I have for a long time been a fan of podcasts. My own version of working in a Café as J. K. Rowling did is to work while listening to the spoken word. As a student this meant talk radio (which in the UK in the 80s and 90s meant BBC Radio4) and for the last eight years or so this has meant podcasts, or the BBC’s own Sounds application. The pleasure of podcasts is being able to tailor your listening by both content and schedule and one of my current favourites is a podcast hosted by Lindsay, Pools and Kenz called The Strike and Ellacott Files. This podcast debuted in 2021 and covered a read through of Troubled Blood. The show is currently part way through a re-read of Cuckoo’s Calling.

At the start of this month I was lucky enough to feature in an extra episode with Dr Beatrice Groves to discuss the epigraphs, past and future, in the Strike novels. The episode was recorded over a Zoom connection, linking the hosts in the US to Beatrice and myself in the UK. As a rank newbie, I was delighted to find the hosts just as friendly and engaging as I had imagined from listening. You can find out how I fared via the link below:

Episode 5.5

It was a strange (but thoroughly fun!) experience talking directly to people I had already grown used to listening to as an audience member. I have corresponded with Beatrice for some years but this was my first opportunity to talk (albeit at a distance) face to face. I hope in the near future to gain some more podcasting experience, but other than The Strike and Ellacott Files and the similarly excellent (but on hiatus) Denmark Street Deep Dive, I know of no others. If you have any comments or recommendations, please let me know down below: