world’, says diplomat, Karen Pierce, Britain’s current ambassador to the United States. In Playing Britannia Juliet tells her story through letters and diaries she kept at the time. Besieged in a chateau with the Queen, looping the loop in a jet and meeting top Chinese Generals in the Great Hall of the People became everyday stuff for Juliet, who rose to be Ambassador to Luxembourg and went on to be appointed Mistress of Girton College, Cambridge. From joining the Foreign Office in 1957, when only a handful of women served on its 1100 staff, Juliet rose through the ranks working in Brussels, Bangkok, Paris and Jakarta as well as stints at the heart of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London. Her career spanned almost exactly the years of the Cold War, working as the Berlin Wall was built and as it came down. In the Asian megacities of Thailand and Indonesia she witnessed the unfolding of the region in the aftermath of the Vietnam war and the beginning of the rise of China. Join Humphrey Hawksley with Juliet for this fascinating Goldster Conversation of her career as a woman in a man’s world working at the heart of Britain’s foreign policy. Goldster Inside Story Friday January 19th 2024.

Virginia Woolf, Agatha Christie, and Sylvia Plath are three of our most famous authors. In her new book, Rachel Trethewey tells the story of the remarkable mothers who shaped these amazing women, through first-hand testimony and rigorous research.

Julia Stephen, Clara Miller, and Aurelia Plath were fascinating women in their own rights, and their relationships with their daughters were exceptional; they profoundly influenced the writers’ lives, literature, and attitude to feminism. Mothers of the Mind charts their complex, often contradictory, bond and offers a new perspective.

Rachel Trethewey read History at Oxford University, where she won the Philip Geddes Prize for student journalism. She has a PhD in English, is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, and recently received the Antonia Fraser Award from the Society of Authors for a biography of a woman or women for Mothers of the Mind. She will be joining Lucinda Hawksley on 11 January; join them and be part of the Goldster Conversation.

Amanda Craig is the author of nine novels, including her latest book, The Three Graces – which is about three friends in their 80s, who have retired to Tuscany, where they must stop one grandchild from a disaster wedding, redeem another and save a life… 

A State-of-the-Nation novelist whose work has been compared to that of Dickens, Trollope, E.M. Forster and Kate Atkinson, Amanda combines strong, interlinked characters and plots involving crime, romance, social comedy and satire about modern life. Two of her recent novels, Hearts and Minds and The Golden Rule were long-listed for the Women's Prize for Fiction, and The Lie of the Land was made into a Radio 4 ‘Book At Bedtime’. She writes, she says to “afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted.” 

This is a very special Riverstone Live event. You can join Amanda and Lucinda  – as always – on Zoom, but Goldster members can also apply to be in the audience at Riverstone Kensington, in London. You can secure your place by emailing concierge@goldster.co.uk

Poppy Lloyd has had a fascinating career including the worlds of radio broadcasting and charity work and journalism. She is currently the Marketing Director of First News, the UK’s only newspaper for children, providing impartial and age-appropriate news and learning resources for children at home and at school.

Poppy’s career started in radio production and she spent a number of years getting up at 4am to produce Heart Breakfast with Jamie Theakston and Harriet Scott and then Emma Bunton.

Following time living and working in northern Sierra Leone, where she volunteered for Street Child, an organisation working to get kids off the streets and reunited with their families and back into education, she moved into the charity sector where she worked for Save the Children. She started there as a Senior Campaigns Advisor galvanising public support for international development campaigns. She then moved in to brand, marketing, communications and then fundraising development where she ran Save the Children’s children’s book subscription service, Wonderbooks.

Join Poppy on 9 January as she talks to Lucinda Hawksley on PPG – and become part of the Goldster Conversation. 

Michael Muthukrishna is a psychological and behavioural science specialist at the London School of Economics. Drawing on the most recent research across the sciences, humanities, and the emerging field of cultural evolution, Michael paints a panoramic picture of who we are and exactly what makes human beings different from all other forms of life on the planet. He argues that it is our unique ability to create culture, a shared body of knowledge, skills, and experience passed on from generation to generation that has enabled our current dominance.But it is only by understanding and applying the laws of life - the need for energy, innovation, cooperation and evolution - that we can solve the practical challenges we face as a species.

A Theory of Everyone attempts to provide solutions for how to solve the most pressing problems of our collective future, such as polarization, inequality, the "great stagnation" in productivity, and the energy crisis. Michael’s work has been praised as ‘mind expanding’ by Times columnist Matthew Syed: “This book will change your view of the world forever'.

Peter Frankopan describes A Theory of Everyone as 'Wonderfully refreshing and thought-provoking'. In this Goldster Conversation with Humphrey Hawksley Michael will lay out his thoughts on how we can create a better future for ourselves in the generations to come. Goldster Inside Story 12.00 London time Friday January 5th 2024.

Many people feel like they’re in the dark when it comes to their finances. Insecurity about money often stems from past experiences and how you grew up. Unfortunately, this can also lead us into some bad habits and feeling like the ability to save money is out of our reach. Sometimes the idea of investing can be overwhelming and in our busy lives, who has the time to learn and really understand what your money can do for you? Kalee Boisvert profiles herself as a Money Guru. Her passion is creating new possibilities in women’s lives by showing them the ropes when it comes to money, to create understandings about wealth, investment and finance.

With inspiration from her own life, Kalee has developed an easy-to-use system for women, young and old, to take control of their finances. In her book Make Money Your Thing she lays out an approachable guide to take women on a journey to feeling comfortable and in control of their finances. There are simple action steps to learn the basics of money management, understand the importance of balancing the books, and embrace the uniqueness of your own personal situation. “When money is your thing”, says Kalee, “you can feel completely at ease about making it work for you–and feel confident that your financial goals and dreams are all very possible.” Ask Kalee for tips in this Goldster Conversation with Humphrey Hawksley on Inside Story 12.00 London time, Thursday January 4th 2024.

“Quite early, I came to terms with the fact that I was gay,” explains Goldster Purpose, Passion and Grit guest, Roger Leslie.  “But as a spiritual person, I assumed that my sexual orientation meant that I was fundamentally flawed and would have to live without love.  That terrifying revelation directed me toward an unprecedented journey that opened my life and elevated my destiny. My determination to live— and love—lit my path on the journey that redefined my life, showed me what mettle I was made of, and revealed to me my soul.”  Roger Leslie, a highly acclaimed author and international speaker, has just released his debut memoir Light Come Out of the Closet: Memoir of a Gay Soul, that is a riveting testament of the challenges and tribulations for anyone who identifies life within the LGTBQ community and strives for equality in human spirit.

Roger will talk movingly about the emotional rollercoaster of living life in a gay marriage where they have been judged and forced to overcome challenges brought on by views of society. But ultimately being together became a celebration despite all obstacles. This is a story about the struggle to reconcile his sexuality with his religious, explores his journey of rediscovering the God of love he learned about as a child, a powerful testament to hope, healing, and self-discovery in the face of prejudice and adversity. Join Roger in this poignant Goldster Conversation with Humphrey Hawksley on Purpose, Passion and Grit 12.00 Tuesday January 2nd 2024.

Two siblings pledge their magic to protect their people from the invading English, with the help of the last true Prince of Wales – but after his murder. Welsh warrior-in-training Hyw can control the minds of birds and animals. His sister Catrin can see the future in a drop of water. When the last true Prince of Wales is slain, Hyw's gift allows him to meld with the prince's spirit. Now they must unite their abilities to help their people escape a ruthless army.

Marie Powell’s Last Of The Gifted series with Water Sight and Spirit Sight have been hailed as immediate classics which combine medieval fantasy, magic, mythology, and forgotten legends with the historical realities of 13th Century Wales. One critic describes how history and magic intertwine effortlessly to cast a spell over the reader. Marie is the author of more than forty books and holds a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia. She lives in Saskatchewan, Canada and holds regular writing workshops. Join Marie with Humphrey Hawksley in a Goldster Conversation to talk about creative writing, the young adult genre, what is so compelling about fantasy and how an author can imagine ancient Wales from the sparseness of central Canada. Inside Story, 12.00 Friday December 22nd 2023.

Hank Phillippi Ryan is a bestselling author of fourteen psychological thrillers, winning the most prestigious awards in the genre: five Agathas, five Anthonys, and the coveted Mary Higgins Clark Award. She is also on-air investigative reporter for Boston’s WHDH-TV, with thirty-seven Emmy award s and dozens more journalism prizes. National book critics call her “a superb and gifted storyteller”. She is the only author to win the Agatha in four categories: Best First, Best Novel, Best Short Story and Best Non-Fiction.

Her newest is the page-turning standalone thriller The House Guest–a story of psychological manipulation that explores the dark heart of marriage and friendship—it’s Gaslight meets Thelma & Louise. The Publishers Weekly rave review says, “Ryan is a master of suspense!” and the Library Journal starred review calls it “Binge-worthy.” Hank began her TV career in 1975, anchoring and reporting the news for TV stations in Indianapolis and then Atlanta. She’s battled her way through hurricanes, floods and blizzards, wired herself with hidden cameras, chased criminals and confronted corrupt politicians. She has interviewed world famous figures from King Charles to President Carter to Muhammad Ali. Join Hank in a special evening Goldster Conversation with Humphrey Hawksley. Hear her adventures, the ups and downs of writing and how to craft a best-selling psychological thriller. Author-to-Author Thursday December 21st at 4pm London time.

Phillipa Ashley was one of the first authors to come onto the Goldster Book Club, and she is making a welcome return to talk about the art of seasonal writing. Phillipa is a Sunday Times, Amazon and Audible best-selling author of uplifting romantic fiction, and on 15 December, she’ll be talking to Lucinda about her Christmas-themed novels.

After studying English at Oxford University, Phillipa worked as a copywriter and journalist before turning her hand to writing. Her debut novel, Decent Exposure, won the Romantic Novelists’ Association New Writers Award and was filmed as a Lifetime TV movie, 12 Men of Christmas, starring Kristin Chenoweth and Josh Hopkins.

Since then, her novels have sold well over a million copies and been translated into numerous languages. Phillipa lives in an English village with her husband, has a grown-up daughter and loves nothing better than walking the Lake District hills and swimming in Cornish coves. Join her and Lucinda at 12pm on 15 December for a festive Goldster Conversation. 

Social media

Twitter @PhillipaAshley

Instagram @phillipa.ashleyauthor

Twitter, Threads & Instagram: @lucindahawksley 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LucindaHawksleyauthor

Join us in person or online for a very special Riverstone Live event, when Lucinda Hawksley will be chatting to Goldster’s much-loved Tai Chi teacher, Andy Yau.

Andy was born and raised in Hong Kong, where he trained in Musical Theatre Dance at The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts. It was in Hong Kong that his passion began for Martial Arts and Kung Fu, at a young age. He then developed a love of Tai Chi in his 20s. Andy moved to the UK (and is now a UK citizen) to pursue an MA in acting at The Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. His acting career has taken him around the world with tours including Peter Pan, Anything Goes and Thoroughly Modern Millie.

After working as an actor in both Hong Kong and in the UK for 15 years, Andy decided to focus his career on teaching movement and Tai Chi at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. Besides working as a Tai Chi instructor and a movement coach, Andy also works as a Cantonese interpreter for the NHS. Andy is proud to teach Tai Chi for Goldster.

Put the date in your diary: 12pm on 14 December. You can join Andy and Lucinda – as always – on Zoom, or Goldster members can apply to be in the live audience in London, by emailing concierge@goldster.co.uk

Join Lucinda Hawksley for a special seasonal PPG as she chats to Jared Brown, co-founder and master distiller of Sipsmith Gin, London’s first newly licensed copper pot distillery in nearly 200 years. He is also a prolific author along with his wife and fellow drinks historian, Anistatia Miller (37 books and over 3,000 articles), and has been travelling the world for the past few decades giving masterclasses on drink to many of the world’s top bartenders. Jared has also been gin distiller for the House of Commons, and he and Anistatia were head bartenders for the White House Correspondents Dinner in Washington and directors of a wine and spirits museum in the South of France. They live in the Cotswolds where they grow gin and vermouth botanicals in their garden and make rather decent martinis.

Lucinda met Jared in 2022 when they were working on a TV programme with Miriam Margolyes – after he served her a particular fine alcohol-free ‘gin twist’, in emulation of the drink made by Bob Cratchit in A Christmas Carol, Lucinda decided Jared would be the perfect guest for the Goldster Conversation this December. Join them at 12pm on 12 December and embrace the Christmas spirit(s). 

Social media

Instagram: @mixellany2

Twitter: @mixellany 

Facebook: Jared Brown

Twitter & Instagram: @lucindahawksley 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LucindaHawksleyauthor

Gothic media moguls Meg Hafdahl and Kelly Florence have written a guide to the science behind Agatha Christie’s stories and her characters Mrs Marple and Hercule Poirot whom we have come to know and love. Through interviews, literary and film analysis, and bone-chilling discoveries, The Science of Agatha Christie uncovers the science behind novels that have become an integral part of the modern murder mystery, answering such questions as:

• What is the science behind the poisons used to commit murders in Agatha Christie’s stories?

• When did crime investigation become more common as seen in Murder on the Orient Express?

• Has science made it possible to uncover the truth behind the investigative powers of Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple?

• How did Agatha Christie use isolated settings to best explore the psychology of her characters?

Meg and Kelly are no novices when it comes to crime fiction and science. Their earlier books include The Science of Stephen King, The Science of Women in Horror; The Science of Serial Killers; The Science of Witchcraft and The Science of Monsters. They also co-host a podcast called Horror Rewind. Hear about the real-life angles that capture Hollywood’s fascination and about the psychology and science that make crime and horror tick. Join Meg and Kelly in conversation with Humphrey Hawksley at 12.00 London time on Inside Story Friday December 8th 2023

Goldster Conversations expands to an exciting, new live venue featuring two of the biggest stars of the art, literary and world of ideas.  Artist Lanre Olagoke founder of the Arts Alive Trust is lending his central London studio as the stage for a Goldster Inside Story interview by Goldster guest presenter Bonnie Greer.  Lanre’s charity helps young people use art to discover find ways to overcome life’s challenges. Many come from underprivileged inner-city communities. As a young man, Lanre’s own creative spirit tore him away from his secure family home and he ended up sleeping rough surrounded by despair and drug addiction. How did he recover, and why?

Bonnie Greer, novelist, critic and broadcaster, will talk Lanre through his life’s story and add some her own. From being raised in the rougher, poorer parts of Chicago she moved to Britain in 1986 and through her plays, novels, films and forensic conversation became a face a voice familiar to millions. Live on Goldster, December 7th 2023 at 12:00pm. 

https://www.artalive.org.uk/ 

Twitter   @artalivetrust 

https://www.lanre.co.uk/about-artist 

Instagram  @lolagoke 

X/Twitter @LANRECOLAGOKE 

Lord Richard Dannatt was a soldier for forty years concluding his military career as Chief of the General Staff – the professional head of the British Army. Since retiring from active duty in 2009, he was Constable of the Tower of London until July 2016. In 2011 he became an independent member of the House of Lords.

His military career began in 1971 with a first tour of duty in Belfast as a platoon commander. During his second tour of duty, also in Northern Ireland, he was awarded the Military Cross. In 1977, however he suffered a major stroke, taking two years to recover. His commanding officer encouraged him to stay, and Lord Dannatt went onto hold the Army’s highest military rank.

Lord Dannatt is the author of two high-praised books, his autobiography, Leading from the Front and his latest he co-authored Victory to Defeat: The British Army 1918-1940. Join Lord Dannatt in the special Goldster Author-to-Author with Humphrey Hawksley at the evening time of 6pm, Wednesday December 6th 2023.

Goldster Conversation delves into the fascinating world and minds of teenagers and young adults with author K. T. Anglehart. She weaves a captivating blend of witchy fantasy, ancient Irish tales, and real-world intrigue in her debut novel The Wise One and her November 2023 sequel The Twin Flame. Drawing on the imagination of C. S. Lewis’ Narnia series, she explores landscapes and folklore of Ireland and Scotland in a genre known as Young Adult Urban Fantasy.

How does this genre influence our culture? We have to remember that J. R. R. Tolkein’s Lord of the Rings and J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter are also Young Adult fantasies as is the fantasy of the hit television series Game of Thrones which began as the Song of Ice and Fire saga series. These stories are now part of our everyday conversation. In The Wise One, 17-year-old McKenna has a vivid dream of burning at the stake and is thrust into a world of faeries, spirits and a high priestess who tracks her every move. In The Twin Flame, impulsive, reckless McKenna realises she is a witch and that she keeps reincarnating as one. But only her mother knows why: McKenna has to find her. Join Humphrey Hawksley in conversation with K. T. Anglehart in Goldster Inside Story at 12.00 London time Friday December 1st 2023.

Henry Sutton is Professor of Creative Writing and Crime Fiction at the University of East Anglia whose alumni include Nobel Laureate Kasio Ishiguro, Louise Doughty and others. From 2018-2021, Henry was Director of Creative Writing while publishing his own crime noir series under the pseudonym of Harry Brett. He is the co-founder and director of the 'Noirwich Crime Writing Festival', run in partnership with the National Centre for Writing and has judged numerous literary awards, including the John Lewellyn Rhys Prize and the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year. Earlier he was Literary Editor of Esquire magazine, and the Books Editor of the Daily Mirror.

The latest of his extensive body of work is Crafting Crime Fiction discussing elements needed to make a crime novel stand out from the crowd. Share huge experience in Goldster Inside Story with Humphrey Hawksley 12.00 Thursday November 30th 2023.

On 23 November, Lucinda will be talking to lucid dreaming and sleep expert Charlie Morley, about his new book Wake Up to Sleep. Charlie is a best-selling author who, for the past 6 years, has been developing a trauma-sensitive, breath- & body-based approach to stress or trauma-affected sleep. Originally developed for British military veterans, his system has now been adapted for the general public. It combines breathwork, lucid dreaming and Yoga Nidra, to help regulate the nervous system and integrate trauma – and, it works! 

In 2018 he was awarded a Winston Churchill Fellowship grant to research PTSD treatment in Military Veterans and continues to teach people with trauma-affected sleep a set of practices called Mindfulness of Dream & Sleep. Charlie believes that most sleep hygiene tips are either ineffective or unsustainable. Instead he offers a pioneering new approach to troubled sleep and trauma which has been proven to improve sleep quality in 87% of participants. 

Join Lucinda and Charlie to find out more about how to improve your sleep patterns and how you can use lucid dreaming methods to transform nightmares. 

Social media

Instagram @charlie_morley_lucid_dreaming 

Facebook @Charlie Morley - Lucid Dreaming. 

X (Twitter) @CharlieMorley1

Twitter, Threads & Instagram: @lucindahawksley 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LucindaHawksleyauthor

In his new book Dickensland: The Curious History of Dickens’s London, Lee Jackson traces the fascinating history of Dickensian tourism. He explores both the reality and myths of ‘Dickens’s London’ – from vanishing coaching inns to submerged riverside stairs, hidden burial grounds to apocryphal shops – as well as the manufactured worlds of film, television, even a Dickens theme park. Dickensland takes readers on a journey that is simultaneously real and imaginary, navigating the peculiar hinterlands where fact meets fiction.

Dr Lee Jackson is a well-known expert on Victorian London. His other books include Dirty Old London, Walking Dickens’ London, and Palaces of Pleasure. Lee has lectured on Victorian topics for libraries and museums throughout London and is an academic advisor to the Charles Dickens Museum. On 17 November, he’ll be joining Goldster presenter and Dickens descendant Lucinda Hawksley for the Inside Story. Join them at 12pm.

Social media

website: www.victorianlondon.orgtwitter: www.twitter.com/victorianlondon

Twitter & Instagram: @lucindahawksley 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LucindaHawksleyauthor

Join us, either in person or online, for what promises to be one of our most exciting Goldster Conversations so far. On 16 November, the legendary Bonnie Greer OBE FRSL will be joining Lucinda Hawksley for a Goldster Live event at Riverstone Kensington, London!

Bonnie is an author, playwright, journalist, critic and former Deputy Chair of the British Museum. An advocate of free speech and higher education, Greer is passionate about both the arts and sciences and is determined to see that the voices of women and minorities are heard in both realms.

Greer has been awarded the Verity Bargate Award for Best New Play and is a columnist for The New European and Byline Times. Greer has appeared as a panellist and guest on a number of television and radio shows, including Question Time. Her podcast In Search of Black History is available on Audible. She has just completed a two-year conversation series at the British Museum, 'The Era Of Reclamation', with former British Museum Director Hartwig Fischer, in which they engaged with artists, scholars, and activists of colour on a range of issues of the day.

Put the date in your diary: 12pm on 16 November. You can join Bonnie Lucinda – as always – on Zoom, or Goldster members can apply to be in the live audience in London, by emailing joe.carterhawkins@goldster.co.uk

Social Media:

Twitter: @Bonn1eGreer

Twitter & Instagram: @lucindahawksley Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LucindaHawksleyauthor

John R. Seeger is a retired Senior Intelligence Service officer who was with the CIA for more than twenty years, leading small teams on many dangerous operations. In 2001, he went in Afghanistan after the Nine Eleven attacks on the United States in an operation captured in the Netflix documentary Spy Ops. On his final 3-year assignment at CIA headquarters, he worked as a chief of operations for a geographic division in the Directorate of Operations and then as a deputy director and deputy chief of the CIA Counterterrorism Centre. Since retirement, J. R. Seeger, as he is known, has set up training courses and given lectures on counter terrorism and other issues involving intelligence work.

He is also the author of the highly acclaimed Mike 4 thriller series about a family who have been part of the special operations and intelligence community from World War II to the present and of his Steampunk Raj historical fiction series with the latest A School for the Great Game. “If you like good tales of the shadowy, often hard-edged world of counter-terrorism, read Mike 4! Written by a veteran of ‘the community,’ it will teach while it entertains.” praises General Stanley McChrystal, while former CIA officer John Sipher says, “Seeger has developed enduring characters who allow him to explore issues related to war, family and betrayal.” Join J.R. Seeger with Humphrey Hawksley for a revealing Goldster Inside Story on spying and war at 12.00 Thursday November 9th 2023.

When Shelly Powers was 7 years old, she told her mother that she’d marry Elvis Presley when she grew up. She did just that ― although her Elvis was an impersonator, a tribute artist she met in Las Vegas. However, over her 12 years of living in Vegas, Shelly became involved with Elvis International, where one of her roles was to interview Elvis’s friends and associates. Her first interview was with his personal photographer, Ed Bonja. What started as one interview became many more, and from those grew friendships with people in Elvis’s circle. 

Now Shelly has published a book, Elvis Remembered in which each of the 11 of Elvis’s intimates has a great story. On 3 November, Shelly will be joining Lucinda Hawksley to reveal some of those stories and to talk about her own journey to create the book. This special Goldster event is an absolute must for all fans of ‘the King’, and for everyone who wants to hear a really unusual insiders’ Inside Story! Come along and be part of the Goldster Conversation.

Social media

Instagram @elvisremembered 

Twitter & Instagram: @lucindahawksley 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LucindaHawksleyauthor

On 2 November, Lucinda Hawksley will be talking to Wendy Moore about her latest book, Endell Street: The Women who ran Britain’s Trailblazing Military Hospital. It tells the story of two pioneering women doctors, Louisa Garrett Anderson and Flora Murray, who set up and ran a major military hospital in London during the First World War. Anderson and Murray were suffragettes and life partners, and the first to take a team of women to France to run an emergency hospital in Paris. They were so successful they were invited by the British Army to run a hospital in the heart of London, in Covent Garden’s Endell Street. Theirs was the only hospital within the British Army to be staffed by women – all the doctors, nurses and orderlies were female, apart from a dozen or so male helpers. Endell Street became renowned as the ‘most popular’ hospital in the First World War – but that did nothing to help its women pioneers when peace came. Endell Street: The Women who ran Britain’s Trailblazing Military Hospital was serialised on BBC Radio 4’s Book of the Week.

Come and discover the inside story as Wendy chats to Lucinda about this latest book, as well as her career in journalism and her other titles, on medical and social history. Join them and be part of the Goldster Conversation.

Social media

Twitter: wendymoore99

Twitter & Instagram: @lucindahawksley 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LucindaHawksleyauthor

Join the Goldster conversation with Lucinda Hawksley as she chats to the author Francesca Wade about her fascinating debut book, Square Haunting: Five Women, Freedom and London between the Wars. It looks at the lives of five extraordinary women, including Virginia Woolf and Dorothy L Sayers, all of whom lived in the same square in London. Square Haunting was shortlisted for the RSL Ondaatje Prize and longlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction. Francesca is now working on her second book, about Gertrude Stein. Her work proposes a form of biography centered on women’s lives, on collectivity and community, on recovering hidden histories, and on challenging the scripts by which lives are lived and stories are told.

Francesca is a former editor of the literary quarterly the White Review, and her writing has appeared in Granta, the London Review of Books, the New York Review of Books, and the Paris Review. She will be talking to Lucinda on 26 October, as 12pm. Come along and discover more about the intriguing lives of the women whom Francesca has brought back to life in the pages of her book. 

Social Media

Twitter: @francescawade

Twitter, Threads & Instagram: @lucindahawksley 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LucindaHawksleyauthor

Thriller writer Kenneth Dekleva is a psychiatrist in Dallas, Texas and, for many years, worked for the American State Department as a physician-diplomat. His postings included Russia, India, Mexico and the United Kingdom. He went on to become director of the State Department’s worldwide diplomatic mental health program and currently holds the McKenzie Foundation Chair in Psychiatry at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. When not working or practicing martial arts, Ken writes fiction.

His latest, The Last Violinist, takes the reader to North Korea, the most secretive and closed-off country from where Jong-un, a talented violinist travels the world and is drawn into betrayal, espionage and battles between competing governments. The novel explores the psychological intricacies of human relationships, betrayals, passions, friendships and religious conversion. Ken’s earlier work, The Negotiator’s Cross, delivers a compelling story, also woven with themes of faith and religion. It is told through the eyes of a Father Ismael, a seemingly ordinary Catholic priest in Mexico City. That is until one of his parishioners vanishes. Ken is a familiar face and voice on American new media and gives presentations on leadership analysis which includes profiles on the Russian and Chinese leaders, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping. Join Kenneth Dekleva with Humphrey Hawksley on Goldster Inside Story at 12.00 Friday October 20, 2023.

Adrian Magson is the author of hundreds of short stories and 29 books and an acclaimed expert in creating fictional characters. In his crime-thriller series we meet private detectives partners Ruth Gonzales and Andy Vaslik; deep cover specialist, Marc Portman; spy Harry Tate; French 1960s crime fighter Lucas Rocco, and others. He is so prolific that he has not one, but two most recently published books, Death at the Old Asylum in which Inspector Rocco becomes enveloped in a case of cold-blooded execution and Killing Waters, a stand-alone murder investigation set on the Oxford Canal in the Midlands.

Adrian’s work has been praised for its strong female characters, realism, intrigue, grit and fast pace. Join Lucinda Hawksley with Adrian in the Goldster Conversation to discuss his wide body of work, his favourite series, the source of his ideas and writing techniques across the genres. Adrian also used to be a Tae Kwon Do instructor and you’ll hear about that, too. Goldster Inside Story, 12.00 Thursday October 19th 2003.

Calling all fans of Jane Austen. On 13 October, Lucinda will be interviewing Ruth Leigh, author of A Great Deal of Ingenuity: A Collection of Pride and Prejudice Stories. The pages of Pride and Prejudice sparkle with household names: proud Darcy and prejudiced Elizabeth, book-loving Mr Bennet, the snobbish Bingley sisters, predatory Mr Wickham and oily Mr Collins. But what about all the other people busy cooking, mending, flirting, walking and socialising in the background? 

In this collection of short stories, Ruth shines a light on the lives of nine characters from the novel. How is married life at Hunsford? Will Maria Lucas ever find a husband? How does Sally the maid feel about mending Lydia’s worked muslin gown? Which Meryton matron will triumph in luring a marriageable young man into their parlour? This charming collection of stories gives the reader a window into the worlds of Meryton, Rosings Park, Pemberley and Hunsford as you’ve never seen them before.

Ruth Leigh is also the author of the witty Isabella M Smugge series about a single parent of four who moves from London to the countryside, becoming an “instamum” and turning her life into an award-winning ‘brand’ yet struggling with the actual, non-instagram realities of life. Find out more in the Goldster Inside Story on 13 October.

Social Media

@ruthleighwrites on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and TikTok. 

website is ruthleighwrites.co.uk.

Twitter, Threads & Instagram: @lucindahawksley 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LucindaHawksleyauthor

Jim Kelly is the son of a Scotland Yard detective – something which would later inspire his writing. After studying geography – especially landscape - at Sheffield University Jim went into newspapers, ending up as education correspondent of the Financial Times. During this time, he moved to live Ely, in the Cambridgeshire Fens – a move inspired by The Nine Tailors by Dorothy L Sayers, his favourite English crime novel. He says of his work, “Sayers’ combination of landscape and plot is always my aim”.

While being a long-distance commuter from Ely to London, Jim wrote his first two books on the train – both are set in and around Ely, and feature a journalist, Philip Dryden, who works on the local paper, The Crow. The seven Dryden books won an award called the Dagger in the Library – a crime-writing ‘Oscars’. His second series, based on the North Norfolk Coast, won the New Angle Prize for Literature. His last three crime novels were set in Cambridge during WW2 and were nominated for an Historical Dagger. Last year saw the publication of The Silent Child – an historical thriller, under the name J G Kelly. Jim will be chatting to Lucinda Hawksley on the Inside Story on 12 October, a few days after the publication of his latest book,The White Lie – based on Captain Scott’s Last Expedition. Join them at 12pm and become part of the Goldster Conversation. 

Twitter - @thewaterclock

www.jgkelly.co.uk

The Vicar is a debut thriller written under the pseudonym of A. J Chambers, a British army veteran deployed to Northern Ireland for much of his military career. Chambers introduces Terry Nolan, a British intelligence officer, who discovers that his cover is blown, and millions of lives are at stake. Officially, Terry Nolan has been dead for the past thirty years. But when Nolan is attacked in Boston, the chilling reality sets in that both Nolan and his network of spies known as his Parishioners are compromised. There begins a race to save lives and stop a dreadful terror attack on British cities. Chambers was determined to become an author after being given The Complete Works of Sherlock Holmes for his tenth birthday. “I read it cover to cover in less than a month,” he says, “and then turned right around and read it again.” After leaving the army he followed another love which is cooking and worked as a chef for more than twenty years, but always with plot, character and thriller ideas swirling through his mind. He has five other completed novels to follow The Vicar.

After leaving the army he followed another love which is cooking and worked as a chef for more than twenty years, but always with plot, character and thriller ideas swirling through his mind. Join A. J Chambers with Humphrey Hawksley in a Goldster Conversation that will move from the Troubles of Northern Ireland to the experience of a debut author to the skills of creating Creole and Caribbean/Floribean fusion dishes in a culinary passion – Inside Story, 12.00 Friday October 6th 2023.

Rory Cellan-Jones became a much-loved household name as the BBC Technology Correspondent. Since being diagnosed with Parkinson in 2019, he has pioneered a greater understanding of the disease among all of us with his articles and the illuminating and moving podcast Movers and Shakers. Fellow Parkinson colleagues such as Jeremy Paxman, Mark Mardell and Sir Nicholas Mostyn show how different personalities face up to setbacks. Rory is the best-selling author of Always On – Hope and Fear in the Smartphone Era and his new book, Ruskin Park; Sylvia, Me and the BBC, tells his own tender and troubling story. After his mother’s death, he discovered a file labelled ‘For Rory…in the hope that it will help him understand how it really was.’ He was the child of a love affair between two BBC employees and his mother Sylvia, single parented two sons in a one-bedroom flat while working full time.

In this inspiring and moving Goldster Inside Story meet Rory in conversation with Lucinda Hawksley to hear about understanding technology, living with Parkinson’s and discovering secrets from childhood and how all that makes you the person you are. Can we ever really know the truth about our parents? This is a live in-audience Goldster Conversation at the Riverstone Theatre in Fulham. To come along e-mail Joe.CarterHawkins@Goldster.co.uk 12.00 Thursday October 5th 2023.

Hannibal Jones is a trouble shooter, fighter of evil and a dogged investigator who finds himself up against organised crime and city corruption helping victims who are mostly the sick and most vulnerable. Hannibal’s creator is Austin S Camacho who returns to Goldster Inside Story on the publication week of his latest in the series, Subtle Felonies, a captivating mystery that takes us deep into Americana. A retired basketball star, Xander Brown, goes missing. His wife calls Hannibal for help and we delve into a world of money, music, sport and murkiness. Austin, himself, is a fascinating character. He handled media relations for the Pentagon and was a reporter for the American Forces Network. Deeply embedded within the American writing community, he is featured in the Edgar nomination anthology African-American Mystery Writers.

Austin is skilled at transforming today’s thorny issues of race, religion and identity into compelling crime and thriller fiction. In Blood and Bone an eighteen-year-old boy lies dying of leukaemia and members of a wealthy Virginia family are eliminated. In Beyond Blue, a privately funded detective agency helps police officers in trouble. In Ice Woman Assignment, a retired mercenary and retired jewel thief take on a Latin American drug cartel. Join Austin for this great Goldster Conversation with Humphrey Hawksley 12.00 Thursday September 28th, 2023.

On 22 September, join Lucinda Hawksley as she speaks to a man who isn’t there….. JD Kirk is the author of the multi-million bestselling DCI Jack Logan crime fiction series, set in the Highlands of Scotland. He also does not exist. Instead, JD is the pen name of former children’s author and screenwriter, Barry Hutchison, who was born and raised in Fort William. 

His latest title, A Dead Man Walking is the 18th book in the number-one-bestselling DCI Jack Logan series, perfect for fans of Ian Rankin, Stuart MacBride, and Agatha Christie. Its setting is a remote Highland castle, on a dark and stormy night. When an elderly billionaire is discovered dead in the locked study of his stately Highland home, DCI Jack Logan and his team must race the worsening weather to get to the scene of the crime. Jack finds no shortage of suspects. Everyone, it seems, had reason to want the old man dead, and they all have something to hide - but the castle’s residents won’t give him a minute to think. Not even the dead ones…

Including his books as JD Kirk, Barry has written over 200 novels, countless comics, and dozens of TV episodes. He still lives in the Highlands with his wife and children. He has no idea what the JD stands for. 

Social Media

Website: https://jdkirk.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jdkirkbooks/
Twitter (X) : https://twitter.com/JDKirkBooks
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jdkirkbooks
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@jdkirkbooks

Twitter & Instagram: @lucindahawksley 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LucindaHawksleyauthor

Julie Summers is a bestselling writer, researcher and historian. Her books include Fearless on Everest: The Quest for Sandy Irvine; a biography of her grandfather, the man who built the 'real' bridge over the River Kwai, The Colonel of Tamarkan, Stranger in the House and When the Children Came Home, a social history of servicemen returning to their families from the Second World War. On 3 February, Julie returns to Goldster to talk about Jambusters, the story of the Women’s Institute in WW2. 

This was the W.I.’s finest hour. The whole of its previous history – two decades of educating, entertaining and supporting women and campaigning on women's issues – culminated in the enormous collective responsibility felt by the members to 'do their bit' for Britain. With all the vigour, energy and enthusiasm at their disposal, a third of a million country women set out to make their lives and the lives of those around them more bearable in what they described as 'a period of insanity'. 

Jambusters also inspired the hit TV series Home Fires. Join Julie as she chats to Lucinda Hawksley about her writing and about what it was like to have her book turned into a TV series.

In early 2017, Sarah Bax Horton made the chance discovery through family history research that her great-great grandfather was a Metropolitan Police sergeant who worked on the Jack the Ripper case. This discovery inspired her to write a book in his honour, based on a theory dating from the time of the murders. 

In the early 20th century, CID Chief Robert Anderson went public with a declaration that the police had identified the Ripper but failed a build a firm prosecution case against him. Anderson provided specific information about a Polish Jewish man, who was a true East Ender and who suffered from fits of violence.  Using profiling techniques, Bax Horton’s research uncovered a new prime suspect, Hyam Hyams, who had the same distinctive physical characteristics as were reported by eye-witnesses in the minutes before the Ripper murders. His medical file provides a compelling physical and psychological match to Anderson’s perpetrator.

Find out more in the Goldster Inside Story on 14 September as Sarah Bax Horton talks to Lucinda about her fascinating research and what it was like to write the book, One-Armed Jack: Uncovering the real Jack the Ripper. 

Social Media

Instagram: @sarahbaxhorton

Twitter, Threads & Instagram: @lucindahawksley 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LucindaHawksleyauthor

Playwright, critic and literary novelist, Michael Arditti, tackles deep moral issues in his latest book The Choice which revolves around the rector of an ancient country church in Chesire. She chances upon the chief bell-ringer and husband of her closest friend, fondling a fifteen-year-old boy. Will she choose friendship or conscience, sympathy or her official duty of care? What will drive her decision and what will be the impact? Praised by Philip Pullman for iots important and pertinent themes and by former Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, for testing the reader’s own moral alertness for rigour, realism and generosity. The Choice is Michael’s thirteenth novel. The twelfth, The Pretender, draws on Michael’s love for the theatre telling the story of 19th Century child star, William Henry West Betty, and the nature of celebrity, the power of publicity and the cult of youth – even before the age of social media.

His first book The Celibate published in 1993 delves into the character of a young, idealistic ordinant in the Church of England who only discovers humanity and passion when he sent to work among outcasts and down-and-outs. In this Goldster Conversation with Humphrey Hawksley Michael will discuss The Choice, his previous books and the ups and downs in a life of theatre, writing drama for BBC Radio Four, literary reviewing for just about every mainstream publication and novel writing. Inside Story, 12.00 Friday September 8th London time

Acclaimed historian Roger Moorhouse brings us a gripping Second World War story of forgers whose documents saved the lives of thousands of Jews facing extermination in the Holocaust. Under the leadership of the Aleksander Lados, the Polish Ambassador to Switzerland, they undertook a systematic programme of forging identity documents for Latin American countries, which were then smuggled into German-occupied Europe -- the painful uncertainty over whether they will be granted protection from the Nazis' murderous fury. The Forgers has been praised for being gripping, remarkable and fascinating, with individual stories of quiet heroism that became the single largest rescue operation of the war.

In this Goldster Conversation Roger will also be discussing his previous compelling books, The Devil’s Alliance about the pact between Hitler and Stalin; The First to Fight, on the 1939 invasion of Poland; Berlin at War, the everyday lives of Germans living in Hitler’s Berlin; and his first book, Killing Hitler, on the numerous attempts on the dictator’s life. Since 2016, Roger has been an associate professor at the College of Europe in Warsaw. As fellow historian, Dan Snow says, ‘Roger Moorhouse has a wonderful knack of reminding us about parts of the Second World War that we are in danger of forgetting.’ Join Humphrey Hawksley with Roger Moorhouse on Inside Story 12.00 London time September 7th 2023.

For over thirty years, Dr Ben Cave has been working in prisons and secure hospitals diagnosing and treating some of the most troubled men and women in society. A lifetime of care takes us from delusional disorders to schizophrenia, steroid abuse to drug dependency, personality disorders to paedophilia, and depression so severe a mother can kill her own baby. In his first book, What We Fear Most, Ben gives us the human stories behind the headlines, those tragic and often frightening tales of the conversations he has had behind closed doors. Here is the reality of a life working with patients with severe mental health disorders. Drawing on his years of training and extensive experience in this highly emotive environment, Dr Ben Cave takes us on a journey of reflection.

It’s about his patients, but it’s also about him. It’s about what they have taught each other and how it has changed them. It’s about the psychological battle scars he has carried with him after a career on the frontline of our health service. It’s about the brilliant mental health nurses for whom physical injury and verbal abuse are a daily hazard. It’s about the extremes of mental illness. It’s about all of us, and what we fear most. Dr Ben Cave is a pen name for an author who continues to practice as a general and forensic psychiatrist. Join him with Humphrey Hawksley in this revealing and exacting Goldster Inside Story  Conversation Live from Riverstone, Fulham at 12.00pm, Thursday August 31st 2023.

Harry Bucknall’s love of travel blossomed in early childhood exploring the creeks, islands and inlets of Poole harbour in a mirror dinghy. He served in the army and is now a writer in the tradition of great adventurers chronicling his long walks in stories laced with humour, inspiration and sheer grit. In The Dolphin’s Wake, Harry’s first book, told the story of his 5,500 mile journey from Venice to Istanbul through the Greek Archipelago in the summer of 2006. Like a Tramp, Like a Pilgrim took us on a vivid 94-day, 1,411-mile pilgrimage following the ancient Via Francigena through England, France, Switzerland and Italy. His work has won praise from Hollywood actor Martin Sheen, gardening celebrity, Alan Tidmarsh and doyen of travel writing Sir Patrick Leigh Fermor.

His latest book, A Road for All Seasons, is out next year with the story of his walk from the Isle of Iona across the breadth of the British Isle on a quest to better understand his island nation. Rarely one to rest, Harry is presently developing a new project, The Trans-Arabian Camel Expedition, recreating the Queen of Sheba’s 2,000 mile journey by camel from Salalah in Oman to Jerusalem across the Arabian desert. Join Harry with Humphrey Hawksley for an adventure Goldster Conversation of a lifetime 12.00 London time, Thursday August 24th 2023.

Dr Nicholas Cambridge is an honorary research fellow in humanities and medical history at the University of Buckingham. Previously he worked as a GP for 25 years. He is a member of the Dickens Fellowship and has published several papers and given many lectures on Charles Dickens in relation to medicine. His new book, Bleak Health: The medical history of Charles Dickens and his family, is an in-depth study of the health issues affecting Charles Dickens, his parents, his wife Catherine, his sister-in-law Mary Hogarth, his siblings and his children. 

For his book, Nicholas meticulously analysed over 14,000 of Dickens’s letters, and in doing so was able to identify over 20 illnesses that Dickens suffered from, including chronic carbon monoxide poisoning, gonorrhoea, asthma, gout, an anal fistula and trigeminal neuralgia. Join him with Dickens’s descendant 

Social media

Twitter: @NicholasCambri3

Twitter & Instagram: @lucindahawksley 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LucindaHawksleyauthor

Jarod Chapman is a breath work and meditation teacher, a fitness coach, sports masseur, and co author of The power of Yoga For Men. He was Tina Turner’s Personal Wellness Coach on her final world tour in 2008-09.

His passion passion for writing about all things health, wellness, and living a positive life began after working as the Media Ambassador for Slendertone. The Power of Yoga For Men came about because Bloomsbury publishing recognised that men were seeking to find alternative and holistic approaches towards their health - in body, mind and spirit. 

Jarod works as a coach and masseur to CEOs, teachers, journalists, entrepeneurs, performance artists, students; ranging in ages between 10 and 87. He works on the principle that exercise, yoga, healthy relationships, meditation, and nutritious food planning are all important to treat with a sense of responsibility, lightheartedness, discipline and commitment.

The Power of Yoga For Men is an appeal to men. We’ve been gifted the ancient yoga teachings for centuries - and they are now, ever more important, to explore and practice. Jarod’s philosophy is a multi-disciplined approach to life and wellbeing guided by Hippocrates, the grandfather of modern medicine, who said “ let medicine be thy food, and food thy medicine’. 

Instagram @jarod.chapman
Website www.jarodchapman.com

Twitter & Instagram: @lucindahawksley 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LucindaHawksleyauthor

Our lives are intrinsically linked to those of animals – whether that’s the animals we farm for food, those living in the wild, those we use for sport or the ones we choose to keep as pets. We all have a responsibility to consider our impact, and even small changes in our own lives could significantly improve the quality of theirs.

Dr Sean Wensley is an award-winning vet, lifelong naturalist and a former President of the British Veterinary Association, advocating animal wellbeing around the world. Fusing keen scientific insight with tender meditations on the natural world, his new book, Through A Vet’s Eyes: How to care for animals and treat them better, reveals the injustices which animals experience every day and raises an important question: how can we choose a better life for animals?

Compelling and compassionate, Through a Vet’s Eyes helps us to see things from the animals’ perspectives, and illuminates the ways we can better care for our fellow creatures. It was one of the Financial Times’ Best Summer Books of 2022. On 11 August, Sean will be talking to Lucinda Hawksley for the Goldster Inside Story. 

Social Media

Twitter: @SeanWensley

Twitter & Instagram: @lucindahawksley 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LucindaHawksleyauthor

Anna Cale is an arts and culture writer who specialises in classic film and television. She has written for a number of publications, including Little White Lies, Film Stories and the British Film Institute, and has also appeared on Radio 4 and Channel 5. Her writing subjects are wide ranging, but she has an interest in British cinema of the 1940s, 50s and 60s, and in particular showcasing the role of strong female voices in film culture. 

Anna’s recent biography of popular British actor Diana Dors explores the life and work of a fascinating film star, in a remarkable story of fame, glamour and intrigue. Set against the backdrop of the changing social landscape of twentieth century Britain, The Real Diana Dors charts the ups and downs of the diverse acting career and tumultuous private life of one of Britain’s best loved actors, to build a fascinating picture of a truly unique British screen icon. Join Anna and Lucinda Hawksley on 10 August for the Goldster Inside Story.

Social Media

Twitter: @real_meaning

Instagram: @annacalewrites

TikTok: @annacalewriter 

Twitter & Instagram: @lucindahawksley 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LucindaHawksleyauthor

The Gift of Aging blends frontline science with inspirational stories and insights from wise elders for aging with health, joy, and purpose. Here is a compelling explanation of how our bodies and brains age, defining what can be expected with aging and what is unusual. The authors Elizabeth Eckstrom and Marcy Houle demonstrate ways we can significantly increase our chances for a positive aging experience into our 80s, 90s and 100s. At some stage of our lives, all of us will have to face the challenges of aging, whether for ourselves, our family or both.

The Gift of Aging follows the authors’ earlier best-seller The Gift of Caring: Saving Our Parents from the Perils of Modern Healthcare. Dr Eckstrom and practices and teaches health care for the elderly at Oregon Health and Science University in the United States. In conversation with Humphrey Hawksley she will offer key strategies for meeting the challenges of aging on a wide range of issues from inclusion to equity to handling legal and financial affairs. Her conclusion is that this third act of our lives can be exciting, meaningful and fulfilling and that, even though elderly, we can all continue to play our part in making the world a better place. Join Elizabeth with Humphrey for this exciting and revealing Goldster Inside Story at the special time of 4pm in the afternoon of Friday August 4th 2023.

Dan Kaszeta is a specialist in defence against chemical, biological, and radiological weapons and warfare. Although he has lived in London since 2008, the first part of his career was in the United States where he was commissioned in the US Army’s small but highly skilled Chemical Corps. In 1996 he took up the post of Disaster Preparedness Advisor at the White House Military Office, where he had responsibility for chemical and biological preparedness and training for the office of the President. After the 9/11 attacks and the anthrax terrorism, the responses to which he was heavily involved in, Dan transferred to the US Secret Service, where he joined the team protecting the President and the White House complex from chemical and biological threats. Usually working in secret behind the scenes, Dan has been thrust into public spotlight when the government banned him from speaking at a chemical weapons conference because some years back he had tweeted something against the government on Brexit.

In an enthralling and wide ranging Goldster Conversation, Dan will discuss his book Toxic: The History of Nerve Agents from Nazi Germany to Putin’s Russia, his campaign about the government blacklisting the advice of experts who disagree with it and his new book The Forest Brotherhood: Baltic Resistance Against the Nazis and the Soviets. Join Dan with Humphrey Hawksley on Inside Story Thursday August 3rd 2023.

Maggy Pigott is the vice-chair of Open Age, Life’s Just Begun and has published the critically-acclaimed How to Age Joyfully, Eight Steps to a Happier, Fuller Life. Dame Judi Dench commends the book to everyone of all ages and Giles Brandreth describes it as ‘full of wit, wisdom – and hope’. Here is Maggy’s nub thoughts. We’re living longer – let’s live better! Getting older should be something to enjoy and celebrate.

And it can be. Research shows that we can make a big difference to how well we age. From staying active to connecting with others, Maggy shares the secrets to ageing well in eight steps, to help keep you healthy and happy. Each step has easy-to-follow tips, alongside inspiring words both ancient and modern… and more! The guidance includes keeping physically active, eating well, having purpose and being positive. There are stunning quotes such as from Theodore Roosevelt – ‘Old age is like everything else… to make a success of it, you’ve got to start young’ to Mahatma Gandhi ‘The future depends on what you do today.’ Maggy also cites peer group leaders such as Sir David Attenborough travelling the world making natural history films in his nineties Dame Judi Dench and David Hockney both still working in their eighties, and of course Her Majesty the Queen. Whether you choose to follow some of the advice or all, this is the perfect guide for living a more fulfilled, healthy and joyful life. To find out more join Humphrey Hawksley with Maggy Pigott on this uplifting Goldster Inside Story at 12.00 on Thursday July 27th 2023.

In 1995, Charles Cumming was approached for recruitment by the United Kingdom's Secret Intelligence Service (MI6). A Spy by Nature, his first espionage thriller, published in 2001, was partly based on his experiences with MI6. The novel's hero, Alex Milius, is a flawed loner in his early 20s who is recruited by MI5 to sell doctored research data on oil exploration in the Caspian Sea to the CIA. In August 2001, Charles moved to Madrid, and he published his second novel, The Hidden Man, in 2003, His second novel, telling the story of two brothers investigating the murder of their father, a former SIS officer, at the hands of the Russian mafia. The Hidden Man also examines the clandestine role played by SIS and the CIA during the Soviet war in Afghanistan.

Charles has emerged as, probably, Britain’s finest spy author, following in the footsteps of Ian Fleming, John Le Carre and Len Deighton and praised by the likes of Mick Herron, Ian Rankin and Ben McIntyre. He is also the winner of the coveted Crime Writers Association Ian Fleming Steel Dagger.  His latest hugely best-selling series begins with Box 88 has the compelling hook line of “An organisation that doesn’t exist. A spy that can’t be caught….1989: The Cold War will soon be over, but for BOX 88, a top secret spying agency, the espionage game is heating up.  Kennedy 35, the next in the series, is out in October.  Join our premier spy writer Charles Cumming for a Goldster Author to Author Conversation with Humphrey Hawksley on Wednesday July 26th 2023 at the special time of 7pm.

Katharine has written non-fiction, short stories and books for children. The Low Road is her first novel. Her non-fiction works include Scapegoat: Why We Are Failing Disabled People and No Place to Call Home: Inside The Real Lives Of Gypsies And Travellers. Katharine also works as an investigative journalist and editor, with particular interests in disability, the environment, race and ethnicity and the care system.

The Low Road is set in rural England, London and Australia in the early nineteenth century. It is based on a true story Katharine found whilst visiting her parents in the Waveney Valley of a Norfolk woman, Mary Tyrell, who was staked through the heart after death in 1813. She had been questioned repeatedly about a suspected infanticide. Katharine traced her surviving daughter to a Refuge in London, where she forged a friendship which deepened into love with another young woman. Both were then transported separately to Australia and the novel is based on their story. 

This novel is about uncovering lost histories: the stories of poor women from rural areas, the stories of the imprisoned, the stories of convicts sent to penal colonies, the stories of people who often left no records as a result of illiteracy and hardship. It also contains an important strand of narrative that explores experiences left out of the history books - in this case a same sex romance. 

Join Katharine and Lucinda Hawksley on the Goldster Inside Story on 21 July. 

Social media

Twitter @katharineq

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/katharinequarmbywriter/

Website: Katharinequarmby.com.

James Clarke specialises in writing about cinema. He has worked with Iconic Images in London on a series of books about movie stars and their collaborations with particular photographers. The latest in this series of books is entitled Being Bardot and has just been published in the UK and the US. James also teaches screenwriting and works for the BFI as a Script Reader. James’s other books include: The Virgin Books Film Guide: War Films and Bond: Photographed by Terry O’Neill. James studied Film and Literature at the University of Warwick. 

Brigitte Bardot stepped out of French films onto the global stage and remains recognised the world over for her work as an actress, a singer, and an animal rights activist. The photographers Douglas Kirkland and Terry O’Neill both worked with Brigitte Bardot at the peak of her fame in the 1960s and early 1970s, photographing the star on set and behind the scenes. Being Bardot looks at the life and work one of the most-loved faces in 20th-century cinema. Join James Clarke as he talks to Lucinda Hawksley about those images and what it is like to write about an icon of cinema history.

James Social

Twitter:@jasclarkewriter 

Instagram: jameswriter72 

Lucinda Social

Twitter & Instagram: @lucindahawksley 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LucindaHawksleyauthor

“It’s never going to work. You’re not good enough!” Are you tired of hearing that nagging voice inside your head? And what if you could do something about it? Do you have a dream or a project that’s been on the back burner for too long? Even with all your accomplishments, do you still doubt yourself sometimes? Statistics show that eight-five per cent of people suffer from a lack of self confidence in at least one area of their lives. Draining negative self-talk creates procrastination, stress, anxiety, and burnout. People know what they want or need to do, and yet they do the reverse—they resist change and can’t adapt to the fast world we live in. That makes them feel powerless, frustrated, and insecure. In a work environment, this can lead to a demotivated and unhappy team, low overall performance and a high employee turnover rate. With the layers of stress people are already buried under, important decisions are clouded by emotions or limiting beliefs, instead of being based on skills and experience. Bottom line: whether on a personal or professional level, most people admit to not working—or living—at their full potential.

Nathalie Plamondon-Thomas is a Confidence Expert and bestselling author of seventeen books about success, communication, wellness and empowerment. In this uplifting and forward-thinking Goldster Conversation, Nathalie shows how negative self-talk, imposter syndrome, resistance to change, past trauma, and low performance can all be addressed with increased confidence. Join Nathalie with Humphrey Hawksley on Inside Story Friday July 14th 2023.

Barbara Berger’s international bestseller The Road to Power / Fast Food for the Soul has become a classic in the self-help movement, published now in 30 languages with almost a million copies sold worldwide. She is also the author of Are You Happy Now? 10 Ways to Live a Happy Life which is also a bestseller, published in 21 languages, and Barbara’s latest book Healthy Models for Relationships is another highly relevant contribution to our well-being, based on her many years of clinical experience working with people around the world as a coach and therapist.

Most of our problems are people problems and have to do with relationships – be it with our partners, families, children, parents – or with our friends, neighbours or colleagues. As a result, most people want to know how we best can deal respectfully with our partners and families while still remaining true to who we are. Based on her many years of working as a coach and therapist, Barbara helps us identify the characteristics of healthy relationships.

What does a healthy relationship with a partner look like? What does a healthy family look like? In this incredibly important Goldster Inside Story Barbara will share with us practical tools we can use to deal with the consequences of relationships that have been less than healthy and respectful. She will also discuss widely her many other books which explore topics of all fifteen of her astounding books which examine from how we eat to how we think and how we handle those later years of life.

Join Barbara in this compelling Goldster Conversation with Humphrey Hawksley at 12.00 July 13th 2023

Mike Gayle was born and raised in Birmingham. After graduating from Salford University with a degree in Sociology, he moved to London to pursue a career in journalism and worked as a features editor and agony uncle. He has written for a variety of publications including The Sunday Times, the Guardian and Cosmopolitan. He lives in Birmingham with his wife, kids and greyhound.

Mike became a full-time novelist in 1997 following the publication of his Sunday Times top ten bestseller My Legendary Girlfriend, which was hailed by the Independent as 'full of belly laughs and painfully acute observations', and by The Times as 'a funny, frank account of a hopeless romantic'. Since then he has written eighteen novels, including The Man I Think I Know, selected as a World Book Night title, and Half A World Away, selected for the Richard and Judy Book Club. His books have been translated into more than thirty languages. In 2021, Mike was the recipient of the Outstanding Achievement Award from the Romantic Novelists' Association. 

Join Mike as he chats to Lucinda Hawksley about his latest book, A Song of Me and You, for the Goldster Inside Story on 7 July. 

Social media

Twitter @mikegayle

Instagram @mikegaylethenovelist

Essie Fox was born and raised in rural Herefordshire. After studying English Literature at the University of Sheffield she moved to London, working on newspapers and in publishing – before she changed direction, becoming an illustrator in the world of art and design. 

Always an avid reader, Essie now writes Victorian gothic novels. Her debut, The Somnambulist, was shortlisted for the National Book Awards, and featured on Channel 4’s TV Book Club. The Last Days of Leda Grey, set in the early years of silent film, was selected as The Times Historical Book of the Month. Her latest novel, The Fascination is based in Victorian country fairgrounds, the glamour of the London theatres, and an Oxford Street museum full of morbid curiosities – which really did exist.  

Essie is also the creator of the popular blog: The Virtual Victorian. Join her as she chats to Humphrey Hawksley on July 6th about her journey into the world of weird Victorians! 

Essie's social media 

Twitter - @essiefox (Essie Fox Author)

FB - Essie Fox Author

Instagram - @essie_fox_author

The Tennis Champion Who Escaped The Nazis is a family memoir. Felice Hardy’s grandparents fled to London with their daughter, escaping from Nazi-occupied Vienna. This book explores their new lives in England, as well as the terrible fate of those loved ones they were forced to leave behind in the Holocaust.

Felice’s grandmother, Liesl Herbst, was the 1930 Tennis Champion of Austria and later beat Tim Henman’s grandmother at Wimbledon. She and her daughter also played doubles at Wimbledon – the only mother and daughter ever to do so. Woven throughout this book is the search for the author’s own identity. She was raised in an emotionally-ravaged family who suffered from survivor’s guilt and buried their pre-war existence beneath a blanket of denial.

Felice is a journalist who has covered diverse subjects ranging from travel and food to sports and fashion. Her first job was at Vogue magazine and this was followed by a period as deputy editor of a ski magazine. She has also co-written more than 20 travel guidebooks.   

Join Felice Hardy and Lucinda Hawksley on 29 June, 12pm. Felice will be talking about her writing career, her ancestors and why, as the descendant of two Wimbledon players, she never ceases to wonder why she can barely hit a ball over the net!

Social media

Twitter & Instagram @feliceski

Ellen Cheshire spent her childhood reading books, visiting art galleries, watching films and going to the theatre. She began her career as a  box office assistant. It was only natural that she would go on to work in the creative arts and is now a specialist in the cinema, and specifically great directors. She has written books on Ang Lee, the Taiwanese director who broke into Hollywood with films like Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Brokeback Mountain and Life of Pi and New Zealand director, Jane Campion, whose work includes The Piano with which she was the first woman to win the Cannes Palme D’Or award and The Power of the Dog for which she won Best Director Oscar.

Ellen also contributed to Silent Women, the first book to give an overview of early women film-makers with stunning illustrations of the early days of the movies and The Charlie Chaplin Archives which tells of the comedian with his trademark bowler hat, baggy trousers and cane, arriving in Hollywood in 1914 to become the slapstick king of America and incredibly rich with his own studio and an instantly recognisable character. Then, of course, Ellen’s hand is also seen within the James Bond Archives, the most dashing secret agent in the history of cinemas. Steeped in folklore of Hollywood and its history, join Ellen Cheshire in conversation with Humphrey Hawksley to peel back stories of the stars, the directors, the in-fighting and awards in our block-buster Goldster Inside Story, Friday June 23rd 2023.

Michael Davies has been brave enough to step into the shoes of great thriller writer Desmond Bagley who captivated readers and movie goers with his multi-million selling spy and adventure stories. Bagley who died in 1983 would have celebrated his 100th birthday this year. Publisher Harper Collins has bought his estate and commissioned Davies to write an original thriller in Desmond Bagley style and atmosphere. It is called Outback with a protagonist, Bill Kemp, described by the thriller author Jeffrey Deaver as being part James Bond and part Philip Marlowe, the taciturn detective created by Raymond Chandler. Davies’ task is made even more challenging because Outback is a sequel to Desmond Bagley’s posthumously published Domino Island, which came out in 2019 after being discovered among abandoned manuscripts in the author’s archive.

Outback’s story centres around an opal mine deep in Australia’s remote interior, where Bill Kemp faces an unknown enemy even more deadly than the vast, forbidding wilderness and the blistering Australian sun. And the other story With so many famous names swirling around Bagley’s legacy, Michael Davies will be telling how an author can move into another writer’s shoes. Several have done it with varying degrees of success with Tom Clancy, Ian Fleming, Vince Flynn and others. How much is their own creativity and how much are they confined by the footsteps they follow? To find out, join Michael Davies in conversation with Humphrey Hawksley on Goldster Inside Story at 12.00 on June 22nd.

Amanda Craig is the author of nine novels, including her latest book, The Three Graces which is about 3 friends in their 80s, who have retired to Tuscany, where they must stop one grandchild from a disaster wedding, redeem another and save a life… 

A State-of-the-Nation novelist whose work has been compared to that of Dickens, Trollope, E.M. Forster and Kate Atkinson, Amanda combines strong, interlinked characters and plots involving crime, romance, social comedy and satire about modern life. Two of her recent novels, Hearts and Minds and The Golden Rule were long-listed for the Women's Prize for Fiction, and The Lie of the Land was made into a Radio 4 ‘Book At Bedtime’. She writes, she says to “afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted.” Join Amanda and Lucinda Hawksley on the Inside Story on 16 June.

Social Media

Twitter: @AmandaPCraig

Gerald Dickens is a great great grandson of the author, Charles Dickens. He has been working as an actor, director and producer for many years.  In 1993 he created his first one-man show, a theatrical performance of A Christmas Carol inspired by Charles’ own energetic readings of the 1860s.

A fascination in the life and works of his subject led him to write and direct further one-man shows including Mr Dickens is Coming!, Nicholas Nickleby, Great Expectations and A Tale of Two Cities, as well as some of the short stories, including the supernatural tale ‘The Signalman’. It was while researching the background to the latter performance that Gerald became fascinated in the circumstances behind the great Staplehurst rail disaster which took place on the 9th June 1865.

In the resulting book, Dickens and Staplehurst. A Biography of a Rail Crash, Gerald investigates the circumstances that led to the accident, both from Charles’ point of view, as well as a technical one. From a study of Charles Dickens’ life to the conclusions of the various official reports, Gerald’s book is a comprehensive study of the tragedy at Staplehurst. On 15 June, Gerald will be chatting to Lucinda Hawksley (who is also one of his relatives…) on the Inside Story. Join them for a truly Dickensian Goldster event.

Social Media

Twitter: @DickensShows

Instagram: @ dickensshows

www.geralddickens.com

John Hands is a scientist, novelist, creative writing tutor and the author of substantive and much-lauded non-fiction works Cosmosapiens: Human Evolution from the Origin of the Universe and The Future of Humankind:  Why We Should be Optimistic. After teaching physics for Britain’s Open University devoted more than ten years to evaluating scientific theories about how we evolved from the origin of the universe. The result was Cosmosapiens chosen by two reviewers as Book of the Year in The Times Literary Supplement and selected as one of the Best Science Books of the year by The Telegraph. Here, John argues takes us on a quest to ascertain what science can reliably tell us about how and why we evolved from the origin of the universe and whether what we are makes us different from all other animals. 

The Future of Humankind is its recently published sequel in which, using a scientific perspective, John critically examines the current predictions of our extinction, survival, and transformation. Critics have described his ultimate prediction as unique, astonishing and surprising. With extraordinary insight, using solid materials, these works give a very valuable answer. Find out what lies ahead for our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren in this fascinating and challenging discussion about where we came from and where we are heading as Humphrey Hawksley quizzes John Hands about Cosmosapiens and The Future of Humankind.  Goldster Inside Story Friday June 9th 2023.

What is the Stuff of Life? What do we accumulate over the years, our collections, our memories, our relationships cluttered into cards, tickets, shells, bangles? Why did the artist Michael Landy destroy everything he owned in a dramatic 2001 exhibition called Break Down – 7,227 items in front of 45,000 fascinated people. With high and creative talent, Jane Dorner, give us her Stuff of Life – a personal story beautifully illustrated with more than 400 watercolours and descriptions what she collected and why, what she kept and how, and what we own tells about all of us. The average household holds a staggering 300,000 items. Jane unapologetically scatters family and friends across her pages.

The Stuff of Life is both deeply personal and deeply universal. In conversation with Humphrey Hawksley Jane will also talk about her work as an author, writer, editor and general publishing guru as well as her other watershed books A Life in 490 Recipes and The Egg and Card Book how she recorded each year, not in a diary, but by painting an egg in the spring and card in the winter. The eggs express the salient event of the year gone by and the cards take in paradox and puzzle. “It’s as if I am saying this is what happened but how does one interpret the significance?” explains Jane. For a real hidden gem of a Goldster Inside Story join Humphrey and Jane Dorner at 12.00 Thursday June 8th.

This week, it’s a double helping of Hawksleys on Goldster, as Lucinda interviews her co-presenter, Humphrey Hawksley, about his own life as an author and his critically acclaimed novels.

Humphrey is a journalist, and was, for many years, a foreign correspondent for the BBC. He now uses his finely honed journalistic research skills and in-depth knowledge of world politics to create a series of tense and compelling thrillers, featuring an iconic hero, Rake Ozenna. To date, Rake – a native Alaskan – has featured in four books: Ice Islands, Man on Fire, Man on Edge and Man on Ice. Each one will keep you on the edge of your reading chair – and will keep you guessing until the very end.

In response to several requests by Goldster members, Lucinda will be chatting to Humphrey about his writing process, his extensive and fascinating research, his extremely clever plots and how he manages to create such a memorable cast of characters. Join them at 12pm on Friday 2 June.

Twitter: @HumphreyHawk

Instagram: @hwhawksley Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HumphreyHawksleyThrillers/

Victoria & Abdul is the story of the controversial relationship between Queen Victoria and a young Indian servant called Abdul Karim who arrived in court as a special present for her Golden Jubilee. Soon he became the Queen’s favourite, was promoted to being her Munshi or teacher, taught the Queen Urdu and introduced her to curries. Based on previously unseen journals and letters, Shrabani Basu uncovered this hidden story that rocked the establishment. Her book has since been made into an Oscar-nominated film starring Dame Judi Dench. 

Shrabani Basu is a journalist and Sunday Times best-selling author. Her books include the critically acclaimed The Mystery of the Parsee Lawyer about Arthur Conan Doyle and the George Edalji case, For King and Another Country about Indian Soldiers on the Western Front in the First World War, Victoria & Abdul and Spy Princess: The Life of Noor Inayat Khan.

Shrabani is a frequent commentator on radio and television on Indian history and Empire. She will be chatting to Lucinda Hawksley on the Goldster Inside Story on 1 June. 

Social media

Twitter: @shrabanibasu_

When colonial Britain seized Hong Kong from China in the mid-19th Century, the government of the day complained that it was a ‘barren rock with nary a house on it.’ Since then, Hong Kong’s skyline has become a glittering cityscape of tall buildings, stunning views, hustle, bustle, ships trade, deal-making and, in past year or so, high politics as China imposes more of its values on Hong Kong’s free-wheeling society. Author, Vaudine England, has written Fortune’s Bazaar, The Making of Hong Kong, a captivating account of how this dazzling city came into being, stamping its own, indestructible identity on whichever far away government, whether London, Beijing or Tokyo, chose to control it.

Vaudine England takes us deep into the real community that created this incredible place, the melting pot of European and Asian traders who intermarried, had affairs with wild, fast lives filled with dreams where fortunes were made and lost in moments. Many of Hong Kong's most influential figures were neither British nor Chinese, but Malay, Indian, Jewish, Armenian, Parsi, Portuguese, Eurasian or simply, Hong Kongers. These were the opium-traders who built synagogues or churches, ship-owners carrying gold-rush migrants, property tycoons, and more. Come and join Humphrey Hawksley and Vaudine England for a vivid and exciting conversation about the creation of one of the world’s greatest cities. 12.00 UK time, May 25th 2023.

We have an unexpected Inside Story this Friday, after our planned author had to cancel their interview. Instead, to coincide with the new Tate Britain exhibition on ‘The Rossettis’, Goldster presenter Lucinda Hawksley will be talking about her very first biography, the story of the original supermodel, Lizzie Siddal. 

Lizzie was not only a muse to male artists, she was also an artist (and an accomplished poet) in her own right. For 150 years, she was continually looked at purely through the gaze of those who painted her, in particular the work of her husband, Dante Rossetti, but Lucinda’s biography, placed her firmly in the spotlight as a fascinating, talented and independent Victorian woman. Join Lucinda for this exclusive Inside Story Special at 12pm on Friday 19 May. 

Praise for Lizzie Siddal: The Tragedy of a Pre-Raphaelite Supermodel 

“A truly extraordinary achievement. The icon takes flesh before our eyes. Lucinda Hawksley’s sympathetic scholarship has produced a portrait of Pre-Raphaelitism’s most celebrated face, which is as gripping as a romantic novel. but it is also the result of meticulous research which throws fascinating new light on the Rossettis and their circle.”

A.N. Wilson

“A seductive biography. Gaining in tragedy the story is irresistible… Glimpses of this strange, beautiful woman illuminate the book.”

Frances Spalding in The Sunday Times

Social media:

Twitter & Instagram: @lucindahawksley 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LucindaHawksleyauthor

It’s 1990. The Happy Mondays are in the charts, a fifteen-year-old called Kate Moss is on the cover of The Face magazine, and Julia Roberts wears thigh-boots for the poster of a new movie called Pretty Woman. February Kingdom is nineteen years old when she is knocked sideways by family tragedy. Then one evening in May, she finds an escaped canary in her kitchen and it sparks a glimmer of hope in her. With the help of the bird called Yellow, Feb starts to feel her way out of her own private darkness, just as her aunt embarks on a passionate and all-consuming affair with a married American drama teacher. From the author of the modern classic. Eva Rice’s new book, This Could be Everything is a coming-of-age story with its roots under the pavements of a pre-Richard-Curtis-era Notting Hill that has all but vanished.

Eva Rice has written 5 novels and is the author of the Sunday Times bestseller The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets - a post-war coming-of-age story that was runner-up in the 2006 Richard and Judy Book of the Year. It is currently being developed by Fudge Park (creators of The Inbetweeners) and Moonage Pictures (Pursuit of Love) as a major new TV series. Eva has also toured with bands since her early twenties and has written the music and lyrics for Harriet a musical based on an early Jilly Cooper novel due to open in 2023. She has a geek-like fascination with pop music, and her party trick is recalling chart positions.

Social media:

Twitter @EvaRiceAuthor.

Frances Evesham’s advice to those thinking of retiring is ‘to do something you truly love, whether it's travel, growing orchids or painting - the days just fly past." So, after stopping work as a speech therapist after thirty years, Frances tried her hand at something she really loved, and had been nagging her for years. "I thought I'd get to put my feet up when I retired, but I was wrong,” she says. She started writing mystery and crime and is now a best-selling author. She really loves it, saying "It takes over your life so that you forget aches and pains, worries and regrets as you live in your make-believe world. I feel 20 years younger and bursting with energy.” She has created the hugely success Exham-on-Sea Murder Mystery series which began one day when she was walking on a peaceful Somerset beach and discovered a unique nine-legged Victorian lighthouse. “My first Agatha Christie-style murder mystery, Murder at the Lighthouse, was born,” she says.

She then expanded her portfolio to the Ham Hill Murder Mystery series and will be discussing A Harvest Murder, set in Lower Hembrow, an idyllic village nestled beneath Ham Hill in Somerset. The villagers are preparing to enjoy the autumn traditions of the rural English countryside until Joe Trevillion, a curmudgeonly local farmer and the father of six children, vanishes. Join Frances Evesham with Humphrey Hawksley on Goldster Inside Story May 12th 2023.  

Mystery and debate continue to surround many of the events of the First World War. From the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand to the attempt to bribe Turkey out of the war to flushing out a traitor who is undermining the war effort, historical fiction author, Alan Bardos, delivers compelling, high-stakes human-interest stories set against the dramatic backdrop of global conflict.

Alan’s hero, Johnny Swift, is more of a flawed anti-hero, war-damaged, drunk, womanising but with a good heart, living in an era of extreme danger, flux and uncertainty. Alan describes his first love as one of making up stories and his second of researching historical events and characters. In the Assassins, Swift infiltrates Balkan revolutionaries who sparked the First World War. In The Dardanelles Conspiracy, amid edge-of-the-seat action we learn much about the ill-fated 1915 Gallipoli landings and in Enemies and Allies Swift becomes embroiled in the knife-edge attempts to retain an alliance with France and bring America into the war.

Join Alan Bardos in conversation with Humphrey Hawksley on writing fiction and all elements of the First World War on Goldster Inside Story on Thursday May 11th 2023 at 12.00 London time.

A welcome return to Goldster for Lisa Edwards to talk about her latest memoir. After swapping a high-flying job in London for freelance life in India, Lisa struggled to control the tide of emotions that hit her as the dark horses of menopause descended. She began to question whether her new life – living the dream in a seaside village with a younger man – was all she hoped it would be.

When the pandemic hit, Lisa decided that the universe had made the decision for her and, back in England, she fell for the charms of a man her own age. However, she discovered he as not who he appeared to be and was forced to confront her dark horses alone when her health and hormones threatened to derail the new life she had built for herself.

This is a story of midlife reinvention, of friendships, relationships and a working life all put to the test by the seismic effects of menopause. But it is also a story of love and homecoming. It is about the healing power of walking in nature, the therapeutic process of writing, and one woman’s determination to redefine what success and happiness look like. Join Lisa and Lucinda on 4 May for the Inside Story.  

Instagram: @redwoods1

India Be Damned is an epic thriller set during the last days of Britain’s colonial rule of India and the first dreadful, blood-ridden months of independence. The author is legendary foreign correspondent, Peter Popham, who has turned his forensic journalist’s eye to fiction in a work that both vividly entertains while prompting us to think more closely about Britain’s role in India’s modern history.

Coming out seventy-five years after those events, it illuminates how the panicked slicing of India into three territories of Pakistan, India and East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) made war in the subcontinent inevitable. War after war that continues today. “How we Brits love India!” says Popham. “We couldn’t get enough of it. Then in 1947 we did the mother of all bunks.” As the independence deadline approaches Britain plays a wild card, appointing world-famous war-hero Lord Mountbatten the last Viceroy. “Dickie” and his socialist wife Edwina imbue the end of empire with their celebrated panache, and for foreign journalists and freedom fighters alike, it’s a dazzling show. But when Mountbatten decides to rush the process to its conclusion, he damns India to a baptism of blood. This fictional account tells how long-held certainties are shattered within a group of Indians in those first murderous months of independence. Join Humphrey Hawksley with Peter Popham on Goldster Inside Story to delve into India Be Damned and Britain’s colonial history 12.00 UK time, April 27th 2023.  

Widowland and Queen High are a publishing phenomenon and among the most critically-acclaimed novels of recent years. Widowland, set in 1953, has been described as the most important feminist novel for decades and tells of an alternate history where instead of Nazi defeat, there has been a Grand Alliance between Great Britain and Germany. The much-awaited sequel is Queen High, set in 1955. President Eisenhower is about to make a state visit and a paranoid Queen Wallis Simpson summons fearless, plucky protagonist Rose Ransom to Buckingham Palace for a briefing.

Queen High has already been listed as Book of the Year for the Guardian, Telegraph and Financial Times. The author C. J. Carey is a pseudonym for the real-life best-selling novelist Jane Thynne who among her many works is creator of the gripping Clara Vine series. An attractive young Anglo-German actress arrives in 1930s Berlin to find herself in world of rising Nazism, terrifying secrets and torn loyalties and love. Jane the widow of the late Philip Kerr the creator of the hugely successful Bernie Gunther series of the same Nazi era, now being developed for television by Tom Hanks. In this very special Goldster Inside Story, Humphrey Hawksley will be in conversation with Jane Thynne live at the Riverstone Theatre on the banks of the River Thames in London. Hear what happened the night Tom Hanks came to dinner, how Jane creates plots, character and her alternative history and much, much more. 12.00 UK time, Friday April 21st on our usual Zoom and at Riverstone Fulham. For Goldster tickets e-mail concierge@goldster.co.uk

Danièle Cybulskie has been making the Middle Ages fun, entertaining, and accessible for over a decade.  She is the author of four books and hundreds of articles on medieval history. The creator and host of The Medieval Podcast, Danièle brings expertise and a sense of humour to the airwaves to dispel common myths about the medieval period and enrich our understanding about the people of the past. In 2020, Danièle built The Medieval Masterclass for Creators, an online course designed to provide novelists, game developers, and other fiction creators with expert information in a visual format to help them bring their medieval worlds to life. She continues to offer her expertise to creators through one-on-one consulting.

Her latest book, How to Live Like a Monk: Medieval Wisdom for Modern Life tells us how medieval monastic practices, with their emphasis on a healthy mind, soul and body, can inspire us to live fuller lives. Though monastic living may seem unimaginable to us moderns, it has relevance for today.  Danièle illuminates the day-to-day of medieval European monasticism, showing how you can apply the principles of monastic living, like finding balance and peace to your life. Join Danièle with Humphrey Hawksley to talk about our inner health, Medieval life and Danièle’s own approach to handling the pressures and bustle of modern life. Goldster Inside Story, Thursday April 20th at the special time of 6pm.

Alexis Keir works for the NHS and lives in London. His new book, Windward Family: An Atlas of Love, Loss and Belonging, explores the lives of people who have travelled over several generations from the Caribbean island of Saint Vincent to England. It was published by Thread Books in February 2023. Alexis’s parents came from Saint Vincent to the UK in the 1960s and raised their family in Luton, although Alexis, his sister and his brother also lived in Saint Vincent for a period as children.

Alexis began writing Windward Family when he was chosen as one of the 2019 cohort for the Spread The Word London Writers’ Awards. Subsequently he was selected to join the London Libraries Emerging Writers programme. His writing has also been published by The Caribbean Writer and The Selkie and he is a member of the Writers for Saint Vincent group, who raised funds for the island following the 2021 eruptions of the La Soufriere volcano.

On 14 April, Alexis will be talking to Lucinda Hawksley about his writing career – and what it was like trying to finish a book while working full time. Join them on the Inside Story at 12pm.

Twitter: @alexismontekeir

Instagram: alexiskeir

Monique Roffey is a writer, lecturer,  professor of contemporary fiction and founding member of Writers Rebel which combats climate change.  Born in Port of Spain, Trinidad, Monique has had life-long links to the Caribbean region and has set four of her six novels there. Her latest The Mermaid of Black Conch won the 2020 Costa Book of the Year Award with a myriad of praises from her peers. Set on an imaginary Caribbean island, Monique unfolds a tantalising tale in a mythical love story between a fisherman and a mermaid. “Sensuous, beguiling,” says The Sunday Times. “Roffey's tale convincingly transplants a mythical creature into a modern setting .” 

Monique teaches creative writing both in Port of Spain and at Manchester Metropolitan University. She describes herself as something of a magical realist. Writers Rebel, which she helped found, is an associated group to the highly effective and disruptive Extinction Rebellion. She is a leading literary voice on climate change and against the continuing use of fossil fuels.  “For half a century scientists have warned about global heating,” she has written, “and for half a century they have been largely ignored, in large part because the fossil fuel lobby has pumped vast sums of money into stories calling climate science into question.”   Join Monique Roffey with Humphrey Hawksley for Goldster Inside Story at 12.00 UK time Thursday April 13th 2023 to discuss writing, global warming and love on a magical imaginary Caribbean island.

In 1985, 24 young people from around the world had their RSVP pen pal requests (and their full postal addresses!) published in the bestselling music magazine of the day, Smash Hits. 35 years later, a couple from South London decided to reply – to all of them.

Paul Chronnell and Sarah-Louise Young then wrote a unique, funny and touching book (think Danny Wallace & Dave Gorman meet Nora Ephron and Richard Curtis) about their quest to first find, and then reunite 24 pen pal seekers with their teenage selves. The result was The RSVPeople. Paul is a feature-film screenwriter, playwright, author. He has written TV comedy and humorous articles for magazines. Sarah is an award-winning actor, singer, writer and cabaret performer, currently touring the country with her one woman show An Evening Without Kate Bush.

Join Lucinda Hawksley for the Goldster Inside Story on 8 September, as she chats to Paul and Sarah about their quest. It wasn’t easy – who still lives at their childhood address? (In this case: no one.) But armed with nothing more than the obsessive attention to detail of Hercule Poirot, the powers of the Internet and more coffee than is strictly good for a middle aged couple, they followed the clues and contacted strangers, in a self-deprecating bid to answer those 1980’s cries for connection. It’s a story of fun, of surprise, of tenacity, but also one of love – a heart-warming tale about people and the power of actually reaching out and saying hello.

Sarah’s photo credit: Jamie Zubairi 

Book jacket credit: Angus Stewart.

Twitter: 

@TheRsvpeople

@SLYtheatremaker

@PaulieChronn

Judith Grohmann was born in Vienna and grew up speaking three different languages. An alumni of the Lycée Français de Vienne, she graduated from the University of Vienna with a Master’s degree in Political Science, Journalism and Japanese. She started to work as a  journalist at the age of 18 and became an author in 2005. Her previous books include Fighting the War on Terror and an official biography of the Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz. 

In her brand new book, The Real Mozart, she takes us behind the curtain to reveal the real personality of a composer, whose influence on the world of music remains profound today. A child prodigy, Mozart created his own style by blending the traditional with the contemporary. He was much loved – and much hyped – but was also a multi-layered and controversial personality: on one side a provocative influencer, but on the other side, a man who was drawn to the Masonic mindset of brotherhood, freedom, tolerance and humanity. 

In his short life, Mozart anticipated almost everything that makes a celebrity today: international tours, hysterical fans, success, big hits, sex and addiction. Mozart’s oeuvre contains around 1,060 titles. Today he might have been showered with Grammys and platinum discs in recognition of his status as the original King of Pop.

https://judithgrohmann.com/

Social Media 

Twitter: @EmmaPeel_Knight

Instagram: @judygrohmann

A new series by acclaimed historical novelist, Peter Tonkin, brings us into the heart of Elizabethan intrigue, power struggles and local colour. Beginning in 1599, The Shadow of the Axe richly imagines Queen Elizabeth’s court in its twilight years with plots to unseat the monarchy.  In 1603, there follows The Shadow of the Tower where, even on her death bed, Queen Elizabeth refuses to name a successor.  Tonkin is the author of dozens of novels. He published 34 while working as a teacher of English, History and Law. He retired in 2016, and has embarked on several new series, including one set in Rome, Caesar’s Spies with The Ides, Cicero Dies and three others. Tonkin is also a key member of Aspects of History, a Goldster partner whose top line is The past isn’t dead, it isn’t even past. This is the trade of Hilary Mantel, C. J Samson and Robert Graves. But Peter Tonkin is a brilliant story-teller across many genres. For his earlier yet more present day Richard Mariner series Tonkin has been praised by the late Clive Cussler as “master of the seagoing adventure.”  Find out the latest in Elizabethan trickery and learn tricks of the trade from Peter Tonkin in conversation with Humphrey Hawksley on Goldster Inside Story Thursday March 30th 2023 at 12.00 London time.

Breaking the Maafa Chain takes the reader back to the nineteenth century. Two sisters, Fatmata and Salimatu, are captured and sold separately into slavery. Forced to change their names to Faith and Sarah, they end up in two different countries with opposite slavery laws. Faith ends up in America, where slavery is still legal and slaves don't have any rights; Sarah ends up in a Victorian England and as the goddaughter of Queen Victoria. Can the two sisters reclaim their freedom and identity in a world that is trying to break them down and mould them to its coloniser's will?

Based on the true story of Sarah Forbes Bonetta, Breaking the Maafa Chain will take you on a journey of loss, survival, hope, identity and tradition. Join the author of this acclaimed debut novel on 24 March, when Anni Domingo will be chatting to Lucinda Hawksley about her writing, her career in the theatre, and the story behind this fascinating book. 

Social media

Twitter: DomingoAnni

Instagram: annidom4

Emma Burstall is the author of nine novels. She began her career as a journalist, first working as a cub reporter on The Western Morning News, based in Plymouth, and later writing for national newspapers and women’s magazines. Her debut novel, Gym and Slimline, focusing on the lives of four very different women, was inspired by visits to her local gym in South West London. Later, she went on to write a series of five books based in the charming, fictional Cornish fishing village of Tremarnock.

Although each novel stands on its own, the series follows the overarching story of Liz, a single mum from London who’s down on her luck. However, when she and her daughter Rosie, who has cerebral palsy, start a new life in Cornwall, events begin to take a very unexpcted turn. Emma’s most recent book is The House on Rockaway Beach. Rockaway, a peninsula in the New York City borough of Queens, has miles of sandy beaches whilst also being just a stone’s throw from the bright lights and soaring skyscrapers of Manhattan - the perfect backdrop, says Emma, for heaps of action! Join Emma and Lucinda Hawksley for the Goldster Inside Story on 23 March, at 12pm. 

Social media

Twitter & Instagram: @EmmaBurstall

In this special hybrid PPG, Humphrey Hawksley will be joined by his fellow presenter – and very distant cousin! – Lucinda Hawksley. He’ll be interviewing Lucinda about the difficulties she faced when researching her biography, The Mystery of Princess Louise (Vintage Books).

As an art historian, Lucinda was interested in Princess Louise as a sculptor and part of the Aesthetic art world of late 19th-century London, but it soon became apparent that this was going to be a very different research journey from that of her two previous biographies (of the artists Lizzie Siddal and Kate Perugini). Many months after applying to research at the Royal Archives, Lucinda finally received a response stating “Princess Louise’s files are closed to researchers”. She soon discovered that many other avenues had also been closed off. She persevered – meaning her 3-year book deadline had to stretch into 6 years – and became truly fascinated by the woman she discovered behind the royal façade.

Humphrey will also be talking to Lucinda about what it is like to research and write about her great great great grandfather Charles Dickens – and what surprises can ensue when writing about members of one’s own family.

Lucinda Hawksley  

Author, Speaker & Art Historian 

Lucinda is an author, art historian, speaker, broadcaster and the great-great-great granddaughter of no other than the legendary Charles Dickens. Lucinda has written and co-written more than 20 books including The Writer Abroad (2017), Bitten by Witch Fever (2016), Lizzie Scandal, The Tragedy of a Pre-Raphaelite Supermodel (2004; Book of the Week on BBC Radio Four), Katey: The Life and Loves of Dicken’s Artist Daughter (2006) and 50 British Artists You Should Know (2011). For the last decade she has been Patron to the Charles Dicken’s Musuem in London and has grown up with a deep interest and love of her family history. She is an award-winning travel writer with a love of the environment and in particular cetaceans. She is proud to volunteer as a public speaker for the Wales and Dolphins Conservation Society.  

Lucinda is also an award-winning travel writer with a love of the environment: cetaceans are one of her passions and I as a volunteer speaker for the Whales & Dolphins Conservation Society. 

As a great-great-great granddaughter of Charles and Catherine Dickens, she has grown up with an interest in her family history. For the last decade she has been a Patron of the Norwegian Pickwick Club 

Twitter & Instagram: @lucindahawksley

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LucindaHawksleyauthor

Humphrey Hawksley 

Author, Commentator & Broadcaster 

Humphrey Hawksley is a world-renowned and highly accredited author, commentator and broadcaster. He is a member of The Society of Authors, The Crime Writers Association, The International Thriller Writers Association, The National Liberal Club, Frontline Club, Chelsea Arts Club and the National Union of Journalists. His firm and passionate belief is that spirited discussion and debate sharpen the brain and he is delighted to act as the Goldster Host to our Book Club and Book Chat series.   

Humphrey is the author of the acclaimed ‘Future History’ series Dragon Strike, Dragon Fire and The Third World War that explores world conflict. He has published four international thrillers, Ceremony of Innocence, Absolute Measures, Red Spirit and Security Breach, together with the non-fiction Democracy Kills: What’s so good about the Vote – a tie-in to his TV documentary on the pitfalls of the modern-day path to democracy from dictatorship. 

His television documentaries include The Curse of Gold and Bittersweet examining human rights abuse in global trade; Aid Under Scrutiny on the failures of international development; Old Man Atom that investigates the global nuclear industry; and Danger: Democracy at Work on the risks of bringing Western-style democracy too quickly to some societies.  

Twitter: @humphreyhawk

Instagram: @hwhawksley

Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/HumphreyHawksleyThrillers/

Join Lucinda and Humphrey online and live at Riverstone, Fulham on March 21st at 12:00pm GMT

Jack Barsky grew up in the old East Germany and became a Soviet spy living undercover in the United States. No, this is not the plot of a fictional thriller movie. Jack Barsky’s book Deep Undercover: My Secret Life and Tangled Allegiances as a KGB Spy in America gives us a picture of his austere, but stable childhood in the 1950s in a backward corner of East Germany where summer camps were fun, and the Bible forbidden.  Jack was smart and started a career as a university chemistry and maths teacher. Then, he was recruited by the KGB and, in 1978, went to America under a false identity. His job was to get close to those making American foreign policy, not as easy as his bosses thought. Even so, for the next ten years, Jack carried out spying operations for the Soviet Union. Hear from Jack himself about deception, loneliness, loyalty and how his tangled double and sometimes triple life turned around. He is now an American citizen.  This gripping and emotional story peers beyond the Iron Curtain for a look into the world of a KGB officer illegally living abroad. Join Jack Barsky with Humphrey Hawksley who will also ask what is happening now with the younger generation in Russia and China. Are they, too, being sent to spy on us?  Goldster Inside Story Friday March 17th 2023 at 12.00 London time.

On the wild, windswept coast of East Anglia lies the ancient town of Aldeburgh with its stony beach, fishermen selling their morning’s catch,  its church, golf club, yacht club, its local cinema, newsagent, chemist and its legendary bookshop, seen by many as the heart of the community.    

For almost a quarter of a century, The Aldeburgh Book Shop has been owned by husband-and-wife team, John and Mary James who have expanded it and created the now famous Aldeburgh Literary Festival (March 3rd -5th 2023) which has hosted, among many others, Harold Pinter and A.S. Byatt, together with two Nobel Prize Winners. 

In movies and fiction, bookshops have long been a place of romance and intrigue. What is it really like to run one?  How do you match your books with the character of the community? How do you compete against the big players like Amazon and Waterstones. We will hear stories about driving down farm tracks through the dead of a winter’s night to deliver a single book during lock down. 

We will also look at John and Mary’s own recent book, A New Suffolk Garland, a compendium of writing about this beautiful part of England by authors such as Craig Brown, Ralph Fiennes, India Knight and the rock star, Ed Sheeran.  For an intriguing insight into the book trade and a community, join Humphrey Hawksley with John and Mary James of the Aldeburgh Book Shop at 12.00 March 16th 2023 on Goldster Inside Story.

Natalie Jenner is the internationally bestselling author of The Jane Austen Society and Bloomsbury Girls, which were both instant national bestsellers, Amazon Best Books of the Month, and People Magazine Books of the Week. 

The Jane Austen Society has now been published in more than twenty languages and has been optioned for film and television. Natalie's third novel, Every Time We Say Goodbye, is scheduled for release in early 2024.

Natalie was born in England and raised in Canada. She has been a corporate lawyer and career coach, and once owned an independent bookstore in Oakville, Ontario, where she lives with her family and two rescue dogs. On 10 March at 12pm, Natalie will be joining Lucinda all the way from Canada, to chat to the Goldster community on Inside Story. 

Social media

Twitter @NatalieMJenne 

Instagram  @authornataliejenner

Philip Clark is an author and music journalist who spent twenty years writing about classical music, modern composition, jazz, free improvisation and rock music for many leading publications including The Wire, Gramophone, The Guardian and London Review of Books.

He trained as a composer (and in that capacity worked with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the percussionist Orphy Robinson), but has more recently preferred to produce his own sounds playing piano as part of a weekly free improvisation workshop.

His biography of Dave Brubeck – A Life In Time – was published in 2020, and he worked with legendary guitarist of The Kinks, Dave Davies, on his autobiography, Living On A Thin Line, published in 2022. Philip is currently writing Sound and The City – due for publication in 2024 – a history of the sound of New York City. He was co-winner of the 2021 Eccles Centre and Hay Festival Writers Award, which gave him a year-long writer’s residency at the British Library. Join Philip and Lucinda Hawksley for the Goldster Inside Story, at 12pm on 9 March.

Social media

Twitter: @MusicClerk

Robin Dreeke is a people person. He knows how to judge, win over, recruit and build relationships that are less transactional and more collaborative. For many years he worked for America’s Federal Bureau of Investigation, better known as the FBI and became head of its elite Behavioral Analysis Program, a  Counterintelligence Division tasked with uncovering threats within the United States. He has combined law enforcement systems with his own techniques to build a tool-kit for networking and communication that show you how to win the day whether you are in a corporate board meeting or untangling thorny issues on the committee of the village flower show. His books include Sizing People Up, The Code of Trust and It’s Not All About Me which lays out ten steps for building quick rapport with anyone. He will tell us about his understanding of human nature.  Robin Dreeke will tell of the moment of crisis when he had no idea how long-standing colleagues around him would react. Would they run, hide, help?  And how people kept much of themselves private, hiding steely courage until they really needed to show it. Or the opposite.  Each of us has a myriad of relationships and, in conversation with Humphrey Hawksley,  Robin Dreeke will show how he uses his FBI experience to help predict and adjust to other people’s behavior and give us all an essential course in how best to get out there, meet people, socialize and – what the Americans call – network. Join us on Goldster Inside Story Friday March 3rd at 12.00 U.K. time.

Goldster Inside Story is thrilled to welcome back former American naval interrogator Lena Sisco with her new book Honest Answers: Interview and Negotiation Skills to Get the Truth.  No matter the conversation, whether with friends, family, the community or colleagues, cementing trust, detecting honesty and persuading others, to be honest are some of the most valuable skills you can possess. Goldster is passionate about coaxing people to interact and socialise, thus contributing to their healthy living.

It is important not to feel unheard and to have the confidence to ask questions and for yourself to be an engaging conversationalist. Lena honed her skills within the hard, high-stakes military environment during the War on Terror. She now transfers them to our everyday lives and offers a five-step program on human interaction. In any situation, when you gain someone’s trust, you can get the truth. Lena teaches how to create an environment of trust; control the signals that you might be inadvertently sending to others on confidence, high-handedness, friendliness and so on; use the right words in a disagreement in order to create a win-win situation. By learning some of this, you can stay in control of the conversations you have and your relationship with others.

Join Lena Sisco in conversation with Humphrey Hawksley on Goldster Inside Story Thursday, March 2nd 2023.

Marika Cobbold first found writing fame with her novel Guppies for Tea – a story about growing old and fighting back, was accepted for publication. As Marika says, “Several other publishers had turned it down saying no one was interested in reading about old people. Luckily, as it turns out, they were wrong.” Guppies for Tea became a publishing sensation, promoted in bookshops and the media and serialised on BBC Woman’s Hour. 

Her later novels include A Rival Creation, Shooting Butterflies and the wonderfully named Aphrodite’s Workshop for Reluctant Lovers. She has just published her eighth novel, On Hampstead Heath, which tells the story of Thorn Marsh who was raised in a house of whispers, of meaningful glances and half-finished sentences. Now she’s a journalist with a passion for truth, more devoted to her work at the London Journal than she ever was to her ex-husband. When her newspaper is bought by a major media company, Thorn discovers how vitally important the truth is when under threat. On Hampstead Heath is an homage to storytelling and to truth; to the tales we tell ourselves, and to the stories that save us.

Join Marika and Lucinda on 23 February to find out more about her books and what inspires her writing.

How often do we see a news story about a major company that we’ve used or bought something from being hacked? How many times do we wonder if our passwords and bank account details have been stolen? How do we know what to do? We can’t be changing our login details every day. They drive us crazy enough as it is. Yet, none of us can live without our phones and tablets, without shopping online, booking holidays, trying to get an e-consult with your GP.  Bob Gourlay, author of The Cyber Threat, will tell all secrets to Goldster Inside Story on how to keep you own gadgets as safe as can be, what exactly is the threat, how to spot a scam website and what the big companies that we deal with every day are doing to keep our own credit card and other details away from criminals. And where technology is going in the future and whether we are going to become frazzled with cookies and log-ins or more serene and confident that all is safe.

Bob Gourley 's earlier career involved keeping the United States Navy safe from cyber attacks. He now helps organisations to set up barriers against enemies intent on stealing their secrets, whether a superpower like China or a teenager next door working from his garage. Join Bob Gourley in conversation with Humphrey Hawksley on this Inside Story Cyber Special at 12.00 U.K time on Friday February 17th.

Goldster Inside Story gives you a story of love, spies and parenting with a rare double-act interview and a ground-breaking book for frazzled families -- License to Parent: How My Career as a Spy Helped Me Raise Resourceful, Self-Sufficient Kids. Christina and Ryan Hillsberg both spied for America’s Central Intelligence Agency before Christina turned her skills to becoming a stay-at-home-mom sharing fresh, ingenious and fascinating secrets on child-rearing, and putting an insightful and entertaining spin on some of the most challenging years of our lives.  In conversation with Humphrey Hawksley, the Hillsbergs will explain their CIA day jobs. As a covert operative, Ryan recruited spies and stole secrets around the world, collecting crucial information on terrorism, security and the many threats to our everyday lives.

Christine did similar work, often in Africa, while also writing analytical assessments for the President and senior policy makers. How exactly do those skills – torn straight from the scenes of an action-packed spy movie – transfer to the hum drum day-to-day world of good parenting. The aim, say the Hillsbergs, is to raise children who are confident, reassured and know how to stay safe. And, we will learn, James Bond, was an absolutely terrible spy.  “If  a spy has to pull out his gun or someone is chasing him, he’s done something very wrong!” And don’t even get her started on the Bond girls!  This will be a very, very fun Goldster Inside Story. Please join the discussion with Humphrey, Christina and Ryan at 12.00, Thursday February 16th and pitch in on the art of spying and parenting.

Goldster Inside Story explores gripping true drama through the highly-acclaimed crime thriller These Are Not Gentle People, the story of the brutal beating and death of two young men and those accused of their murders. Written by award-winning BBC Africa Correspondent, Andrew Harding, this is a courtroom drama, a profound exploration of collective guilt and individual justice, yet it reads like a fast-paced literary novel. Andrew traces the impact of one moment of collective fury on a fragile community – exposing lies, cover-ups, political meddling and betrayals, and revealing the women struggling against an entrenched culture of male violence. Andrew is one of the BBC’s most experienced foreign correspondents with postings in Moscow, Tbilisi, Singapore and Bangkok. He has been living in South Africa since 2009 covering crises and wider stories throughout the continent, such as the outbreak of Ebola and the murder trial of paralympic sprinter, Oscar Pistorius. Early in 2016, Andrew read about an incident in the Free State and decided to investigate. The result, four years later, was These Are Not Gentle People, and BBC Radio 4 series, Blood Lands. Andrew’s previous book The Mayor of Mogadishu tells the story of a young Somali man who sought refuge in London, only to return twenty years later to become a galvanizing symbol of courage amid chaos, violence and extremism. Join Andrew in conversation with Humphrey Hawksley on Goldster Inside Story Friday February 10th 2023.

Gregg Hurwitz is the New York Times bestselling author and creator of the Orphan X series  -- Evan Smoak is a man with a dangerous past who has skills, resources, and a personal mission to help those with nowhere else to turn. Gregg has also published poetry, academic, political, and cultural articles, screenplays and is a bestselling comic book writer. In short, Gregg is a non-stop creative machine and even helped write the opening ceremony of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. He has a reputation for dogged research leading to action-packed adventures, including sneaking onto demolition ranges with Navy SEALS, swimming with sharks, and going undercover into mind control cults. Even his recreational pursuits seem bigger than life: wrestling with his Rhodesian ridgebacks, doing hot yoga, and drinking bourbon. He is also a political activist, working hard to lessen the current polarization in politics and culture. To that end, he's produced several hundred commercials which have had more than a hundred million views on digital and television platforms and won multiple American Advertising Awards. His editorial pieces have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, The Huffington Post, and others.  All of that said, Gregg describes his day-to-day life as hum drum. “I wake up, have coffee, go into my office, and write all day.”  His new Orphan X thriller The Last Orphan is out in February 2023. Gregg Hurwitz will join Humphrey Hawksley on a special Goldster Author to Author event live at Riverstone Cinema, Fulham at 12pm on February 9th 2023.

Laura Payne began her career as a journalist and has a background in international media and marketing. She has advised and mentored some of the world’s leading businesses and organisations – and then, in her 50s, she decided to change her life and career. She made the decision to go back into academia and train as a psychotherapist. 

Her book Nine Steps to a Mindful Life (Without Meditating) grew out of her new way of life. The book contains simple exercises with which Laura believes you can turn your life around. It is for anyone looking for a fresh approach, and for all those seeking a sense of calm and empowerment.

Whether you are tired, anxious, stressed or just looking to explore a new ‘you’, Nine Steps to a Mindful Life (Without Meditating) will give you insights into how to achieve personal transformation. Join Lucinda Hawksley on 2 February, as she talks to Laura about mindfulness, dream therapy and how Goldster members can enrich their life with her strategies. 

http://www.laurapayne.co.uk/

Social media

Twitter: @Laurapayne_

Instagram: @onefulness

Tobias Jones is making a much -anticipated return to Goldster to talk about his latest book, a gorgeous journey along the River Po in Italy. The Po is the longest river in Italy, travelling for 652 kilometres from one end of the country to the other. It flows next to many of Italy's most exquisite cities – Ferrara, Mantova, Parma, Cremona, Pavia and Torino – and the river is a part of the national psyche, as iconic to Italy as the Thames is to England or the Mississippi to the USA.

For millennia, the Po was a vital trading route and a valuable source of tax revenue, fiercely fought over by rival powers. It was also moat protecting Italy from invaders from the north, from Hannibal to Holy Roman Emperors. It breached its banks so frequently that its floodplain swamps were homes to outlaws and itinerants, to eccentrics and experimental communities. But as humans radically altered the river's hydrology, those floodplains became important places of major industries and agricultures, the source of bricks, timber, silk, hemp, cement, caviar, mint, flour and risotto rice.

Tobias Jones travels the length of the river against the current, gathering stories of battles, writers, cuisines, entertainers, religious minorities and music. Both an ecological lament and a celebration of the resourcefulness and resilience of the people of the Po, the book opens a window onto a stunning, but now neglected, part of Italy. Join Lucinda Hawksley and Tobias on 26 January.

Gregg Hurwitz is the New York Times bestselling author and creator of the Orphan X series  -- Evan Smoak is a man with a dangerous past who has skills, resources, and a personal mission to help those with nowhere else to turn. Gregg has also published poetry, academic, political, and cultural articles, screenplays and is a bestselling comic book writer. In short, Gregg is a non-stop creative machine and even helped write the opening ceremony of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. He has a reputation for dogged research leading to action-packed adventures, including sneaking onto demolition ranges with Navy SEALS, swimming with sharks, and going undercover into mind control cults.

Even his recreational pursuits seem bigger than life: wrestling with his Rhodesian ridgebacks, doing hot yoga, and drinking bourbon. He is also a political activist, working hard to lessen the current polarization in politics and culture. To that end, he's produced several hundred commercials which have had more than a hundred million views on digital and television platforms and won multiple American Advertising Awards. His editorial pieces have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, The Huffington Post, and others.  All of that said, Gregg describes his day-to-day life as hum drum. “I wake up, have coffee, go into my office, and write all day.”  His new Orphan X thriller The Last Orphan is out in February 2023.

Meet Gregg Hurwitz in conversation with Humphrey Hawksley on a special Goldster Author to Author at 8pm on January 20th 2023.

Lisa Unger is the New York Times best-selling master of suspense with books published in thirty-three languages and millions of copies sold worldwide. She has been nominated for, or won, numerous awards including the Strand Critics, Audie, Hammett, Macavity, ITW Thriller, and Goodreads Choice. In 2019, she received two Edgar Award nominations, an honor held by only a few authors, including Agatha Christie. Yet, despite all that success, it’s hard to compare Lisa Unger to any of her contemporaries.  Unique, inventive, and often experimental, her writing is impossible to categorize.  

She combines her extensive knowledge of the human psyche with an understanding of trauma and fear to create novels that have earned her a reputation as one of the most skilled practitioners of the psychological thriller around today.  Unlike many bestselling authors who stick with a formula to play it safe, Unger’s bestseller status and loyal fan base have, if anything, propelled her to experiment more widely with her writing.  Her character-driven novels explore the vast gamut of human experience, delving into the psychology of both protagonist and villain, often blurring the lines between the two.

Join Lisa Unger in conversation with Humphrey Hawksley to discuss her latest page-turners including The Last Girl Ghosted and Secluded Cabin Sleeps Six Friday January 6th 2023 at 12.00 which will be 07.00 in Florida where Lisa lives.

Sam Blake has been writing fiction since her husband set sail across the Atlantic for eight weeks, and she had an idea for a book. Originally from St. Albans, she now lives in Ireland, at the foot of the Wicklow mountains. Her debut novel Little Bones launched the bestselling Cat Connolly trilogy.

Moving away from police procedurals to write psychological thrillers, Sam’s focus is on strong female characters. She has had a series of No. 1 bestsellers and has been shortlisted for Irish Crime Novel of the Year three times. Her latest book The Mystery of Four has been described by Alex Marwood as ‘Witty, twisty and featuring my favourite antiheroine in a long time’.

Inspired by Agatha Christie’s Murder is Easy it’s set in a restored country house in the Wicklow mountains where Tess is preparing to open to the public with a weekend of activities including a modern version of Dr Faustus. But as final rehearsals begin, things start to go wrong. 

Sam lives in a 200-year-old, old Post Office with several cats, including Merlin who features in The Mystery of Four, and an occasional poltergeist. Join her and Lucinda Hawksley for the Inside Story at 12pm on 13 January. 

Twitter and Instagram @samblakebooks

There’s nowhere quite like Piccadilly Circus. From the moment they emerge, blinking from the underground station, visitors to Piccadilly Circus face a sensory onslaught. Its streets and alleyways merge into an intoxicating thoroughfare, with the power to propel an individual onwards to adventure, romance, or something more sinister. Ever since its iconic Eros statue appeared in 1893, the junction has been a vibrant meeting place, attracting visitors and pleasure-seekers from all walks of life: political plans and theatrical careers were hatched at its restaurant and café tables, lovers met below the statue of Eros, and to this day tourists pour out of its historic Tube to experience the bright lights of London’s nightlife.

Piccadilly explores how the area has been shaped by social and historical events – from female suffrage to world wars to technological advancements – and by its colourful cast of characters – from flower girls, shop assistants and sex workers, to film stars, Bright Young Things and conmen (and women). 

For many, the Circus has represented both a home from home and a brave new world, as campaigners, revellers, opportunists and romantics have all been drawn to Piccadilly’s bright lights. Join Lucinda Hawksley on 12 January, as she chats to fellow author Midge Gillies about why the story of why Piccadilly Circus continues to mean so much to so many. 

Social media

Twitter @MidgeGillies

How much does fiction act as a safety release to the pressures building up inside us?  How much to stories help in dealing with trauma and upheaval?   In its continual search for the new, fun and unexpected, Goldster Inside story brings you Mark Everglade, author of dystopian fiction and an expert in the sub-genre of CyberPunk. 

Goldster members, unfamiliar with CyberPunk, check it out with your children and grandchildren.  This is a type of fiction first categorized through films like the 1982 box office hit Blade Runner where synthetic humans are bio-engineered by a powerful corporation, and it plays around with big ideas – humanity, artificial intelligence and our concept of God. 

With more and more of our lives run by gadgets, Mark Everglade will guide us through terminology of technowrath and technoredemption and will take the lay people amongst us into his world of Dystopia and CyberPun. Your host Humphrey Hawksley will make sure he speaks in a language we all understand.  Mark’s latest book Inertia revolves around the connection between government factions, big corporations, and the environmental destruction they create for their own profits. Sound familiar? A young geophysicist, Ash, finds herself at the nexus of all this as she infiltrates servers in virtual reality to discover the hidden connections.

Join the amazing Mark Everglade with Humphrey Hawksley on Goldster Inside Story Thursday January 6th 2023 at 12.00.

Michael Coveney has written about theatre as editor of Plays and Players magazine and staff critic, successively, on the Financial Times, the Observer and the Daily Mail. His books include The Citz; The Aisle is Full of Noises; Questors, Jesters and Renegades and critical biographies of Andrew Lloyd Webber, Mike Leigh, Ken Campbell and Maggie Smith. His latest work is Master of the House: The Theatres of Cameron Mackintosh a lavishly Illustrated and compelling account of one of the world’s leading theatrical producers of musicals such as Cats, Les Misérables, The Phantom of the Opera, Miss Saigon, Mary Poppins and Oliver!  He is also a significant theatre owner and has completed a two-decade campaign of refurbishing and rebuilding eight London theatres.

This has set the tempo for maintaining one of Britain’s most treasured cultural heritages into the next century as well as ensuring the future of the great British artists who appear in them. Master of the House charts the fascinating history of his eight historic London buildings – their origins, their iconic shows and productions, the stars and the glamour.  In conversation with Humphrey Hawksley Michael Coveney will put into focus these theatres’ vital role in the history of British theatre over the last 100 years and reveal more of his career as chronicler of creative Britain, its arts, buildings, tensions and stars. 

Join Humphrey and Michael at 12.00 Thursday January 5th on our first New Year’s Goldster Inside Story.

What do Erotica and Sherlock Holmes have in common?  Find out in Goldster’s amazing end of year Inside Story with the legendary Maxim Jakubowski, the mastermind of The Mammoth Book of Erotica, the creator of The Return of Sherlock Holmes, the compiler of numerous anthologies and currently chair of the Crime Writers’ Association with its Red Herrings magazine and array of Dagger awards. And that is far from all in Maxim Jakubowski’s incredible career. For many years he was a top book publishing editor dealing with titles by authors as diverse as William Golding, Peter Ustinov and Sophie Grigson. 

He also owned the Murder One Bookshop for twenty years, ran the Crime Scene film and literary festival, edited Sex in the City, has been a columnist for Time Out and the Guardian and next year will be the executive producer on the TV series Factory based on the novels of his late friend Derek Raymond.  

Sex and crime are themes that run compellingly entwined through Maxim Jakubowski’s vast body of work which he will festively and tastefully discuss with Humphrey Hawksley at 12.00 Thursday December 29th 2022.  What a Goldster feast this will be. Please join us for the New Year Inside Story special.

Jeremy Seal is a writer, broadcaster and tour guide. He has an especially extensive knowledge of Turkey, the backdrop to several of his books, among them Santa: A Life, an account of the remarkable after-life of St Nicholas. Nicholas, the third-century Byzantine bishop of Myra, now the modern Turkish town of Demre, was so revered that – as the patron of sailors, children, perfumiers, pawnbrokers and numerous others besides – he went on to become the most influential of saints across Christendom, not least in Greece and Russia.

Even in Britain, it is said, more churches carry his dedication than any other saint except for Mary the Virgin. Nicholas’s story ranges across two millennia, touching on early church history, the Crusades and the Reformation,x and also includes the removal of his relic bones in 1087 to Bari in Italy. But it has been his more recent transformation into Santa Claus, a process centred on 19th-century Manhattan, for which he is especially noted.

Jeremy, the author of six acclaimed books of non-fiction, tells this story not as a dry historical account but as vivid epic, showing how a legendary figure has courted devotion through history. Join Jeremy and Lucinda Hawksley on 23 December, for a special and seasonal Inside Story.

Professor Sir Muir Gray is reframing the public conversation about getting old.  He is the co-author of two hilarious but insightful books aptly named Sod 60 and Sod 70, both subtitled, The Guide to Living Well. .  His other books include Midlife: Look Younger, Live Longer, Feel Better, Antidote to Ageing and  Sod Sitting, Get Moving!: Getting Active in Your 60s, 70s and Beyond.  No spring chicken himself, Sir Muir identified elements of the ageing process way back in 1985 when, as a younger man, he wrote his perceptive book Prevention of Disease in Old Age. Whether dealing with dementia, apathy or physical frailty, Sir Muir’s initial prescription is good diet, mental stimulation and exercise. This is also the mantra underpinning everything Goldster stands for. How is it, Sir Muir asks, that we know ‘old’ sixty-year-olds and ‘spritely’ 80-year-olds?  He has a Seventies Manifesto as a Call to Arms. Become more active, mentally and physically, get more involved; help other people more and you will succeed in gaining better health. And get ‘attitude’ which means, not only are you positive, but also you know what you want and people shouldn’t mess with you.

Sir Muir guarantees to bring us a fun and challenging Goldster Inside Story. Question him, comment on his thoughts, share your own experiences with Sir Muir Gray and your Goldster host Humphrey Hawksley at noon on 22nd December.

Alex Shaw is an international best-selling author of the AIDAN SNOW and JACK TATE thrillers, stories  rich with material drawn from his adventures and travelling. He spent the second half of the 1990s in Ukraine teaching drama and running his own business consultancy before being head-hunted for a division of Siemens. That job set him to work across the former Soviet Union, Middle East and Africa.

During this period, he devised his first thriller and now writes two compelling character-led series with protagonists from the action and intrigue-filled world of espionage, threat and betrayal.  Total Blackout was shortlisted for for the 2021 Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize. Alex is an active member of author networks including Britain’s Crime Writers Association and America’s International Thriller Writers and is a regular contributor to thriller anthologies.  He is accustomed to making his home anywhere from Kyiv to Worthing in West Sussex, from Qatar, host of the 2022 World Cup to where he is currently hanging his hat in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates. Why all the moving around? How to create a best-selling fiction series? How does Alex discipline himself and from where does he get his ideas.

Join Alex Shaw with Humphrey Hawksley on Goldster Inside Story Friday December 16th at 12.00.

From the very first book publication in 1920 to the release of Kenneth Branagh’s film of Death on the Nile, this investigation into Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot celebrates a century of probably the world’s favourite fictional detective.

This book tells his story decade-by-decade, exploring his appearances not only in the original novels, short stories and plays but also across stage, screen and radio productions – and include more than 400 illustrations.

Based on Mark Aldridge’s original research, review excerpts and original Agatha Christie correspondence, Poirot: The Greatest Detective in the World is a lively and accessible history of the character, offering new information and helpful pieces of context, that will delight all Agatha Christie fans, from a new generation of readers to those already highly familiar with the canon.

Dr Mark Aldridge, is Associate Professor of Screen Histories at Solent University, Southampton. His research into the world of Agatha Christie has resulted in publications including 2016’s Agatha Christie on Screen and the forthcoming Agatha Christie’s Marple. He is a regular speaker at Agatha Christie festivals and events.

Caroline Crampton is a writer and a podcaster who writes non-fiction books about the world and how we live in it. Her critically acclaimed first book, The Way to the Sea, was about the historical and cultural life of the Thames estuary, and she is currently working on a social history of hypochondria, to be published in 2024 by Granta in the UK and HarperCollins in the US. 

Caroline also makes a podcast about detective fiction called Shedunnit, which covers the "golden age" of detective fiction between WWI and WWII and its influence on today's crime fiction. She also worked on the map of Agatha Christie’s England and contributes reviews and essays to publications including Granta, New Humanist, The Guardian and The Spectator.

Katherine May is an internationally bestselling author and podcaster living in Whitstable, UK. Her hybrid memoir Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times became a New York Times, Sunday Times and Der Spiegel bestseller. It was also was adapted for BBC Radio 4’s Book of the Week, and was shortlisted for the Porchlight and Barnes and Noble Book of the Year.

 The Electricity of Every Living Thing, her memoir of a midlife autism diagnosis, is currently being adapted as an audio drama by Audible. Her other titles include novels such as The Whitstable High Tide Swimming Club, and The Best, Most Awful Job, an anthology of essays about motherhood which she edited. Her journalism and essays have appeared in a range of publications including The New York Times, The Observer and Aeon.

Katherine lives with her husband, son, two cats and a dog. She loves walking, sea-swimming and pickling slightly unappealing things. On 8 December, Katherine will be chatting to Lucinda Hawksley about her writing career and the importance of ‘wintering’

Animal-lover Gillian Carrick is the author health guides for pets which includes tips for their healthy ageing.  Gillian’s early career took her far away from her passion. With a degree in politics, she became a researcher in the House of Commons and a feature writer on the House magazine. She then moved to BBC Radio with stints as a producer/presenter of travel programmes for Radio Four and Five Live, before heading off to be a television producer. Gillian’s first books were Hidden Suffolk and The Essential Guide to Arthritis.

She was then commissioned to write a series of animal-health guides, including: My Dog Has Arthritis but lives life to the full; My Cat Has Arthritis but lives to the full and My Dog Has Epilepsy but lives life to the full - clearly there’s a theme developing here.  Gillian spends as much time as she can in the company of gorgeous dogs and cats, not necessarily her own. She describes herself as a pert-butler of sorts and has learned a very important lesson: Our four-legged friends are definitely our masters.  Her latest project is to explore the idea of releasing our ‘inner cat’. What exactly is that? 

Find out with Gillian Carrick talking to Humphrey Hawksley on Goldster Inside Story12.00 on Friday December 2^nd 2022  

Over the last three decades, Ethan Chorin has had an extraordinary view of developments in the Middle East and North Africa as an American diplomat, oil and ports executive and advisor to senior government officials. Much of his has been on the oil-rich North African country of Libya, where he was posted as one of a small number of Americans tasked with setting a diplomatic presence after rapprochement with Libyan dictator Col. Muammar Gaddafi in the early 2000s.  He returned to Libya in 2011, as the uprising against Gaddafi was underway and  became a witness to the 2012 attack on the US mission in Benghazi, which killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.

From his Libyan experience Ethan has written two compelling books -- Exit the Colonel: The Hidden History of the Libyan Revolution in 2012 and this year, Benghazi!: A New History of the Fiasco that Pushed America and its World to the Brink. He has become a familiar radio voice and television face face commenting on the Middle East and North Africa. 

In conversation with Humphrey Hawksley, Goldster Inside Story will go deep into the impact on all our lives, how disastrous decision were made in far off capitals about the future of Libya and how, as the country collapsed into anarchy, the country became the transport hub for refugees crossing the Mediterranean for safety in Europe.

Join Humphrey with Ethan Chorin for Goldster Inside Story at 12.00 British time Thursday December 1^st 2022. 

Sue Teddern's second novel, The Pre-Loved Club, is set in Brighton and tells the story of two single parents, Ned and Gemma, both trying to move on with their lives, after rejection by their exes. They don't hit it off straight away but soon see that it's helpful to have a friend who is also trying to rebuild confidence and embark on new relationships, though not always successfully.

Sue is a former window dresser, feature writer, scriptwriter and lecturer. Her debut novel, Annie Stanley All At Sea, was published in 2021, about a woman taking her father’s ashes on a tour of the Shipping Forecast’s sea areas. Sue came on to Goldster to talk about Annie Stanley, and members loved her, so we’ve invited her back again. 

Her background as a comedy writer (Birds of a Feather for TV, Cooking in a Bedsitter for radio) has imbued her novels with humour and wry observations. She likes to write about real people living through real experiences. Sue will be chatting to Lucinda Hawksley on 24 November. Come along and join them!

Adele Parks MBE was born in North Yorkshire and has become one of Britain’s best-loved novelists. She is the author of 22 bestselling novels including the Sunday Times and eBook Number One bestseller, Both Of You. 

Over four and a half million UK editions of Adele’s work have been sold and her books have been translated into 31 different languages. Her recent Sunday Times Number One bestsellers, Lies Lies Lies and Just My Luck were shortlisted for the British Book Awards and have been optioned for development for TV. 

Adele is an ambassador of the National Literacy Trust and the Reading Agency: two charities that promote literacy in the UK. She has lived in Botswana, in Italy and in London and is now settled in Guildford, Surrey. In 2022 she was awarded an MBE for services to literature.